SEPTEMBER 26 SAINTS COSMA AND DAMIANO. Prayer to be recited today

O glorious Saints Medici, Cosma and Damiano, who made your art an instrument of charity and a means of apostolate, and testified with blood the faith you had in Christ, we resort to your powerful intercession with confidence. Get us from the Lord firm and active faith, ardent charity, zeal for the glory of God and for the good of our brothers. Illuminate the mind and direct the hand of those who care for our soul and body. Obtain for us again that - after a life lived in a Christian way - we can achieve the gift of final perseverance, which unites us to you and to all the Blessed in the eternal vision of God. So be it.

To all of you Holy Martyrs of Paradise, and in particular to you Holy Doctors Cosmas and Damian, turn your gaze on us pitifully, still wandering in this valley of pain and misery. You now enjoy the glory you have earned by sowing good works in this land of exile. God is now the reward of your labors, the beginning, the object and the end of your glory. O. Blessed souls, o Martyrs of the Church or powerful thaumaturges Cosma and Damiano, intercede for us! Get all of us to follow faithfully in your footsteps, to follow your examples of zeal and ardent love for Jesus and souls, to copy your virtues in us, so that we may one day share in immortal glory. So be it.