CONFRATERNITY OF PENITENTS
WEEKLY PRAYER PETITIONS LIST
Please mail prayer petitions
to Donna at donnasull@gmail.com
Please send prayer requests in
English as we are unable to translate other
languages. Thank you for understanding.
CFP Prayer List
May 13, 2012
Sixth Sunday of Easter
John 15: 9 – 17
9
As the Father has
loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love.
10
If you keep my
commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I
have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his
love.
11
These things I have
spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that
your joy may be full.
12
This is my
commandment, that you love one another as I have
loved you.
13
Greater love has no
man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friends.
14
You are my friends
if you do what I command you.
15
No longer do I call
you servants, for the servant does not know what his
master is doing; but I have called you friends, for
all that I have heard from my Father I have made
known to you.
16
You did not choose
me, but I chose you and appointed you that you
should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should
abide; so that whatever you ask the Father in my
name, he may give it to you.
17
This I command you,
to love one another.
Holy Father's Prayer Intentions for
May, 2012
General Intention:
That initiatives which defend and uphold the role of
the family may be promoted within society.
Missionary Intention:
That Mary, Queen of the World and Star of
Evangelization, may accompany all missionaries in
proclaiming her Son Jesus.
PRAYER FOR AMERICA
† ONE MINUTE EACH NIGHT
This is the scariest election we as
Christians have ever faced, and from the look of the
polls, the Christians aren’t voting Christian
values. We all need to be on our knees. Do you
believe we can take God at His word? Call upon His
name, then stand back and watch His wonders unfold.
If you would like to participate,
every evening at 9:00 PM Eastern Time (6:00 PM
Pacific), stop whatever you are doing and spend one
minute praying for the safety of the United States,
our troops, our citizens, and for peace in the
world. God Bless America!
†
Special prayers requested for God’s
abundant blessings on the Archdiocese For The
Military Services. The number of their chaplains
serving our military requires to be greatly
increased and they certainly need our continued
contributions and prayers. http://www.milarch.org
†
For all our troops
†
All the families left behind
†
For our President
† For
all heads of government and
government officials in those countries which are
involved in war.
From: Sue
§ Please continue to pray another war
may be avoided.
From: Madeline
§ Please continue your prayers for
our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI.
§ Please pray for vocations for the
priesthood and religious life and for those
discerning.
§ Please continue to pray that RI not
pay for elective abortions via taxpayers’ money or
any other means.
§ That Rhode Island not legalize gay
“marriage,” or approve taxpayer funding for
abortion.
§ That assisted suicide will be
defeated in every state where it is on the ballot.
§ Please pray for peace in the world
§ Please continue to pray for Loida
and her unborn baby. She has had a series of
miscarriages. Please pray that all goes well with
this little one.
§ Please pray that Aimee S.,
expecting to be unemployed later this year, find
employment.
§ Please pray for Fr. Andrew Cox, who
was bound and stabbed by robbers, and left to die in
his church. He was found 12 hours later.
§ Please pray for Fr. Francis Kelley,
suffering from lyme disease.
§ Please pray for a successful
thyroid operation for Debbie C, on June 22.
§ Please pray for Br. Fidelis Maria,
Br. Isaac Mary, Br. Paul Maria, and Br. Francis
Mary, who will be taking their first profession of
solemn vows in the Franciscan Brothers Minor on May
21. May God bless each of them and make their
vocations secure.
§ Please pray for continued rain in
Stockton, TX area. Rain is coming, but much more is
needed.
§ Please pray that volunteers will
come forward to assist at the Brothers of St. Dismas
Retreat, Fri. Sept. 28 – Sunday Sept. 30, at local
prison. Indoor and outdoor volunteers are needed to
bring high-energy retreat weekend to Catholic
incarcerated prisoners in Fort Stockton TX.
§ Please pray for all seminarians,
especially those approaching ordination.
§ Please pray for a blessed and
joyous Easter season.
