Here are some prayers for your finals starting on next week. St. Thomas Aquinas is the patron of students, so it is a common practice to ask for his intercession and use prayers that he wrote.
PRAYER OF ST. THOMAS
Ineffable Creator, Who out of the treasures of Thy wisdom has appointed three hierarchies of Angels and set them in admirable order high above the heavens and hast disposed the divers portions of the universe in such marvellous array, Thou Who art called the True Source of Light and supereminent Principle of Wisdom, be pleased to cast a beam of Thy radiance upon the darkness of my mind and dispel from me the double darkness of sin and ignorance in which I have been born.
Thou Who makest eloquent the tongues of little children, fashion my words and pour upon my lips the grace of Thy benediction. Grant me penetration to understand, capacity to retain, method and facility in study, subtlety in interpretation and abundant grace of expression.
Order the beginning, direct the progress and perfect the achievement of my work, Thou Who art true God and true Man and livest and reignest for ever and ever. Amen.
Another from St. Thomas Aquinas – patron of students. We used this one in Grad. school frequently.
Grant, O merciful God, that I may
ardently desire,
prudently examine,
truthfully acknowledge,
and perfectly accomplish
what is pleasing to You,
for the praise and glory of Your Name. Amen.
A good prayer to use before studying.
A Prayer before studying for exams.“God of Wisdom, I thank you for the knowledge gained and the learning experiences of the semester. I come to you this day and ask you to illuminate my mind and heart. Let your Spirit be with me as I prepare for exams, guiding my studies, and giving me insight so that I can perform to the best of my ability. Please grant me the strength to handle the pressure during these final days of the semester, the confidence to feel secure in my knowledge, and the ability to keep an appropriate perspective through it all. Help me to keep in mind what is truly important, even as I focus my time and energy on these tests in the immediate future. Finally, may I sense your peace in knowing that I applied myself to the challenges of this day.”
-Amen-
Under thy patronage, dear Mother, and calling on the mystery of thine Immaculate Conception, I desire to pursue my studies and my literary labors: I hereby solemnly declare that I am giving myself to these studies chiefly to the following end: that I may the better contribute to the glory of God and to the promotion of thy veneration among men. I pray thee, therefore, most loving Mother, who art the Seat of Wisdom, to bless my labors in thy loving-kindness. Moreover I promise with true affection and a willing spirit, as it is right that I should do, to ascribe all the good that shall come to me therefrom, wholly to thine intercession for me in God’s holy presence. Amen.
Incomprehensible Creator, the true Fountain of light and only Author of all knowledge: deign, we beseech Thee, to enlighten our understanding, and to remove from us all darkness of sin and ignorance. Thou, who makest eloquent the tongues of those who lack utterance, direct our tongues, and pour on our lips the grace of thy blessing. Give us a diligent and obedient spirit, quickness of apprehension, capacity of retaining, and the powerful assistance of Thy holy grace; that what we hear or learn we may apply to Thy honor and the eternal salvation of our own souls. Amen.
Lastly, a prayer recommended last time I posted prayers for finals:
Prayer Before Exams to St. Joseph of Cupertino
O Great St. Joseph of Cupertino who while on earth did obtain from God the grace to be asked at your examination only the questions you knew, obtain for me a like favour in the examinations for which I am now preparing. In return I promise to make you known and cause you to be invoked.
Through Christ our Lord.
St. Joseph of Cupertino, Pray for us.
Amen.Another Prayer Before Exams to St. Joseph of Cupertino
O St. Joseph of Cupertino who by your prayer obtained from God to be asked at your examination, the only preposition you knew. Grant that I may like you succeed in the (here mention the name of Examination) examination.
In return I promise to make you known and cause you to be invoked.
O St. Joseph of Cupertino pray for me
O Holy Ghost enlighten me
Our Lady of Good Studies pray for me
Sacred Head of Jesus, Seat of divine wisdom, enlighten me.
Amen.
St. Thomas Aquinas pray for all students.
Marcel is a husband and father of five, serves on the pastoral council at St. Mary’s and is the founder and Executive Director of Catholic Missionary Disciples.
www.aggiecatholicblog.org
This poem, Prayer Before Birth, written during the terror struck days of World War II, places the realities of an evil world into the mouth of a baby not even quite born. This baby cries out for protection against evil. The tactic of speaking through a baby allows the readers to see the juxtaposition of evil and innocence. The newborn baby is quite innocent, as he has not even taken his first breath in the world. However, his knowledge of all things evil allows the reader to understand the true gravity of the evils of the world. It makes one feel sympathy toward this new baby, and all that he would experience during life. It makes the reader want to protect his innocence, and the innocence of the children in his or her own life. Prayer Before Birth calls out to God as the only one who can protect against the evil of the world. The author makes his own thoughts very clear by presenting them through the mouth of a baby.
Stanza 1
The title of this poem, ‘Prayer Before Birth’, puts allows the reader to imagine a woman close to birth and might assume that this is her prayer. With the first line of this poem, which you can read here, however, the speaker reveals that Prayer Before Birth is to be from the point of view of a newborn baby. This child’s first prayer upon entering the world is one which calls for protections. The newborn asks for protection from the evils in the spiritual realm. The “club-footed ghoul” is clearly a mystical, if evil, being, whereas the “rat” and the “bat” could represent diseases brought by those two creatures which are often associated with disease. With the opening stanza, the newborn asks God to protect him from evil spirits and from disease.
