Aid to the Church in Need
MIRROR GIVE JOY, GIVE HOPE
Prayer Changes the World
PRAYER CHANGES THE WORLD
MIRROR GIVE JOY, GIVE HOPE
CONTENTS PAGE For the Sake of the Kingdom of Christ............... Johannes Heereman.........................1 Fight the Good Fight with Prayer.......................... Fr. Martin Barta..................................2 Sent from Heaven...................................................................................................................4 The Mystery and Power of Personal Prayer...... Dr. Jeff Mirus......................................6 Nothing is Wasted............................................................................................................... 10 The Most Important Task in Life............................ Pope Francis................................... 12 Turning a Curse into a Blessing....................................................................................... 14 Cloistered Nuns - Led by God’s Hand.......................................................................... 16 Spiritual Fitness.......................................................... Sister Ann Shields.......................... 18 Some Ideas for Family Prayer in your Home..... Dr. Michael Kinsella........................ 20 The Importance of Family Prayer.......................... Dr. Michael Kinsella........................ 22 What is the Essential Purpose of Prayer?.......... Br. Aurelius Moner.......................... 18 Miracles Happen........................................................ Dr. Michael Kinsella........................ 26
‘Miracles happen. But prayer is needed! Prayer that is courageous, struggling and persevering, not prayer that is a mere formality.’ POPE FRANCIS
Editor: Jürgen Liminski. Publisher: ACN International, Postfach 1209, 61452 Königstein, Germany. De licentia competentis auctoritatis ecclesiasticae. Printed in Ireland - ISSN 0252-2535. www.acn-intl.org
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FOR THE SAKE OF THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST Dear Friends,
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ur charity, ACN, is growing rapidly. In the last three years we have opened six new national offices. Partly perhaps because the needs are growing ever greater. ‘The time is out of joint’ – Hamlet’s words seems more and more apt today. But instead of responding with revenge and violence, we are striving to promote justice with love, to bring healing – thanks to your generosity. This generosity is evident not just in the increasing number of donations. Father Werenfried often used to say, when preaching with his famous ‘hat of millions’, that he would gladly renounce the entire collection if just one young man or woman in the congregation would respond by giving his or her life to God.
For God’s call to the consecrated life as a priest or religious, or as a consecrated virgin cannot be measured in terms of money, gold or earthly treasures. And Father Werenfried also knew that you, by your generosity, are supplying the conditions in which such vocations can be discerned and embraced. That is why every euro you give to ACN is far more than just a contribution to the ‘funding of a project’. Your donation is helping to put the times back ‘into joint’ again, for the sake of the Kingdom of Christ. That may sound like an exaggeration – but it is the truth.
Thank you!
Johannes Heereman, Executive President of ACN
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PRAYER CHANGES THE WORLD
FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT WITH PRAYER Dear Friends,
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nformation, prayer and action are the three pillars of ACN’s mission. Prayer is at the very heart of our mission, as prayer raises information to the level of proclamation and action to the level of the work of God.
Prayer can change the world. Prayer brings God back into all our actions – as he will not involve himself without our invitation.
is a Some of the earliest projects of our charity Prayer ACN, under its founder, Father Werenfried powerful force. van Straaten, were the ‘Fortresses for It can suspend the laws of nature and God’, monasteries and religious houses overcome every obstacle. For it is a built along the line of the old Iron Curtain, participation in the almighty power of God. whose task was to prepare and facilitate, When we involve through prayer, the work ourselves in the course of helping the Church ‘Only by winning the battle of events through in communist Eastern prayer we actually of prayer can we win all Europe. change the relation of the other battles too’ cause and effect in the The prayer battle must world. For when we precede every other battle for justice and peace. Only by intervene in prayer, God’s grace comes in winning the battle of prayer can we win to play, transforming the complex interplay all the other battles in the world, including of destructive forces. But God does not simply want us to beg him to intervene; those in our own personal lives. rather he wants to give us, through prayer, Often we hear it said: ‘All we can do now the dignity of sharing in his divine work. is pray.’ It is so true! Particularly when, instead of despairing at the situation in our lives and in the world, we summon the courage to pray. But this way of speaking does not do justice to God. For in reality prayer should be not the ‘ultima ratio’ – the last resort – but the ‘prima ratio’, the very first thing we do. 2
Prayer does not always come easily – in fact it can be very hard work. But the more we pray, the more we find joy in prayer. St Teresa of Avila teaches us that prayer can be ‘a simple uplifting of the soul to God, to frequent converse with Him, to an intimate friendship with the One who loves
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me infinitely’. Those who pray in this way will begin to change in their very being, and in all they do. I cannot pray sincerely for peace and yet do nothing to bring about peace. I cannot pray for the hungry or those who eke out their lives in misery and do nothing to help. ‘Would it not be folly’, wrote the founder of ACN, ‘to ask God for graces and yet be unwilling to cooperate with those graces?’ Dear friends, today, with your help, we are still helping to build many fortresses for God around the world, many strongholds of prayer. In the contemplative communities especially, the religious sisters and brothers raise up their hands tirelessly to heaven in prayer like Moses at Rephidim and fight the good fight in prayer for us. May we likewise make space for God in our lives – as he is waiting, 24 hours a day, to hear from us.
