PRAYERS for our NEW BISHOP CHERI

On Monday,  March 23rd,  Fr. Fernand Cheri,  III,  OFM,  a member of the Sacred Heart Province (one of the sponsoring provinces of our House of Prayer here), was ordained a bishop at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, LA.    He will serve as the new auxiliary bishop for the archdiocese of New Orleans.    We congratulate our brother and ask God to bless him in his new ministry.

 

Bishop Ferd,  may God bless you in your new ministry with every heavenly blessing and keep you holy and pure in his sight.  May he shower you with the riches of his glory, instruct you with the word of truth, form your heart with the Gospel of salvation and enrich you with love for all of God's people you have been chosen to serve.  

 

May God bless you and always keep you under his watchful care and protection!

 

 

THE CROSS -- something to pray with

(a cross in the cottage)

 

(This reflection is by Fr. S. Joseph Krempa, and appears in his DAILY HOMILIES for the season of Lent,  pp.97-98)

 

On the cross it all comes together.   The cross is perhaps the central devotion of Christian spirituality.   If we could point to any one symbol that captures everything Jesus was and is,  everything He said and did, it would be the crucifix.  The cross contains all kinds of meanings.  It says a great deal about mankind and about God;  it says a great deal about love and hate;  it says much about sin and about grace.  It is as though all the parables, healings and discourses of the Lord imploded into the cross and Christian thinkers have spent centuries drawing that meaning out.   We bring our own meanings to the cross as well.  It is the one constant in our lives from the time we were children.  It is no surprise that the crucifix has a central place in all Christian churches.   Like the bronze serpent which Moses raised in the desert, it is at once a symbol and an instrument of healing.   Generations of Christians have looked to the cross as the most dramatic and profound symbol of the meaning of Christ.  It freezes the moment of death, of human excess and, as John's Gospel emphasizes, the moment of new life as Jesus hands over the Spirit. 

 

In prayer, we can take some time during Lent to exercise our spiritual sight and look at our lives in the light of the cross.  It is the perfect image of God's love and of the reach of human love as well.

 

 

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY -- a prayer

St Patrick's Breastplate

Christ be with me, Christ within me
Christ behind me, Christ before me
Christ beside me, Christ to win me
Christ to comfort me and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger
Christ in hearts of all that love me
Christ in mouth of friend or stranger.

 

TRANSFORMING PRAYER

(a view of the Colorado Rockies)

 

TRANSFORMING PRAYER -- esp.  'Dryness'

 

One thing I have learned about prayer is that if you remain faithful to it,  the day will come when it becomes not just dry, but even distasteful.  Moments of consolation are replaced by boredom, and a half-hour prayer session seems like an eternity.  Through the ages the giants of prayer have reassured us that as long as we have remained faithful to the practice of prayer,  this is a normal step in the spiritual journey and must simply be lived through.

 

I may not like it, yet when I consider the fruit of this experience through the eyes of faith,  I can see that even this dryness is a strange and wonderful gift.   I might want to control every aspect of my spiritual journey and my ego may desire what feels like success in prayer, but God is interested in the total transformation of my heart and mind.

 

(This reflection, written by Terri Mifek,  appeared in the daily devotional,  LIVING FAITH, for Sunday, March 15th.)

 

 

 

POSTULANTS VISIT

On the weekend of March 1st,  our Interprovincial Prayer Fraternity was pleased to welcome the current group of postulants from St. John the Baptist Province (headquartered in Cincinnati, OH).

 

They spent two days with us, but almost longer as snow and ice and our uphill driveway just about made their leaving on Sunday impossible.  But a lot of effort and help from a local man with a snowplow prevailed and they were able to leave early Sunday afternoon.

 

Please pray for these men as they discern God's call in their lives, esp. the call to become a Franciscan.