We need to bring these beautiful prayers back to daily life!
Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York recently began an online short video series explaining customs he believes are “well worth recovering” in Catholic tradition.
ChurchPOP covered one of these videos in a highly popular article regarding naming babies after saints.
In another series during April, Cardinal Dolan discussed aspirations Catholics can pray daily, particularly when we experience difficulties throughout the day.
“Aspirations are short, quick prayers that we would find ourselves reciting during the day. Expressions of faith and hope and love at moments during the day, especially in moments of trial or difficulty,” Cardinal Dolan explains in the first video.
Here are seven “punchy” prayers we can pray in difficult times throughout the day:
1) “All for thee Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.”
Cardinal Dolan encourages this aspiration as soon as Catholics wake up, before a difficult task, or even before enduring a sacrifice or hardship.
“Before we do anything that might be difficult, before we do anything that might require some sacrifice and hardship, if we simply say to ourselves, ‘All for thee Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.’”
2) “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!”
The second aspiration Cardinal Dolan suggests is simply saying, “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!” He says this invocation can provide comfort and perseverance in difficult moments.
“If we're kind of at the end of our wits, we would simply say, 'Jesus, Mary and Joseph, how long is this going to go on? Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, give me the grace, perseverance, and patience to get through this.’”
3) “God Help Us.”
“God help us. God help me. God help him. God help her.”
Cardinal Dolan suggests this aspiration when someone experiences a specifically difficult trial. While visiting a prison for Mass, he recalled hearing a prison guard say this aspiration after learning a woman was trapped inside where there was a nearby fire.
“One of the guards said, ‘Oh God, help her. God help her.’ Is that beautiful?”
4) “Jesus, I Trust in Thee!”
In this reflection he published for Divine Mercy Sunday, Cardinal Dolan says “Jesus, I Trust in Thee,” “is one of the best.”
“Five words. ‘Jesus, I trust in thee.’ I think that kind of sums up the best prayers that we could offer—a sense of faith, hope, trust, confidence, and the peace that comes through that,” he explains.
5) “My Jesus, Mercy!”
Cardinal Dolan suggests these three simple words: “My Jesus, Mercy,” especially in hardship - whether it be for ourselves or another individual.
He recalled a pastor reciting this prayer as he drove past the homes of his suffering parishioners:
“As he would drive through the parish, he'd take different roads, different streets. And he'd pass and say, ‘Oh, oh, there's where Ann lives, and she's having a problem pregnancy. My Jesus, mercy. Oh, that's where Bart lives. He's out of a job. My Jesus, mercy. Oh, there's where so and so lives. His father just died. My Jesus mercy.”
6) “Saints Preserve Us.”
Cardinal Dolan says the aspiration, “Saints preserve us,” reminds us that we are “always surrounded with the arms of God.” We are never alone and have a “supernatural family” in Heaven.
In moments of “desperation, trouble, worry, or anxiety,” we can call on our supernatural army “with the mercy of Jesus, the mantle of our blessed mother, and with the company of the angels and saints,” he says. “So, if we speak out, ‘saints preserve us,’ they hear us and come through.”
7) The Divine Praises
In his final reflection on aspirations, Cardinal Dolan suggests the Divine Praises.
“The Divine Praises we used to say at the end of Benediction of the most Blessed Sacrament, which by the way is another Catholic custom well worth recovering.”
The Divine Praises
Blessed be God.
Blessed be his holy Name.
Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true man.
Blessed be the Name of Jesus.
Blessed be his most Sacred Heart.
Blessed be his most Precious Blood.
Blessed be Jesus in the most holy Sacrament of the altar.
Blessed be the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete.
Blessed be the great Mother of God, Mary most holy.
Blessed be her holy and Immaculate Conception.
Blessed be her glorious Assumption.
Blessed be the name of Mary, Virgin and Mother.
Blessed be Saint Joseph, her most chaste Spouse.
Blessed be God in his Angels and in his Saints.
–