Members of the Angelic Warfare Confraternity say fifteen Hail Marys daily for one another that they may lead a chaste life. It was the ancient practice of the Confraternity to pray these fifteen Hail Marys by going through one’s whole psychology and offering a Hail Mary and a special petition for each one of the “powers of the soul.” Today, for those members who are seeking extra prayer for healing, deliverance, and growth in chastity and purity, the Confraternity offers the following fifteen petitions to go with each of the fifteen Hail Marys. A short form is included at the end.

Opening prayer

Dear Jesus, I know that every perfect gift, and especially that of chastity, depends on the power of Your providence. Without You a mere creature can do nothing. Therefore, I beg you to defend by Your grace the chastity and purity of my body and soul. And if I have ever imagined or sensed anything that could stain my chastity and purity, blot it out, Supreme Lord of my powers, that I may advance with a pure heart in Your love and service, offering myself on the most pure altar of Your divinity all the days of my life. Amen.

1. Dear Jesus, bless our social and cultural climate. Grant that our society may be purified of everything contrary to chastity, and that we may have the strength to resist the pressures of prevailing distortions of human sexuality. “In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have conquered the world” (Jn 16:33). “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Rom 8:37). Hail Mary…

2. Dear Jesus, bless our relationships. Grant that they will be holy, healthy, and honorable at all times. “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere love of the brethren, love one another earnestly from the heart” (1 Pet 1:22). Hail Mary…

3. Dear Jesus, bless our efforts at modesty. Grant that how we dress and carry ourselves may veil what should be veiled, and give us the strength to resist evil fashions and the glamour of sin. “Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Rom 12:2). Hail Mary…

4. Dear Jesus, bless our five senses. Grant that the things we see, the music and jokes we hear, our food and drink, and the encounters we have through touch may all be pure and holy. “Seek the things that are above” (Col 3:1). Hail Mary…

5. Dear Jesus, bless our sensuality. Grant that our impulses may not go after base pleasures, but will be freed by your wisdom and inflamed for what is good. “In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood” (Heb 12:4). Hail Mary…

6. Dear Jesus, bless our imagination. Grant that we may be preserved from the fantasies and daydreams that defile us, that all impure images may vanish, and that we may be protected from all the assaults of demons. “Be renewed in the spirit of your minds” (Eph 6:11, 4:23). Hail Mary…

7. Dear Jesus, bless our memory. Grant that no dark memories from our past may haunt us, but let your light shine within us to fill us with a healing hope in you. “And every one who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure” (1 Jn 3:1). Hail Mary…

8. Dear Jesus, bless our power of estimation. Grant that we may quickly sense dangers to chastity, instinctively flee from them, and that we may never turn away from higher and more difficult goods for the sake of sinful self-indulgence. “For what shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?” (Mk 8:36). Hail Mary…

9. Dear Jesus, bless our affectivity. Grant that we may love chastity and rejoice in it, that all of our emotions may be in harmony with what is right, and that no sadness, discouragement, fear, insecurity, or loneliness may afflict us unto sexual sin. “For the grace of God has appeared, saving all and training us to reject godless ways and worldly passions and to live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age” (Titus 2:11-12). Hail Mary…

10. Dear Jesus, bless our intellect. Grant that it may be purged of all false beliefs and all misunderstandings of human sexuality, and that the good angels may flood our intellects with thoughts that are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and gracious. “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Phil 4:8). Hail Mary…

11. Dear Jesus, bless our will. Grant that it may never be opposed by our sensuality, that it may never be conflicted in the moment, but that it may hold fast to chastity no matter how difficult it may be. “For the Son of God, Jesus Christ… was not Yes and No; but in him it is always Yes. For all the promises of God find their Yes in him” (2 Cor 1:19-20). Hail Mary…

12. Dear Jesus, bless our conscience. Grant that it may be swift to judge what is chaste, swifter to execute it, and preserved completely from the suggestions of demons. “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Heb 9:14) Hail Mary…

13. Dear Jesus, bless our hearts. Grant that the place where Christ abides in us with the Father and the Spirit may become the place where we live with the Holy Trinity in friendship. “Jesus answered him, ‘If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him’ ” (Jn 14:23). Hail Mary…

14. Dear Jesus, grant us the grace of self-surrender. Grant that we may hand over to God nothing less than our whole lives. “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” (Lk 23:46). Hail Mary…

15. Dear Jesus, give us your love. “In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins” (1 Jn 4:10). “But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). Hail Mary…

Closing Prayer

Chosen lily of innocence, pure St. Thomas, who kept chaste the robe of baptism and became an angel in the flesh after being girded by two angels, I implore you to commend me to Jesus, the Spotless Lamb, and to Mary, the Queen of Virgins. Gentle protector of my purity, ask them that I, who wear the holy sign of your victory over the flesh, may also share your purity, and after imitating you on earth may at last come to be crowned with you among the angels. Amen.