My grateful blessing on you all,
Father Martin M. Barta, ACN Ecclesiastical Assistant
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SENT FROM HEAVEN
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t is not simply a matter of ‘praying from time to time, when I feel like it. No, Jesus says that we ought “always to pray and not lose heart”.’ For the 21 Trappist nuns in the convent of Our Lady in Murhesa, Democratic Republic of the Congo these words of Pope Francis about praying at all times describe the programme of their daily lives. Prayer is the most important thing. Here, in the region of Bukavu, they have seen so much suffering, destitution, robbery and murder – indeed many people have experienced it firsthand. But they know, as Pope Benedict XVI says, that ‘Our prayers reach the heart of God. We may be sure that there is no such thing as superfluous, unnecessary
prayer; not one prayer is lost.’ That is why they never give up hope. And now that the fighting is dying down, they want to start anew and, as Sister Hortense writes, ‘take up our little industries again’. This means rabbit farming, candlemaking, beekeeping, knitting and soapmaking. They already have much of the equipment for these activities, but what they don’t have is storerooms and workshops. Doors and windows are expensive, so are the foundations and steel reinforcement which cost far more than they could ever afford. With our help the younger sisters will be able to set to work to support their community. But they also need medicines for the elderly sisters – not to mention educational resources for the younger ones. We are
An oasis of peace in times of war: the Trappist nuns and their novices in Our Lady’s convent, Murhesa, DR Congo.
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also helping with their general upkeep, and this aid is also ‘heaven sent’ according to Sister Hortense. They see it as an answer to their prayers. Though we might say that the sisters themselves are an answer to prayer, sent by Providence. The Poor Clares in Brestovsko, Bosnia Herzegovina make use of every available minute in order to support their community, what with digging, hoeing, planting, needlework and baking unleavened bread for the Mass. The sisters work very hard, help their many visitors – but above all they pray. For them the words of Pope Francis are a daily reality: ‘Faith is not a theory, not a philosophy, not simply an idea; it is an encounter. An encounter with Jesus.’ They seek to encounter the Lord every day despite the difficulties of their situation – in a country still suffering the consequences of war. This is why they have been unable to finish the second part of their convent. The basic structure is complete, but the rooms are empty and the bathrooms still unfinished. They need these rooms as there are many young women wanting to join the congregation. They could live with the simple, basic furnishings – a table, chair, cupboard, bed, crucifix – but not without heating. They plan to install a small solar heating system which will also help keep costs down in the future. ‘We humbly ask your help’, writes Sister Hijacinta. For to us too faith should be an encounter with Jesus and not a mere theory. •
Praying, sewing, ironing, planting, and praying again: the Poor Clares in Brestovsko have a full day. Light for the world: packing candles in the Trappist convent.
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THE MYSTERY AND POWER OF PERSONAL PRAYER Dr. Jeff Mirus 1
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here is certainly great power in public prayer, especially the Mass and the Sacraments, by which Christ makes His divine life available to us in a pre-eminent way. Christ also taught that wherever two or three are gathered together in His name, He will be in their midst (Mt 18:20). But the power of Christ’s presence, offered to us in all the various forms of public prayer, cannot be absorbed and released into our own lives without personal prayer.
For a deep combination of spiritual and psychological reasons, if we fail to pray personally, we not only miss many opportunities to do good, but we slowly smother our own relationship with Christ—no matter how many times we go through the motions of public or group prayer. Although liturgical prayer can and should be intensely personal, we cannot learn to pray personally, or ever excel at it, unless we are willing to pray privately. Our Lord tells us this point blank when he warns us not to be hypocrites, who pray only in public, but to go to our rooms, close our 1 Adapted and edited from The Mystery and Power of Personal Prayer by Dr. Jeff Mirus, https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/articles.cfm?id=217. Dr. Mirus holds a Ph.D. in intellectual history from Princeton University. A co-founder of Christendom College, he also pioneered Catholic Internet services. He is the founder of Trinity Communications and CatholicCulture.org.
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doors and pray privately to our Father, who reads the secrets of our hearts (Mt 6). In fact, the New Testament speaks repeatedly about private prayer (and says comparatively little about any other kind). Jesus prayed at His baptism (Lk 3:21), He frequently went aside to pray alone (see Mt 14, Mk 1 & 6, Lk 5 & 6, etc.), He prayed at the time of His Transfiguration (Lk 9), He prayed that Peter would not fail in his faith (Lk 22), and He prayed mightily during His Passion (Mt 26, Mk 14). Even… His great priestly prayer at the Last Supper (for all those the Father had given Him in the world) was an intensely personal prayer said in the presence of the Twelve (Jn 17). Not surprisingly for one who prayed so frequently, Our Lord also taught often about personal and private prayer. He enjoined us to pray for our enemies and those who persecute, curse and calumniate us (Mt 5, Lk 6); He told us to pray for vocations (Mt 9, Lk 10); He urged us to pray against the temptations and trials of the end times (Mt 24, Mk 13); and He warned us to pray unceasingly (Mk 13, Lk 18, Lk 21).
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He also explained that we would receive whatever we asked in prayer (Mt 21, Mk 11), and He taught us the Our Father so we would know both how to pray and what kinds of things to pray for (Mt 6, Lk 11). The evidence abounds in the gospels, and this emphasis on personal prayer continues in both the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles.
