Prayer – Praying for the Intercession of Blessed Basil Moreau
Father Moreau,
your burning zeal
for the glory of God and the salvation of souls
inspired you to undertake great works,
even at the cost of personal suffering and sacrifice.
Your missionary spirit moved you
to respond to the needs of the Church in difficult times
by rekindling the Christian life in parishes,
instructing youth,
and forming brothers, priests, and sisters
for the apostolate.
Heeding the call of Providence,
you directed the eyes and steps of missionaries
toward distant shores,
where you never ceased
to guide, sustain, and bless them.
Please pray for me,
that I too might be zealous for the kingdom of God,
generous in heeding His call wherever it may lead,
and faithful to the evangelical mission
I received at my baptism.
Amen.
Father Moreau,
in your youth you were formed by priests
who remained faithful to the Church in troubled times.
You, in your turn, were a devoted servant of the Holy See.
You had a profound veneration for the Holy Father,
resting on the Chair of Peter
the very foundation of all your hopes.
Filled with faith and love for the Church,
you became the father of a great missionary family,
sending your sons and daughters to far-off lands
in response to the urgent needs of the time.
Please pray for me,
that always professing the faith of the apostles
and remaining attached to the Successor of Peter,
I might answer the summons to serve the people of God
with generosity and love.
Amen.
Father Moreau,
you abandoned yourself entirely to God
with faith in his love and grace.
You served as the instrument of Providence,
overcoming many obstacles
to begin holy works of education and evangelization.
When the designs of God indicated the foreign missions
as one of the fields destined
for your religious family of Holy Cross,
you heeded the call in a spirit of trust and confidence.
Please pray for me,
that I might discern the action of God in my life,
that I might cooperate with his holy will,
and that I might respond humbly
and wholeheartedly to his call,
knowing, as you did, that Providence will never fail me.
Amen.
Father Moreau,
your life of ministry was devoted
to the education of youth.
You understood Christian education
to be a “work of resurrection”
and one that would prepare the world
for better times than our own.
You had a tender love
for the children entrusted to your care,
seeing in them hearts to form and souls to save.
You handed on the gift of Christian truth,
teaching young people how to love and serve the Lord.
Please pray for all involved
in the work of Catholic education.
May parents, teachers, and administrators,
animated by the spirit of the Gospel,
be effective guides for the young,
teaching by the example of their lives.
May students grow in knowledge and virtue,
so that with hearts and minds formed in the truth,
they might serve God faithfully in this life,
and so come to dwell with him forever in the next.
Amen.
Father Moreau,
in your desire to be perfectly united to Christ,
you professed vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience.
With zeal for the kingdom of God,
you consecrated yourself to a life of prayer and service.
You invited men and women to join you
in answering the call of the Lord.
To them you were a loving father, teacher, and friend.
You gave them a Rule and Constitutions to sustain them
and encouraged them to live as one.
You persevered in establishing foundations
that would extend the reign of Jesus Christ on earth.
You gave your congregation the name Holy Cross.
You placed it under the protection of Our Lady,
you invoked Saint Joseph as model of the religious spirit,
and you adored the heart of Jesus
as the source and bond of love.
May the religious family of Holy Cross
find inspiration in your example
and strength in your loving intercession.
May it be blessed with brothers, priests, and sisters
who desire to follow in the footsteps of Christ
and so offer their life and their life’s work
in the service of the Lord
for the needs of the Church and the world.
Amen.
Father Moreau,
you made yourself poor for Jesus Christ,
detaching yourself from all passing things,
so that the Lord alone would be your treasure.
You preached the Gospel to the poor,
distributed bread to the hungry,
cared for the sick,
and were generous to laborers.
You educated the children of the poor,
and believed in showing particular care and concern
to those whose needs were greater.
Please pray for me,
that I might embrace simplicity of life,
that I might see the image of God in all people,
and that, with charity enshrined in my heart,
I might generously respond,
to the needs of the poor and the afflicted.
Amen.
Father Moreau,
in imitation of Christ,
you joyfully preached the word of God
and desired to live in perfect conformity
to the will of the Father.
Compassionate and sympathetic,
your heart of charity
burned with the desire to help people.
Near the end of your life,
you drank the chalice of the Lord’s passion.
Humiliated, disdained, and abandoned,
the trials you endured made you more like our Lord.
Please pray for me,
that through the work of grace and the Holy Spirit,
the life of Christ might be made manifest
in all my thoughts, words, and deeds,
and that, forgetting self,
I might live solely for God.
Amen.
Father Moreau,
the cross was ever-present
in your life of Christian discipleship.
You endured the cross of criticism, contempt, and humiliation,
as well as the physical suffering that comes with age.
As one extremely and extraordinarily tested,
you undertook and suffered everything
for the glory of God and the sanctification of souls.
You assembled a religious family
under the sacred sign of the cross.
You sent missionaries
o plant the tree of the cross in faraway lands,
trusting that it would bear life-giving fruit.
You preached the cross of Christ as our only hope,
and you embraced the sufferings of each hour
as relics of the true cross
to be loved and venerated.
Please pray for me in the midst of my trials,
that I might profit from the grace offered through them,
and that I might respond to difficulties as you did:
placing my hope in the cross of Christ, our Savior,
who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen
Father Moreau,
the call of silence
persisted throughout your life of work and ministry.
You believed that the interior life and solitude
were the greatest of teachers,
and so you consecrated yourself
to a spirit of prayer and recollection.
You knew that without prayer,
your work would be fruitless.
You also relied upon the help of the Saints,
especially Mary and Joseph.
By your intercession,
help me to cultivate a spirit of prayer,
so that setting myself
to the practice of the presence of God,
my soul might be at peace,
my spirit might be attentive to the promptings of grace,
and my efforts for the sake of the Gospel
might bear abundant fruit.
Amen.
Father Moreau,
your lively faith united you to Christ
and inspired your efforts for the sanctification of souls.
Even in the midst of painful trials,
you never lost hope in Providence,
which directs all things with strength and gentleness.
You considered humility to be the foundation of charity,
and charity always swayed your heart.
You were tenacious in the defense of truth and right,
and you took up the cause of those
who were forgotten and neglected.
The example of your life of virtue
made you a model for your religious
and gave glory to God.
Please pray for me,
that I might always have faith in the Son of God
who loved me and who gave himself up for me.
May my heart burn with charity toward my neighbor,
may I oppose injustice in every form,
and may I walk in the way of him
who was meek and humble of heart.
Amen.
Blessed Basil Moreau,
as a priest after the heart of Christ,
you worked tirelessly for the glory of God
and the sanctification of souls.
As a teacher of the faith
and zealous preacher of the Gospel,
you devoted yourself to the apostolate
of education and evangelization
to make God known, loved, and served.
As an instrument of divine providence,
you formed brothers, priests, and sisters
to share in your mission.
Your hunger for souls
led you to undertake great works for God,
even in faraway lands.
As a man of prayer,
you desired to be conformed to Christ in all things,
seeing, even in the cross of suffering, a cause for hope.
O Basil Moreau,
please pray for the accomplishment
of God’s designs in me.
Fulfilling the call of my baptism,
may I serve the Lord faithfully in this life,
and so come to dwell with him
in the company of the Saints.
Amen.
RESOURCES FOR THE MEMORIAL OF BLESSED BASIL MOREAU (January 20)