For the last 14 years of her life I had the very precious gift of having my dear Mom living in an apartment just 20 miles from my Ave Maria Place in Wauregan, Connecticut. It was so fantastic getting to stop in and visit her when I was "home" between missions. Many, many, many of those visits I would find Mom sitting in her glider rocker in front of her living room window! She spent many a happy hour in that glider rocker and always in her lap, or very close by, was her "prayer basket." It was a small straw basket, probably six or eight inches across the bottom and four or five inches deep. Standing up in that basket were all of her much beloved prayer leaflets! How well I remember once as we sat and gabbed, I was telling her about Sr. Faustina's "Chaplet of Divine Mercy." She quickly reached for her prayer basket, moved her fingers through the dozens of prayer leaflets, and came up with a very dog-eared leaflet of the chaplet! She had prayed it for years and years! One day she went through the whole prayer basket sharing her favorite prayer leaflets with me… How privileged I was!

     It is said that the acorn never falls far from the tree! It's now ten years since Momma Martin died and I must confess that I haven't thought of her "prayer basket" in a long time! With my blindness I couldn't use Mom's prayer leaflets and I'm not sure whatever happened to them when she died… With my talking computer, however, I've developed my own "glider rocker" morning and night prayers. As I've found a prayer that's touched my spirit I've saved it in my "Morning Prayer" or my "Night Prayer" file, depending where it seemed to fit best! With the help of my computer's speech, then, I've been praying these prayers daily for some time now. One morning just this past week it hit me… I NOW HAVE MY OWN "PRAYER BASKET!" The acorn truly does not fall far from the tree!

     Mom shared her "Prayer Basket" with me one day. I'd like to share my "Prayer Basket" with you… Just click on the buttons below. There's no rhyme or reason why some prayers are there in the collection and others are not… Some of these prayers, you'll see, are prayers from some of my favorite saints, and others are just prayers that the Good Lord has inspired me to pray! Feel free to print them, perhaps make your own "prayer basket," and, of course, pray them!