advocates of the distressed. Obtain for me strength and courage to
struggle and suffer on earth for the glory of God, for the propagation
of our holy faith, and for my own perfection. You are fruitful branches
of the true and living vine, Jesus Christ, for whom you heroically
suffered hunger and thirst, persecution and ignominy, afflictions and
adversity, tortures and death. Here on earth you were true disciples and
dauntless martyrs of Christ. Assist me to follow your example and to
suffer for His sake, so that I may not be parted from Him as a useless
member, but persevere in His service despite all trials and tribulations
of life. Knowing my inconstancy and weakness, I have recourse to you, O
glorious members of the Church triumphant, and implore you to support my
feeble prayers, and to bear them before the throne of the Almighty, who,
for your sake, will hear them. Amen.

3. Great friends and servants of God, Holy Helpers! Humbly saluting and
venerating you, I implore your help and intercession. God has promised
and granted that whosoever invokes your aid shall be relieved in his
needs and succored at the hour of death. Therefore I have recourse to
you and confidently implore your aid. I am surrounded by difficulties
and my soul is oppressed with grief. Burdened with sins, the fear of
God's rigorous judgment appalls me, whilst Satan ceases not to exert all
his power to accomplish my eternal ruin.

Therefore I implore your assistance, powerful Holy Helpers, in my dire
distress. By the penitential life you led, by the cruel tortures you
suffered, and by your holy death I entreat you to pray for me. Obtain
for me the remission of my sins and perseverance to the end in God's
grace. Assist me in my agony and protect me against the wily assaults of
Satan, that through your help I may die a happy death and enter a
blissful eternity. Amen.

II. Prayer in Illness

COMPASSIONATE Holy Helpers, who restored health to so many through the
power of the name of Jesus; behold me suffering from bodily illness and
from wounds of the soul. Implore the kind, merciful Good Samaritan, your
and my Lord Jesus Christ, to heal the wounds of my soul by washing them
in His most precious blood, and to quicken my spirit by His sanctifying
grace. If it, then, be God's holy will and for the welfare of my soul,
let me experience the powerful effect of your intercession, that,
restored to health, I may serve God with greater fervor, and promot