Persistence in Prayer
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n the many New Testament texts on prayer, we see Our Lord emphasizing again and again the need to pray persistently, without losing heart. He told two wonderful stories about the importance of persistence, one concerning a widow and an unjust judge (Lk 18), and the other about a man who needed to borrow bread from his neighbour in the middle of the night (Lk 11). Both the judge and the neighbour, neither of whom loved as God loves, succumbed to the onslaught of personal entreaty. Moreover, Jesus sometimes demanded that same persistence from others, as in the case of the Canaanite woman who actually had to argue with the Son of God that even dogs get the crumbs from under their master’s table (Mt 15, Mk 7). The result was that He healed her daughter.
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After the story of the importunate neighbour, Our Lord so stressed persistence in prayer that it became a proverb: ‘I tell you, ask and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened’ (Lk 11:9-10). But his next point is even more dramatic. What father, Jesus asks, will give his son a serpent when he asks for a fish, or a scorpion when he asks for an egg? This question is the prelude to Our Lord’s final and greatest lesson about prayer: If we who are evil know how to give good gifts to our children, ‘how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’ (Lk 11:13)
The Holy Spirit in Prayer
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ere Our Lord teaches us that the Holy Spirit is always at work in prayer. By way of introduction, I’ll offer an exceedingly small proof, but of a kind that is commonly experienced. On one occasion when I went to Church for my hour of Eucharistic adoration, there was a man sleeping in the back pew of the small chapel where the Blessed Sacrament was exposed. He was stretched out, flat on his back, and snoring loudly enough to distract even the greatest of saints! This annoyed me, but I decided to wait to take action until I’d spent a little time attempting to pray. Paradoxically, as time went on, the louder he got, the less it bothered me. Occasionally he stirred and muttered something like ‘Oh my God’, so perhaps he was praying too. In any case, left to my own devices, I would have been driven to anger, yet his unseemly noise soon sounded more like the music of another soul. Clearly, I wasn’t being left to my own devices. Thérèse of Lisieux often fell asleep at prayer, and it caused her to glory in her littleness. I don’t recommend the technique, which was also employed by the apostles in Gethsemane, yet I leave it to God to understand the effort at wakefulness and render it fruitful, even if it fails. In any case, our topic is not sleep, but the Holy Spirit, Who is actively involved in all prayer. The magnitude of Christ’s teaching is precisely this: Personal prayer is a contin-
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uous motion of the Holy Spirit between the one who prays and the Father (or, indeed, the Son). It is the Holy Spirit whom the Father continually gives in prayer, and the Holy Spirit whom the Father continually receives back. St. Paul explains it this way: We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies…. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. And he who searches the hearts of men knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. (Rm 8:22-27) The challenge for us is that this astonishing and growing action of the Holy Spirit—this ever-deepening exchange of the Holy Spirit between ourselves and the Father—does not take place within us unless we pray personally, by which I really mean interiorly. There is nothing automatic about it, and the mere external use of rites, group prayers, or verbal formulas avails nothing. True prayer requires our personal, interior participation—that is, our determina-
tion to communicate with the Father, honestly lifting ourselves to God with whatever capacity we possess at the time. Even if all we can do is throw ourselves toward God in an occasional moment of fear or longing, we have made a beginning according to our capacity. The intention and the habit of personal prayer can be built on whatever beginning is within our power. It is up to us to practice, to exercise this initially limited ability to pray. When we do this over time, the Holy Spirit becomes a fountain of life and power within us, uniting us to God Himself. Just as the theological virtues enable us to believe with God’s conviction, hope with God’s strength, and love with God’s love, so too is our capacity for prayer uplifted, amplified and perfected by the power of the Holy Spirit. For this reason, there is nothing on this earth more powerful than a person at prayer. Nothing is better calculated to overcome any conceivable obstacle, and we can give or receive no greater gift than prayer. Indeed, the success of everything else depends on our interaction with the Holy Spirit in prayer. Are we not foolish, then, to so often overlook what should be first, last, and always in our lives? •
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NOTHING IS WASTED ‘The works of mercy are handcrafted’, Pope Francis writes.
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owhere is this clearer than in the service given by religious sisters around the world to their fellow men. They are the embodiment of God’s creative mercy, the face and hands of Mother Church. The handiwork of mercy carried out by the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary in Pakistan helps many girls and young women. Socially speaking, women have practically no rights in a society dominated by men and corruption – particularly if they are non-Muslims. Christian girls and women are frequently molested sexually or even raped. In court they rarely find justice and it often happens that after being raped or forced into ‘marriage’ with a Muslim man, they
are rejected or abandoned even by their own family. One way to counteract this discrimination is through education, and this is what the sisters provide. They take in the poorest girls, including orphans and street children, aged 4 to 16 and offer them a new home in their Sacred Heart convent in Lahore. But now they are also in need of help, as their meagre resources are almost entirely exhausted, by the cost of medication for the ten frail and elderly sisters of the congregation among other things. And they also have to find the means to renovate their small bathrooms, as there are leaks everywhere and the pipework throughout their 80-year-old building is rusting through. Of course, the medication for the elderly sisters – aged between 75 and 95 – has to take priority, as they cannot afford both. So
Pakistan: Safe under the sisters’ wing, in Lahore.
