My identity in Christ
Lord Heavenly Father, I thank you for creating me in your own image and after your likeness. I thank you for calling me to be conformed to the image of your Son Jesus Christ and for sending your Son to give me the truth of life in order to remove the lies of the world. I also thank you for sending your Son to die on the Cross for my sins.
Lord Jesus Christ, I thank you for my identity in you. I believe that I am baptised in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit into your Death and Resurrection. Therefore I am the possession of the Triune God. I am not my own. I have been created by God and hence I want to depend totally on you for my being and for my moral decisions.
Lord, I thank you that I am the member of your Mystical Body and hence I cannot misuse any part of my body. Jesus, my Risen Lord, as you do not have a physical body, I surrender my whole being to you in order that you may live your holiness in me. Help me to be one spirit with you by living your Word. I desire that every part of my body is an instrument of holiness, and not of sin.
Lord Holy Spirit, I thank you for making me your temple as Christ was. I want to cooperate with you so that you can help me to live like Jesus. Let me not grieve you by my sins through my unbelief, disobedience and rebellion against God’s Word. Thank you for making me convinced that my price is the Precious Blood of Jesus, my Saviour. I believe that I am called to the resurrection of my body and my Citizenship is in heaven. Therefore I pray that I may live as a pilgrim in this world detached from everything.
Immaculate Mother you are the beloved daughter of the Father, Mother of the Saviour and Beloved Spouse of the Holy Spirit. Pray for me that I may always say ‘yes’ to the Father’s will, do as your Son says and be guided always by the Holy Spirit.
Fr. J. Mariakumar
Lord, increase my faith
Jesus, I know and believe that you are God, who came from the Father to reveal the Divine Wisdom which, as God’s Word, you lived and spoke to us. You died on the cross for our sins, and taught us how to live a divine life even in the midst of rejection, sickness
suffering and death. Thank you for opening the way for resurrection through the ‘good Fridays’ of life.
In my everyday life I want to follow you even on the way of the cross which will enable me to die to my selfishness, sinful desires, thoughts and feelings. Lord, give me the grace to control all my fleshly inclinations with reason guided by faith. Help me to see you as the model for my life. (Mt.16.24)
The goal of my life, my Lord, is to share in your maturity (Eph. 4.13) to be holy and blameless, (Eph.1.4-5) and thus to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. (Rom.8.29) I desire to live in you and you in me so that with St. Paul I can say: ‘I want to know Christ crucified and the power of his resurrection (Phil. 3. 10-12) and thus be conformed to the Image of Christ’ (Rom.8.29)
In this Year of Faith, I yearn to know, read and meditate your Word more, live it and experience it as ‘sweeter than honey’ (Ps.119.103); thus may I grow in faith (Rom. 10.17)
since your Word says that if I do not stand firm in faith, I cannot stand firm (Is. 7.9b), I reject all that is not according to faith (Rom.14.23b); I reject all worldly and godless outlook and attitude. May the Spirit of God enlighten me, guide me and strengthen me in each moment of my life. May this Year of Faith be a time of grace in my life for renewing my total commitment to the Lord and to His Kingdom.
Fr. J.Mariakumar, Mary Pereira
Have Your own way Lord
Lord Jesus, I thank you for teaching me to ask you everyday to have your will in my life. You are my Creator and I submit my life to your leadings because only you know what is best for me. You are the Potter and I am the clay in your hands. I can reach the fullness of life, enjoying your peace, when I yield myself to your plan and will. Often times I have gone my own way, doing my will and accomplishing my plan. Thereby I went away from your Kingdom. Now I want to come back to your kingdom. I am ready to accept whatever comes from your hand – my personal defects, sicknesses, mocking or injustice coming from others- and all that happens in my life, even though I do not understand why it is happening. Help me to be detached from everything created and be attached to you; so that you may live, will and act through me. May every breath of mine whisper: ‘Let your will be done and not my will’. Here I realise that I become the true child of Blessed Mother Mary who yielded to your will all through her life. Lord Holy Spirit, work in me as you worked in Jesus and Mother Mary so that I may delight in doing the will of God.
