If only all knew. . .

what joy it is to have an Immaculate Virgin Mother.

What peace it brings to young men who struggle with impure thoughts toward young women. . .

What hope it brings to young women seeking a sure role model of devotion to God. . .

Our Blessed Mother, pray for us! Especially for the young singles and adolescents of our faith communities!

Be my strength, be my joy

Especially as I experience the brokeness of weakness, the lowliness of sorrows. . .

When I am pierced, Mother Mary, be my hope and my refuge of mercy. . .

Make me your child again today.

Mother Mary, give me compassion for the poor!

You care deeply and tenderly for the poor and desperately needy, as only a mother can care so much about her children. . .

Please have mercy on me, that I may become a vessel of mercy to those who need a lifeline. . .

Give me this gift: of preferential option for the poor, as you so earnestly express in your Magnificat. Make the poor rich in the poverty of Christ - and accomplish this through me, as God wills!

True holiness is not cheap

Blessed Mother,

Is it not true that the sanctity you wish your children to attain is as a priceless jewel hidden in the middle of a vast desert? That all the world has to offer is literally worthless compared to the holiness of your Immaculate Heart?

Grant me courage and strength, that I may seek after this sanctity and throw off all that hinders this pursuit.

Give me the gift of. . . incessant prayer

My Blessed Virgin Mother,

Grant that I may have one of your cardinal virtues - incessant prayer. May I become more worthy to draw down your intercession, that my spare time will be spent offering up the incense of petitions that draw myself and others close to your Divine Son.

Give me the spirit of self-denial, physical and spiritual alike, to make my prayers more constant and effective. May I, like so many of your sons and daughters have over the generations, discover the joys of penance, fasting and mortification of the senses, and a deep brokeness of spirit marked by pure contrition.

Have mercy on me, for your Son's sake - for the sake of His sorrowful Passion.

Holy Mary, pray for your children. . .

Especially those who do not yet know the tender love of a Heavenly Mother, who do not yet know that they need intimate contact with your Divine Son in the sacrament of the Eucharist.

Draw them close, Blessed Mother of God, to give glory to your Son and bring honor to your Immaculate Heart. . .

Thoughts on confessing sins. . .

As a newly confirmed Catholic, I must say that setting the record straight about my past sins has been the most crucial process I've had to go through in order to arrive at a clear conscience.

Thank God for priests and confessors - for all the bad press, they play such a vital role in the life of believers that for the mere fact that their office is indispensable, there will always be somebody called by God to serve in their posts.

The popular Protestant belief that our past sins aren't held against us once we profess Christ as Lord and Savior is fundamentally correct, but for an interesting twist: it is never God who is unwilling or unable to forgive, but we as human beings have such fragile and flayed consciences as a result of our sin-stained lives that unless we openly confess our transgressions to persons of authority and perform penance for them, we'll be unable to forgive ourselves. And in the end, to not be able to forgive oneself is to not be able to receive God's forgiveness.

Hence the importance of confession and penance: for those who truly receive the sacrament, it is nothing less than the commutation of a harsh criminal sentence to a ridiculously light penalty, if not an outright declaration of "not guilty" in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.