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Did you know that in Hebrew the
expression for Church was qhai YHWH – “the assembly of
the Lord,” or “assembly around the Lord.” It means
that when we come together in prayer, we are assembling
in the same way as the first disciples in the upper room
at Pentecost. We come as one before the table of the
Lord, united in mind and heart. We come to work for the
kingdom of God because we have been set free by Jesus to
proclaim the good news by our lives, our prayers, and
our words. This is just a bit of what Church means.
Therefore,
fellow brothers and sisters of the assembly of the Lord,
we continue to pray for the Church. We continue to pray
for priests, religious, and all who serve the Church in
any capacity. We continue to pray for the Renewal, for
revival and a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit on all
as on Pentecost. We continue to pray for the healing of
all in the Church. We pray for all the intentions of
the Holy Father. We continue to pray for strength for
the Church. We pray that the Church reflect Jesus and
His mission to all, especially those in the church. We
pray that all of us from the least to the greatest
become the people of God, alive in the power and
strength of the Holy Spirit, lifting Jesus higher so
that all men may come to experience and accept the love
of God as well as the saving knowledge of Jesus!
We invite you to continue to pray for the Church, the
intentions listed above, or other specific needs of the
Church. May we all become one! Come Holy Spirit renew
us! Come Holy Spirit, let the Fire fall! Jesus is
Lord! Jesus is alive!
(Darlene Czop
is on staff at the DCCR, a member of the DCCR Assembly,
and a core team member of the Bread of Life – Life of
the World Prayer Group at St. Lucy Church in St. Clair
Shores, Michigan.) |
 When I pray the first part of the NOW word, I find that the Lord is
inviting not only me but all of us to “COME.” It is a
strong invitation to come into His presence. Imagine –
the Lord of lords, King of kings, waits ever so
patiently for our response. What an awesome God! What
a patient lover of our hearts! Nothing is too small for
Him. Nothing is too large for Him. His love is so
great that He robes us in His righteousness. How gentle
He is! He says that He is only as close to us as we
allow Him to be. Never does He force himself but He
respects our free will. He waits, He invites. All He
asks is that we come to Him as we are.
I don’t know how this affects you, but I have to ask
myself, “Am I putting Him first? Do I take the time for
Him, or do I put Him on ‘hold’ while I attend to other
matters? Do I allow Jesus to get close to me or do I
keep him at arm’s length? Do I call out to Him as He
desires, or do I forget and think it’s all up to me? Do
I let my failures, difficulties and weaknesses get in
the way?”
The
truth is that I am guilty of all the above. But as I
have come to accept my imperfections, I have discovered,
as Paul did in Romans, that the Lord still loves
me, hasn’t forsaken me, gives me all the graces I need,
is transforming me, is ever so patient with me,
continues to invite me and call me to a deeper
relationship of trust and confidence in Him and His
word.
So my prayer is, “Help Me Lord to draw close to You, to
love You totally and completely, to follow You without
reserve and respond wholeheartedly to You. Help me to
love others and myself as You love me, and hold out my
hands and heart to all as You do to me.” This is what
the “Call” of the Lord means to me. What does it mean
to you? |
