JANESVILLE — Starting Wednesday, March 30, and running through Friday, April 1, St. John Vianney Parish in Janesville is hosting the St. John Pray-A-Thon.
The event, designed to draw attention to the importance of prayer, has two key parts: Inviting people to pray in the church, and gathering intentions to be prayed for during the prayer marathon.
The first part of the St. John Pray-A-Thon answers the call to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thes 5:17) by having people pray nonstop in the church for three days in remembrance of Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection.
Parishioners from St. John Vianney have signed up for specific prayer hours to ensure that someone is present and praying at all times, but the goal is to have as many people in the church as possible, and all are invited to stop in frequently during the three days.
The second part of the event is an effort to gather people’s personal intentions and to pray for them during the Pray-A-Thon.
In addition to a prayer collection box in the church, the event organizers also created an online prayer request form at sjv.org/prayer so that people could ask for a prayer any time and from anywhere in the world.
LED candles will be placed in the church to represent the prayers received and the hope is that, at the end of the three days, thousands of lights will fill the church as a visible representation of how prayers bring the light of Christ to the world.
“Our world needs more prayer,” said Fr. Paul Ugo
Arinze, pastor of St. John Vianney Parish. “The St. John Pray-A-Thon responds to the Lenten call to deeper prayer, to Bishop Hying’s invitation to daily prayer through Go Make Disciples, and especially to our world’s urgent need for prayer and peace.”
St. John Vianney Church is located at 1250 East Racine St. in Janesville.
All are invited to pray in the church during the Pray-A-Thon and prayer requests can be submitted at sjv.org/prayer
Requests will not be made public and there is no limit to the number of intentions you can submit.
Anyone with questions can email Kris Kranenburg at [email protected] or call 608-755-1476.