Praying Always

My hope has always been in you. ~Ps 71:5

Thanks be to God who gives us the victory

through our Lord Jesus Christ! ~1 Cor 15:57

Mother, remember us!

Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope ... to thee do we cry ... Mother of the poor, the afflicted, the abandoned ... Mother of the orphan and the widow ... Mother of the helpless, the hungry, the homeless ... Mother of the wounded, the sick, the dying ... Mother of the lonely and the alone ... Mother of the fearful, the anxious, the bereft ... Mother of the suffering, the desolate, the hopeless ... Mother of the living and the dead ... remember, O Mother who loves us so dearly, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help or sought thy intercession was left unaided ... Mother who feels our every pain and knows our every sorrow ... Mother of consolation, Mother of hope, Mother of love ... Mother, remember us, for to thee do we cry!

O Lord, do not forsake them!

O Hope of Israel, O Lord, our savior in time of need! Why should you be a stranger in this land, like a traveler who has stopped but for a night? Why are you like a man dumbfounded, a champion who cannot save? You are in our midst, O Lord, your name we bear: do not forsake us!

Have you cast Judah off completely? Is Zion loathsome to you? Why have you struck us a blow that cannot be healed? We wait for peace, to no avail; for a time of healing, but terror comes instead.

For your name's sake spurn us not, disgrace not the throne of your glory; remember your covenant with us, and break it not. Among the nations' idols is there any that gives rain? Or can the mere heavens send showers? Is it not you alone, O Lord, our God, to whom we look? You alone have done all these things.

~Jeremiah 14:8-9, 19, 21-22

HELP FOR HAITI

Catholic News Services reports that the following international aid agencies are working with partner agencies and local religious leaders in Haiti and are accepting donations for victims of the Jan. 12 earthquake.

Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops' international relief and development agency, is accepting donations by phone at (800) 736-3467; online at http://www.crs.org/; or by mail to CRS, P.O. Box 17090, Baltimore, MD 21203-7090.

The Salesians are accepting donations by phone at (914) 633-8344; online at http://www.salesianmissions.org/; or by mail to Salesian Disaster Relief, Salesian Missions, P.O. Box 30, New Rochelle, NY 10802-0030.

The Archdiocese of Miami, which has a large Haitian population, has set up a place to donate online at http://www.newmiamiarch.org/. (This link isn't working as of 5am today, but perhaps later today it will.)

Caritas Internationalis is accepting donations for Haiti at http://www.caritas.org/.

Food for the Poor is also accepting donations at http://www.foodforthepoor.org/.

Catholic Medical Mission Board is accepting monetary donations by mail to CMMB, 10 West 17th St., New York, New York 10011; by phone at (800) 678-5659; or online at http://support.cmmb.org/Haiti. Medicines and medical supplies may be donated by calling CMMB's Kathy Tebbett at (212) 242 7757.

Jesuit Refugee Service is accepting donations at http://www.jrsusa.org/; click on "Donate Now" box on right of page.

Lord my God, I call for help by day;
I cry at night before you.
Let my prayer come into your presence.
O turn your ear to my cry.
For my soul is filled with evils;
my life is on the brink of the grave.
I am reckoned as one in the tomb;
I have reached the end of my strength,
like one among among the dead;
like the slain lying in their graves;
like those you remember no more,
cut off, as they are, from your hand.
~from Psalm 87

Dear God, Father of the Poor, have mercy on our brothers and sisters in Haiti who are suffering such devastation and desolation. Please help them! Help those who are helping them, and help us to help them all in whatever ways we can. We ask this in the name of Jesus our Lord, who alone can make all things new. Amen.