Marthe Robin was born on March 13, 1902, in Châteauneuf-de-Galaure (Drôme), in France, to a family of peasants, and she spent her entire life in her parents’ home, where she died February 6, 1981. Marthe’s entire existence revolved around the Eucharist, which for her was “the one thing that cures, comforts, lifts, blesses, my Everything.” In 1928, after a serious neurological illness, Marthe found it almost impossible to move, especially to swallow because those muscles were affected. Moreover, due to an eye illness, she was forced to live in almost absolute darkness.

At Macerata in the church of the Cathedral of Holy Mary Assumed and St. Giuliano, under the altar of the Most Holy Sacrament, it is possible to venerate the relic of the “corporal marked by Blood.” Also preserved in this church is the parchment on which the miracle is described.

The Summary of the Whole Gospel

584. Why do we say “our” Father?

“Our” expresses a totally new relationship with God. When we pray to the Father, we adore and glorify him with the Son and the Holy Spirit. In Christ we are “his” people and he is “our” God now and for eternity. In fact, we also say “our” Father because the Church of Christ is the communion of a multitude of brothers and sisters who have but “one heart and mind” (Acts 4:32).

“The Summary of the Whole Gospel"

579. What is the place of the Our Father in the Scriptures?

The Our Father is the “summary of the whole Gospel” (Tertullian), “the perfect prayer” (Saint Thomas Aquinas). Found in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), it presents in the form of prayer the essential content of the Gospel.

As a young child, one of seven born to a noble family in Poland, Stanislaus was educated with his older brother, Paul, by a private tutor. At the age of 14, the two brothers were sent to study at the Jesuit College in Vienna. Stanislaus was a kind, intelligent and pious young man, but his piety was disdained by his older brother, who continually bullied him, lashing out at him verbally and physically.

On August 22, 1888, at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, there took place for the first time at Lourdes the procession together with the benediction of the sick with the Blessed Sacrament. It was a priest who proposed this pious practice and it has not been abandoned since that time.

Our Father

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem was born just about the time the Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity in the Roman Empire (313 AD) and was a boy when Queen Helena came to Jerusalem and erected the Church of the Holy Sepulchre over the site of Golgotha and the empty tomb. This church became Cyril’s cathedral when he became bishop of the Holy City of about 349 AD. St. Cyril was banished from his Jerusalem see a total of three times for his bold proclamation of faith in Christ’s full divinity during a time when many bishops and emperors favored various forms of the Arian heresy.

At Cascia, in the basilica dedicated to St. Rita, is also preserved the relic of the Eucharistic Miracle, which happened near Siena in 1330. A priest was asked to bring Communion to a sick peasant. The priest took a consecrated Host which he irreverently placed in the pages of his breviary and went to the peasant. When he arrived at the house of the sick man, after hearing his confession, he opened the book to take out the Host which he had placed there. To his great surprise he found that the Host was stained with living blood, so much as to mark both pages between which the Blessed Sacrament had been placed.

The Battle of Prayer

572. Why is prayer a “battle”?

Prayer is a gift of grace but it always presupposes a determined response on our part because those who pray “battle” against themselves, their surroundings, and especially the Tempter who does all he can to turn them away from prayer. The battle of prayer is inseparable from progress in the spiritual life. We pray as we live because we live as we pray.

Between Lake George and Lake Champlain, there was a passage taken by a dozen canoes, carrying a few French Missionaries and a number of Huron Indians, returning with medical supplies from Quebec in 1642. The Huron men and women trusted the white man in the black robe who guided the lead canoe downstream. “Ondessonk”, they called him, “Bird of Prey”. Who could have said that the cultured boy with a decent upbringing in France would find himself at 35 years of age surrounded so far from home by such a flock? It had taken countless hours to grow accustomed to the uncomfortable crouch in that canoe, weeks to become the first white-man to hike over the Adirondacks and see Lake Superior, months to learn the languages and customs of these people he loved so dearly, and all of those prior six years to earn their trust.

