Marie Noël's Blog: Behind the Book

No matter what situation you’re in, there is always something you can do: pray. Prayer brings change. Everyone needs help at various times in life. We don’t have to be swept away by events or circumstances beyond our control.

We can always pray to make a difference for ourselves. God is there to lend a helping hand, especially when we ask. These prayers span the length of Christianity. Some are very ancient, while others are from the 1700 and 1800s. All are unique and rare.

They offer help in:
- Obtaining enlightenment, protection, and material assistance,
- Correcting a personal problem,
- Seeking a cure,
- Assisting family and friends, and
- Asking for the intervention of the Saints and Angels, especially to resolve particular problems.

Also included is wisdom from Saints with their advice about how to handle various situations. Featuring beautiful imagery from master painters. Within the 330+ prayers in this book, you will find help for yourself or someone you know.

This collection of Catholic “Prayers to the Holy Angels” focuses on seeking the intercession of the angels.

It contains prayers to our Guardian Angels, the Nine Choirs of Angels, the Archangels 
(St. Michael, St. Gabriel and St. Raphael) and more.

Included also are prayers which an angel taught to the children at Fatima.

Also featured are prayers to God and the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of the Angels, which invoke the holy angels.

Many of the images I’ve selected for this book involve the holy angels interacting with people, such as in visions and apparitions to the saints. My purpose is to offer examples angels as distinct and real beings which have appeared to people.

There is a popular belief which holds that when people die, they become angels in Heaven. However the Catholic Catechism states that angels are spiritual beings which are entirely different from human beings. Although humans have immortal spiritual souls, which are glorified in Heaven, human souls are unique and do not alter their special nature to become something else.

I hope you find the prayers in this collection helpful in your spiritual journey.

Available in paperback & Ebook, this is the 2nd collection in a series of prayers to holy Catholic kings and queens, following: “Catholic Prayers to the King & Queen of Heaven with Prayers for the Kings & Queens on Earth.”

Most prayers are translated from other languages. Many date back to the Middle Ages and include saints popular during that time.

This collection primarily focuses on Germanic saints. I found many interesting Germanic saint kings & queens:

* An entire family (king grandfather St. Sigebert & his son king St. Dagobert (murdered in a forest) with 2 princess daughters, who became saints.

* St. Radegund, a German princess kidnapped at age 11 by a king & made Queen of France.

* King St. Sigismund, tricked by his 2nd wife into killing his son. Full of remorse he became a monk & was drowned in a well.

Additionally included are sections of prayers for the peoples of the countries represented (Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Luxembourg.)

This book features rare prayers to these saints, including a Litany to Military Saints. Also, I would like to specially acknowledge the Papal Swiss Guards for providing me with a prayer.

The creation of this book involved much research in as it was necessary to find these saints, verify that they were indeed saints recognized by the Catholic Church, search for Catholic prayers to/about them, and, finally, locate images. Another challenge included how to group them since the borders of European countries changed throughout history. Some countries where these saints once ruled no longer exist today. Also, some saints were born in faraway nations but became patrons of Germanic lands.

I enjoyed creating this collection. I traveled back and forth in time to distant lands while learning about heroic virtue. Both the cultures and saints of these nations are truly inspiring.

I hope readers enjoy this book. Reviews are always appreciated!

This prayer collection features prayers mainly from the 1400s - 1600s.

It began after I found an old Catholic Litany to Christian Kings. I knew about saints, but couldn't recall any of those mentioned in the litany.

I started my research & found queens who were saints.

I then found many old prayers in various languages for kings & queens since people in the past depended on rulers so much for their well being.

There were too many saintly monarchs to put in an ebook with images so this ebook to Jesus & Mary is the 1st in a series.

Also included are prayers people can say for today's kings, queens, and royal families.

The others will be grouped according to country with info about those saintly kings/queens & prayers to them.

While I'm mainly creating prayer collections as ebooks, they are also available from Amazon in paperback.

Other books will follow in this series called "Catholic Prayers to Saintly Kings & Queens".

Because prayers of thanksgiving are one of the 4 main types of prayer (along with adoration, petition, and contrition), I wanted to create a prayer collection of this kind.

I have always tried to have "an attitude of gratitude" in my journey in faith -- in part due to parable about the 10 lepers who were healed and only 1 who returned to give thanks to Jesus.

It was surprisingly difficult to find prayers of thanks — the least represented of any type of prayer.

This surprised me in my research of historic Catholic prayers.

I also found it interesting to learn what people were grateful to God for over 100 years ago -- a successful event, a birthday, becoming a mother, their patron saint, their guardian angel, even waking up in the morning after a night's sleep.

All of this underscored my belief in the importance of being grateful for God's gifts in what we have -- as well as what we too often ake for granted today.

In researching Catholic prayer books, I had come upon a "Litany for Christmas" which I'd never seen before. I also found beautiful prayers for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and more...

As Christmas approached, I began thinking about how much Jesus is missing from Christmas. I’ve noticed in a personal way since my name is Noël as well as from my point of view as a Catholic.

Since my youth, I’ve always looked forward to this one time in the year when I could find a coffee mug, an ornament, a Christmas card or other small token with my name on it.

It’s been getting harder and harder every year until it’s now practically impossible to find anything at all. Santas, snowmen, snowflakes, and reindeer abound as the commonplace symbols for Christmas rather than Christ. Most of us know about the ample efforts to remove the Christian significance of Christmas in our society.

Yet, Christmas began with Christ. He is the reason for it.

So, a few weeks before Christmas, I cleared my desk, cranked up iTunes, drank lots of coffee, and got to work.

Now it's done!

I hope you enjoy this collection. I am currently working on another one.