On this page will be gathered PDF documents that readers may find helpful in their spiritual lives and in their efforts to help friends and family come into a deeper relationship with the God who loves us.
Hour of Grace
This penitential hour of prayer was requested by Our Lady through her reported apparitions to Sister Pierina in the 1940s. Blog-posts that relate to this Hour of Grace were posted on 23 Nov 2011, 27 Nov 2011 and 8 Dec 2011. The PDF below has 2 A4 pages which when printed will form an A5 brochure.
Of Grace and Faith – Online Study Group for the Year of Grace and the Year of Faith
The Year of Grace for Australians begins on Pentecost Sunday, 27 May 2012, and the Year of Faith for the universal Church begins on 11 Oct 2012. Both end on the Feast of Christ the King, 24 Nov 2013. A weekly study group to take advantage of what God is offering us during these Years started on Thursday 31 May 2012. Initially, each week the discussion will centre on a Chapter of St Mark’s Gospel. Later on, the discussion will centre on digestible chunks of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The online discussion will take place under two formats; www.ofgraceandfaith.blogspot.com and at the www.xt3.com group ‘Years of Grace and Faith’ (www.xt3.com/group/view.php?id=2204 ).
The online discussion summaries have been split into 3 parts for each chapter of the Gospel of St Mark. Part A contains discussion about the parts of the Gospel that we hadn’t noticed before or which surprised us about Jesus. Part B contains sharings about past events of Grace in our lives connected to that Gospel chapter and sharings about how God’s Grace has been active recently. Part C has links to images and pictures that illustrate the Gospel chapter and stories of the Saints who show parts of the Gospel chapter in action. Comments and posts that contribute to the discussion are very welcome. Of course, it makes a big difference if you read the relevant chapter of St Mark before reading the discussion summaries. In addition to the discussion summaries there is also a weekly series on Sources of Grace. Because the discussion summaries are online, it means that people and groups can go through each week’s material at their own pace and according to their own schedules. Those who have been coming on Thursdays have found great joy in sharing their experiences of Grace and listening to each other’s experiences during this Year of Grace. May all those who visit the online summaries find the same joy.
Below are four PDFs, one that will be helpful to anyone wishing to promote this at a parish or school level (Noticeboard, A4), as bookmarks to remember the discussion questions (Bookmark, double sided A4, 4 per page), as a guide to running your own group (How to run a group A4), and as a handy prayer card (Prayers, double sided A4, 3 per page). An ‘Eternal Rest’ prayer has been added to this last PDF, because the Holy Souls in Purgatory should also share in the benefits of the Year of Grace.
Of Grace and Faith NoticeBoard PDF
Of Grace and Faith Bookmark PDF
Of Grace and Faith How to run a Group PDF
Of Grace and Faith Prayers PDF
Because Pope Benedict XVI has recommended that we pray the Creed each day during the Year of Faith (Oct 2012-Nov 2013) the following PDF is provided. It contains a double-sided A4 sheet with three prayer cards; having the Apostles’ Creed on the front and the Nicene Creedon the back. They are just the right size to put into a prayer book or a study book as a reminded to pray the Creed.
Because it is always good to have a discussion starter at a study group, the following mini summaries of the Of Grace and Faith blog-posts are provided below.
And these for the Year of Faith, studying the Catechism of the Catholic Church (more of these Minis are coming soon…)
How to begin to pray the Rosary
The following PDF is an A4 page which forms a tri-fold brochure. You will need to set your printer to whole page printing, otherwise some of it might fall outside your printing margins. It is a good introductory document for those who haven’t had much experience with praying the Rosary.
The next PDF is a 6 page printer-friendly version of the ‘Contemplating the Face of Christ’ meditations of the Rosary : Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful and Glorious.
Rosary Contemplating Christ PDF
How to make a daily Examen part of your life
One of the Sources of Grace blog-posts at www.ofgraceandfaith.blogspot.com was on the spiritual practice of Examen. The PDF below is an A4 page with four bookmarks giving a way of conducting a daily Examen in a family or group setting. To do it on your own, either change all of the references to ‘we’ to ‘I’ OR keep it as is and feel connected to everyone else making their nightly Examen. Because doing the Examen is so easy to forget, putting the bookmark in the prayer book you use each night is a good idea.
The Fifteen St Bridget Prayers
In honour of St Bridget of Sweden’s feast day on 23 Jul 2012, and in thanksgiving for all of the Graces which have flowed from the daily praying of these 15 meditations on the Passion of Jesus over a full year, here is a printer friendly version of the prayers. Most of the online offerings are not printer friendly, so the PDF below fits onto 3 A4 pages. NB The thees and thous etc have been altered into modern English.
The FifteenStBridgetPrayersPDF
Holy Souls in Purgatory
In honour of the feast day of All Souls on 2 Nov 2012, as encouragment to pray for the Holy Souls and in thanksgiving for the valuable teaching given within it, here is a PDF version of ‘An Unpublished Manuscript on Purgatory’. It runs to 28 double-sided A4 pages.
Novena of Holy Communions in honour of Jesus, King of All Nations
This Novena of Holy Communions doesn’t need to be on consecutive days, but it does need to be uninterrupted. For example it could be done via 9 consecutive Sunday Masses; it could be done by 9 consecutive daily Masses; it could be done by 5 Sunday Masses and 4 Wednesday morning Masses; and every possible combination in between. The beauty of this Novena is that it can be prayed on behalf of someone else – and we all have people in our lives who are in need of extra angelic help, eg troubled teens, the dying, those who don’t have space in their lives for God anymore, priests, benefactors, those going through a vocational discernment process etc.
The PDF below consists of a double sided A4 page with 4 prayer leaflets. On the front is some information about the Novena, and on the back is a prayer that can be prayed before going to each Novena Mass, with space to write on the dates of the Masses to keep track of them.
The next PDF is a four page A4 document with all the details about the devotion to Jesus, King of All Nations, including the special novena, the novena of Holy Communions, the consecration prayer, the special blessing prayer and the litany. Shrouded in mystery are the origins of this devotion, so it is hard to determine the validity of the source. All prayer for others can only have an upside and no downside. If the ultimate source is God, then He will definitely keep these promises. If not, He will see the desires of our hearts for the good of others and honour them.
Should you want the Special Blessing prayer in prayer-book leaflet format, the following PDF provides 4 per A4 page.
Chaplet of the Divine Infant Jesus
This Chaplet which is very short (3 Our Fathers, 12 Hail Marys, 1 Glory Be and some ancillary prayers) is a very good way of introducing children to the concept of meditation, ie ‘We remember when Jesus was 6 years old, about the same age and size as your brother / cousin / friend James is now’. encouraging them to think about what Jesus might have looked like at that age, and what He might have been doing. When praying the Chaplet like this I use, ‘We remember when Jesus was a baby’ and ‘We remember when Jesus was a toddler’ and then go to ‘We remember when Jesus was aged 3…’ It is ideal as a Novena in preparation for Christmas, beginning on 16 December. In the PDF below you will find a single-side A4 document, with 4 copies of the Chaplet prayer on it.
Patron Saint for the New Year
It has been an ancient tradition in the Church, particularly in religious orders, to choose a patron Saint for each year. This is in addition to the Saints you were named after, the Saint you chose as a special patron at Confirmation, and the Saints who have become life-time friends and confidants or who have been chosen as the Patrons of the parish, school or other organisation you might be involved in. Reading the diary of St Faustina shows that this tradition was alive and well in her day, because she was very pleased when she drew ‘Blessed Sacrament’ out of the hat one year.
This tradition became our tradition after reading Sister Emmanuel’s book ‘Medjugorje The 90′s’, first published in 1997, and in particular the chapter for October 25, 1994 called ‘A Pal from Heaven.’ Early on the ‘patron Saint slips’ were taken from Sr Emmmanuel’s book and given to friends and family – but nobody bothered to cut them up and put them ‘in the hat’, so we ended up doing them for everybody. Hopefully there will be some who read this page who will print some out, cut them up, fold them twice into a square, and secure them with some see-through easily-torn sticky tape like Magic Tape, and put them into a hat, bucket or container for family, friends, co-workers, parish and prayer group etc.
Currently we have 24 pages of these patron Saints slips, so they have been divided into groups of 4 pages each (A,B,C,D,E and F), and each page contains slips for 12 Saints. That way, theoretically, you could print the A pages this year, and the B pages next year etc, and thus be assured of getting a different patron Saint. Blog posts that go into more detail and explanation about the many Graces which have come from this tradition are 29 Dec 2011 and 01 Jan 2012 and 27 Dec 2012. Make sure that you don’t print these double sided !!!
‘Provide yourself with words, and come’ – How to get back to the Sacrament of Penance
Just like the Prodigal Son, the thought of what it takes to journey home to the Father battles with the desire to return. May these few PDFs help those in that battle to start the journey. The first PDF contains three Acts of Contrition suitable for the Sacrament of Penance, the first one we learned as children, the other two are more suited to expressing adult contrition. The second PDF is specifically for those who haven’t been to the Sacrament of Penance for a long time. The last one contains many excerpts from St Faustina’s diary about the Sacrament of Penance, and is full of excellent teaching and encouragement. For these last two, which are dounble sided A4 pages, when you print them it would good to choose the ‘full page no margins’ option or similar - if you have it.
The faithful should encourage the sick to call for a priest and to receive the Sacrament of Anointing CCC 1516
This is our duty as believers. To help you encourage a friend, family member etc to receive this really helpful sacrament, the following short article is provided. It is reprinted from ‘Ave Maria’ January 2006 issue, which in turn was reprinted from ‘Totus Tuus’ Bulletin July 1991, and gives a personal account of Maria Baroness von Trapp’s near death experience and of how beneficial she found the Sacrament to be. (It is short : one and a half A4 pages)