Almighty God, our Father, you who have given us life and intended us to have it forever, grant us your blessings. Enlighten our minds to an awareness and to a renewed conviction that all human life is sacred because it is created in your image and likeness. Help us to teach by word and the example of our lives that life occupies the first place, that human life is precious because it is the gift of God whose love is infinite. Give us the strength to defend human life against every influence or action that threatens or weakens it, as well as the strength to make every life more human in all its aspects.

Give us the grace…

When the sacredness of life before birth is attacked, to stand up and proclaim that no one ever has the authority to destroy unborn life. When a child is described as a burden or is looked upon only as a means to satisfy an emotional need, to stand up and insist that every child is a unique and unrepeatable gift of God, a gift of God with a right to a loving and united family.

Almighty Father, give us courage to proclaim the supreme dignity of all human life and to demand that society itself give its protection. We ask this in your name, through the redemptive act of your Son and in the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

By the generosity of the Vatican office of the Apostolic Penitentiary, faithful who visit the Portiuncula can receive plenary indulgences on any of five different occasions through the year: August 2, October 4, January 22, one day a year freely chosen by the individual faithful, and as often as in a group a pilgrimage is made to the Portiuncula Chapel. Plenary indulgences release the recipient from all temporal punishment due to sin, wiping out any time in purgatory incurred by past sins.

According to the decree, those who desire to gain the plenary indulgence should devoutly visit the Portiuncula Chapel, where they pray for the intentions of the Holy Father as well as the Our Father and the Creed. In addition, it is necessary that the Church’s ordinary conditions for receiving a plenary indulgence be met: Individuals must have the interior disposition of complete detachment from sin; have made a sacramental confession; and have received the Holy Eucharist. These must be completed within a week to 10 days before or after the visit to the Portiuncula.

My Lord Jesus Christ, who because of your love for men remain night and day in the Blessed Sacrament, full of pity and of love, awaiting, calling and welcoming all who come to visit you, I believe that you are present here on the altar. I adore you, and I thank you for all the graces you have bestowed on me, especially for having given me yourself in this sacrament, for having given me your most holy Mother Mary to plead for me, and for having called me to visit you in this church.

I now salute your most loving Heart, and that for three ends: first, in thanksgiving for this great gift; secondly, to make amends to you for all the outrages committed against you in this Sacrament by your enemies; thirdly, I intend by this visit to adore you in all the places on earth in which you are present in the Blessed Sacrament and in which you are least honored and most abandoned.

My Jesus, I love you with my whole heart. I am very sorry for having so many times offended your infinite goodness. With the help of your grace, I purpose never to offend you again. And now, unworthy though I am, I consecrate myself to you without reserve. I renounce and give entirely to you my will, my affection, my desires, and all that I possess. For the future, dispose of me and all I have as you please.

All I ask of you is your holy love, final perseverance and that I may carry out your will perfectly. I recommend to you the souls in Purgatory, especially those who had the greatest devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and to the Blessed Virgin Mary. I also recommend to you all poor sinners.

Finally, my dear Savior, I unite all my desires with the desires of your most loving Heart; and I offer them, thus united, to the Eternal Father, and beseech him, in your name and for love of you, to accept and grant them.

— St. Alphonsus Liguori

Most High, glorious God, enlighten the darkness of my heart, and give me right faith, certain hope, and perfect charity, wisdom and understanding, Lord, that I may carry out your holy and true command.

Amen.

Translation from Official Vatican Prayer

Oh, St. John Paul, from the window of heaven, grant us your blessing! Bless the Church that you loved and served and guided, courageously leading it along the paths of the world in order to bring Jesus to everyone and everyone to Jesus. Bless the young, who were your great passion. Help them dream again, help them look up high again to find the light that illuminates the paths of life here on earth.

May you bless families, bless each family! You warned of Satan’s assault against this precious and indispensable divine spark that God lit on earth. St. John Paul, with your prayer, may you protect the family and every life that blossoms from the family.

Pray for the whole world, which is still marked by tensions, wars, and injustice. You tackled war by invoking dialogue and planting the seeds of love: pray for us so that we may be tireless sowers of peace.

Oh St. John Paul, from heaven’s window, where we see you next to Mary, send God’s blessing down upon us all.

Amen.