St Thomas More & St John Fisher – 22nd June 2024

0622 St Thomas More & St John Fisher 1p SMC 8.5 x 11 R1R 20240413

St. Thomas More spent his life studying, learning, and writing about the faith so that his life and work may be an example to all those after him. He shows us that we can be in the world, and in our governments, but that we must always keep our eyes fixed on God first. His resilient desire to serve God “first”, and the King “second”, cost him his life. But even at death’s door, he wished his judges that they would all be united in Heaven, in “Everlasting Salvation”. What a heroic virtue of forgiveness of his acusers – and something that we can draw strength from. When we are faced with making a decision to follow the world or God – let us draw from St. Thomas More, and always choose God first.

Prayer To St Thomas More

Holy martyr for the Church, you used your talents
to bring God’s love and mercy to earth. Yet you
realized that human fame and glory were
momentary and fleeting.
In your practice of law, you understood and were
loyal first to God’s eternal law spoken through the
successors of the Apostles. While a servant of
the king, you were a servant to the Church first.
Help me to see that loyalty to God’s laws must be
the first part of my ties and responsibilities with
others. Strengthen me to seek out what the
Church teaches. Give me the wisdom to make the
right choice, and the fortitude to carry it out. This
I ask through Jesus Christ our Lord,
Amen.
… St Thomas More, Pray for Us …

A Prayer to Saint Thomas More for Lawyers

Thomas More, counselor of law and statesman of integrity, merry martyr and most human of saints:
Pray that, for the glory of God and in the pursuit of His justice, I may be trustworthy with confidences, keen in study, accurate in analysis, correct in conclusion, able in argument, loyal to clients, honest with all, courteous to adversaries, ever attentive to conscience. Sit with me at my desk and listen with me to my clients’ tales. Read with me in my library and stand always beside me so that today I shall not, to win a point, lose my soul.
Pray that my family may find in me what yours found in you: friendship and courage, cheerfulness and charity, diligence in duties, counsel in adversity, patience in pain—their good servant, and God’s first.
Amen.

Prayer for Good Humor by St. Thomas More

Grant me, O Lord, good digestion, and also something to digest.
Grant me a healthy body, and the necessary good humor to maintain it.
Grant me a simple soul that knows to treasure all that is good
and that doesn’t frighten easily at the sight of evil,
but rather finds the means to put things back in their place.
Give me a soul that knows not boredom, grumblings, sighs and laments,
nor excess of stress, because of that obstructing thing called “I.”
Grant me, O Lord, a sense of good humor.
Allow me the grace to be able to take a joke to discover in life a bit of joy,
and to be able to share it with others.

Saint John Fisher

 

Again we see another life of a saint who was a martyr for the faith that you and I so freely practice today. Without the heroic defending of the faith of these great saints before us, we would not have our religious freedoms today. St. Fisher was so solid in his conviction of the Catholic faith, that he was willing to be beheaded. He stood for God anyway. How many of us are willing to defend the church and stand with God for the faith that is so many times, tested today? By calling on St. Fisher asking his intercession, we can draw from his the courage needed to defend our faith in these times.

Prayer for Holy Bishops by Saint John Fisher

Lord, according to Thy promise that the Gospel should be preached throughout the whole world, raise up men fit for such work. The Apostles were but soft and yielding clay till they were baked hard by the fire of the Holy Ghost. So, good Lord, do now in like manner with Thy Church militant, change and make the soft and slippery earth into hard stones. Set in the Thy Church strong and mighty pillars that may suffer and endure great labors–watching, poverty, thirst, hunger, cold and heat–which also shall not fear the threatening of princes, persecution, neither death, but always persuade and think with themselves to suffer with a good will, slanders, shame, and all kinds of torments, for the glory and laud of Thy Holy Name. By this manner, good Lord, the truth of Thy Gospel shall be preached throughout the world. Therefore, merciful Lord, exercise Thy mercy, show it indeed upon Thy Church.

Amen

Seven Daily Prayers of Saint John Fisher

Sunday
O blessed Jesu, make me to love Thee entirely.
Monday
O blessed Jesu, I would fain, but without Thy help I cannot.
Tuesday
O blessed Jesu, let me deeply consider the greatness of Thy love towards me.
Wednesday
O blessed Jesu, give unto me grace heartily to thank Thee for Thy benefits.
Thursday
O blessed Jesu, give me good will to serve Thee and to suffer.
Friday
O sweet Jesu, give me a natural remembrance of Thy Passion.
Saturday
O sweet Jesu, possess my heart, hold and keep it only to Thee.

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