First you pray....

and then you prepare. Two days until hurricane season. Bishop Robert Muench led those gathered today at St. Joseph Cathedral downtown to pray for safety this hurricane season.


PRAYER FOR SAFETY IN HURRICANE SEASON

O God, Master of this passing world,
hear the humble voices of your children.
The Sea of Galilee obeyed Your order
and returned to its former quietude.
You are still the Master of the land and sea.
We live in the shadow of a danger
over which we have no control:
the Gulf, like a provoked and angry giant,
can awake from its seeming lethargy,
overstep its conventional boundaries,
invade our land, and spread chaos and disaster.

During this hurricane season we turn to You,
O loving Father.
Spare us from past tragedies
whose memories are still so vivid
and whose wounds seem to refuse to heal
with passing time.

O Virgin, Star of the Sea, Our beloved Mother,
we ask you to plead with your Son on our behalf,
so that spared from calamities common to this area
and animated with a true spirit of gratitude,
we walk in the footsteps of your Divine Son
to reach the heavenly Jerusalem
where a stormless eternity awaits us. Amen.



Most Rev. Maurice Schexnayder (1895-1981)
Second Bishop of Lafayette