Canada Day ~ Evening Prayer
The first Wednesday of the month is dedicated to St Joseph, who is also the patron saint of Canada. In our evening prayer, we entrust to St. Joseph’s intercession the members and mission of the Pauline Family in Canada (all the institutes of the Pauline Family are in Canada except the Apostoline and Pastorelle), and in particular, for the intentions and needs which our sisters in Canada have shared with us. We’ll alternate sides praying the chaplet.
1. For an increase of Canadian vocations to the Pauline Family:
LEFT: St Joseph, faithful cooperator in our redemption, have pity on poor humanity, still wrapped in so much error and so many evils. You were a docile instrument in the hands of the heavenly Father, in arranging everything for the birth and childhood of Jesus, for the preparation of the Victim, of the Priest, and of the Divine Master of the world.
RIGHT: Saint most docile to the will of God, obtain for us zeal for vocations and for their formation. For ourselves, we ask you for generous and constant correspondence to the precious gift of God’s call.
ALL: St Joseph, pray for us and for all those discerning the call to religious life.
2. For all Daughters of Saint Paul, that we may know how to live the mission to its fullness, even when our strength declines:
LEFT: St Joseph, model of every virtue, obtain for us your interior spirit. In loving and active silence, in the practice of all religious and civil laws, in docility to everything God willed, you arrived at a high degree of sanctity and heavenly glory.
RIGHT: Obtain for us an increase of faith, hope and charity, an ample infusion of the cardinal virtues, an abundance of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
ALL: St Joseph, pray for us and for an increase in apostolic mysticism for all Daughters of Saint Paul.
ALL: St Joseph, pray for us, that we may faithfully communicate the love of God and use media in ways that proclaim the truth of the Gospel and facilitate an authentic encounter between the Lord and his people.
ALL: St Joseph, pray for us, that we may faithfully communicate the love of God and use media in ways that proclaim the truth of the Gospel and facilitate an authentic encounter between the Lord and his people.
5. For French-speaking Canada, upon whose strong and saintly foundations the Catholic Church in Canada was established.
LEFT: St Joseph, pure spouse of Mary, we humbly ask you to obtain for us a true devotion to our tender Mother, Teacher and Queen. By divine will, your mission was associated to Mary’s. With Mary you shared sufferings and joys; with her there was a holy rivalry in virtue, work and merits; union of mind and of heart.
RIGHT: St Joseph, pray for fathers and mothers. Obtain for us the grace to know the Blessed Virgin Mary, to imitate her, to love her, to pray to her always. Draw many souls to her maternal heart.
ALL: St Joseph, pray for us and for the Church in Canada, so that the Body of Christ may brilliantly radiate the truth, love, and joy of the Gospel from coast to coast.
6. For all those who have sent us their intentions and requests in these days: for healing of loved ones, for those coping with fear in this time of anxiety and uncertainty.
LEFT: St Joseph, protector of the dying, we supplicate you for all the dying, and beg your assistance in the hour of our own death. You merited a happy passing by a holy life, and in your last hours you had the ineffable consolation of being assisted by Jesus and Mary.
RIGHT: Deliver us from sudden death; obtain for us the grace to imitate you in life, to detach our heart from everything worldly and daily to gather treasures for the moment of our death. Obtain for us the grace to receive the sacraments of the sick and with Mary, inspire us with sentiments of faith, hope, love and sorrow for sins, so that we may breathe forth our soul in peace.
ALL: St Joseph pray for us and for all those who have died from or been most affected by the pandemic.
7. For the Pauline Family, that it may continue its mission in today's world with creativity and courage.
LEFT: St. Joseph, protector of the universal Church, look kindly upon the Pope, the episcopate, the clergy, the religious and laity. Pray for the sanctification of all. The Church is the fruit of the blood of Jesus, your foster Son.
RIGHT: We entrust to you our supplications for the extension, liberty, and exaltation of the Church. Defend her from errors, from evil and from the powers of hell as you once saved the threatened life of Jesus from the hands of Herod. May the desire of Jesus come true: “That there be one fold under one shepherd.”
ALL: St. Joseph, patron of the universal Church and of Canada, pray for us!
Reading for Examen (Col. 3:23-24):
Whatever you do, do from the heart, as for the Lord and not for others, knowing that you will receive from the Lord the due payment of the inheritance. Be slaves of the Lord Christ.
///Jesus Master, Way, Truth, and Life, have mercy on us!///
We conclude our evening prayer by asking Mary, Queen of Apostles and Cause of our Joy to enfold the Pauline Family in her motherly mantle, granting us the courage like hers to “Arise and go forth, trusting in the promise” of God!
Angelus.
image: Robert Cheaib for Pixabay