Short Form of the Petitions

1. For our social and cultural climate.

2. For our relationships.

3. For modesty in dress and movements.

4. For our five senses.

5. For our sensuality.

6. For our imagination.

7. For our memory.

8. For our power of estimation.

9. For our affectivity.

10. For our intellect.

11. For our will.

12. For our conscience.

13. For our hearts.

14. For self-surrender.

15. For love.

Father Forever

February 5, 2015 by Be Holy

“Father forgive them they know not what they do.”

Cords of sorrow draw me.
I am witness to the plight,
Man become beast,
Without wisdom or wit,
Licking his own blood,
Hungry, harrowed,
Stunned in horror.

The knots of revenge entangle,
Cry for evermore blood,
Ever more abasement,
Ever more widows,
Ever more orphans,
Ever more refuse and waste.

A crying child becomes hundreds,
Then thousands,
Then millions,
Left to wander,
Left to dissipate and hate.

Vengeance is sweeter than food,
To one who chooses to live
Without Love,
Without Light,
Without the Holy and the True,
For such is the abode of Sin,
And many the roads
Leading to its gate.

Bestial brutality,
Raging insanity,
Now reigns the malignant.
The disconsolate refuse all solace,
Wounds of the heart,
Wounds of the mind,
Wounds of the body of Man.

Look to the high mountain,
Eyes to the heavens,
Wake the long dead,
Who await the promised Banquet,
Those, who now know,
They are one Family of Man,
Divested of tribal allegiance,
Awaiting the One,
And coming, King.

Offer a sacrifice of prayer.
Pour forth the balm of Gilead.
Speak, in the tongue of angels,
The comfort of peoples,
Hope in the Darkness.

Humanity’s ties are stronger than its sins,
More numerous than the cords
That draw it down in the Dark Night.
For its One God
Is Father Forever.

Thirsty For You

February 4, 2015 by Be Holy

Jesus,
Everyday, everyday, everyday,
Fall upon my tongue
As dew upon the obedient grass,
Which yields to Your Wind,
To be proclaimed anew.

Holy One,
Forever, forever, forever,
Go forth from my mouth,
As spring rains
To water the parched earth,
Thirsty for You.

From the treatise On Spiritual Perfection by Diadochus

February 4, 2015 by Be Holy

via divineoffice.org

From the treatise On Spiritual Perfection by Diadochus of Photice, bishop
The mind has a spiritual sense which teaches us to distinguish between good and evil
The light of true knowledge makes it possible to discern without error the difference between good and evil. Then the path of justice, which leads to the Sun of Justice, brings the mind into the limitless light of knowledge, since it never fails to seek the love of God with all confidence.
Therefore, we must maintain great stillness of mind, even in the midst of our struggles. We shall then be able to distinguish between the different types of thoughts that come to us: those that are good, those sent by God, we will treasure in our memory; those that are evil and inspired by the devil we will reject. A comparison with the sea may help us. A tranquil sea allows the fisherman to gaze right to its depths. No fish can hide there and escape his sight. The stormy sea, however, becomes murky when it is agitated by the winds. The very depths that it revealed in its placidness, the sea now hides. The skills of the fisherman are useless.
Only the Holy Spirit can purify the mind: unless the strong man enters and robs the thief, the booty will not be recovered. So by every means, but especially by peace of soul, we must try to provide the Holy Spirit with a resting place. Then we shall have the light of knowledge shining within us at all times, and it will show up for what they are all the dark and hateful temptations that come from demons, and not only will it show them up: exposure to this holy and glorious light will also greatly diminish their power.
This is why the Apostle says: Do not stifle the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of goodness: do not grieve him by your evil actions and thoughts, and so deprive yourself of the defense his light affords you. In his own being, which is eternal and life-giving, he is not stifled, but when he is grieved he turns away and leaves the mind in darkness, deprived of the light of knowledge.
The mind is capable of tasting and distinguishing accurately whatever is presented to it. Just as when our health is good we can tell the difference between good and bad food by our bodily sense of taste and reach for what is wholesome, so when our mind is strong and free from all anxiety, it is able to taste the riches of divine consolation and to preserve, through love, the memory of this taste. This teaches us what is best with absolute certainty. As Saint Paul says: My prayer is that your love may increase more and more in knowledge and insight, and so enable you to choose what is best.