Fifteen Prayers of St. Bridget

So my friend Marta had this idea of doing this novena for ONE YEAR.  Her sister is doing it and she said that if you do this novena for ONE YEAR, a lot of good things happen to you.  It came up because we were talking about dying suddenly.  I can't remember for sure but I think I was talking about Mike's friend Tim, who died suddenly, I mean, he basically went to bed one night and everything was normal and he never woke up.  His daughter is the same age as Maria and this was at Christmas right after Felicity was born, so they were not quite four years old, his daughter was not quite four when Tim died.  It was a very significant loss for Mike, as Tim was one of his best and oldest friends, so I think about him a lot but also because I am so scared of that, of dying suddenly or Mike dying suddenly.  Marta said well you should do this novena that my sister is doing because one of the things that it GUARANTEES is that you will not die suddenly.  And I was like, um, what in the who now?  Marta is from Italy and her sister lives there still and I have never really heard of such a thing.  Marta is also a better pray-er than I am, so I guess that's why I never heard of it.

So anyway, we started on September 1 and it's going okay.  I think when - oh, Marta and I are doing it together, with two other friends of hers.  Anyway, I think when we first started we thought maybe we would do the prayers together but we never have, life gets in the way, la la la.  But we do talk about it, in the beginning we would text each other when we were done and now we just talk about, like sometimes, well - ugh I am a terrible storyteller.  This is the prayer, the list of prayers, and you say an Our Father and a Hail Mary and then the 15 prayers and then the conclusion and so Marta and I talked about how sometimes we have to say the Our Fathers and Hail Marys all at once, all 15, because we know them by heart and then we do the read prayers when we have time to look at them  I am driving a lot too, so I sometimes do the memory prayers before I leave and the read prayers at red lights.  Basically we do whatever it takes because it's for ONE YEAR!

Anyway, a lot of the prayers have to do with the hour of our death.  Like, we pray about remembering the Passion of Jesus and then the prayer is like we know that you suffered and we pray that you won't forget us at the hour of our death, when we will surely be troubled.  Sometimes when I am feeling mean, and am run down, I add silently, "but maybe you could not forget me right now, when these kids are driving me bonkers".

Anyway, one of the things promised is that - I mean, you can pray for something in particular.  I always pray for my children but I pray the most for Anthony.  I don't think that makes him my favorite or anything but we say prayers with the girls every night, all three girls know the Sign of the Cross and Maria and Veronica are learning about prayer in school and I feel like Anthony needs me to pray more for him because I don't think he prays for himself.  So anyway, I pray for a miracle for him, I pray for his dog and the person who is going to train his dog, I pray for his respite care girl and her family, on and on, but in a sort of general way I just pray that his dreams come true.

And we have had no lightning bolts or anything but some good things have happened.  His respite care girl is just wonderful, she is great with him and with our girls and with us.  On Sunday at church, this woman that I know came over and said hi to me.  She has two sons and one has autism and we have talked over the last year or so, my friend Carlos introduced me to her.  Anyway, she said do you know that I see Anthony every Friday at his school? and of course then I remembered that she is an OT and  I was so happy to hear that she is in school with him.  She said I love his teacher so much, he is in really good hands and I feel like he's doing well there and it meant the world to me.  So maybe God sent her?  Because I am doing this prayer?  Ha I know it sounds crazy but I am taking it.