# A Wing in Reserve
*2022-10-14*

> Bill shares a beautiful prayer called “Give Me, Lord, a Wing in Reserve” for his homebound friend John, and then leads the Day 2 novena to St. Maximilian Kolbe, ending with the Hail Mary and a doxology.

## A Prayer for a Guardian Angel

Hi, this is Bill Young, and welcome to the 96th episode of Prayer and Lunch. Before we begin the Day 2 novena to St. Maximilian Kolbe, I want to share a prayer my friend John found for me. John is homebound, and I have been bringing him communion for the past six months. He calls me his guardian angel, but truly he is my guardian angel. The prayer is called “Give Me, Lord, a Wing in Reserve.”

Lord, you gave me the gift of life. I have read that angels with only one wing can fly only when they are in the arms of another. In moments of trust I dare to think that even you have only one wing, the other hidden, so that I may understand you do not want me to fly alone. For this reason you gave me life so that I could be your companion in flight. Teach me to fly with you, for living is not merely dragging through life but soaring like seagulls on the breeze, spreading the one wing we have in partnership with you.

I ask your forgiveness for every sin against life, especially for those lives ended before birth—broken wings, flights that were planned but impeded, dreams cut down at dawn. I also repent for the times I failed to encourage a fellow traveler, leaving a brother alone with a hanging wing, and for the indifference that kept a soul from reaching heaven.

Abortion, I pray, is a grave injury to your generosity, a sinking of dawn into the depths of the ocean, the most cruel crime. Yet I also ask you to help me understand that giving birth is not the only way to give life; it is necessary to protect and nurture every human being. Any refusal to provide basic human rights—food, shelter, work, education—is likewise an anti‑Christian act. War, every war, is un‑Christian. It is un‑Christian to pass by a neighbor in need, to leave them caught in a net of misery and solitude, convinced they are no longer worthy of flying with you.

Give me an extra wing, Lord, especially for that unfortunate neighbor. Amen.

## Novena to St. Maximilian Kolbe – Day 2

Now we pray the Day 2 novena to St. Maximilian Kolbe.

O Lord Jesus Christ, who said, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends,” through the intercession of St. Maximilian Kolbe, who exemplified that love, we beseech you to grant our petitions. My petition is for John—his health and his soul.

Through the Immaculate Movement that Maximilian founded, devotion to Our Lady spread throughout the world. He gave his life for a total stranger and loved his persecutors, offering us a model of self‑sacrificial love that inspires true devotion to Mary. Grant us, Lord Jesus, that we too may give ourselves entirely, without reserve, to love and to the service of our heavenly Queen, so that we may better love and serve our neighbors in the imitation of your humble servant Maximilian. Amen.

## Traditional Prayers

Let us pray the Hail Mary three times:

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

*May we each receive an extra wing of grace to lift up those in need and to fly together with Christ.*