For decades, at St Bonaventure Monastery in Detroit, Fr Solanus Casey opened the door to anyone who came: the sick, the unemployed, alcoholics, worried parents. He listened, prayed with them, and enrolled them in the Seraphic Mass Association. So many people reported healings that he kept notebooks of them. During the Depression he helped start the Capuchin Soup Kitchen, which still feeds Detroit today. He died in 1957 and was beatified in 2017 in front of more than sixty thousand people at Ford Field.
Historical Context
His favourite advice to troubled visitors was simple: “Thank God ahead of time.” Trust that God is already answering, and say thank you before you see it.
A Prayer to Blessed Solanus Casey
Blessed Solanus, you opened the door to everyone who knocked.
I’m knocking now with this need: (name your request).
Pray for me, and teach me to trust God as you did.
I thank God ahead of time for whatever he will do.
Help me serve others humbly in the place I’ve been given.
Amen.
For the Sick
Blessed Solanus, many were healed through your prayers.
Pray for (name), who is ill.
Amen.
Thank God Ahead of Time
Lord, I don’t know how this will turn out.
But I thank you now, ahead of time.
Amen.
Best Times for This Prayer
- On 30 July, his feast.
- When sick, or praying for someone who is.
- When feeling overlooked or underused.
Scripture Connection
“Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” — Philippians 4:6
Paul puts thanksgiving inside the request itself. That’s what Solanus meant by thanking God ahead of time.
Related prayers
For American saints, see the St John Neumann Prayer and March 3 Prayer (St Katharine Drexel). For Franciscans, the Franciscan Prayer.