The World Needs Your Prayers

Tonight, I am blessed in a way to be so very aware of the need of prayer, of sacrifices, and selfless acts of love.  I spent a few solid hours with three incredible souls on Tuesday evening this past week. Our time was spent in the presence of our Eucharistic Lord and encouraging one another on our walk of life. Since then, and since long ago, and continuing on, a battle is raging - a battle for our souls. The rest of my week was tough, mentally and spiritually. I could sense an oppression, but for awhile, I considered it just a funk I was in. However, my dear roommate reminded it was the devil. Another friend told me to tell him to go to hell. Satan continues to ride my back and on occasions convinces me of a lie, even if just a half-truth. If he is doing it to me. It is likely he is doing it to you, too. 

Here are a couple of uplifting anecdotes and reflections I stumbled across throughout the week. 

First, a story about Fiorello LaGuardia, when mayor of New York City during the worst days of the Great Depression and all of WWII, sat in as judge at the police station one day. He heard the case of a citizen who had stolen a loaf of bread to feed their family. Being a just judge, and honest to the law, he charged the citizen a fine of ten dollars. Banging the gavel, he reached into his pocket and paid the fine then and there.  He in turn, told the crowd, for the crime of enacting laws and having an environment where a person has to steal to feed those entrusted to their care, you are each fined fifty cents. Forty-seven fifty was collected and given to the defendant. (for another version of the story, click here).

When reflecting on this story, I find that Christ is the judge who has paid the fine but we are the crowd who with the merit of our prayers and sacrifices make up for "...what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church, ..." (Colossians 1:24) Leading into this statement is: "Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking..."    We own the fifty cent fine or rather the responsibility to care for our brothers and sisters in Christ, not only their bodily needs, but also their spiritual, emotional, and intellectual needs. 

In an Advent reflection I found while in Adoration later in the week, I read these words by William of St. Thierry:

"And this is clearly the reason: you first loved us so that we might love you – not because you needed our love, but because we could not be what you created us to be, except by loving you."

and later in the same excerpt:

"You know that this disposition could not be forced on men’s hearts, my God, since you created them; it must rather be elicited. And this, for the further reason that there is no freedom where there is compulsion, and where freedom is lacking, so too is righteousness."

I urge you, brothers and sisters, to love the Lord our God, and offer Him your prayers. We become what we were created to be by loving God - and in turn loving neighbor.  This is a blessing to be aware of, but also a call to greater charity, and greater responsibility toward our neighbors, our brothers and sisters. 

I leave you with this quote by St. Faustina, courtesy of a text from a friend:

"Prayer-A soul arms itself by prayer for all kinds of combat. In whatever state the soul may be, it ought to pray. A soul which is pure and beautiful must pray, or else it will lose its beauty; a soul which is striving after his purity mus pray, or else it will never attain it; a soul which is newly converted must pray, or else it will fall again; a sinful soul, plunged in sins, must pray so that it might rise again. There is no soul which is not bound to pray, for every single grace comes to the soul through prayers." - St. Faustina