Prayer Resources

Prayer is the most crucial aspect of stewardship efforts. It is the spiritual force that will bring light to those who have slowly wandered away from an active faith and open their hearts to come back to the Lord. It also gives parishioners a way to strengthen their faith with both the Church and community. Our projects and efforts are not enough to win this spiritual battle. “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” (Ps. 127:1)

Prayer should be the first in order of implementation in your parish. Skipping this step misses the point of our welcoming efforts. The simple suggestions given here are nothing new but are chosen because of them being sound Catholic piety, tradition, and devotion. Choose one or more of these for your parish.

Eucharistic Adoration

St. Mother Teresa said, “Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration with exposition needs a great push. People ask me: 'What will convert America and save the world?' My answer is prayer. What we need is for every parish to come before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament in holy hours of prayer.”

This extremely simple but most-powerful plan is simple.

  • Expose the Blessed Sacrament more frequently.
  • Promote the Eucharistic Adoration initiatives, especially in the Sunday homily.
  • Invite the faithful to commit to being present during the adoration times.
  • Make sure it is clear that the Adoration time is for the intention of bringing inactive Catholics back to the faith.

A Eucharist Adoration campaign can begin very simply. Whatever amount of adoration your parish currently is doing, simply increase the time and encourage the faithful to commit. Parishes with no adoration could begin weekly adoration for a few hours on a specific day. Parishes that already have weekly adoration could expand to extra day(s). Below are some simple and easy-to-follow resources that can help your parish begin more frequent Eucharistic Adoration:

Eucharistic Adoration: Starting Small

Resources for Eucharistic Adoration

How to start Eucharistic Adoration in a parish

Youth Guide for Eucharistic Adoration

Priestly Guide for Eucharistic Adoration

Children’s Eucharistic Adoration ideas

Family Rosary

Blessed Pius IX famously said, “Give me an army saying the Rosary and I will conquer the world.” The rosary has constantly found to be a game-changer not only for those being prayed for but also for those doing the praying. Father Patrick Peyton was famous for his campaign to have families pray the Holy Rosary together daily, saying, “The family that prays together, stays together.”

This prayer campaign is simple. Encourage families to pledge to begin praying the Holy Rosary on a daily basis for the return of Catholics to the Church. You may want to begin by having them pray one decade daily and allow their prayer to expand over time. There is an abundance of “How to Pray the Rosary” materials available online. There are also YouTube videos of the rosary with images that may help families to begin praying it. Here are some examples:

Joyful Mysteries with Sacred Art

Bishop Barron Joyful Mysteries

For more information on the Family Rosary, visit https://www.familyrosary.org/.

Divine Mercy Chaplet

The prayers of Divine Mercy, including the chaplet, are an important weapon in the spiritual battle to bring souls back to Christ. Our Lord revealed to St. Faustina, “If you say this prayer, with a contrite heart and with faith, on behalf of some sinner, I will give that soul the grace of conversion.” The idea is to start widespread recitation of the Chaplet for the return of Catholics to the Church.

A simple campaign in the parish could be to hold a daily recitation of the Divine Mercy Chaplet at the parish at 3:00 p.m. or another convenient time or also to encourage families to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet at home for a specified period of time (i.e. 9 day novena, month-long, etc.). The Chaplet of Divine Mercy usually takes between 5 to 10 minutes to recite.

Learn how to pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy.

Pray along with a video.

Follow along with this sung version of the chaplet.

Prayers for Inactive Catholics

The idea behind this campaign is simple. Choose a prayer and make it your parish prayer for the return of Catholics to the faith. You can pray it after every mass and have a parish-wide novena with families praying the prayer at home every day. Here are some examples: