So Much To Pray For

I have a deep love for The Devotion of Divine Mercy in no small part because of the role it played in my conversion. In the "Prayer to Be Transformed into Mercy" the closing paragraph reads

You Yourself command me to exercise the three degrees of mercy. The first: the act of mercy, of whatever kind. The second: the word of mercy — if I cannot carry out a work of mercy, I will assist by my words. The third: prayer — if I cannot show mercy by deeds or words, I can always do so by prayer. My prayer reaches out even there where I cannot reach out physically.

That we serve others in our actions is almost so common sense as to not need to be said, that we can serve others in our words is something we may not have considered, but that we can serve others by our prayer is something that I think we all need to be reminded of. How many times do we hear (or say) "All I can do is pray" in some fatalistic tone, as though it's really nothing at all? "All" I can do? St. Therese the Little Flower is Patroness of Missionaries because of her prayer for them! Prayer is an act of service that we have no excuses and no reasons, not to fulfill.

And there are so many who need us to serve them in prayer.

If you are reading this the weekend I post it, I am sure you are thinking of the thousands who have been affected by the Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan. My friend's Sister-in-Law is in Japan right now; thankfully, her family lives in the mountains, and were not injured or killed, but they are still affected in other ways. The strife in the Middle East, the slow recovery from 2010's earthquake in Haiti, all of the news that flashes across our monitors, TVs, and media everyday are like signposts of those in need of our prayer. We pray for their health and well-being, we pray for rescue and medical care and an end to war and violence... And I hope we pray for their souls.

Garden of Holiness posted this prayer request today. When I first saw the title of the post I thought perhaps there was a specific need or person for which she would be asking for prayer... But should we wait for a "specific" need or person? In her post she says "You who know God have a duty to those of us who do not." Everyone who does not know God is a specific person!

At the blog Acts of the Apostasy, after rejoicing in the conversion of a Catholic woman "priestess", the blogger hosted Adopt A Priestess so that instead of speaking and ranting against those who have decided they know better than the Church, we can pray for them. I signed up, and am praying for the conversion of all those who do not trust that God really did give the Church wisdom and authority in these matters, but also specifically for one woman. And it's not too late to visit the blog and sign up - Larry D will assign you a priestess by name for whom you can pray, and the more people praying the better.

I mentioned earlier in this post, and perhaps have mentioned it before too, that I am a convert. One of the things I love about being Catholic is Chaplets. The Chaplet of Divine Mercy was the first Chaplet I ever learned, even before I learned to pray the rosary, and with its prayer of intercession asking for God's Mercy, it is an ideal chaplet to pray for disaster relief, conversion, penance, etc... But I also love Our Lady of Fatima, and my love for chaplets and my love for Our Lady of Fatima resulted in this Chaplet of Fatima Prayers for the Conversion of Souls. I'm not pushing it on anyone, but it is, for me, the way I pray for conversion of souls, and I wanted to share it in case you, like me, have a hard time praying extemporaneously. (Right, wrong, or indifferent, I just feel like "God, please change so-and-so's heart and give them the gift of faith" just doesn't quite cut it long term; I feel like that's a great aspiration or ejaculative prayer, but it's more like a snack than a meal.) Or perhaps you love Our Lady of Fatima, or love Chaplets... In any case, it's there for you if you want it.

So - there it is. So much to pray for, so many ways to pray... Who will you pray for today?

Be careful what you ask for...

You just might get it!

As previously mentioned, I know about redemptive suffering. I know about offerring up pain and suffering - for the intentions of the Sacred & Immaculate Hearts, the conversion of sinners & salvation of souls, etc... And thanks to Joseph, I know about "troubling he who troubles me". But as I have been seeking to 'trouble he who troubles me' the fatigue aspect of my fibromyalgia has been increasing and increasing. Argh and growl, what to do...

Last night I was reading "Eucharistic Adoration for the Sanctification of Priests and Spiritual Maternity" and on page 30 is a story of St. Therese of Lisiex. While ill, a sister accompanying her on an ordered walk told her she should rest and she replied, "Well, I am walking for a missionary. I think that over there, far away, one of them is perhaps exhausted in his apostolic endeavors, and, to lessen his fatigue, I offer mine to God."

Should I have known that I can offer up my fatigue just as I can offer up my pain? Of course I should have! If in "whatever [we] do, [we] do everything for the glory of God" (1 Cor 10:31) then we can offer up our whole lives - our joy and sorrow, our pain and health, our fatigue and our leisure. But did it occur to me until I read the Little Saint's words? Nope.

When I was 12 years old I received my First Holy Communion. My catechist, Mrs. L., gave me a copy of "Mercy My Mission" (a biography of St. Faustina) and a booklet about the Divine Mercy. Even though I was still more Baptist than Catholic I never doubted that (then still) Sister Faustina had experienced everything the book said she did, including redemptive suffering for the salvation of souls, and I remember telling God that I wanted to "do that" too. From the mouths of babes eh?

So here I am, around 20 years later, wondering why I'm always so tired and achey and sore and in pain all the time... I don't always remember to offer up my life as it's happening, but St. Padre Pio once told a priest who had intended to offer a Mass for him, but forgot to do so during the Mass, that it was okay - God had accepted the intention he made while walking up the stairs to go to Mass. And there's a BC comic strip that I cut out years ago, and which is still tacked to my bulletein board at home, which states that 'future events cast backward shadows'. A serpent says that doesn't make any sense... until the shadow of a cross falls across him. The rest of the strip is also deeply meaningful and I'm confidently hopeful that it will be included in "I Did it His Way" - a book collection of John Hart's religious comic strips. These two statements, along with the story of Bishop William Emmanuel Ketteler (also included in the document linked to above) have led me to believe that everything I do with the intent of offerring is accepted by God as an offerring - even if I don't remember it at that moment. When I was 12 years old I told God I was willing to suffer for the conversion of souls, now when I do suffer, whether I remember in the moment to make an offering of it or not, I beleive God accepts it as an offering for the slavation of souls.

Of course, by reading spiritual documents and "think[ing] of what is above, not of what is on earth" (Col 3:2) I find that I am more likely to remember and reaffirm the offering throughout the moments of my day, just as St. Therese, and the lay sister told of by Bishop Ketteler, did. I think this is more efficacious, but since I "know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose" (Rom 8:28) I will rest in Him confident that He accepts all my sufferring... and my fatigue.