Furthermore…

Tonight  at 6 will be the first gathering of our little group observing the St. Jude Novena.  The lady who organizes it here has a great devotion to the saint based on some grand favors that she received from him in her past life. She provides little booklets that contain prayers and directions on how to proceed with the devotion.

From judenovenea.org I present the background that St. Jude “is often referred to as the ‘Forgotten Saint’ due to being confused with Judas Iscariot, another apostle who later went on to betray Jesus. As a result, devotion to St. Jude was generally avoided and only those in the most desperate circumstances would call upon his assistance. This resulted in him being referred to as the ‘Patron saint of desperate cases’. St. Jude also stressed in his New Testament letter of the need to persevere in harsh and difficult circumstances.

Devotion to St. Jude began in earnest in the 1800s and has now spread to all parts of the world with Christian infulence. The Novena to St. Jude as it has come to be said in modern days is a powerful prayer which when said devoutly and with great faith will result in graces being granted but in some cases individuals may find great peace and strength to overcome adversity and misfortune.”

A prayer guide for the St. Junde Novena is found at http://www.prayerbook.com/Novenas/judenove.htm .  A sample:

“DAY ONE

O blessed apostle St. Jude, who labored zealously among the Gentiles in many lands, and performed numerous miracles in needy and despairing cases, we invoke you to take special interest in us and our needs. We feel that you understand us in a particular way. Hear our prayers and our petitions and plead for us in all our necessities especially. (mention your request) May we be patient in learning God’s holy will and courageous in carrying it out. Amen.

St. Jude, pray for us.

My Jesus, mercy.

Prayer –

The St. Jude Novena Prayer

St. Jude, glorious apostle, faithful servant and friend of Jesus, the name of the traitor has caused you to be forgotten by many. But the Church honors and invokes you universally as the patron of hopeless cases, and of things despaired of. Pray for me who am so distressed. Make use, I implore you, of that particular privilege accorded you to bring visible and speedy help where help was almost despaired of. Come to my assistance in this great need that I may receive the consolation and succor of Heaven in all my necessities, tribulations and sufferings, particularly, (mention your request) and that I may bless God with you and all the elect throughout eternity. St. Jude, apostle, martyr, and relative of our Lord Jesus Christ, of Mary, and of Joseph, intercede for us!”

You don’t have to be hopeless to pray to St. Jude!

A couple of days ago there was scheduled a demonstration of prayer outside the local abortuary. I had some free time so I went over to take part. I expected that there would be 25 or so people grouped there, for there had been a fair amount of publicity, but when I got there one one woman was present.  It struck me that one of the temptations not to come was that I would feeel a little abashed at presenting myself before a bunch of zealots, and there certainly was no cause for that  reservation.

The woman had a big plastic sign that required 2 people to hold it, so we got the sign opened up and facing the street that passes in front of the abortion mill. A third person then showed up, a Philippine woman carrying a large unbrella to keep the intense sun at bay. We began our prayers, and shortly still another woman showed up, this time with both umbrella and chair.  After we had prayed awhile, a young man pulled up in his car and offered to and did  get us some cold water, a touching sign of his solidarity with our intentions. The rest of the session was largely uneventful, save a few people in passing cars showing a little support by a honk or other sign or encourgement.

So often we say The Apostles Creed.   It caught my attention, therefore, when the other day on a Catholic radio show I  heard someone remark that it isn’t so much a prayer as a declaration of faith. I already realized this at some level, but still, pretty much thought of it mostly as a prayer.  Thinking it over, I considered that in prayer we talk to God, while professions of faith are most commonly made to others, together with fellow believers, or as a witness to unbelievers. Surely, when we say the Apostles Creed we usually are speaking to, as well as about, God.  But, I thought, couldn’t it be, with a few small changes, be more directly addressed to God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit?  Thus:

I believe in You, God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. And in You, Jesus Christ, His only Son Our Lord. You were  conceived by the Holy Spirit.  You were born of  the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, were crucified, died, and were buried. You descended into hell.  The third day You arose again from the dead. You ascended into heaven, sit at the right hand of God, Our Father Almighty. From thence You shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in You,  Holy Spirit,  [end of changes] the holy, catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everalsting. Amen.

I was fortunate enough to tune into EWTN at the time there was an interview with two people from a foundation devoted to furthering sacred art. One of them was a lady convert devoted to fine art and its place in the Church. I was pleased to  learn of their current mounting of an art exhibit devoted to works concerned with the Rosary.  The gentleman in his portion of the interview spoke interestingly about religious music.

Catching this program greatly pleased me in connection with my interest in finding some way to bring into reality  music that might enhance the experience of praying and meditating on the Rosary by contributing to creating moods and feelings consistent with the content of the Rosary Mysteries, as discussed in a March 22, 2009 post here.

I was at a prayer meeting earlier this week and I had one of those experiences whereby a sense of unity and clarity comes to the fore, bringing confidence and hope that things which have been at odds and troublesome within now have been integrated. I’ve never had a good sense of spiritual community or communion. Most of my religious awareness, such as it was,  has always been about me myself cultivating the right kind of relationship with God, the Blessed Mother, the angels and the saints.  But this recent weekend I very much more felt like I was in union with the people around me and untold numbers of others not present, in their families and associations as well as in my own.