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we have promised help for essential repairs. Many other elderly sisters, in Latin America, Eastern Europe and Africa, are frail and tired after giving their lives in the service of mercy. But there is no such thing as retirement or pensions for those engaged in this handiwork of mercy. Uncomplaining, they bear their final years with joyful serenity. ‘Mercy gives rise to joy, because our hearts are opened to the hope of a new life’ (Pope Francis). All their lives they have opened other people’s hearts to hope; now they themselves continue to hope, pray and work in the mother houses of their congregations – whether in Bolivia, Peru, Argentina, Ecuador, Brazil or in Cameroon, Rwanda and Nigeria. They continue to serve, but now in a different way. Their younger sisters take over the work – catechesis, youth apostolate, serving the liturgy, caring for the sick and elderly, teaching in the schools, caring for orphans and handicapped, parish bookkeeping, running rural clinics and providing basic medication – to say nothing of the consolation they so often bring by their mere presence. None of these services of love would be possible without the financial support we provide – thanks to the generosity of you, our benefactors. Sometimes it is just enough to survive on. And when they have a little more than that, they pass it on to the poor. Nothing is wasted in this beautiful service of love. •
Democratic Republic of the Congo: Checking for signs of malnutrition – ‘And he placed a child in their midst…’
Peru: Taking Holy communion to the elderly – ‘Where two are gathered in my name…’
Argentina: Countryside catechesis – ‘Let the little children come to me…’
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THE MOST IMPORTANT TASK IN LIFE Pope Francis2
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ope Francis commenting on the Gospel of St Luke (10:38-42) highlighted the evangelist’s account of Jesus’ visit to the home of Martha and Mary, and proposed Mary as a model for prayer.
‘The word of the Lord is clear,’ the Pope began. ‘Mary chose the better part: prayer and the contemplation of Jesus, and yet it seemed to her sister that she was wasting time’. Yet Mary’s attitude was the right one for she ‘listened to the Lord and prayed with her heart’. This, he said, is what the Lord wishes to tell us: ‘The most important task in life is to pray, not to pray with many words … but to pray with the heart’ for this prayer enables us ‘to gaze upon the Lord, to listen to the Lord, and to ask the Lord for what we need’. ‘And we know’ he added, ‘that prayer can work miracles’. Pope Francis drew a parallel between the Gospel and a reading from the book of Jonah (3:1-10). The prophet, he said, was ‘stubborn’ because he did not want to do what the Lord was asking of him. ‘It was only after the Lord saved Jonah from the belly of a whale that he decided: Lord, I will do whatever you say’.
2 Adapted and edited from Pope Francis MORNING MEDITATION IN THE CHAPEL OF THE DOMUS SANCTAE MARTHAE Tuesday, 8 October 2013 as provided by L’Osservatore Romano, Weekly ed. in English, n. 42, 18 October 2013)
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As Jonah went through the streets prophesying Nineveh’s imminent destruction, the Ninevites ‘began to pray with words, with their hearts and with their bodies. Prayer can work miracles in the midst of problems and even calamity’. However, there are those with a more pessimistic view of things, the Pope explained. They say: ‘why pray? Let it be, that’s just the way life is!’. This was Martha’s attitude. ‘She did many things, but she didn’t pray’. Then, he continued, there are those like the ‘stubborn Jonah’ who ‘went about prophesying, but in his heart he said: if they deserve it let it be … he prophesied but he didn’t pray, he didn’t ask the Lord to forgive them, he only sought to cudgel them’. Even when God saved the people of Nineveh ‘Jonah was angry with the Lord, and said to him, ‘You are always like this. You are always forgiving’. Then he added, ‘and when we don’t pray, we close the door to the Lord’ so that ‘he can do nothing’. But ‘praying in difficult situations is like opening the door to the Lord, in order that he might enter’ and, he added, ‘the Lord knows how to put things back in order’. Pope Francis concluded by exhorting us to look to Mary who ‘chose the better part and shows us the way to open the door to the Lord’. •
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‘May each family rediscover family prayer, which helps to bring about mutual understanding and forgiveness ’
www.worldmeeting2018.ie GIVE JOY, GIVE HOPE
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TURNING A CURSE INTO A BLESSING
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ias, off the coast of Sumatra in northwest Indonesia, is in every sense of the word a ‘Christian island’ in the most populous Muslim nation on earth. Of the total population of around 750,000 souls, some 550,000 are Protestants and 150,000 Catholics. One Catholic foundation on the island is the convent of Saint Clare in Gunungsitoli. The convent lies at the foot of the ‘Gunung Suci’, the ‘Holy Mountain’. For years it was popularly known as the ‘accursed mountain’, because for centuries local people were preyed on by headhunters or dragged off into slavery. The first two Catholic missionaries arrived here from France in 1832, but died shortly afterwards.
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In the Second World War the Dutch colonial administration was expelled by the Japanese. To this day a Japanese military bunker remains high up on the hilltop in what are now the convent grounds – many people were executed in the bunker. Now the Poor Clare Sisters have erected a large cross on top of it and built a Lourdes grotto beside it. Each day lots of people come to kneel here and pray, while others ask the sisters for their prayers. The curse has become a blessing. The 31 sisters of the congregation live in strict enclosure. Their life is far from easy, with constant power cuts and periods of political instability. To support themselves they run a small candlemaking business,
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bake unleavened bread for Mass, sew liturgical vestments and furnishings, and run a smallholding. The island was struck by a tsunami in 2004 and an earthquake in 2005, but the cruellest blow of all for the sisters was a fire in the candlemaking workshop, which engulfed the shop and storeroom, shortly before Christmas 2015. Jenky, a young helper, ran out of the building, his whole body on fire. Sister Claudia rescued him and and brought to safety, before herself collapsing. She survived, but her help came too late for Jenky, who died three days later. All the Christmas candles and all the wax stored for the Easter candles flowed down the street like a blazing stream of lava. The workshop itself was destroyed, along with all the expensive candle moulds and the adjoining building. But the sisters did not give up, remembering the prayer of their founder, Saint Clare. In one of her meditations she said: ‘I ask one thing only of your holy love – perseverance till the end and the perfect fulfilment of your will.’ We have supported the rebuilding of the candlemaking workshop. So now the sisters can continue to give witness and bring light and blessings to Nias. •
On top of the holy mountain, the cross surmounts the bunker. Today many Christians come to pray at Our Lady’s grotto in the convent garden.
