Prayer and Teaching Resources
The Visitation: The Virgin Mary with child visiting her cousin, Elizabeth, pregnant with John the Baptist (Luke 1:46-55)
Prayer Life and Spiritual Growth
The Holy Rosary—A Prayer of the Heart
The Holy Rosary—A Dispenser of Grace
God is the source of grace and Mary, through her intercession, helps lead us to it.
The meditative state induced by the gentle, repetitive rhythm of prayers such as the Our Father and the Hail Mary makes us more attentive to God’s presence as we contemplate Christ’s life through the mysteries of the Rosary. Praying the Rosary also opens us to Mary’s intercession, which leads us closer to her Son. This helps us receive God’s infinite graces, strengthening us on our path toward virtue and holiness. The promises associated with faithfully reciting the Rosary remind us that prayer can help us obtain graces—tangible help, conversion, and answered prayers—that draw us deeper into God’s mercy.
More about Grace
What is Grace?
Grace is about having a living relationship with God on a daily basis. Grace is the divine help that inspires the intellect and will, giving us the strength to choose good over evil and move toward sanctifying grace.
Sanctifying grace is a permanent, supernatural gift infused into the soul by the Holy Spirit. It heals the soul of sin, makes us holy, and adopts us as children of God. We first receive sanctifying grace at Baptism, and it is restored through Reconciliation (Confession).
When you bring more prayer into your life in all it’s wonderful forms, you open yourself to receiving God’s unearned favor and spiritual strength—grace.
Growing Closer to God Through Prayer
Do you desire a deeper, more meaningful prayer life?
In his book, Amazing Grace, Fr. John Hampsch, CMF shares, “We’re all in the biggest room in the world—the room for improvement,” and tells us more about this supernatural gift—“this awesome ‘living water.’”
“Our asking can be defective by limiting our prayer life to petition prayer, neglecting prayer of praise, thanksgiving, worship, adoration, and contrition, and by not recognizing that the Lord is far more concerned with lavishing on us greater blessings than the things we typically ask for.”
Fr. Hampsch’s teaching shows us how to work toward “maximum spiritual growth” so that we can meet Jesus’ challenge to us to be “perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). Read all about it in Boosting Your Love Potential.
There is so much more to read at Fr. Hampsch’s web site. Read his online teachings, order books, tapes, videos and more at https://catholicbooks.net.
Another wonderful book is Prophecy and Renewal by Elena Guerra, an Italian Catholic religious sister who founded the Oblates of the Holy Spirit, also shares insightful methods of how to return and open more fully to the Holy Spirit.
How to Pray the Rosary
Resources to Pray The Rosary
How to Pray the Rosary from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB): https://www.usccb.org/how-to-pray-the-rosary
Pray the Daily Rosary with Magnificat’s Kitty Cleveland, https://www.youtube.com/@KittyCleveland/streams
🌸 KITTY’S ROSARY SCHEDULE, Monday – Friday
5:45 am CT: Kitty reads the daily Gospel, saint of the day, general and urgent intentions, the Unity Prayer, and the perpetual Surrender Novena.
6:00 am CT: Angelus and scriptural rosary, with spontaneous meditations (closing prayers usually begin around 6:40 am CT)
🌸 KITTY’S ROSARY SCHEDULE, Saturday-Sunday
7:00 am CT: On the weekends, join us on Facebook at “Kitty’s Morning Glories”
The Divine Mercy Chaplet
St. Faustina and The Divine Mercy Chaplet
The Divine Mercy Chaplet is a Catholic devotional prayer that asks God for mercy using standard rosary beads. The Divine Mercy devotion comes from the reported visions and revelations given by Jesus Christ to Polish nun, St. Marie Faustina, between 1931 and 1938 as recorded in her diary, Divine Mercy in my Soul.
Praying The Chaplet
Praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet obtains extraordinary graces, powerful spiritual protection, and mercy from Jesus, especially at the hour of death. Find out more about the promises.
How To Pray The Chaplet
http://www.thedivinemercy.org/message/devotions/chaplet.php
More about The Divine Mercy
Novena Schedule
https://shrineofdivinemercy.org/novenas?source=marian
DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY (The First Sunday After Easter)
In a series of revelations to St. Maria Faustina Kowalska in the 1930s, our Lord called for a special feast day to be celebrated on the Sunday after Easter. Today, we know that feast as Divine Mercy Sunday, named by Pope St. John Paul II at the canonization of St. Faustina on April 30, 2000.
As recorded in St. Faustina’s diary, Jesus promised St. Faustina that ANY SOUL who 1) Goes to sacramental Confession on or just before Divine Mercy Sunday 2) Receives Holy Communion worthily (in a state of grace with no mortal sins) on Divine Mercy Sunday, 3) Trusts in Jesus and His Divine Mercy, and 4) Is merciful to others will obtain COMPLETE FORGIVENESS of all sins and ALL punishment.
How To Prepare and Celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday
https://shrineofdivinemercy.org/what-is-mercy-sunday
Father Chris Alar explains How to Receive The Divine Mercy Graces
Why Read The Bible?
The Bible is the inspired Word of God. Through Sacred Scripture, we come to know Christ and better understand Salvation History. Reading and praying with Scripture deepens our relationship with God, strengthens our prayer, helps us align our lives with God’s will and teachings, and deepens our understanding of our faith. The Word of God is at the heart of the Liturgy and is inseparably connected to the living Tradition of the Catholic Church.
The United States of Catholic Bishops on The Bible at the Core of Catholic Beliefs.
Church approved translations: https://www.usccb.org/offices/new-american-bible/approved-translations-bible
The Hallow App
Hallow is a popular digital prayer and meditation app to help Christians grow in their faith. The app includes guided prayers, meditations, sleep and relaxation stories and prayers, and features well-known Catholic figures and guides in a variety of informative podcasts. The content is built in collaboration with Catholic theology guides and reviewed by church leadership, though it welcomes users from all Christian denominations and faith backgrounds.
https://hallow.com/christian-ios
The Prayer for the Holy Souls in Purgatory
St. Gertrude was a 13th-century German Benedictine nun, mystic, and writer renowned for her profound devotion to the Holy Souls in Purgatory. She frequently saw the souls in Purgatory in her visions and recorded Jesus expressing His immense mercy and longing to release them through human prayer.
The Prayer given to St. Gertrude which releases one thousand souls from Purgatory each time it is prayed:
Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the masses said throughout the world today, for all the holy souls in purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen.
Learn more about St. Gertrude:
https://www.catholictradition.org/Gertrude/saint-gertrude7.htm
Searching for a Saint?
Looking for information on a particular saint? Want to learn more about these wonderful role models. Look up the saints by their first name or just browse and increase your saintly IQ. Lots of info here!
http://www.catholic.org/saints/stindex.php
The Magnificat Store
Visit the Magnificat Store for inspiring books, beautiful Magnificat gifts, Electronic Media, and Study Programs. Click Here.
Other Catholic Links
U.S.Conference of Catholic Bishops
California Catholic Conference
We are hopeful that these links, which are independent of our Magnificat ministry, will prove helpful in your search for sites faithful to the Magisterium of the Church.
Contact Us
Magnificat Our Lady’s Desert Roses in Palm Desert, California:
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Magnificat Central Service Team
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Email: magnificatcst@aol.com
Website: Magnificat-Ministry.org
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