The Road to Renewal  — What You Can Do …. The Power of Prayer!

The Road to Renewal  — What You Can Do …. The Power of Prayer!
 
Prayer is talking to God. The personal God to whom we pray is the all loving, all-powerful Creator, Who brings all things to goodness. The Lord intervenes in our lives through the graces of the Holy Spirit to recreate us by His Son. God is a loving parent, Who cares about our needs and concerns. The types of prayers that we use that help us to communicate with God are (1) Blessings & Adoration, (2) Praise, (3) Supplication (humble request) and  Petition, (4) Intercession, and (5) Thanksgiving and Gratitude. (CCC-2623-2625)
 
We have many prayers that we offer up in communicating our needs, wants, desires or  expressing our thoughts, our ideas and inner emotions. Besides our formal prayers such as the powerful model of all prayer that Our Lord taught us in the Our Father, or others heard, written through or inspired by  Sacred Scripture like the Hail Mary and the Glory Be, we also have many written by saints, within our devotions and those we compose ourselves. Prayer can be either communally prayed with    others, or by ourselves and can be expressed aloud in words and in song, or in private aloud or silently.
 
As Catholics, our greatest expression of communal prayer is the Eucharist (meaning Thanksgiving) that we pray together fully during each Mass. In our linked parish communities of the Basilica of  St. Mary of the Angels and St. John the Evangelist Church we have begun to say particular formal prayers besides those that are part of the order of Mass that are presented at different times within our Eucharistic celebration which we pray communally.
 
Prayer of Intercession said at the end of our   Prayers of the Faithful for our most vulnerable  and our young whom Venerable Baker  championed:   
   
 VENERABLE NELSON BAKER
Lord, you gave us Your Servant Nelson Baker as an example of service to the poor, homeless and the young.  By Father Baker's ardent concern for those in need, inflame our hearts and lives with compassion for the poor,    justice for the oppressed, hope for the troubled and courage to those in doubt.
We pray through the intercession of Nelson Baker that our young people and those most vulnerable may know a  complete healing and through the intercession of Our Lady of Victory, if it be Your will, that Your Servant, Nelson Baker,  may one day be canonized. Amen.

Prayer of supplication and petition to be prayed  at the end of our Mass celebrated to St. Michael  the Archangel requesting him to intercede for us  to God to help us conquer all physical and moral evils and forces in the world that threaten us during these uncertain and challenging times. 

ST. MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL, defend us in battle.  Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, cast into hell, Satan and all evil spirits who prowl through the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.
 
As we begin our venture of renewing our Catholic Community in Olean and Allegany to be a strong presence of God in our Family of Families in the Diocese of Buffalo, we are given this prayer involving Mary,     Undoer of Knots.  We will proclaim this request for blessing and guidance using Divine Intervention through the Holy Spirit  within our gatherings in groups or alone so as to help us spread God’s Kingdom, the Lord’s Mission of goodness in our area and beyond.
 
PRAYER FOR RENEWAL
In every age, O God, you have called us to be your people, to be your Church.
In this time, we begin anew to discern the pathways that will lead us, your people, closer to you.
Continually Bless our journey as we proclaim your Good news, celebrate your saving presence among us, serve others with charity and justice, and steward the world you have entrusted to our care. Send your Spirit to lead and guide our Emmaus journey as we commit ourselves to the renewal of our Church. This we ask through Christ our Lord..  Amen.

Let us take action and each contribute to the Road to Renewal process by lifting all up in prayer and asking for God’s Will to become ours.

"For me, prayer is a burst from my heart, it is a simple glance thrown toward Heaven, a cry of thanksgiving  and love in times of trial as well as in times of joy." -- St. Therese of Lisieux

 
Fr. John