Sister Claudia – still scarred by the fire, one year afterwards.
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CLOISTERED NUNS – LED BY GOD’S HAND ‘I promise consecrated chastity, poverty and obedience to God, our Lord, to the most Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel, and to the prioress and her successors.’
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ith these simple words the Carmelite sisters of the convent of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Tambacan make their profession of vows. But what led up to this moment was a careful process of discernment, often involving long nights spent in prayer. Here on the island of Luzon in the northern Philippines, in a remote and desolate region, Sister Lorelei Marie Libo-on has at last found her ‘Tanging Yaman’, the ‘true treasure’ of her life. Like most of the sisters here, she sensed her vocation to ‘serve the Church through prayer and sacrifice’ at an early age. The nuns pray for the whole world but ‘we pray
in particular for priests, religious and all missionaries.’ Sister Marilyn Facinabao has a favourite song: ‘Musmos ka pa lamang minahal na kita – You were still a very little child when I loved you… I was holding you by the hand when you made your first steps…’ She always felt ‘called’, but she had never seen a nun, so she always said, when asked, ‘I want to be a priest’. But when she first met a religious sister, she immediately realised ‘That’s what I really want to be.’ She never forgot God’s call in her heart, which gradually became louder. She felt his guiding hand. In fact God has led every one of the sisters by the hand to this Carmel in Tambacan. Their life is one of great abstinence but also one of great grace. There are many voca-
Solemn profession, joyful surrender – life in the Carmel.
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elderly and sick sisters to be completed, so some of the frail and elderly sisters, who struggle with the stairs and need help from the younger ones to reach their cells, would be able to move there, freeing up space for the new entrants. But they don’t have the money for this wing, or to build new cells. Still serving, regardless of age – an excursion into the convent garden.
tions, with 21 sisters in training and twelve who have made their full profession. Many other young women are knocking at the door of the Carmel. They too want to serve God here. But there is no more room, as under the Carmelite Rule, each sister must live in a separate cell. So there are three aspirants still waiting for admission. They also need a special wing for
Sister Maria Violeta Banawa recalls her own journey to the Carmel. ‘True love makes everything possible. I thought loving him was enough, but love is not only a matter of feelings. It means dedication, sacrifice and commitment. I lacked this in the beginning.’ Experience taught her how to truly love. She has committed her life to Jesus. ‘The chapter of losing, searching and finding has ended now. A new chapter begins’, she concludes, thanking those who have helped her on her journey. •
ALWAYS OPEN TO OTHERS’ NEEDS
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irst they gave thanks to God in the chapel for the past academic year. The next day three seminarians were ordained to the priesthood and another to the diaconate.Father Roman, the rector of the seminary in Grodno, Belarus, then wrote to ACN, expressing his ‘immense gratitude’ and describing how the 33 seminarians, whom you supported, had complemented their studies with visits to retirement homes, orphanages and homes for handicapped children. And how one of the deacons had been ‘lent’ to Brazil and another to Cameroon to tell the children there about Jesus. ‘Every day we pray for ACN’, he writes. For them our help is a ‘living witness’ showing that the priest in his work of service must always be open to the spiritual and material needs of others. • GIVE JOY, GIVE HOPE
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SPIRITUAL FITNESS The Power of Prayer
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wonder how many of us seriously believe in the power of prayer? Do you? In order for prayer for others, as well as for ourselves, to be effective, God wants to teach us how to pray, how to intercede on behalf of others. In a future column, I will be more specific about how to pray on behalf of others. Let me say first that each of us can call on God anytime we want, and he will hear our plea. We don’t have to be perfect to ask God for our needs and the needs of others. We can’t be perfect! But unless we are praying daily, unless we are reading his word daily, we cannot come to know him better, to enter into a personal relationship with him that God himself desires for each one of us. God doesn’t want to be a kind of slot machine where we put in our request and then see if we win the prize. God desires a personal relationship with each of us. The choice is left to us. God gave us a free will; God will never coerce, but he longs to draw
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Sister Ann Shields3 us close to him and share his plans – his will — step-by-step for us and for those we love. The need to draw closer to God is not a high priority for very many of us. When everything is going well — our health is good, the family is good, finances are good, job security seems to be solid — we tend to think: ‘What is there to worry about?’ Unfortunately, we often go about our daily business with little thought of the One who created us for a purpose: ‘… to know him, love him and serve him in this world and to be happy with him in the next.’ We can be so caught up in this world’s affairs that we give little thought to the next. Yet, it is imperative that we live this life keeping our eyes on the goal of eternal life.
3 Adapted and edited from Spiritual Fitness by Sister Ann Shields. http://catholiclife.diolc.org/2016/01/15/the-power-of-prayer/ Sr. Anne is a renowned author and a member of the Servants of God’s Love and serves out of Ann Arbor, Michigan.
