Prayers

Prayers

Prayers for Children

Parents' Prayer for Children

O Heavenly Father, I commend my children unto Thee. Be Thou their God and Father, and mercifully supply whatever is wanting in me through frailty or negligence. Strengthen them to overcome the corruptions of the world, to resist all solicitations to evil, whether from within or without, and deliver them from the secret snares of the enemy. 

Pour Thy grace into their hearts, and confirm and multiply in them the gifts of Thy Holy Spirit, that they may daily grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ; and so, faithfully serving Thee here, may come to rejoice in Thy presence hereafter. Amen.

Prayer to St. Monica for a Child Who Has Turned Away from the Catholic Faith

Under the weight of my heartful burden I turn to you, dear St. Monica, and request your assistance and intercession. From your place in Heaven, I beg that you will plead before the Throne of the Holy One for the sake of my child, (name), who has wanderered from the faith and all that we have tried to teach.

I know, dear Monica, that our children belong not to us but to God, and that God often permits this wandering as part of one's journey toward Him. Your son, Augustine, wandered, too. Eventually he found the faith and came to belive, and in that belief became a true teacher. 

Help me, therefore, to have patience and to believe that all things - even this disappointing movement away from the faith - work ultimately to His own good purposes. For the sake of my child's soul, I pray to understand and trust in this.

St. Monica, please teach me to persist in faithful prayer as you did for your son's sake. Inspire me to behave in ways that will not further distance my child from Christ, but only draw (name) gently toward His marvelous Light. Please teach me what you know about this painful mystery of separation and how it is reconciled in the re-orientation of our children toward Heaven.

O St. Monica, love of Christ and His Church, pray for me, and for my child (name), that we may aquire Heaven joining with you there in offering constant and thankful praise to God. Amen.

O Father of mankind, who hast given unto me these my children, and committed them to my charge to bring them up for Thee, and to prepare them for everlasting life, assist me with Thy heavenly grace, that I may be able to fulfill this most sacred duty and stewardship.

Teach me both what to give and what to withhold; when to reprove and when to forbear, Make me gentle, yet firm, considerate and watchful, and deliver me equally from the weakness of indulgence, and the excess of severity. Grant that, both by word and example, I may be careful to lead them in the ways of wisdom and true pity, so that at last I may, with them, be admitted to the unspeakable joys of our true home in heaven, in the company of the blessed Angels and Saints. Amen.

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Contact Information

St. Paul of the Cross

320 South Washington Street
Park Ridge, IL 60068


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Phone: (847) 825-7605

Mass Schedule

UC = Upper Church
HFC = Holy Family Chapel 

Monday - Friday

6:25 am UC

8:30 am UC

Saturday

8:30 am UC - weekday Mass

4:30 pm UC - vigil

Sunday

7:30 am UC

9:00 am UC

10:30 am UC and HFC

12:00 pm UC