A good prayer to use before studying.
A Prayer before studying for exams.“God of Wisdom, I thank you for the knowledge gained and the learning experiences of the semester. I come to you this day and ask you to illuminate my mind and heart. Let your Spirit be with me as I prepare for exams, guiding my studies, and giving me insight so that I can perform to the best of my ability. Please grant me the strength to handle the pressure during these final days of the semester, the confidence to feel secure in my knowledge, and the ability to keep an appropriate perspective through it all. Help me to keep in mind what is truly important, even as I focus my time and energy on these tests in the immediate future. Finally, may I sense your peace in knowing that I applied myself to the challenges of this day.”
-Amen-
**Here is a nine-day novena (in pdf format) for those who want to start today and end next Wed, the end of finals.
**Two Prayers to St. Joseph of Cupertino - another patron of students:
1 - O Great St. Joseph of Cupertino who while on earth did obtain from God the grace to be asked at your examination only the questions you knew, obtain for me a like favour in the examinations for which I am now preparing. In return I promise to make you known and cause you to be invoked.
Through Christ our Lord.
St. Joseph of Cupertino, Pray for us.
Amen.
--
2 - O St. Joseph of Cupertino who by your prayer obtained from God to be asked at your examination, the only preposition you knew. Grant that I may like you succeed in the (here mention the name of Examination) examination.
In return I promise to make you known and cause you to be invoked.
O St. Joseph of Cupertino pray for me
O Holy Ghost enlighten me
Our Lady of Good Studies pray for me
Sacred Head of Jesus, Seat of divine wisdom, enlighten me.
Amen.
**Finally, here are two prayers from Catholic.org:
Under thy patronage, dear Mother, and calling on the mystery of thine Immaculate Conception, I desire to pursue my studies and my literary labors: I hereby solemnly declare that I am giving myself to these studies chiefly to the following end: that I may the better contribute to the glory of God and to the promotion of thy veneration among men. I pray thee, therefore, most loving Mother, who art the Seat of Wisdom, to bless my labors in thy loving-kindness. Moreover I promise with true affection and a willing spirit, as it is right that I should do, to ascribe all the good that shall come to me therefrom, wholly to thine intercession for me in God's holy presence. Amen.
Prayer before Study or Instructions
Incomprehensible Creator, the true Fountain of light and only Author of all knowledge: deign, we beseech Thee, to enlighten our understanding, and to remove from us all darkness of sin and ignorance. Thou, who makest eloquent the tongues of those who lack utterance, direct our tongues, and pour on our lips the grace of thy blessing. Give us a diligent and obedient spirit, quickness of apprehension, capacity of retaining, and the powerful assistance of Thy holy grace; that what we hear or learn we may apply to Thy honor and the eternal salvation of our own souls. Amen.
St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Joseph of Cupertino pray for students.
Feast of the Immaculate Conception - 8th December
Today the 8th December we celebrate Our Lady's Immaculate Conception - that is, from the very first moment of Mary's creation as a little embryo She never had any trace of sin - this was a great gift from God! This was something many Catholics believed, but it wasn't until 1854 that the Pope declared this to be a 'dogma' - that is a truth of the faith.
Yet only 14 years previous to this Our Lady appeared to a French nun, Sr. Catherine Labore and revealed to her the design for a medal of the Immaculate Conception - better known as the MIRACULOUS MEDAL. Our Lady told Catherine that those who wear a blessed Miraculous Medal will receive great graces.
The short prayer associated with the medal is, "O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee."