567. What times are more suitable for prayer?

Any time is suitable for prayer but the Church proposes to the faithful certain rhythms of praying intended to nourish continual prayer: morning and evening prayer, prayer before and after meals, the Liturgy of the Hours, Sunday Eucharist, the Rosary, and feasts of the liturgical year. “We must remember God more often than we draw breath.” (Saint Gregory of Nazianzus)

Saint Hyacinth of Poland was born in Silesia, Poland, in the year 1185. His father was Eustachius Konski, and he was of the noble family of Ordowacz. Hyacinth’s parents were devout Catholics, and Hyacinth grew up in a home surrounded by love and kindness. His well-formed disposition and strong faith, combined with a brilliant mind, allowed him to move quickly through schooling in Krakow, then Prague, and finally to Bologna in Italy. This is where he was awarded the title of Doctor of Law and Divinity. He returned to Poland and was given an administrative position at a medieval-style administrative center in southeast Poland.

The Way of Prayer

562. How is Christian prayer Marian?

Because of her singular cooperation with the action of the Holy Spirit, the Church loves to pray to Mary and with Mary, the perfect ‘pray-er’, and to “magnify” and invoke the Lord with her. Mary in effect shows us the “Way” who is her Son, the one and only Mediator.

Saint Norbert was born at Xanten in the Rhineland to a noble family about the year 1080. The early part of his life was devoted to the world and its pleasures, and when he entered the religious life, he still had the same desire for a luxurious life and pursuits of the nobility. But one day, when he was out riding his horse, a terrifying lightning storm suddenly came upon him. A massive lightning strike nearly hit him, throwing him from his horse. As he awoke, Saint Norbert, speaking the same words as Saint Paul had said when he was thrown from his horse on the road to Damascus, asked, “Lord, what do you want me to do?” A voice in his heart answered him, “Turn from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it.” He immediately reformed his life, devoting himself to prayer and penance. Giving everything he owned to the poor, he went to the pope for permission to preach. In an extreme response to his old ways, he now chose the most difficult ways to travel — walking barefoot in the middle of winter through snow and ice.

At The Wellsprings of Prayer

558. What are the sources of Christian prayer?

They are: the Word of God which gives us “the surpassing knowledge” of Christ (Philippians 3:8); the Liturgy of the Church that proclaims, makes present and communicates the mystery of salvation; the theological virtues; and everyday situations because in them we can encounter God. “I love you, Lord, and the only grace I ask is to love you eternally. ... My God, if my tongue cannot say in every moment that I love you, I want my heart to repeat it to you as often as I draw breath.” (The Curé of Ars, Saint John Mary Vianney)

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a French Roman Catholic Visitation nun and mystic, is greatly recognized for her devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Margaret has always shown an intense love for the Blessed Sacrament and preferred silence over typical childhood play. She began practicing severe corporal mortification after her first communion at 9-years-old.

Prayer in the Age of the Church

552. How can adoration be defined?

Adoration is the humble acknowledgement by human beings that they are creatures of the thrice-holy Creator.

St. Manuel Gonzalez Garcia was born in Seville, Spain on February 25, 1877, into a devout and prayerful family. When he secretly applied and was accepted to the seminary in Seville at 12 years of age, his parents saw it as God’s will for their son. He was ordained a priest on September 21, 1901. His first assignment as a priest would radically change the course of his life and his priestly ministry.

Dominican tradition tells us that Imelda Lambertini was born of a noble family in Bologna, Italy in 1322. Her parents raised her to love her Catholic faith, and through their influence she developed a love for prayer, especially for the Mass. Often she would attend Mass and Compline (Night Prayer of the Divine Office) at a nearby Dominican Church. Her mother also taught Imelda to cook and sew for the poor and cultivated in her child an eagerness to perform the corporal works of mercy. Even so, her mother and father, both of whom were getting on in years, were surprised when Imelda asked permission at the tender age of nine to go to live with the Dominican nuns at a neighboring monastery. As difficult a decision as this was, her parents evidently sensed the depth of their child’s desire and entrusted her spiritual formation to the Dominicans at Val di Pietra.

Prayer Is Fully Revealed and Realized in Jesus

547. Is there a prayer of Mary in the Gospel?

Along with the prayer of Mary at Cana in Galilee, the Gospel gives us the Magnificat (Luke 1:46- 55) which is the song both of the Mother of God and of the Church, the joyous thanksgiving that rises from the hearts of the poor because their hope is met by the fulfillment of the divine promises.

Prayer in the Age of the Church