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Spiritual Exercise
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Develop a habit of thanking God daily by using one of the Psalms: Psalms 8, 33, 34, 40, 66, 103, 116, 135, 136, 150. There are many, but this list can be helpful to growing in a daily habit of being grateful for all good things — especially those things we can take for granted.
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Carve out at least 15 minutes every day for just you and the Lord. Read a passage from one of the Gospels (you can use the Gospel reading for the day at Mass if you want). Remember: ‘The word of God is living and active …’ This word has power to change your life. (Heb 4:12) Ask God to help you understand it.
As you pray this way daily, and as you begin to see the peace that comes when we surrender to God’s will — God’s way — you will grow in faith. You don’t have to have it all together, just be on the road to loving God’s will and trusting Him. Even while we are on the way, God enables us to begin to pray for the needs of others: family, friends, co-workers, parish, neighbourhood, the world’s suffering and Christ’s persecuted Church. Jesus tells us in John 15:7: ‘If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you may ask what you will and it shall be done • for you!’
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As you read, ask God to give you grace to do His will. Ask God to give you a love for His will. (I can hear you saying, ‘I am afraid, I don’t know what God will ask of me; I am afraid to get too close …’) I promise you that His will has the power to bless you beyond anything you can imagine.
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Ask God to increase your faith in His love for you; God is always faithful; he will never abandon you — never! Remember: you and I only see ‘In a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully even as I have been fully understood.’ (1Cor. 13:12)
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PRAYER CHANGES THE WORLD
SOME IDEAS FOR FAMILY PRAYER IN YOUR HOME Dr. Michael Kinsella4
Pray when we awake – Praying with our family in the morning, for example the ‘Morning Offering’, means that though each person may head their separate ways for the day, with some to work and others to school, we remain united in prayer with the Lord who provides us with strength for the day that lies ahead of us.
Pray before meals – Giving thanks to God before meals acknowledges His generosity and reminds us of how often the dinner table featured prominently in Christ’s ministry – especially at the Institutions of the Eucharist. We can also remember and pray for those people who suffer both physical and spiritual hunger.
Pray in the car – Family car journeys can be fraught and the temptation for parents can be to simply give children an electronic device to distract them. Yet to pray for a safe journey and to be considerate of others (on the road and in life) are important lifelong habits to foster within the young. For example, in the journey to and from Mass on Sunday, the family Rosary can be prayed or devotional music played on the radio.
Pray before bedtime – These prayers, such the ‘O’ Angel of God’, can be worked into family preparation for sleep alongside reading bedtime stories (which can be biblical in nature). We also call to mind those who have no shelter for the night and that our Lord’s first earthly night was spent in a manger.
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4 Dr. Michael Kinsella is a young father and has the great privilege of instructing his two daughters in the Catholic Faith and being a proud witness to their growth in love and joy at hearing God’s Word. He also teaches and writes on faith, family and ethics.
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WANT MORE TIME TO PRAY BUT CAN’T FIND THE TIME? 6am
Wake up 15 minutes earlier.
7am 8am
Pray before breakfast or while you drink your morning coffee.
9am 10am
Pray in your car or on your way to work.
11am 12am
Pray on your work breaks or during lunch.
1pm 2pm
Pray whilst completing household chores.
3pm 4pm
Pray while you wait to collect your children from school or other activities.
5pm 6pm
Pray before your evening meal.
7pm 8pm
Go to bed 15 minutes earlier and pray before lights out.
First Thessalonians 5:17 tells you to ‘Pray without ceasing’. Just imagine how much prayer time you could add to your day by taking advantage of all the lost moments!
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PRAYER CHANGES THE WORLD
THE IMPORTANCE OF FAMILY PRAYER Dr. Michael Kinsella
Family Prayer – Preservation
O
ne of God’s highest priorities is preserving family relationships. God designed marriage (Genesis 2:18, 24) and the family to accomplish His purpose and to enrich our lives (Psalm 127:3). While technology has enhanced the quality of our businesses and allowed families to stay electronically accessible, it has also curtailed communication. With greater regularity, parents and their children distance themselves from one another emotionally and spiritually. Ultimately, in this era of cutting-edge communication, the family unit ‘mis-communicates’ with God by omitting family prayers. A family unit is established upon divine creation and Satan utilises any circumstances that promote disputes and destruction within a relationship (Ephesians 4:26–27, 1 Peter 5:7–8). The majority of families rarely participate in activities together, directing their attention to the television or computer. In forfeiting dialogue with family members, parents and children lack unity from God through prayer.
Family Prayer – Privilege
W
e may recall the familiar child’s family prayer, ‘God is great, God is good. And we thank Him for this food.’ As a child facing
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the probability of a ‘creature’ hiding under my bed I prayed, ‘If I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.’ Some families may choose prearranged prayers or repetition, while others may prefer spontaneous, less structured prayers. In both cases, prayers are a privilege that require a commitment between parent and child as well as God. Including God in daily circumstances helps both child and parent to understand one another. With the freedom of praying together, families are partners, building strong spiritual foundations in their homes (1 Corinthians 3:9, 11). Family prayers extend beyond meals and bedtime. Our needs extend beyond food and fears. Families should discuss and pray together on a variety of issues. By integrating a Bible verse(s) (Ephesians 6:1–3) with prayer, children can be encouraged to ask God to help them obey their parents. Parents show their obedience to God by respecting and honoring each other (1 Peter 3:7). Children experience security as they witness their parents praying for God’s help as well. As the mother seeks to please God in her prayers, God rewards her family (Proverbs 31:10–12, 28-29). As the father assumes his place as spiritual leader in the home, God blesses the family (Genesis 18:19). By example, their children will approach the Lord regularly as if they we were crawling up into a loving Father’s lap.