§ For the needs and intentions of the
Bob Campbell, SFO prayer list, the Holy Innocence
Prayer line, the Molonlabe Prayer List, Half the
Kingdom Prayer line, the Virtual Rosary, and the
Francis Ministry Prayercast. Please also pray for
the prayer intentions of the prayer lists of The
Power of Prayer and Our Lady of Sorrows and Infant
Jesus of Prague Prayer List, Haven of Refuge Prayer
Group, and Hugh Bodey’s list.
§ Continued prayers for Mareena and
her baby, Father Julian, Father John, Mother
Angelica, Karis Almy, Deacon Joseph Pasquella and
his wife Kathy, Ashli McCall, Amy Yerkes, the
McCarthy family.
From: Sandi M.
§ Please pray for my daughter-in-law,
Maxine, and the child she carries.
From: Rita
§ Please pray for Audrey’s friend
Jeremy’s dad. Rick went in for a triple bypass on
Thursday, which ended up being very serious – 6
bypass, and he’s not recovering well. He’s not
breathing on his own or totally conscious yet. He
started coming around some last night, but had
serious pain, so they had to give him more meds.
Doctors say he should have been sitting up and
talking after a couple of days. They are really
worried. Docs are wondering if there was some other
unknown condition with his lungs, and feel they have
to get him off the ventilator.
From: Karen
§ Dan’s first granddaughter, 4 weeks
old, born with half a heart, passed away. Please
pray for him and the baby’s parents.
From: Patty
§ The Lincoln family (my daughter
Melissa’s in-laws) had a fire and lost their home.
The Red Cross put them up in a hotel for the last 5
days, but that time is up. They are not sure where
they are going to stay. Please pray for God’s
provision and healing in this situation.
From: Deacon Len Farmer:
§ Please pray for Maria, who has been
out of work for one and a half years. Her savings
have run out and what little assistance she gets is
being cut off at the end of the month. I told her
our pray-ers would pray for her, and to expect
nothing short of a miracle, so let’s not disappoint
her, and offer up our prayers.
From: Tom
§ Please pray for Michael. He was
admitted to the hospital about two weeks ago with
shortness of breath and a red foot. Diagnoses:
congestive heart failure (due to atrial fibrillation
and some cardiac decompensation, now successfully
treated), and a foot infection (also successfully
treated). He is tired of fighting and readily agreed
to hospice care. It appears he has come to the
conclusion that the end is near.
From: Regina
§ Both Tom and I were away when
Michael was in the hospital, and he refused to let
them notify us. Some days he does not even make eye
contact with us. It is sad to see him there and he
is wilting on the vine with so little stimulation.
He speaks little, if at all. Please pray for him.
From: Joanne D.
§ Please pra for Msgr. Bob Servatius,
who will be having quadruple bypass (and a possible
valve replacement) this Thursday, May 10. Please
keep him in your prayers during surgery and during
recovery. He expects to spend about a week in the
hospital, and then will have 6 weeks or so of
recovery.
From: Flor
§ Please pray for Nick, an
18-year-old fine young man, who is battling a very
aggressive type of bacterial meningitis. He is the
nephew of a good friend of ours, and cousin of one
of my boys’ good friends. Please pray for him and
the doctors and nurses taking care of him, and his
family. May God, for whom nothing is impossible,
give them strength and peace so they can face
whatever is His Will for them.
From: Mike M.
§ Please pray for Lisa S’s recovery
from a major stroke and more recently, a kidney
infection, for Tommy K’s continuing battle with
cancer and heart disease, and Terry M’s continuing
battle with prostrate cancer.
From: Maria D.
§ Please pray for my dad Norris, who
is 91, in a nursing home, and recuperating from
pneumonia as well as a brain blood clot.
§ Please pray for my tgravel to make
sure of my dad’s care, as well as to take care of
some legal and financial matters, and to make
arrangements for his funeral.
§ Please pray for my sister, Luisa,
who is waiting on word from her insurance company
for her spinal fusion surgery. She is in a lot of
daily, paralyzing pain. Doctors have added to this
the discovery of several ‘dots’ in one of her
breasts and will be doing biopsies this Thursday,
May 17.
§ Please pray for my own health as my
cervical spinal stenosis, cervical osteoarthritis,
and cervical spurs are causing widespread pain and
daily limitation in my mobility.
