Saint Luigi Gonzaga, courageous servant,

we ask for your inspiration and intercession 

as we offer this prayer. Just as you responded 

to God’s invitation from a tender age, 

we pray for the grace to be spiritually awake, 

and to see that Spirit alive in one another, 

especially in the least privileged and 

least expected.

Just as you observed violence and brutality 

but still imagined a different future for yourself 

and for others, we pray for the freedom and the blessed foolishness to pursue God’s dreams 

for a more just and humane world.

Just as you gave up your rights of inheritance 

to pursue your vocation, we pray for the strength 

and clarity to follow where God leads us, 

even and especially when that path is 

countercultural, threatening, lonely, 

and uncertain.