Pastor’s Pen – February 3, 2023
Here’s something to consider during these winter days when most of us spend more time indoors. Did you know our parish has an intercessory prayer ministry? This group of parishioner volunteers have agreed to pray for the occasional prayer requests of other parishioners. I would like to invite you to consider joining this group of pray-ers. It could be one way to increase your spiritual focus this coming Lent! See below for how you can submit your own prayer requests to the group.
It is an easy ministry to be part of. A weekly email brings the requests to your inbox. You pray on your own schedule, whenever it works for you. You pray for as long or as briefly as you wish. I imagine some of our pray-ers can only pray for 5 minutes when they receive the email request; others might pray for the intentions every day, or for longer periods. You pray entirely at your own convenience – yet you have the spiritual consolation of knowing that you are not alone, that your prayers are joined with those of your fellow parishioners, united in seeking God’s good gifts for those who have expressed a need.
If you would like to join or get more information, please send me an email (pastor@ssppjesuit.org).
The ministry extends to our Sunday liturgy. You may notice a wooden box being carried up in the entrance procession and placed near the lectern. This “ark of petitions” contains written prayer requests people have submitted for themselves or for someone else. These petitions are included collectively in our General Intercessions (the “Prayer of the Faithful”) that we pray each Sunday after the Creed.
You can submit any prayer need you have by dropping it in the brown wooden box on the table by the side entrance to the nave. Pen and paper for this purpose are nearby. The reason we use a box instead of a book is to protect your privacy – no one else can see what you wrote. You can include names or not – but the pray-ers do prefer to know the names of those they’re praying for. Rest assured your prayer request won’t be read aloud during the liturgy. Each week after mass the requests are taken from the box and sent out to the intercessory prayer ministry group, who keep the requests strictly confidential. You can also submit prayer requests online by emailing them to sspp-prayer@googlegroups.com. Reports of thanksgiving for answered prayer are also most welcome! We all are lifted up by hearing about the good things God is doing in our midst!