The Prayers & Personal Devotions of Mother Angelica
Opening Prayers...
O God, Holy Ghost, Who didst inspire the author of this book with Thy light, and art, thus teaching us and permitting us to hear Thy voice and also Thy divine instructions, grant us the grace to understand them rightly, that relishing them and practicing them in all our actions, for Thy greater honor and for our progress in perfection, we may know Thee, O God, more perfectly and love Thee more ardently.
O Blessed Virgin Mary, implore for us this grace. Amen. —Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration Prayer Book
I stand before You, Lord God, a sinner. In all the realms of Your creation no one is more undeserving of Your love than I. This is why I dare approach Your Presence. Your power is at its best in weakness, Your love is more gratuitous to the ungrateful, and Your mercy more sublime to the undeserving. —Mother Angelica
The Private Prayers... At The Start of Day
Prayer in the MorningGood morning, Jesus. I want to give You this day with all my love. I want to unite my every thought and action with every thought and action of Your earthly life. Help me to be kind and patient. It looks like a difficult day—a day of decision and I’m not sure of the right course to take. A day of pain and I feel weak, a day of uncertainty and I tend to lose hope. Don’t let me forget Your Abiding Love and Providence today. Walk beside me and when I hesitate put Your arms around me and steady my faltering steps. Guide me in Your paths and give me that assurance that comes with Faith; Faith in Your Promises, Faith in Your Love.
Prayer Before WorkIn Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
To Thy love, O my God, I consecrate all the work and actions of this day, in union with those of Thy beloved Son whilst here on earth, and with His purest intentions. I offer them through the Immaculate Heart of Mary to Thy greater glory and in the spirit of adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament. Hail Mary . . . (PCPA Prayer Book)
An Offering of WorkMy Father, accept the work of my hands today in union with the labor of Jesus during His life. I offer to You the fatigue and tension of this day in union with the weariness of Jesus as He walked from town to town. My actions are imperfect, my motives are often selfish, but everything I do this day I unite with the most pure motives of Jesus and His perfect life. I desire to please You alone and to love You with the love of the Holy Spirit.
Prayer at WorkLord God, show me Your Will in my life. Give me the work that is best suited to the talents You have given me. Bless me with fellow workers who will help me stay close to You. Grant that my work may not be a source of disturbance or temptation. Give me the strength to do it well and enthusiastically and bless my efforts to witness to Your love. Give me a just wage and do not permit me to desire more than I deserve. Bless my employer and give him the wisdom to use the gifts You have given him for Your honor and glory. Lord Jesus, do not permit me to lose sight of Your Presence in my soul today. Quiet the noise around me so I may hear the soft whisper of Your Voice.
Humility and PardonA Prayer for Humility
You’ve got to watch your own thoughts. When you are conscious of an unloving, unkind, critical, or hateful thought against anyone; whether present or elsewhere, check it immediately. Strike your breast and say: “Jesus, if it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be able to breathe. Be merciful to me, a poor sinner.”
Humble yourself, and you’ll be surprised how good that other person looks. It’s because we’re not humble that we have the effrontery to tear other people down.
To Be Humble of HeartIn the world, my Lord, one must be great to speak to the great but with You one must be small and of little account. It is only when I think of Your greatness and majesty that I realize how pride must offend You. How can a small, created being rear its head in defiance of Omnipotence? It is truly a manifestation of Your Mercy and Love that You do not annihilate me when I defy Your Law and reject Your Love. O Humble God, make me humble of heart.
