St. Peregrine
Patron Saint of Cancer 1260-1345
Dear St. Peregrine
I need your help. I feel so uncertain of my life right now. This serious illness makes me long for a sign of God’s love.
Help me to imitate your enduring faith when you face the ugliness of cancer and surgery. Help me to turst the Lord the way you did in these moments of distress.
I want to be cured but right now I ask God for the strength to bear the cross in my life. I seek the power to proclaim God’s presence in my life despite the hardship, anguish and fear I now experience.
Be an inspiration to me and petitioner of thse needed graces from our loving father. Amen.
St. Peregrine experienced the grace of conversion when he encountered St. Philip Bizini. As Philip was preaching, Peregrine heckled and struck him. Philp turned the other cheek. This act of love had a profound effect on PEregrine. He joined the servants of Mary and chose to do penance by standing whenever possible. He developed cancer in his leg which needed to be amputated. The night before his surgery he dragged himself to the foot of a crucifix and had a vision of Christ coming down from the cross and touching his leg. The next morning, his leg was completely cured. He spent the next 20 years helping the sick and the poor.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel’s feast day is July 16th. She is the patroness of the Carmelite Order which was founded in the 12th Century on Mt. Carmel.
The Carmelites have a strong Marian devotion. In Mary they find the perfect model of virtue and of an interior life of prayer and contemplation. They see her as the person closest in life to Jesus and the one who always points us to Him.
The statue of Our Lady of Mt Carmel was placed in the shrine at the request of the lay Carmelites here at Christ the King. Long before the shrine was built, they faithfully coordinated and participated in Eucharistic Adoration every week.
Dear Lady of Mt. Carmel,
Please pray that I may imitate your obedience and total faith and trust in God.
Be my guide as I undertake this difficult journey. Teach me to pray and help me to find ways to always grow closer to your Son.
Guard me against the false gods that tempt me along my way. Pray that I may defeat them just as they were defeated on Mt. Carmel in the distant past.
Please intercede for me as I face this challenge (your intention). Amen
St. Padre Pio
1887-1968
Dear Padre Pio,
My heart is heavy. I need God’s help to continue. I am burdened and in need of his strength to carry the load.
I am sorry for my sins. I am far from being perfect and know that there is much that I can do to be closer to God.
You showed love and kindness to the poor and sick in your life time. Please show this compassion to me as I carry this cross.
Please pray that I may be gracious and loving to others and keep my eyes focused on our Lord.
Please pray to God on my behalf (your intention). Amen.
St. Padre Pio gave his life to God when he was 5, joined the Capuchin Friars when he was 15 and was ordained a priest at 23.
He was blessed with many spiritual gifts such as healing, bilocution, stigmata and reading people’s hearts. He encouraged his followers, “Bring God to all those who are sick. This will help them more than any other remedy.”
He was chosen as a saint of the shrine because of his gift of reading souls and helping people make a good confession. He reminds us that the greatest healing is the forgiveness of our sins and the healing of our souls.
St. Luke
St. Luke lived in the first century A.D. and is known as the “Beloved Physician.”. He was also an evangelist, historian and artist. His Gospel was written around 60 A.D. and is compiled of information and eye witness accounts from people close to Jesus. He describes the angel’s annunciation to Mary, Mary’s visit to Elizabeth, the birth of Jesus His presentation in the temple and the finding of Jesus in the temple. These events comprise the five Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary. St. Luke also wrote the Magnificat and the “Acts of the Apostles.”
He was chosen as a saint for the shrine to remind us to see our doctors when we are ill.
Dear St. Luke,
You were a physician and friend who boldly proclaimed the Gospel and shared His work in art and writing so that others may know the love and mercy of God.
Please pray that my heart, like Mary’s, will always be open and willing to do whatever God asks of me.
Pray that I will always place my trust in God and that I will know and appreciate that all healing comes from Him.
Please pray to God on my behalf (your intention). Amen
St. John Vianney & St. Philomena
Dear St. Philomena,
You were pure and chaste in your love for our Savior. You suffered a death that I can only imagine. Your faith is an inspiration and makes you a most beloved child of God. Please pray that I may find that same peace as I endure what life, and one day death, may bring. Please intercede for me as you have for so many others.
St. John Vianney found you to be a most devoted servant of our Lord, and I call out to you in the same manner of gratitude and entreat you to please pray to God on my behalf. (Your intention) Amen.
St. Philomena was born around 150 A.D. She wanted to devote herself to Christ alone and would not marry. Her suitor tortured the 13 yr old and was determined to kill her. In her suffering she was faithful to God. This faith has made her a powerful intercessor. St. John Vianney developed an intense devotion to her and attributed his miraculous recovery from pneumonia to her intercession.
St. Philomena was chosen as a saint of the shrine because her life of purity and unwavering faith in the light of great suffering gives inspiration to many. Her intercession to our Lord has been said to be very compelling and has been attributed to countless healings and conversions.
St. Therese of Lisieux
1873-1897
St. Therese entered the Carmelite order when she was 15. She suffered illnesses and times of feeling isolated from God. In these struggles, she came to realize that trusting in Jesus is the path to holiness and making small daily sacrifices was the way to His Sacred Heart. This spirituality led her to become a Doctor of the Church. She died after a long struggle with tuberculosis.
St. Therese was chosen as a saint of the shrine because she knew the pain of losing her mother from cancer. She reminds us that spiritual health can come from her “Little Way” of offering every small act and sacrifice to Jesus.
Dear St. Therese,
Through your trials you held fast to the love of the Lord and looked to Him for light in the darkness.
Pray that I may find light in the darkness as I face the struggle.
Pray that I may find little ways to recognize His face in the midst of my own pain.
Teach me your Little Way so I may realize that even ordinary things done with great love can draw me closer to Jesus.
Please pray to God on my behalf (your intention). Amen.