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Family Prayer – Protection
I
n family prayer, it is important to remember that our Heavenly Father loves to talk with children and cares deeply about their problems. Knowing that He protects and rescues us from our fears provides invaluable peace and unity to a family. Praying together allows children to voice their concerns to both an earthly parent and their ‘Father, dear Father’ (Romans 8:15) simultaneously.
Family Prayer – Priority
T
hough family prayer is effective in strengthening members, it’s often difficult to find a specific prayer time. Parents approach family prayer with the best of intentions, only to find schedule conflicts. A parent may feel unqualified to
lead in prayer, believing that they will appear ineffective communicating with God. So are there guidelines to establishing family prayer as priority each day?
Talk about whatever is bothering you, no matter how small (1 Peter 5:7). Invite God to reveal His purposes, plans, and desires for your life (1 John 5:14–15). Make God the head of your home (Deuteronomy 6:5–9). Expect God to respond as you humble yourself before Him (Mark 11:22–25).
‘All families need God, every single one. We need
His help, His strength, His blessing, His mercy and His forgiveness. It takes simplicity. To pray as a family, simplicity is needed... As a family, you can pray the ‘Our Father’ around the dinner table. That’s not difficult to do, it’s easy. Praying the rosary together, as a family is very beautiful and it gives strength. Also for one another; A husband for his wife and a wife for her husband. Parents praying for their children and children praying for their parents and grandparents. Praying for one another.’
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PRAYER CHANGES THE WORLD
WHAT IS THE ESSENTIAL PURPOSE OF PRAYER? Br. Aurelius Moner 5
T
here are levels of prayer. Fr. GarrigouLagrange defines prayer:
‘Prayer is an elevation of the soul to God, by which we temporally will that, which God eternally wills for us to seek from Him – namely, the various means of salvation, and chiefly progress in charity.’ First, nothing in the above definition requires us to pray in words; prayer is an elevation of the soul that seeks conformity with God’s will. The Curé of Ars gave the example of a French peasant, whom he often observed gazing intently at the Eucharist, without moving or mouthing any words, for long periods of time. The Curé asked him what prayers or thoughts he composed to God at this time. ‘Oh, I don’t say anything; I just look at Him, and He looks at me.’ The chief end of man is the Beatific Vision—the gaze into the Infinite God, penetrating ever deeper into layers of beauty and perfection that can never cease to build one upon another. Thus, the simple gaze of the soul upon God is already a temporal conformity of the will with the eternal end God wills for us. Lagrange comments: 5 Adapted and edited from an article by Br. Aurelius Moner on ‘What is the Essential Purpose of Prayer?’
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‘This is that interior prayer which was so often the prayer of the Christians of the catacombs and of all the Saints, long before modern treatises on meditation.’ He goes on to explain that, for beginners, sometimes formulated prayers are helpful and even necessary - indeed, our Lord gave the Our Father - because they help to focus a mind that may otherwise wander without words, and because they form the soul in the proper attitude and content of prayer. But if we allow formal and rote prayers to become long-winded, complex, etc., the simplicity of good prayer can often be lost. The Latin rite of the Church, especially, has tried to keep prayer simple, concise, and penetrating; it had a proverb: brevis oratio caelum penetrat – ‘a short prayer pierces heaven.’ Holy Tradition encourages the custom of meditating on these concise prayers, such as the Lord’s Prayer; this way, whenever one prays them, all the fruits of our rumination upon the prayer can be recalled in the brief time it takes to say them. For example, saying the Lord’s Prayer will evoke a rich panoply of sublime truths, if one says it after internalising the fruits of such a meditation as this one.
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Second, Fr. GarrigouLagrange’s definition upholds the sovereignty of God. Many people wonder what the point of prayer is. Are we really going to change God’s mind? Does He alter His perfect will and grant us what we want, instead, if we ask this of Him? Of course not.
WHAT THE SAINTS SAY...
Two things are clear, here: first, the point of prayer is not to ask for any old thing we want. God has willed, that many of the things He wills shall come about through secondary causes such as our prayers. In our prayers, we strive to conform to His will. We will for ‘the means of salvation’ - for ourselves our family and our • community.
‘Prayer is the best weapon we have; it is the key to God’s heart. You must speak to Jesus not only with your lips, but with your heart. In fact, on certain occasions you should only speak to Him with your heart.’
Saint Padre Pio Quote selected by Eddie Cotter, founder
ead heologians ociety www.DeadTheologiansSociety.com GIVE JOY, GIVE HOPE
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PRAYER CHANGES THE WORLD
MIRACLES HAPPEN A chairde,
M
iracles are an extraordinary affirmation of God’s existence and love in our world. That just as He created the laws of nature within which Mankind yearns and works for heaven, and into which He sent His only Son to redeem us, He may suspend or transcend those same laws so as to highlight that everything is subject to His omnipotence and nothing is impossible for those with Faith in Him. There is a propensity to only look for physical affirmations of God’s direct intervention in world – in this regard Christ’s Incarnation and His Resurrection are supreme examples and the foundations of our Faith – but the earthly and physical will always point towards and affirm the heavenly and spiritual.
