Finding Peace in Prayers – Saint Pancratius

On most days you know you have the physical strength, the willpower, the motivation and commitment to do your daily grind. You work smart and you have a great team, you have a supportive family and circle of friends. But there are days when it seems that all you can hope for is divine intervention.

Back in 2002 when I first landed a job in the BPO industry and my first experience doing a graveyard shift, my late grandmother came up to my room one day and gave me this novena. She told me that since I was working in the night time, this novena was for good health, success in work, and being free of adversities or ill-intentioned persons.

 

This novena carried me through tough times back then. Though let’s admit that we sometimes miss out on our catholic obligations, and only remember to pray when we are in need.  

 

Nowadays, I experience more and more obstacles in Life. May it be work or personal, some of these situations are just beyond my control. (Though I am still trying to find a solution for it to be within my control.) But this is where I turn to a higher power. It may not bring the desired results, but I do find peace and comfort whenever I complete my prayers.

So I just want to share the Novena to Saint Pancratius, for it may bring strength and guidance in your daily tasks.

NOVENA TO

SAINT PANCRATIUS

Act of Contrition:

 

 Jesus, my God,
how often have I offended Thee and,
despite my firm promise never to sin again,
how many times have I left Thy sweet company
to follow the path of sin!

Dearest Lord, I am sorry for my past negligences.
I regret this weakness of mine.
I would be ashamed to promise again
that I will not sin were it not for the confidence
I have in Thy love and Thy mercy.

I kneel in Thy presence,
hopeful that despite so many past violations of Thy commandments,
notwithstanding so many failures to correspond with Thy grace,
I can still repent.

I know that there is time to make a new beginning.
With Thy aid I will strive to be faithful to Thee,
with Thy assistance I will do my utmost to serve Thee faithfully - and always.
Do Thou, dear Jesus, help me.

Amen.

 

First Day

Our hearts have been created to love.
It is God Whom you have to love most,
more than all beings,
more than all riches of the world,
and in this way you will avoid many disappointments.
St. Pancratius did it so
and by it he obtained many favors from God.
Ask him fervently for this grace,
you will live peacefully
and will obtain his protection in all your needs.

Prayer for each day to the Blessed Trinity

Prayer to the Eternal Father

I believe, Heavenly Father,
all that Faith teaches,
and in that faith I wish to live and die;
through the intercession of St. Pancratius
grant us good health to fulfill our duties.

Our Father...
Hail Mary...
Glory be...

Prayer to God the Son

O good Jesus,
grant me the virtue of Hope in your promises
in the same measure that St. Pancratius
always trusted in your Providence,
so that I may, through his intercession,
obtain work and success in all my undertakings.

Our Father...
Hail Mary...
Glory be...

Prayer to the Holy Spirit

Grant me the virtue of Charity
that I may love God above all things
and my neighbor for the love of God,
as St. Pancratius did.
Through his intercession
I hope to obtain this grace
and that of being free from adversities
and from ill-intentioned persons.

Our Father...
Hail Mary...
Glory be...

Concluding Prayer:

O glorious St. Pancratius,
I beg thee to obtain for me
all the graces that I need,
but especially health and work,
so that I may appear before thee
to thank God for the favors
I received through your powerful intercession.

Amen.


Second Day

It is the law of God to love our neighbor,
but only in as much as this love does not hinder us from loving God.
St. Pancratius gave us the examples,
thus leading many souls in the right path to heaven.
Let us ask him from the depth of our hearts
to give us the grace to love our neighbors
as ourselves in order to love God better;
in this way we shall obtain many graces
from the glorious St. Pancratius.

(Prayer to the Blessed Trinity as on First Day)

Third Day

St. Pancratius possessed such a kind heart
that he always sympathized with the poor and the unfortunate;
for this reason he obtained so many graces from heaven.
You too, should imitate this virtue and thereby obtain,
through his intercession,
many favors from God.

(Prayer to the Blessed Trinity as on First Day)

Fourth Day

The glorious St. Pancratius not only tried to be good himself
but also strived to lead other souls to heaven,
and for this reason God bestowed on him
such a great power in behalf of those devoted to him.
You too, should try to spread this devotion
and to lead others to heaven.
In this way you will gain many graces,
especially those that you like to receive in this novena.

(Prayer to the Blessed Trinity as on First Day)

Fifth Day

There are many persons in the world who due to human respect,
fail to serve God wholeheartedly.
Be not one of them,
but rather imitate St. Pancratius
in defending always the truth and the good,
for the sake of God.
In this way,
you will obtain all that you need
through the intercession of St. Pancratius
who is always ready to hear your prayer.

(Prayer to the Blessed Trinity as on First Day)

Sixth Day

One of the hardest things for the heart
is to forgive those who have injured us.
Ask St. Pancratius to obtain for you this grace
when someone has offended you,
since he forgave even those who martyred him.
Be sure you will then be more at peace
and will obtain for yourself and for your family
graces that grow more than you can hope for.

(Prayer to the Blessed Trinity as on First Day)

Seventh Day

In this world,
great patience is needed for everything,
for more obstacles always come in our way than we expect.
Imitate St. Pancratius who always conforms his will
to the Holy Will of God,
and thus succeeded in living happily
and becoming a great saint amidst difficulties.
Ask him fervently to help you,
and he will grant you this grace and many others.