Mary Pereira
JESUS – I BELIEVE
Jesus, I know, I believe and I profess my faith that you are my Lord and my God. You came down from the Father to reveal the Divine Wisdom, which as God’s Word, you lived and spoke to us. You died on the cross for my sins, and taught me how to live a divine life even in the midst of rejection, sickness suffering. Through your resurrection you triumphed over death and you opened me the way for a new life in you. I thank you for it.
In my everyday life, help me to follow you even on the way of the cross, so that I may die to sinful desires, thoughts and feelings. Lord Holy Spirit living in me, help me to realise that the Sacrament of Baptism is a call for me to die to sin and to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. (Rom. 6.4). Thank you Lord that your grace flows into my life as I live in union with you through reading, meditating and living your Word, through a sacramental life, and through all the means and opportunities provided by the Holy Catholic Church.
The goal of my life, my Lord, is to share your maturity (Eph.4.13) to get holy and blameless, (Eph.1.4-5) and thus to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ (Rom.8.29). I especially thank you Lord for instituting the Sacraments in order to nourish and promote the life of Christ in my everyday life. Help me to yearn to live in you and you in me. As St. Paul says, I want to know Christ crucified and the power of his resurrection (Phil. 3. 10-12).
Lord, I want to know your Word, live it and experience your presence in me and grow deeper in faith, knowing that if I do not stand firm in faith, I cannot stand firm at all. (Is. 7.9b) Hence I reject everything that is not in compliance with faith, is worldly and godless (Rom.14.23b).Through my lifestyle, may I become a beacon of light for others.
Fr. J. Mariakumar
Prayer at Pentecost
Lord Jesus, we thank you for giving your Church on the day of Pentecost, the promise of the Father. Holy Spirit of God, Spirit of the Father and Spirit of the Son, we thank you that you come to dwell in us through the Sacrament of Baptism. You help us to have the filial relationship with our Abba Father and to accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. We are sorry that we often do not yield to your promptings in our life; rather we grieve you and quench your Divine Fire in us through our sins of hatred, selfishness, independence and rebellion. We ask you Holy Spirit, to enlighten our minds and inflame our hearts, for a deeper love of God and an awareness of our dignity that we are the children of the Living God and that the Triune God is dwelling within us. Help us to live in true fellowship with you, our Divine Guest so that we can be guided by your promptings. May the love, joy and peace of Christ flood our hearts, transform our lives and gush out from us into the lives of others who live with us. Give us your fresh anointing that we experience the Pentecost each day of our lives, so that we my experience Jesus alive in our lives and in the lives of others. Fill us with a desire to live for the glory of God and with a zeal to live for the Kingdom of God. Soak us in that abundant life which Jesus has come to live in us. Without your grace and strength, we become like salt that has lost its taste. May we be enkindled every day with your Fire so that we can be changed from what we are to what we should be – the true and bold witnesses of Christ, living His values even at the face of persecutions. May the image and likeness of God in which we are created (Gen. 1.27), and the ‘share in the divine nature’ (2 Pet. 1.4) which we received in baptism, grow in us in order that we may reach the ‘maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ’ (Eph. 4. 13).
Mary Pereira
Birthday of Mother Mary
Dear Mother Mary, as I celebrate your birthday, I want to offer you dear Mother a special gift. I renew my consecration to your Most Immaculate Heart and I decide to live a life befitting your child. Thank you Mother that You have accepted me as Your child and that You love and care for me as You love Jesus. Dear Mother, please ask graces from your beloved Son, that like You I may always say yes to the Holy Will of God. Help me to please You and Your Son, by always walking in the light of the Truth, so that the enemy who is a Liar will have no victory over my life.
Mother, you were blessed because ‘you believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to you by the Lord’ (Lk. 1. 45). May I, Your child, have this deep faith in God and in His Word; may I have the courage to think, talk and act according to God’s word, for He who has promised is faithful. Even at times when things seem so dark and bleak, help me not lose hope, but cling to Him all the more, ‘hoping against hope’, thus become victorious in this journey of faith.
Mary Pereira