HAPPY EASTER!!!

(Fr. Francis celebrating this year's EASTER VIGIL LITURGY)

 

A BLESSED EASTER TO YOU!

 

May our RISEN LORD fill your mind and heart and life with EASTER JOY and ALLELUIAS to make you sing, may the PROMISE OF RESURRECTION be a strength and comfort to you, and may these EASTER SCRIPTURES speak to you in ever new ways!  Pray for us as we pray for you! 

 

the Franciscan friars at your Ava House of Prayer

 

 

HAPPY EASTER!!!

(Fr. Francis celebrating this year's EASTER VIGIL LITURGY)

 

A BLESSED EASTER TO YOU!

 

May our RISEN LORD fill your mind and heart and life with EASTER JOY and ALLELUIAS to make you sing, may the PROMISE OF RESURRECTION be a strength and comfort to you, and may these EASTER SCRIPTURES speak to you in ever new ways!  Pray for us as we pray for you! 

 

the Franciscan friars at your Ava House of Prayer

 

 

MARCH SNOW FINDS US IN AVA

(Mary endures surprise Spring snow)

 

March 22nd, two days into Spring, found the Ozarks blanketed in snow with a surprise storm.   8 inches of snow covered everything in a 'Disney-ish' landscape.  It was incredibly beautiful and a gift to most everyone in the region.  The snow began during the 5 pm Thursday afternoon adoration here at the Prayer Fraternity.   Listening to the Gospel of John tell us how Jesus is 'the Bread of Life', the snowfall seemed like O.T. manna, sent from God, to feed his hungry people. 

 

 

GOD ASKS FOR PRAYER

This Prayer Reflection is by Tertullian, who lived 160 - 225 AD and was a prolific early Christian writer.  A notable Christian apologist, he has often been called the "Father of Latin Christianity."

 

ON PRAYER:

 

Praying in spirit we offer prayer to God as a sacrifice.  Prayer is an appropriate and an acceptable sacrifice to God.  It is the offering he has asked for and the offering he expects.

 

We must make this offering with our whole heart.  We must fatten it on faith,  prepare it by truth, keep it unblemished by innocence,  spotless by chastity, and we must crown it with love.   We must escort it to the altar of God in a procession of good works to the sound of psalms and hymns.   Then it will gain for us all that we ask of God.  What can God refuse to prayer offered in spirit and in truth, when he himself asks for such prayer?   How many proofs of its efficacy we read about, hear of, and believe!

 

If prayer once had the power to call down fire from heaven, is it any wonder that it can call down from heaven the waters of grace?   Prayer is the one thing that can conquer God.   But Christ has willed that it should work no evil:   all the power he has given it is for good.

 

Its only skill is to call people back from the gates of death,  give strength to the weak,  heal the sick,  exorcise the possessed,  open prison doors,  free the innocent from their chains.   Prayer cleanses from sin,  drives away temptations,  stamps out persecutions,  comforts the fainthearted,   gives new strength to the courageous,  brings travelers safely home,  calms the waves,  bemuses robbers,  feeds the poor,  overrules the rich,   lifts up the fallen,  supports the faltering,  sustains those who stand firm.

 

All the angels pray.   Every creature prays.   Cattle and wild beasts pray and bend the knee.  As they come from their barns and caves they look up to heaven and call out, lifting up their spirit in their own fashion.   The birds too rise and lift themselves up to heaven:   they open out their wings, instead of hands, in the form of a cross, and give voice to what seems to be a prayer.

 

What more need be said about the duty of prayer?  Even the Lord himself prayed.   To him be honor and power for ever and ever.   Amen. 

 

 

 

 

WELCOME TO OUR NEW HOLY FATHER

 

We celebrate, along with our Church, our Franciscan Order, and the world the selection of POPE FRANCIS as our new Holy Father. 

 

Please join us in keeping him in constant prayer that God may use him to be prophetic, courageous, inspirational, exemplary, and more in guiding our Church through these coming years.

 

 

PRAYER REFLECTION

PRAYING FOR THOSE WE LOVE

Drawing upon Luke's Gospel for the 4th Sunday of Lent:  THE PRODIGAL SON story, Michael Dougherty, writing a Sunday reflection for the missalette,  LIVING WITH CHRIST  (www.livingwithChrist.us) offered this thought about 'PRAYER':

 

 

An elderly woman I once knew often shared with me the concerns she had for her children.  She had raised them in the faith.  Each of them individually had the education, security, and love that offered them a strong foundation on which to build their futures.  All too often, though, they wandered from the straight paths.

 

Her grey hair was likely increased by the stress of assuming too many of their burdens too often.  She wasn't rich or well connected;  she couldn't solve all their many problems.  She told me that she came to a point when she realized that HER PRAYER WAS TRULY WHAT SHE COULD OFFER THEM.  

 

One by one her children found their own ways.   One by one the care and love she so unstintingly gave them bore fruit.  When I saw her in her final days, we were all gathered around her worn, frail body in a last celebration of her life and love. 

 

(Realizing that perhaps what she could most importantly and most truly offer to her children were her prayers for them is something for us to ponder when we are at wits end about how we can help those we love.   Believe in the power of your prayers for them;  believe in the significance of offering prayers for the significant people in your life.  And with confidence, let God handle it from there.)