Few souls understand what God would accomplish in them if they were to abandon themselves unreservedly to Him and if they were to allow His grace to mold them accordingly. —St. Ignatius Loyola
Prayer for PardonLord God, I ask pardon for all our sins: For all the times we’ve offended You in thought, word, or deed; for the selfishness in our lives and the ego that blocks You out of our minds and hearts. I ask pardon for the distractions that keep leading us away from You. I ask Your mercy upon us, and on the whole world. Prepare our hearts and minds, Lord, for what is to come. Prepare our souls, our thoughts, our will, and give us strength to fight the good fight. Give us communal love, Lord, the kind that will bind us together as one in the heart of Jesus. We ask Lord, small and insignificant as we are, that we may give you comfort and love. We ask for pardon, Lord, for those who crowned you with thorns by their pride and arrogance. We ask pardon for those who scourge you at the pillar by their immorality. Lord, we ask pardon for those who strip You of Your garments by their greed and ambition for worldly things. We ask pardon for all priests and religious who have been nailed to the cross with vows and have not been faithful. We ask pardon for all mankind, for the whole world, for all of our sins. Be merciful to us, Lord. We praise and glorify Your name, for You are holy, You alone. Glorify Your justice, Lord and Your mercy. We praise and bless You. Amen.
Prayer for KindnessDear Jesus, make me kind. I look at Your life and Your kindness stands out like a lone star on a dark night. No matter how tired You were You always had time for the sick, poor sinners, children, and all those in need. Your Heart had sympathy for their weaknesses and You reached out to them with loving compassion. When I feel impatient with the frailties of my neighbor, Lord Jesus, grant that I may not only think of Your kindness but stop for a moment and enter into it; let me feel Your kindness in the depths of my soul so that my prayer will not be empty. I need to participate in Your kindness if I am to be kind. I cannot do it on my own. My poor soul tends to be critical of others and this makes me impatient and unkind. You understood human nature so well that You gave everyone an opportunity to repent. You never picked out the trivial faults of Your Apostles or demanded exterior perfection. The only time You corrected them was when the faults they committed were deeply interior and endangered their union with You and the Father. Jealousy, ambition, and greed were the faults that You quickly brought out into the open so You could cleanse the Apostles of these dangerous temptations. Give me the grace, Lord Jesus, to distinguish between faults of character that form part of my neighbor’s temperament and evil tendencies that destroy grace in his soul. Help me to endure the former with love and to correct the latter with courage. Help me to love the sinner but never condone his sin. Please, dear Jesus, let me first remove the beam from my own eye before I even see the splinter in the eye of my neighbor.
Gratitude and Self-knowledge
Lord Jesus, I feel so sad every time I think of the nine lepers who never returned to say “Thank You.” It is hard to conceive of anyone so selfish, and yet how often do I remember to thank You for all the gifts and graces You have given to me? It is so easy to see faults in other people and completely overlook my own. Are the faults I see in others a mirror of my own soul? Gentle Jesus, I recoil at the prospect that what I see in others must be in me. If this is true, and I fear it is, would not this be a step toward self-knowledge?
To Forgive and Forget
Lord, I need Your help—help to love those who do not love me in return. I find this so difficult. What must You feel when You love me and I turn away! I need Your grace to forgive and forget. Injustice cries out for revenge and old memories bring back old wounds that smart and sting. Cover my poor soul with the healing balm of love and compassion. Make me unselfish sweet Jesus, so I will be content with just loving and count it a privilege to forgive even seventy times seven.
Practical PleasPrayer to Obtain FavorsThis prayer comes from the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration Prayer Book that Mother used as a young sister. It is believed that those who recite this prayer fifteen times daily from the feast of St. Andrew (November 30) until Christmas will receive what they ask.
Hail! and blessed be the hour and moment in which the Son of God was born of the most pure Virgin in Bethlehem, at midnight, in piercing cold. In that hour vouchsafe, O my God, to hear my prayers and grant my desires, through the merits of our Savior Jesus Christ and of His Virgin Mother. Amen.
A Prayer of SupplicationKnowing Your Infinite Goodness, I dare to ask for all the material and spiritual things I need to live on this earth and to safely arrive in the Kingdom. I ask for work and the strength to accomplish it well. I ask for health when that condition is necessary for my well-being. I ask for pain when it will prune my soul or prevent me from walking the path of sin. I ask for good friends—friends that love me for myself and will stay by me in success and failure. I ask for peace in my family—the kind of peace that is built on love and forbearance. I ask for the forgiveness of my sins and the sins of the whole world. I ask for virtue, especially that particular virtue that will help me overcome my predominant fault—the fault that is the cause of most of my failures. I ask that Y...