(Prayer to the Blessed Trinity as on First Day)

Eighth Day

Just as you treasure the picture of your parents
and other dear persons,
so also should you treasure the image of St. Pancratius,
assured that from heaven above he sees you
as you kneel before his altar.
The greater the fervor with which you do it
the more he will intercede for you before God
that he may grant you the graces you want
to obtain in this novena,
for you as well as for your family.

(Prayer to the Blessed Trinity as on First Day)

Ninth Day

Now that you are ending this novena,
you are encouraged
and you feel a greater desire to love St. Pancratius
and by it to make yourself worthy of attaining heaven
where you will keep his company.
Be sure that he waits for you there,
and you will fulfill your duties faithfully,
leading the life of a good Christian;
and thus obtain his protection for yourself and for your family.

(Prayer to the Blessed Trinity as on First Day)

 

Music Defines my Day (Playlist One)

A very good mentor of mine shared a quote; “You are the books you read, the movies you watch, the music you listen to, the people you spend time with, the conversations you engage in. Choose wisely what you feed your mind."

Well generally for music, I don’t stick to one genre and I do like a lot of different tunes. And yeah, depending on the music that I listen to, it does affect my mood in some way. And most of the time depending on that particular day, I already have a preset playlist to define the day that lies ahead.

Hammered Hardstyle Days

Usually these are my Mondays and Tuesdays where there is a lot of pounding at the start of the week. Especially when you work the graveyard, you gotta keep the energy going like it’s a parteeee. (On some days it’s like a circus though, with clowns, huge elephants and monkeys.) You have that feeling like you want to hammer down on so many things. On some days you simply want to get your blood pumping when getting ready to play a game of hoops, and set that mind and body to inflict pain against your opponents. It’s basically your daily does of Bass-gasmic beats or Hardstyle harmonics.

Top 5 on my Pound your Pain List:

• Tsunami – DVBBS & Borgeous

• Planet E (Dense & Pika Remix) – Tiga

• Showtek vs. Donkey Rollers – Showtek

• Stereophobia – Dark Oscillators

• Dragonfly – Dash Berlin

Chillounge Days

Thursdays tend to be the days where I would almost find the light at the end of the tunnel or close to surviving the jungle I’ve been through. A time to lay back for a moment and catch my breath or heal battle wounds. Or it could be any day where I would just dream that time would move slower so I can just savor the moment of serenity. These are moments where you thank music for completely drowning out all that nonsense noise around you.

Top 5 on my Shush Be Quiet List:

• Warm – SG Lewis

• Ready – Charles Webster

• Flying Away (Sisco Lounge Mix) – Moony

• Together in Electric Dreams – Lali Puna

• Selfish (Chillout Version) - Sunset Daze

Rebooting Elements

It has been 8 months since I last posted anything on my blog, and I didn’t realize how long ago that was.

We get so hung up on so many things, we really tend to miss out or forego on spending time on the things that you really want to do. We try so hard to squeeze in everything in our schedule, but it seems like there isn’t enough time. On some occasions we do these things that we want, to help us take our mind off on other stressful matters. But that too tends to fall off our calendars.

I tired doing a root cause analysis on it, and unfortunately I’d rather not share what has caused this. Some things are best kept to yourself, and you would just have to push the reset button to start things over.

When I started this blog back in May 2009, Elements of Life, I just wanted to share what I have encountered in this lifetime. Everything and anything that is practically under the sun. I am no professional blogger, I have no experience in journalism, I don’t plan to make a career out of it. I simply want to share the things that make me laugh, cry, frustrated, excited, happy, sad, blow my top off, all the emotions that comes after the personal experiences in Life. Because in these personal experiences are some of the Elements that shape our Life.

The past 8 months have really been hectic for me. I seemed to have lost sight of several things. I grind out each day to the limit. You can say that I am at a point where I have exhausted all my energy and is gasping for a recharge. I have probably achieved one characteristic on becoming an astronaut as I have mastered the art of power naps. Because that’s pretty much the kind of sleep time I have nowadays.

There is so much that is expected of you that having to do just one function is not enough. Having to do what is expected is no longer the norm. (When the Norm No Longer Exists) You have to evolve in becoming cross-skilled. Even doing the extra mile, boy, you gotta go farther than one mile; it’s now a cross-country hike. So you see, you get cross-skilled, you do a cross-country, but be careful not to get cross-eyed.

People say to take a step back, take time off, disconnect. Yup, pretty much did that. I even blogged about getting disconnected Disconnect to Reconnect 

So do I need a reboot? (Similar to what I do with my 2007 desktop PC every time things get messed up already and it hangs up on me, I just literally unplug it and boot it up again.) Though it’s about time I should get a new one. This PC is croaking up already, I get notifications that Microsoft will no longer support my platform, Google Chrome will no longer send updates, and I can hear the internal fans also gasping for air.

Well, I can’t buy a new me. So I will have to deal with what me has to offer.

But there are certain Elements of Life that you can probably reboot in order for you to be revitalized. Look at the little things that make you happy. Capitalize on those. It doesn’t even have to be a huge thing because if you have trickles of happiness, it will have a ripple effect. Getting frustrated has no place in this Life, you just don’t have time for negative Elements. That time can very well be spent on something better.