Stanza 2
In this stanza, the newborn adds to his request for protection. The speaker reveals here, that the newborn not only requests protection from evil spirits and disease, but also asks for protection against the human race. He asks to be guarded from addiction and from war. The speaker of Prayer Before Birth is clearly a grown person who has experienced these deadly evils, but has chosen to write from the point of view of his newborn self. The effect of the voice of a newborn baby is that it places knowledge of worldly evils into the mouth of an innocent baby. This allows the reader to experience the magnitude of worldly evils.
Stanza 3
With this stanza, the child asks for provisions. This reveals that the author has knowledge of poverty as one of the many worldly evils for which he asks for protection against. He asks God to grant him the ability to enjoy the sky, the birds, the grass, and the water. He also asks for wisdom. This is what he means when he asks God for “a white light in the back of my mind to guide me”.
Stanza 4
The author clearly has a dismal view of humanity, as this newborn baby asks for forgiveness already, for those sins which he would commit. The author knows that no human being has the power to avoid all sin, and therefore he uses the voice of the newborn to ask for forgiveness of the sins which he would be sure to commit. He asks for forgiveness for his words, his thoughts, his treason, and even for murder. The author seems to assume that this newborn will inevitably commit all of these crimes. Thus, he asks for forgiveness.
Stanza 5
In this stanza, the speaker asks for guidance from God. He knows there will be plenty of people in his life who will fill his mind with ideas and opinions, but he asks God that He would guide him with His own wisdom, to get him through life. Though “old men” would try to instruct him, he desires to know the instruction of God Himself. Though he might face opposition to nature at time, he asks God to help him know what to do when the “mountains frown at him”. He asks God for strength to endure life even when “lovers laugh at” him and when “the beggar refuses gift. He even asks God to guide him when he comes to the day when his own children would curse him. The author is clearly aware of all the hardships this newborn child would face. Therefore, he gives the child a voice which calls out to God in pleas for guidance and protection.
Stanza 6
With this stanza, the author reveals his knowledge of human kind. His speaker, the newborn, asks that God would keep him far away from any human being who would give way to instinct so much as to resemble a beast. He would not surround himself with those who cannot keep themselves under control. He also asks that he would be kept far away from any man “who thinks he is God”. These two different types of human beings represent two totally opposite ends of the spectrum of humanity. While some give way to every temptation and live like “beasts”, others would view themselves as God himself. This speaker wants nothing to do with either type of human being.
Stanza 7
In this stanza, the speaker calls out to God for protection against what the world would want to do to him. He does not want God to allow the people of the world to “freeze humanity”. He does not want to become “a cog in a machine”. With this stanza, the author reveals what he thinks about war. When the baby asks God not to let him because “a thing with one face, a thing…against all those who would dissipate my entirety”, it is clear that the author feels hatred toward war. He knows that the other side wants to “dissipate” him, but he still does not want to become the face at the other end. He does not want to become a “lethal automaton”, trained to kill. He wants freedom from this kind of lifestyle.
Stanza 8
In this final stanza, the speaker asks for protection against being killed. He does not want the enemy to have his life in any way. Throughout Prayer Before Birth, the speaker has asked for protection against every kind of evil. He longed to be kept pure from the evil so prevalent in the world. Finally, at the end of Prayer Before Birth, he asks God for his very life. It is rather ironic to imagine a newborn pleading with God for his life, when he has only just been born. It is evident that the author uses a newborn baby as his speaker to cause the readers to realize the fragility of life. This newborn baby has not experienced anything yet, and is in a state of innocence. Yet, the author makes the baby speak as though he were aware already of all of the evil in the world. Thus, he asks God to protect him from evil beings and evil men. Likewise, he asks God to keep him from becoming an evil man himself. The effect of these pleas is that the readers can imagine the innocent little creature entering this world already doomed to face all the evil that runs rampant on earth. Thus, the newborn, before he is even born, pleads with God for his own protection from all such evil.
Louis Macneice, born in Belfast Ireland, lived from 1907 until 1963. Therefore, he would have experienced World War I in his very early years, and World War II in his later years. This particular poem was written during the second world war. It is easy to see the author’s point of view in this poem. He writes from his own perspective, as a newborn baby. Of course, it quickly becomes clear that the baby has a knowledge of one who has already lived. Therefore, Prayer Before Birth reads as a prayer that an old man wished he could have prayed as a newborn, before the world got a hold of him with all of the evil therein. Of course the readers, being fully aware that no such prayer can come from an infant, realize that the author himself if speaking his own thoughts through the infant child. Therefore, the author’s beliefs about evil, war, and the world are revealed.
poemanalysis.com
2018 | R | Action Biography | 1hr, 56m
The true story of Billy Moore, a young English boxer incarcerated in two of Thailand’s most notorious prisons. He is quickly thrown into a terrifying world of drugs and gang violence, but when the p… full plot below
U.S. Release Date
A Prayer Before Dawn release date was
Friday, August 10, 2018 .
This was a Limited in theaters release.
Released; Now Playing Showtimes Buy Tickets
Cast Directed by
Jean-Stephane Sauvaire
Screenwriter
—
Companies Rating MPAAR
for strong violence including a brutal rape sequence, drug use and language throughout, some sexual content and nudity
Storyline
The true story of Billy Moore, a young English boxer incarcerated in two of Thailand’s most notorious prisons. He is quickly thrown into a terrifying world of drugs and gang violence, but when the prison authorities allow him to take part in the Muay Thai boxing tournaments, he realizes this might be his chance to get out. Billy embarks on a relentless, action-packed journey from one savage fight to the next, stopping at nothing to do whatever he must to preserve his life and regain his freedom.
official plot version from a24films.com
Trivia & Production Notes
- Shot in a an actual Thai prison with a cast of primarily real inmates.
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