§ Please pray for a young unmarried
pregnant woman who is due to deliver this month, and
for assistance in all her needs as a new mom (with a
6-year old boy already), and their needs for good
health, housing, employment, and stability.
§ Please pray for my niece, who at 35
is pregnant with her first child, and her husband,
Greg, that this may be a healthy, uneventful
pregnancy with a healthy, much-hoped-for delivery.
§ UPDATE: Had asked for prayers for
my nephew, Shawn, and the short sale of his home. An
offer has been received and awaiting the response
from the bank. Thank you, Lord, and thanks to all
those who prayed for this. May the bank accept the
proposal if it is the Lord’s will.
From: Donna S.
§ Please pray for the health and
well-being of Fr. John Connelly and Fr. Paul
Sullivan.
§ Please pray for all who have left
the Church, and for all who do not believe in God.
§ Please pray for the repose of the
soul of Richard Connors, who died suddenly on
Wednesday, May 9.
§ Please pray my sister, Cynthia
Weaver, for successful brain surgery on May 15, and
for her healing after the surgery.
From: Peter R.
§ Please pray for Mike, a recently
graduated law student, who has just found out that
he has cancer. Pray for peace for him and his family
and loved ones, and that God guide the minds and
skills of his doctors.
From: Wanda
§ This morning Ann Marie, 38-year-old
mother of four passed away after a long battle with
breast cancer. Please pray in Jesus’ name for the
repose of her sul, and for comfort for the family.
§ Please pray in Jesus’ name for the
healing of Dominique Hall, 16-years old and very
ill, and for peace and trust for the family.
From: John
§ Please pray for a priest looking
for a place to live.
From: Fr. Julian
§ Please pray for Sister Mary, from
Marshfield, MA, who is due to have back surgery and
is in great pain.
From: Rita F.
§ Please pray for Rick LaClair, my
daughter’s boyfriend’s dad. He had heart surgery
last Thursday (6 bypasses) and is still in ICU and
not doing well at all. Today, he seems to have gone
into crisis, with not breathing again.
From: Antoinette
§ Please pray for my sister-in-law,
Joseph’s wife, who’s been in for two ops this week,
one to remove polyps and then for some cancer, which
may or may not have spread to the rest of her body.
She’s in the hospital for the moment and will be
going home Thursday.
From: Debbie and Steve
§ Steve is out of the hospital, with
fluids literally weeping out of his legs. He is
very, very ill; I see fear in his eyes. We need
miracles. Please pray!
From: Gina:
§ Please hold Michael L. in your
prayers as his time is short. Please pray that he
sees a priest, wears the brown scapular being mailed
to him, and sets his soul in order as he prepares to
meet the Lord.
From: Mercedes
§ Please pray for the Holy Father,
priests, and religious.
§ Please pray for all the elderly and
those who care for them.
§ Pray that the Holy Spirit will
assist the Leadership Conference of Women Religious
to understand concerns raised by the Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith’s recent assessment,
and that they will have the grace to humbly
cooperate with Archbishop Sartain in reforming the
conference.
§ Please pray that the young child,
6-year-old Isabel Mercedes Celis, missing in Tucsan,
Arizona will be returned to her family very soon,
safe and sound.
§ Please pray for the 37 souls whose
bodies were found on a Mexican highway and for the
conversion of the drug gangs who have left bodies
scattered in public places in Mexico, as warnings to
rivals, over the past several months
§ Please pray for the soul of Pepe V
and for his family.
§ Please pray for all affected by the
sex abuse scandal in Pennsylvania.
§ Last month Eulalia Auqui Gomez
passed away. She battled a rare autoimmune disease
known as scleroderma, and as she grew weaker and
weaker, her final battle was lost with a heart
attack on July 11. Eulalia died at age 46, leaving
behind four children (two boys and two girls) as
well as her husband. Please lift her up to Our Lord,
to ask for the eternal repose of her soul, and for
help, peace, and consolation for her family.
