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Appendix 2: Pray Without Ceasing

While I cannot claim to pray without ceasing on any day of the week, I composed these prayers, based upon tradition, for my own use. If you like them, and find them useful, feel free to adopt them. If not, you can always make up your own prayers. Of course, you could simply go through your day saying the short Jesus prayer, as the Orthodox do. You don't have to be Orthodox to follow their tradition, nor Catholic to pray the Rosary.  ________________ Blessed art thou, Adonai our God, Creator & Ruler of the Cosmos. Set us free from the inclination to sin, and shelter us from the troubles of this world.    Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Help me to amend my ways, and lead me to follow thy path. Lord, teach me thy Way of Truth, and let me share thy Life, now and forever. Amen.  O Holy Spirit, Voice of Grace, come dwell in my heart and enlighten my mind. Lead me surely so that I may live and pray in accord with thy will.  Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for
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Appendix 1: St. Benedict's Hours of Prayer

Saint Benedict wrote in his rule that his monks should pray eight times a day, in order to fulfill Our Lord's command to pray without ceasing. Thus today, those monastics who follow his rule pray the Hours, often singing them in Gregorian chant. 1. Matins - middle of the night (2-3am) 2. Lauds - prayer at first light (5-6) 3. Prime - mid-morning (9am) 4. Terce, Nones - lunchtime  5. Sext - mid-afternoon (3pm) 6. Vespers - evening meal (6-7) 7. Compline - at curfew, sundown  8. Nocturne - bedtime (9-10pm) "The supreme desire of the monk ought to be prayer, unceasing." For the ordinary believer in these times, one could mark the Hours more simply by saying our Mother Mary's Holy Rosary seven times, including each of the seven days of gracious mysteries at each successive hour. This kind of devotion might be considered a strenuous discipline.  Lauds - Joyful  Prime - Luminous  Terce - Believing  Sext - Theological  Vespers - Sorrowful  Compline - Holiness  Nocturne - Glo
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How I pray the Wildflower Rosary

These are the prayers that I use, some modified, and some composed myself. If you want to use them, you may be my guest. It's your choice. You may feel that I have taken liberties with the traditional expressions, but rest assured that no disrepect was intended. These are simply my own practice.  Each day needs a primary dedication, a prayer intention for the edification of the Church, alongside any prayer requests we may personally have received from others. These are mine: Monday: For peace and charity among all the members of my Christian family Tuesday: For the complete purification and sanctification of my soul and others  Wednesday: For the global evangelization of unbelievers and agnostics  Thursday: For the conversion of those who live with habitual sin  Friday: For better confessions and more perfect contrition for my sins Saturday: For giving myself without reserve or expectation for love's sake  Sunday: For God's glory and the completion of his plan in history  A
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Extra Mysteries for Carmel

In the monasteries and convents following the tradition of the Discalced Carmelites and St. Brigit of Sweden, the monks and nuns often add a sixth mystery and decade to their rosary every day. Although that tradition does not specify any particular mysteries for their meditation, and their whole Rosary is focused on remembering the life of Mary, I thought I might offer a selection of mysteries from the life of Jesus to balance their six decade Rosary. None of these are obligatory, but on my own Rosary, I add a last bead for an Our Father after the fifth decade, as well as a separate bead after the central Medal for the Our Father of the first decade. Thus there are seven Our Father beads, for Mary's seven sorrows, and Jesus' seven last words on the cross. Of course, you may pray as you like, and use your own regular beads if you wish. The alternate enumerations are given for those who say a 6th mystery each day, so you may put them in their proper sequence.  For the Joyful myst
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Proclaiming the Glorious Mysteries

At last, on Sunday we come to see all of the Glories of God's triumphant plans for us. Just before Jesus ascended to the Father in Heaven, He gave us our own mission to fulfill for the Kingdom of God. He told us to go forth to every corner of the Earth and spread the Good News. Tell everyone about how the Son of God has come and reconciled Himself to our human nature, by becoming a human being and living among us, to achieve what we could never accomplish for ourselves - a sinless life. And then having done that, He offered Himself as a sacrifice in our place. And we know this was accepted, because the Father raised Him up from the dead, and let Him talk with us for forty days. There were many witnesses who saw and heard Him.  The Glorious Mysteries:  His Kingdom is established in Heaven.  1. Jesus' resurrection from the dead       "He is not here. He has risen."       - Mark 16:5-7 ~ "vindication"  According to the apocryphal gospel of Peter, which remained
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Devotion to God: the Holiness Mysteries

On Saturday, we listen to the way Jesus taught what it means to be holy. When Jesus was about to reach the end of his earthly life with us, He began to prepare us to be his representatives after He is taken from us. He told us that He would send the Holy Spirit to be our Comforter, to help us to remember. But it is not enough to merely remember. We also have to try to live the Way that He taught us, and to be forgiving of each other when we inevitably fail. This is why Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." All through his mission, He had been giving us his own interpretations of the Law, and now, He is giving us one last command: "Love one another, as I love you."  The Holiness Mysteries:  He taught us the Way of mercy:  1. The Two Greatest Commandments        Showing us the Law from his perspective        Love your God & your neighbor        - Mark 12:28-34 ~ "devotion"  In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus has come to Jerusalem to tea
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Suffering to Forgive: the Sorrowful Mysteries

Each Friday,  the Sorrowful mysteries again illuminate the darkest time in our human existence, when we rejected and mocked the very Son of God. He had come to share with us our struggles and weaknesses, facing the same temptations and enduring the same sufferings that plague our daily lives. He found that for each of our aspirations there is also a crushing despair, for sin has corrupted our world and warps everything we try to do. So He was not surprised, indeed He fully expected to be betrayed and executed on a Roman cross.  The Sorrowful Mysteries:  He suffered and died for our sins.  1. Agony in the garden       "let this cup pass from me"       - Matthew 26:36-45 ~ "obedience"  In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus brought his Divinity face to face with the core issue of the human condition. There comes a time in our existence when we break and die. The prospect of this death, and the desire to postpone it indefinitely is a fundamental goad, the first rule of our
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