I had been watchinga number of  TV presentations about St. Padre Pio and I think my mind switched over from its usual way of of seeing everything through my own individual viewpoint and instead seeing me as just a member of a wide communality, similar to the way the Saint was caringly aware of all the needs and trials of the people who cried out to him. As I sat in the prayer group I looked about at the twenty or so other members and saw each one as a partner in a benign awareness of God’s realm.  About the same time a parade of my relatives, friends and acquaintances passed through my mental notice and I quickly prayed or wished well for each one, almost as though I had a rubber stamp or magic wand that made praying for them brisk and efficient.

The frame of mind hasn’t lingered since, although a memory of it persists and my general outlook has changed a little, as I realize that there is a better way of focusing on His Kingdom with a sense of the importance of others, keeping them in the awareness of who is involved.

Last night I was at a prayer meeting, and one of the steps in these meetings is always for individuals to speak out petitions to the Lord.   A lot of the people, myself included,  had friends and family members suffering from health or other difficulties that we placed before the Lord. I only had one, so as others were naming theirs, I simultaneously sorted through my circumstances, wondering if there was still something else to mention.  The thought came to me that there are so many all-encompassing things to ask for that we, as lay people, just skip over and take for granted. Perhaps a priest or nun, more in touch with the Kingdom of God, might bring them to mind: shower us with more grace, strengthen our resolve to do Your will, soften the hearts of the greedy and powerful, dispel the widespread ignorance and misinformation about the Church.  There were some petitions along this line, of course, but I always have, when I hear such petitions, that they are sort of self-evident or assumed or bland, and so sweeping that even if they are granted they won’t impact us noticeably, as would the healing of Mama’s foot or Dad finally finding a job.

This week we considered the readings of the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle B).  We don’t usually spend much time discussing the day’s Psalm.  A lot of the meditations and reviews of  Sunday readings don’t even allude to the psalm at all. The Psalms seem to exist in a world of their own, a world of sensitive, personal awareness of God, an awareness apart from the logical-sounding historical and doctrinal observations that attach so naturally to the Old and New Testament passages and the Epistles.  The kinds of comments that the other readings bring to mind don’t apply to or flow so readily from the psalms, unfortunately.  After a psalm reading I usually have the thought  ‘What is there to say about that?’.

But this week our meeting’s leader, after the Psalm (Psalm 146) had been read, found a note in her Bible which had the same ring of thoughtful analysis as commonly is appropriate for the other readings.  I have a new hope that we will find some source book that will allow us to have something intelligent and satisfying to consider about the psalms we read in future weeks.

I always thought of the ‘our’ in ‘Our Father’ as referring to Holy God being the common Father of all us people, and it served to get us to stop thinking ‘me thoughts’ and to switch over to ‘us thoughts.’  But for some reason it suddenly struck me that the Lord Jesus might have been pointing us more particularly to the realization that God is  our Father as well as His Father, and since Jesus  knows Him so well we are being brought to and introduced to Our Father in a very special way through the gift of the prayer the Lord gave us as an example of how to pray.

Likely we could never come up with anything even remotely as well suited to addressing our Great God than what we received from Our Savior. The switching over to ‘us thoughts’ from ‘me thoughts’ in relation to Our Father still takes place, butperhaps it is only secondary to remembering that Our Heavenly Father is first of all the Father of His Son, the God Man.

First, the Angel Gabriel says “Hail Mary, Full of Grace. The Lord is with You.” The Angel’s voice must have been otherworldly, yet beautiful, heard by no one but Mary. Then St. Elizabeth, with a mature woman’s voice said, “Blessed are you, among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” If creating a production of these voices, the Angel’s and Elizabeth’s would have to be clearly different one from the other to avoid any impression of their being the same and flowing together. The “Jesus” might be sung or otherwise enhanced to carry a strong impression of loving worship. A chorus might be used here, suggestive of the angelic choirs imagined serenading the shepherds out in the fields at the time of Christ’s birth.

The rest, “Holy Mary, Mother of God” and so on, to the Amen, might be done in loose combination of everyday voices, such as might be heard when a small mixed group is saying the Rosary. The Amen might also be included this way, although an emphatic finale could be achieved with some musical accompaniment here and an elaborately chanted Amen.

Last night I was at a charismatic prayer group I have gratefully attended a few times. Toward the end one of the members had a heavy burden, and we all gathered around to pray for it being removed from the person. I wanted to suggest we say a Hail Mary, which I remembered reading is particularly effective against such problems as the one we were praying against. But the others started praying as in tongues, so I joined in after a fashion, saying the Hail Mary but in a kind of garbled, unrecognizable way, so that it blended in with the other wordless voices satisfactorily. My “prayer” over, the others were still continuing. So I repeated mine, and again, and again. I’m not aware of having the tongues gift, or inclination: the nearest I come is an emotional ‘ooooh’ and ‘ohhhhh” once in a while as the others do it, and maybe a somewhat reserved ‘Yes Lord’ once in a while. It’s not much, but it’s all that I’ve got.