§ Please pray for Sebastian, who
recently graduated high school, and will be going to
university in August. May Our Blessed Mother be with
him to love and guide. His parents, although raised
Catholic, do not go to Mass or receive the
sacraments. Sebastian probably has not received any
type of Catholic instruction. I know he was
baptized, but have no idea if he ever received
confirmation.
§ Please pray for all mothers.
§ Please pray for all alcoholics and
their families.
§ Please pray for the defeat of all
propositions to legalize homosexual unions anywhere.
§ Please pray for the Holy Spirit to
instill in Catholics a faithful obedience to the
Magisterium, and a strong desire to actively
participate in the political life of their
respective countries, as a force of good.
§ Please pray for a personal
intention. Thank you for your prayers.
There is an urgent need for
rosaries to help the missionaries. The Family Rosary
in cooperation with Lewis and Company, a rosary
parts supplier since 1950, is addressing the need
with a Free Missionary Rosary Kit for all people who
would like to help the missionaries. Call
800.342.2400 and request your free kit if you are
willing to make rosaries for the missions. The
Rosaries are distributed through the Family Rosary,
on the World Wide Web at: www.familyrosary.org.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT AND PRAYER
Practices Necessary to Attain the
Spiritual Life
From
The Practice of the Presence of God
By Brother Lawrence of the
Resurrection
1. The holiest, most common, most
necessary practice in the spiritual life is the
presence of God, that is to take delight in and
become accustomed to His divine company, speaking
humbly and talking lovingly to Him at all times, at
every moment, without rule or system and especially
in times of temptation, suffering, spiritual
aridity, disgust and even of unfaithfulness and sin.
2
We must continually
work hard so that each of our actions is a way of
carrying on little conversations with God, not in
any carefully prepared way but as it comes from
the purity and simplicity of the heart.
3. We must carry out all of our
actions, without the impetuosity and precipitancy of
a distraught mind; it is necessary to work
peacefully, tranquilly, and lovingly with God,
begging him to accept our work, and by this
continual mindfulness of God we shall crush the head
of the devil and cause his weapons to fall from his
hands.
2.
During our work and
other activities, during our spiritual reading and
writing, even more so during our formal devotions
and spoken prayers we should stooften as we can, for
a moment, to adore God from the bottom of our
hearts, to savor Him, by stealth as it were, as He
passes by. Since you know God is with you in all
your actions, that He is in the deepest recesses of
your soul, why not, from time to time, leave off
your external activities and even more your spoken
prayers to adore Him inwardly, to praise Him, to
petition Him, to offer Him your heart and to give
Him thanks?
What can be more agreeable to God
than to withdraw thus many times a day from the
things of man to retire into ourselves and adore Him
interiorly; in addition these interior retreats to
God gradually free us by destroying the self love
which can exist only among our fellow human beings.
And finally, we can give God no
greater witness of our fidelity than in renouncing
and despising time and again material things to be
with our Creator for a single moment.
I do not mean by this that you should
always set aside your external activities, that is
not possible; but prudence, which is the mother of
the virtues, can guide you; nevertheless, I say that
it is a common error among spiritual persons not to
leave the external world to adore God inwardly and
to enjoy peacefully a few moments of His divine
presence.
This digression has been lengthy but
I thought the matter deserved this full explanation.
3.
All these acts of
adoration should be made by faith, knowing that God
is truly in our hearts, that we must adore, love and
serve Him in spirit and in truth,
that He sees everything that
happens and will happen to us and to all His
creatures, that He is independent of everything and
all creatures depend on
Him; He is infinitely
perfect and by His infinite excellence and sovereign
domain deserves our whole beings and everything on
heaven and on earth, all of
which He can dispose as He
pleases in time and in eternity; in justice we owe
Him all our thoughts, our words and our actions. Let
us make sure we do.
6. We must carefully ascertain
what virtues we most need, which are the most
difficult to acquire, the sins we fall into most
often, and the most frequent and
unavoidable occasions of such
falls; in times of temptation we should have
recourse to God with complete confidence, remain
steadfast in His Divine
Majesty, adore Him humbly,
tell Him of our troubles and weaknesses and ask Him
lovingly for the help of His grace, and we will find
in Him all the
virtues we ourselves lack.
