Prayer is not always high on the list of priorities for many young people today, but it should be — especially if they want God’s help in deciding the future direction of their lives.
Tag: prayers
Taking the pledge
MADISON — Eddie Cotter, executive director of the Dead Theologians Society (DTS) headquartered in the Diocese of Madison, took the pledge 26 years ago.
Cotter met members of the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association of the Sacred Heart (PTAA, also known as the Pioneers) while visiting Dublin, Ireland.
Taking the Pioneer pledge
“I didn’t have a history of drinking,” said Cotter, “but I thought it would be a good thing to take the Pioneer pledge.”
This meant that Cotter promised to abstain from all alcoholic drink, wear the Pioneer emblem featuring the Sacred Heart, and recite the Pioneer prayer twice daily.
Consecrated women bring the love and mercy of God
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Each February, the Church celebrates two events of special significance to Little Sisters of the Poor.
On February 5, the Church celebrates the World Day of Consecrated Life, a day important to all men and women religious. On February 11, the World Day of the Sick is observed.
Each of these special days offers an opportunity for us to affirm our vocation as consecrated women devoted to the Church’s mission of compassion through the ministry of healthcare.
Where are the vocations?
The shortage of priests and religious men and women in the Church, particularly in Europe and North America, is common these days. Many international congregations like my own, the Sisters of the Holy Cross, are still getting new members, but in countries other than the United States. Many consider it a crisis.
Too often when we speak of vocations we limit that term to mean the call to ordained ministry and the consecrated life. When we pray for vocations, we usually ask God to inspire young people to answer a call to be Sisters, Brothers, and priests. Once in a while we might include the call to lay ministry in the Church, but that is the exception.
God calls each of us
We do not have to look far to find vocations. The truth is that each baptized person has a vocation, not just religious and clergy. By our Baptism each of us is called to share the mission of Jesus. As disciples of Jesus, every Christian is called to reveal God’s unconditional love and to spread that love to others. The next time you are at a Baptism liturgy listen closely to the prayers.
Widows contribute much to the Church and family
Losing a beloved spouse to death is one of the most painful human experiences. I saw this pain in my mother, two sisters, and other married women when their spouses died. I have also listened to men, whose wives died, pour out their grief.
The word “widow” comes from a Sanskrit word meaning empty. When a woman loses the husband whom she loves, she often experiences pain, emptiness, and even temporary anger. So does a widower. A good marriage joins the couple as two in one flesh, physically, spiritually, and emotionally. To marry is to open oneself to love and joy, but also to pain.
Expressing gratitude for ordinary saints
November always brings several things to mind. It has traditionally been a time when we pray for those who have gone before us and give thanks for the ordinary saints, living and deceased, who have touched our lives. We also celebrate Thanksgiving, which is supposed to be the favorite holiday of most Americans.
Every time I go to a wake or funeral — and I have been to many lately — and hear the beautiful comments made about the persons who died, I cannot help but wonder how many of those things were said to that person when he or she was alive?
World Mission Sunday 2011: Celebrating, sharing faith joyfully in Kenya
The settings couldn’t be more different. One, Mukuru, a slum in the Kenyan capital city of Nairobi, home to some 10,000 living in wood and corrugated metal shacks, crowded together, with no running water, electricity, or sewage systems.
Fatima visionary predicted suffering of Holy Father
To the editor:
In 1917, Jacinta Marto, one of three seers of Fatima, saw in a vision “the Holy Father in a very big house, kneeling by a table, with his head buried in his hands, and he was weeping. Outside the house, there were many people. Some of them were throwing stones, others were cursinghim and using bad language.”
“Poor Holy Father” she said, “we must pray very much for him.”