Today I went to adoration at my usual hour. The man who normally has the hour before me could not make it today, so another faithful adorer was filling in, and she brought her young sons, which was neat. I was amazed that these boys, probably ranging in age from 9 to 14, made it through an entire hour of adoration and looked quite peaceful at the end of it when I arrived!
I thanked her for coming in at a different hour than her regular one, and then when they had left said a little prayer for them. Then I did my usual adoration routine, which consists of:
- Short prayer thanking God for waiting for me and being there for me to come and adore him; then I ask him to teach me during the hour.
- Read the day’s lesson out of My Daily Bread.
- Read the daily Mass reading and about the saint of the day in my Magnificat
- Read from Through the Eyes of Jesus (today was an awesome one where Jesus remembers his family life with Mary and Joseph)
- Read other book I have, currently Good Families Don’t Just Happen
- Work on something for my future wife (it’s a secret to everyone but her, God willing, one day)
- Pray before leaving adoration
Before I left the house that morning, I had taken with me a very special prayer card, called “A Girl Sweetheart’s Daily Prayer”, and put it in my pocket. It has a nice picture of our Blessed Mother on the front with a prayer for helping the girl find her future husband. I took some pictures with my digital camera of the front and back, though it’s a bit hard to see:
Saturday, 22. October 2005
Devin,
Would it be possible to have you posted the text to “A Girl Sweetheart’s Daily Prayer” … for it is hard to read.
Thanks, in advance, for your time.
vlj
Saturday, 22. October 2005
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Howdy!
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Yes, I should have done that a long time ago but was lazy and thought I could take a good picture with my camera of the prayer. Unfortunately it is laminated and so it reflects the light too much if I use the flash.
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In any event, here is the Girl Sweetheart’s Daily prayer:
“O Mary, model of pure love and therefore of sweethearts, I beseech thee to direct me in my choice of a future husband. Grant me especially wisdom and deliberation in this choice. Make both my friendship and courtship chaste, unselfish, prudent, thrifty, and cheerful. Be my companion in single as well as in wedded life.”
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It mirrors the St. Joseph Boy Sweetheart’s prayer closely, although the differences are interesting: St. Joseph’s adds the word “especially” to qualify the word “chaste”, in my opinion since it’s tougher for a guy to be chaste. Also, St. Joseph is the “model of justice” whereas Mary is the “model of pure love”, which is really cool.
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On the back of the Mary prayer card are the six steps for a successful friendship and courtship, and once again some of them directly mirror the St. Joseph ones, but others are tailored specifically to girls. (I think you can read this list pretty well from the picture). Once neat difference is the very last rule, where the qualifier “happy” is used to modify “Catholic marriage” and also “Catholic home”. The guy’s prayer card doesn’t have that, and it makes sense that girls should focus on that since women really do bring happiness and joy to their families when they live godly lives (Proverbs 31!).
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May God bless you in whatever state of life he has called you to!