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THE MANTLE [Please send your prayer requests to pray@marianmantle.com or maryann@marianmantle.com] Marian Mantle Prayer Group Update For August 25, 2006 ************************************************** ++MESSAGE FROM THE COORDINATOR ++PRAYER INTENTIONS ++GOD'S WORD FOR US ++WORDS OF HOPE ++FYI ************************************************** ++MESSAGE FROM THE COORDINATOR Hi, Everyone, We continue to hear good things about the new rosary novena recording. Bob and I keep one in the car and a few days ago it really was needed. I came down with either a cold or an allergy for a couple of days. I wasn’t sick but my nose thought I should be and my voice was pretty sad. I couldn’t begin to talk out loud long enough to pray the rosary with Bob. (yes, yes, I heard that! Those who know me are thinking “Bob probably didn’t know what to do with the peace and quiet for a couple of days!”) But, it made me realize how someone who does not have a partner to pray with them might use this recording to remind them that they are not alone in this fight to bring a loved one back to the Eucharist. That is the reason it was suggested that I consider recording the novena in the beginning. I pray that it will help anyone who prays along with it to persevere in prayer “for as long as it takes.” My friend called this week to tell me her oldest granddaughter started kindergarten. She said, “There didn’t seem to be any trauma for Alison. She walked into the classroom with a smile, dropped her mother’s hand and never looked back. It was much more difficult for Grandma.” Her words reminded me of an article I read recently. It’s written by a Canadian priest. I think his words might apply especially to us as we pray for prodigal loved ones. We may sometimes may wonder if God has forgotten us. Perhaps these Excerpts from Father Ron Rolheiser “Dark nights of the soul test our faith” will help us through tomorrow’s tough times and build our faith and trust in God’s love and mercy. (Read the entire article at http://www.wcr.ab.ca/columns/rolheiser/2004/rolheiser122704.shtml …………… “[Faith in Christ] does not mean that those who believe in him will be spared the pain, loneliness, seasons of sickness, heartaches, betrayals, anxieties, fears and humiliations that afflict everyone else. Believers…will suffer too the darkness of doubt. Faith in Christ doesn't remove any of the pains inherent within the human condition. What it does promise is that God will be with us so that we do not have to walk … alone. We walk in the same world as everyone else, but, like a young child holding on to her mother's hand as she walks into school for the first time, we are not alone, a trusted, sustaining, guiding love walks with us. But that explanation too can feel pretty empty on any given day. If God is walking beside us, hand in ours, why don't we feel that more really? Because believers, like everyone else, are not exempt from the trial of faith, from the darkness of doubt, from those emotional and spiritual dark nights that can crush us, bring us to our knees and can make us cry out in fear that God has abandoned us, as happened to Jesus on the cross. Part of being human…is the experience of God's seeming absence. [When] Moses asks God to see his face, God answers that this is impossible because nobody can see God's face and live. He put[s] his hand over Moses' face, and then pass[es] by, so that Moses will get to see his, God's, back, though never his face. Generally we struggle to feel God in the present moment…when we turn around and look back in our lives…we more easily see how God has been there all along and how we have walked in a divine presence, protection, and love that were imperceptible at the time but are clear in retrospect. We see God more clearly in our past than in our present. We see God's back more than we see God's face. Faith doesn't promise us a ladder to crawl out of the pains of life, it promises a friend to walk with through those pains. Mostly though it's only when we look back in our lives that we see that this friend has always been there.” ……………. May God grant each of us the perseverance of St. Monica and the unconditional love of the father of the Prodigal Son. May the day come swiftly when we, too, are able to say “the child for whom I have prayed has come home.” Peace, MaryAnn ………………………… PRAYER INTENTIONS FOR August 25, 2006 [Prayer intentions submitted to this group are shared only in the semi-weekly email update sent to members of the online prayer group. Please keep all of us and our prodigals in your prayers--just as we will pray for you.]
+Our Lady of
Sorrows, pray for us and for our children. ………………………………………… GOD'S WORD FOR US
The LORD is faithful in all his words, and gracious in all his deeds. The LORD is just in all his ways, and kind in all his doings. The LORD is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth. ~Psalm 145 ………………………………………. WORDS OF HOPE
God, the Creator of all things, is so full of mercy and compassion that whatever may be the grace for which we stretch out our hands, we shall not fail to receive it. ~St Bernard ………………………………………. FOR YOUR INFORMATION (FYI)
+Print Newsletter: You should have received your copy of the newsletter by now. If you don’t, please let us know and we’ll send one. New members, if we do not have your postal address we can’t mail a copy to you. Please email ASAP. Thanks.
+Stamp Contributors. My heartfelt thanks to those who continue to send stamps to help with the newsletter mailing. We continue to try to provide the newsletter at no cost. Your help with postage continues to make it possible. God bless each of you.
+ Please print a copy of this update and take it to your next prayer meeting to share prayer requests, etc with everyone.
+Share the Good News: If you have seen prayers being answered in regards to a loved one beginning to turn back to the Church please send me an email about it. We need to hear these praise reports to spur us on to continue in prayer and trust. First names only, please. As always we will keep all names anonymous if you wish. Write now, please.
+Please forgive me if I have missed your prayer request or other email or phone request. I assure you it was unintentional. Just contact me again and I will try to answer your questions, etc. ~MaryAnn
Audio Recording of Rosary Novena for Prodigals: ++Again, with great joy I tell you this is completed and available. This is a 2-CD or 2-Cassette Tape Set. ++Be sure to indicate if you want CDs or Cassette Tapes. ++Suggested donation for Audio Rosary Novena is $10 for 2-CD set or 2-Cassette Tape Set ++email your order, or send to Marian Mantle Group, PO Box 434, Gardner, KS 66030
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