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We should remember this in our prayer life when we pray that God rescues us and our families from distressing situations – that we also be given the grace to bear and understand them if it be His will. We must also look to the daily miracles that Christ has provided us through His Bride, the Church: The Sacraments, especially the sacrifice of the Holy Mass, wherein and through which spiritual miracles take place constantly. These spiritual miracles: the repentant sinner, the converted heart, the Prodigal son returned – are a spectacular affirmation of Divine Grace working in our world, often through
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the humblest of intercessors. How often have the fates of nations been decided by the prayerful supplications and intercessions by the weakest and most broken of humanity! Even though Christ made the lame walk, the blind see, and fed the hungry it was spiritual disability, blindness and hunger that truly cripples mankind – and which He desires to heal. We remember that our need for Divine Love and acknowledgment lies at once in the awareness that we are separated from Him and thus yearn for Him still – miracles are a consolation amid our tribulations and a refutation against cynics. Miracles can affirm our faith but they are also a call to ‘come and see’ for those who, much like Thomas even when presented with the miracle of the Risen Christ, could not believe unless he put his fingers in the wounds Christ bore for us. So, do not let the modern world, with its toil and cruelty and tedium, rob you of your sense of wonder of the spiritual world. God, in His wisdom, has ordained that even while Miracles point to Eternity they should still communicate a meaning to a time and a place and a people that they might better prepare for God’s plan for them: in Ireland, looking towards the World Meeting of Families in 2018, we
must prepare to be miracle makers of the Lord - for a world broken because of the dissolution of family and family life - where people have not just forgotten about how to stay together as a family but even how to form a family. The prayers we make to God, then, to transform our material condition will never be sufficient to sustain us in our journey to heaven unless we pray also for a transformation in our spiritual condition. This begins with faith, through prayer and in our families. All of us are called to holiness but all of us, further still, can attain this holiness and our heavenly homeland by being witness to and participating in the miraculous. Yes, we too through the power of prayer and Divine Grace, can be living miracles – witnesses to God’s love for us and all of humanity.
Beir Beannacht
Dr. Michael Kinsella Guest Editor
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PRAYER CHANGES THE WORLD
Aid to the Church in Need
Pilgrimage to Fatima 11-15 September 2017
Commemorate the 100th Anniversary of Our Lady’s Apparition and 70 years of Aid to the Church in Need. All the ACN family is going to Fatima. Aid to the Church in Need was consecrated to Our Lady of Fatima on the 14th of September 1967. If you can come, please join us with the rest of the ACN family from around the world. If you can’t physically come please join us spiritually.
The world is in crisis and is in ever greater need of your prayers. 28
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THANKS TO YOU... FOR THEIRS IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN
GOING WHERE OTHERS DON’T TREAD
I thank God for the opportunity to support your charity, which helps the heroic Christians of the Church in their suffering and persecution, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven, as Jesus taught us in the Sermon on the Mount. I hold them in my heart and imagine myself in their position. Would I have such courage? I ask myself. I pray unceasingly for their liberation and their courage.
You go where others don’t tread, and give where there is no-one else to give. A thousand blessings on your work.
A benefactor in Portugal INTERESTING INSIGHTS Your bulletins about the work of ACN give us an interesting insight into the extensive range of your work around the world. As Christians we rejoice at these impressive examples of living faith.
A benefactor in Australia THE BIGGER PICTURE I look forward to the Mirror because it reminds me of my connection to the universal Church. The Mirror reminds me of the bigger picture! Most of the stories are of those in great need. ACN surely is one way God shows them His love…and one way He shows me an open door to serve Him when many seem closed. A benefactor in Ohio, USA
A benefactor in Germany
WHERE TO SEND YOUR CONTRIBUTION FOR THE CHURCH IN NEED Please use the Freepost envelope.
IBAN IE32 BOFI 9005 7890 6993 28 BIC BOFI IE2D
Aid to the Church in Need,
info@acnireland.org
If you give by standing order, or have sent a donation recently, please accept our sincere thanks. This MIRROR is for your interest and information.
www.acnireland.org
Registered Charity Numbers: (RoI) 9492 (NI) XR96620.
151 St. Mobhi Road, Glasnevin, Dublin 9.
(01) 837 7516
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WE ARE CALLED TO BE MISSIONARIES OF JOY
ONLY BY WINNING THE BATTLE OF PRAYER CAN WE WIN ALL THE OTHER BATTLES TOO. ACN Ecclesiastical Assistant
‘The culture of mercy is shaped in assiduous prayer, in docility to the working of the Holy Spirit, in knowing the lives of the saints and in being close to the poor’
Apostolic letter Misericordia et misera
Fortresses for God, Strongholds of prayer, are still being built today.
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THE MIRROR IS AVAILABLE TO READ AT ACNIRELAND.ORG
MIRROR GIVE JOY, GIVE HOPE
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MIRROR GIVE JOY, GIVE HOPE
GIVE JOY, GIVE HOPE
Saint Thérèse of Lisieux.
THE OF THE
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MIRROR GIVE JOY, GIVE HOPE
GOSPEL FAMILY
Joy for the World Saint Padre Pio.
Prayer Changes the World
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MIRROR
God’s Messengers Among Us
Blessed Chiara Luce Badano.
Give Hope, Give Joy in a World at War.
Miracles do Happen Prayer makes Miracles