Graciela Beecher
What is prayer?
Some say it is a conversation with God and/or His emissaries. Others say it is an act of faith.
Which definition is right?
Both are. Prayer is a conversation with God, His Blessed Mother, His Angels, or His Saints. The
conversation is always precluded by faith. Without faith, there is no prayer, no communication
with the deity.
To elevate our minds, our hearts, and our voices to God, we first have to believe that He exists,
and that He will listen to our prayer, be it of worship, thanksgiving, contrition, or supplication.
Faith has to be present at all times.
Let us examine faith, starting with Abraham's, whose faith was monumental. He was childless
and quite advanced in age when the Lord told him his descendants would be as numerous as the
stars in the evening sky. He believed the Word of God, and the Lord accepted his faith as justice.
By faith he justified himself.
When the Lord asked him to sacrifice Isaac, his only son, to Him, Abraham did not hesitate for a
moment. By faith, he knew God could bring Isaac back to life.
If we compare Abraham's wonderful faith with the faith of another great figure of the Old
Testament, the prophet Moses, recipient of the Tables of the Law, we find Moses at fault. He
doubted the Lord could forgive His rebellious and ungrateful people, and struck the rock twice.
He was punished by not being allowed to enter the Promised Land.
We find faith mentioned many times in the New Testament. Jesus told us that if we have enough
faith to tell the mountains to jump into the sea, they would do it. Furthermore he told us, "Seek
and you shall find; ask and you shall receive; knock and it will be opened to you."
Jesus kept praising people for their faith, saying, 'Your faith has saved you." He did not say,
"Your rightfulness has saved you, but your faith has."
The same as with Abraham, the Lord Jesus kept accepting faith as justice. And justice in this case
meant justification for the believer. We find an unfaltering faith in Mary of Nazareth, who
believed, when she was told she was going to have a son, even though she knew no man.
We find faith in Peter, when he confessed and boldly proclaimed Jesus as the Son of God. When
the Apostle Thomas doubted the Lord's Resurrection because he had not seen Him alive, Jesus
blessed those that did not see, but believed.
For two centuries, saints and martyrs suffered, labored, and died, as an act of faith. Saint John
Bosco said, "Faith, have faith, and you shall see miracles."
Let's go back to prayer, now that we have established that faith has to preclude it. How many
kinds of prayers are there? We can pray privately or in public. We can pray vocally or mentally.
Usually, when we pray vocally we use the prayers or words composed by someone else. We can
also compose our own prayers. All the prayers in this book, with the exception of the Our Father,
the Hail Mary, and the Glory Be, were composed by the author.
We should decide what we want to accomplish with our prayer. Do we want to worship God? Do
we want to thank Him for His blessings? Do we want to express our repentance for our sins? Do
we want Him to grant us a wish or satisfy a need we have? A prayer can include one, two, three,
or four of the categories. With the same prayer, we can worship God, thank Him, ask for His
forgiveness and ask favors of Him.
We can pray mentally, improvising conversations with the Lord, or we can meditate, like we do
with the mysteries of the Rosary, on the lives of Jesus and Mary.
At times, our prayer or conversation is not directly with the Lord, but with His Blessed Mother,
with His Angels, and/or His Saints. We go to The Lord through them since they are closer to
God than we are, and we trust that they can help us achieve what we are asking for. The Council
of Trent ratified that it was acceptable to use these emissaries to ask graces of the Lord.
Many saints have been recognized through the ages as "miracle workers," having the power to
intercede with the Lord in such a way, that our prayers are answered faster. Some saints, such as
Saint Jude and Saint Rita of Cascia have been labeled as "Lawyers of the Impossible Causes."
They are venerated the world over.
What do we ask of the Archangels and/or Guardian Angels?
I ask Saint Michael to present my prayers to God and to protect me against the enemies of my
soul. I ask Saint Raphael to lead me to Heaven and to help me with my illnesses and infirmities. I
ask Saint Gabriel to announce to me, at the hour of death, that I am saved and I will live in
Heaven for all eternity. I ask my Guardian Angel to guide me, and illuminate my intellect to do
what is pleasing to the Lord.
