This prayer is one of the many prayers we prayed that has guided the founding of the foundation and was prayed before we founded it and throughout everything we do. We have prayed these prayers over the last 5 years… as we were discerning what direction to take with founding it, this prayer really helped us to see more clearly our next steps to found the foundation. Essentially, these are prayers our foundation were founded on and ones that our foundation lives by. As you can see the many prayers that we have prayed… each area of our foundation is covered in prayer, and all of these prayers helped us to found each area of our foundation and the services we offer.

Dear God,

Creator of women in your own image,

born of a woman in the midst of a world half women,

carried by women to mission fields around the globe,

made known by women to all the children of the earth,

give to the women of our time the strength to persevere, the courage to speak out, the faith to believe in you beyond all systems and institutions so that your face on earth may be seen in all its beauty,

so that men and women become whole,

so that the church may be converted to your will in everything and in all ways.

We call on the holy women who went before us,

channels of Your Word in testaments old and new,

to intercede for us so that we might be given the grace to become what they have been for the honor and glory of God.

Saint Esther, who pleaded against power for the liberation of people, Pray for us…

Saint Judith, who routed the plans of men and saved the community, Pray for us…

Saint Deborah, laywoman and judge, who led the people of God, Pray for us…

Saint Elizabeth of Judea, who recognized the value of another woman, Pray for us…

Saint Mary Magdalene, minister of Jesus, first evangelist of Christ, Pray for us…

Saint Scholastica, who taught her brother Benedict to honor the spirit above the system, Pray for us…

Saint Hildegard, who suffered interdict for doing the right, Pray for us…

Saint Joan of Arc, who put no law above the law of God, Pray for us…

Saint Clare of Assisi, who confronted the pope with the image of woman as equal, Pray for us…

Saint Julian of Norwich, who proclaimed for all of us the motherhood of God, Pray for us…

Saint Therese of Lisieux, who knew the call of priesthood in herself, Pray for us…

Saint Catherine of Siena, to whom the pope listened, Pray for us…

Saint Teresa of Avila, who brought women’s gifts to the reform of the church, Pray for us…

Saint Edith Stein, who brought fearlessness to faith, Pray for us…

Saint Elizabeth Seton, who broke down boundaries between lay women a nd religious by wedding motherhood and religious life, Pray for us…

Saint Dorothy Day, who led the church to a new sense of justice, Pray for us…

***

Mary, mother of Jesus, who heard the call of God and answered, Pray for us…

Mary, mother of Jesus, who drew strength from the woman Elizabeth, Pray for us…

Mary, mother of Jesus who underwent hardship bearing Christ, Pray for us…

Mary, mother of Jesus, who ministered at Cana, Pray for us…

Mary, mother of Jesus, inspirited at Pentecost, Pray for us…

Mary, mother of Jesus, who turned the Spirit of God into the body and blood of Christ, Pray for us.

Amen.

~created by Benedictine Sisters of Erie, PA - text by Joan Chittister, OSB

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