What do we ask the saints?
It depends on our needs. If we are asking for a cure for breast cancer, we call on Saint Agatha; for
general cancer, we call on Saint Peregrine to come to our aid. For arthritis, we look to Saint
Alphonsus Ligouri. There is a patron saint for every infirmity or necessity. This prayer book
covers many of the needs we may have. Every prayer alludes to the lives, accomplishments,
and/or sayings of the saints. No biography has been included, but I am confident that, if a prayer
is heard, the reader will be interested in knowing more about the saint who interceded for
him/her, and will try to learn more about his/her life
The book includes prayers of adoration, prayers of thanksgiving, prayers or acts of contrition, and
prayers of supplication. There are prayers to the Holy Trinity, to God the Father, to Jesus, as Lord
of Mercy, Good Shepherd, His Sacred Heart, His Precious Blood, etc. There are several prayers
to the Holy Spirit, and many to Mary, Our Blessed Mother, under the names of Our Lady of
Perpetual Help, Our Lady of Lourdes, Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Our
Lady of the Miraculous, Our Lady of Guadalupe, and under some names not too well known in
the United States as Our Lady of the Pillar and Our Lady of Covadonga.
There are several prayers to Saint Joseph, Saint Francis of Assisi, the Apostles and the Martyrs.
The prayers are followed by the Meditations of the Mysteries of the Holy Rosary, and by the Way
of the Cross.
Every prayer in this book can be made into a Novena by praying one Our Father, one Hail Mary,
and one Glory Be after the prayer, repeating it for nine consecutive days.
Dr. Graciela F. Beecher came to the United States in 1961 after the Bay of Pigs Invasion. She settled in
Fort Wayne, Indiana, where she worked first as a College Professor of Language and Literature, and later
as the Executive Director of the Educational Agency she founded.
Semi-retired, she now works as Spanish Correspondent for Today's Catholic in the Diocese of Fort
Wayne-South Bend, and is also a feature writer for several magazines and newspapers.
She was active in politics and in women's issues. For many years she was the President of the National
Association of Cuban-American Women, the Cuban-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and
the National Federation of Cuban-American Republican Women.
Contact the author by E-mail at Gbee172271@aol.com.
ACT OF THANKSGIVING
We thank You, Lord, for the beauty of this world that You created for us to enjoy.
We thank You for the myriad of lights that shine in the sky on a starry night.
We thank You for the moon whose beam illuminates our paths in the darkness.
We thank You for the sun that sustains us with its light and warmth.
We thank You for the showers of the spring that cleanse and moisten the soil.
We thank You for the flowers of the summer that bring delight to our senses.
We thank You for the colors that gladden our souls in the fall.
We thank You for the snow that turns winters into a wonderland.
We thank You for the birds that fly in the air, for the robin, the blue jay, the cardinal, and the
humble sparrow that will not live without freedom.
We thank You for the deer, the bear and the moose that live in the forests.
We thank You for the horse, the ox, the cow, the dog, and the cat; by living near us they make our
life and work easier.
We thank You for the fish, the dolphins, the whales, and every other creature that lives in the
seas.
We thank You for everything you have given us to nourish, sustain, and delight us while on this
earth.
Above all, we thank You, Our Lord, for the opportunity of, one day, living in still a more-
beautiful universe. Amen.
ACT OF FAITH
Help me, sweet Jesus, to feel Your love today.
Help me to see You through all the trials and troubles of this day.
Help me not to slip away from You in the darkness of the night.
Take my hand, sweet Jesus, and carry me through the journey of this life.
Wipe my tears away, my loving Savior, so I feel my faith restored.
Help me to see You in the beauty of the earth, in the songs of the birds, in the colors and
fragrances of the flowers, in the raindrops that refresh the grass and the trees, in the rainbow that appears
after the rain, in the changing colors of the autumn leaves, in the blanket of snow that covers the ground
in the winter.
Let me see you, Jesus, in everything beautiful you created for You and me. Amen.
