Vincentian Day of Prayer and Fast Tuesday September 24, 2013

We must pray for peace.  Almost 100 Christians killed in Pakistan and many injured including children.  Continued killing in Nigeria.  So much violence against the innocent!  Pray for those mourning the loss of their children, friends, neighbors and family members.  There were Canadian and American losses as well, innocent people doing their work.  Lord hear us as we fast and pray for peace.  Amen

Love as Jesus Does! – Conquer your Giants! – We are not the whole Church! – What is failure?

My dear Vincentian Family.  May peace always be with you. Pray always for those you serve and for those you serve with.  Pray for peace, first within yourself and then branch out.  We can’t do it all; however we can do much.  Our prayers for others are a wonderful beginning. Pray for those who disagree with us and pray we understand the disagreement.  Pray for the weak and strong and pray for holiness.

Love as Jesus Does!  Are you afraid to love as Jesus does?  Jesus is alive today and is helping us as we serve.  We must understand our mission – our calling.  We cannot begin to understand our mission if we do not know and understand the mission of Jesus and the relationships between us and our mission with Jesus.  In John we read and we know full well we are chosen to be  Vincentians.  We are chosen to continue the work of the master.  He calls us a friend, no more a slave.  We are called to enter into Jesus; enter into the living Jesus and continue His journey embraced with the Father’s love.  We must wash each other’s feet as Jesus did and we do it not of duty, but of love.  Jesus was real, not a mythical character.  He was a person of action.  He walked through the darkest waters of life and did so with love and gratitude.  We are chosen.  Do not be afraid.

Conquer your Giants! This past week I attended 2 retreats.  One self retreat based on “Facing Your Giants” by Max Lucado and one in my home parish as a call and celebration of ministry.  Both were spiritually uplifting.  You know these things, so why do they crash against us.  We need that silence.  We cannot find God in noise or agitation…. In silence He listens to us; in silence He speaks to our souls. In silence we are granted the privilege of listening to His voice:  Silence of our eyes. Silence of our ears; Silence of our mouths; Silence of our minds. In the silence of the heart God will speak.

Know your giant.  We all have them.  You must face your giant in order to be fully present to your family, those we serve and to be the person you are called to be.  Your giant greets you first thing in the morning and keeps you awake at night.  Know that all we serve have a giant.  Help them to conquer it.  As Max Lucado says on page five in his book, “David was God-focus – versus giant focus.  Name your giant – money, relationship, addiction, poor management.  It can also be a fear of normal things.  My giant, now conquered seems simple.  I was terrified of bridges; not heights, or water, just bridges.  When I got cancer, I thought I was so strong and turned to prayer at a healing service.  My giant came forward.  It was a huge bridge and on the bridge was Jesus.  His hand was reaching out to me.  Quite a bit went through my mind and the end result, I reached out to Jesus and He walked me over the bridge.  “Max Lucado tells us to rush our giants with God saturated souls.”  I like that, facing everything saturated with God.  This is why we pray and especially for those we serve.

We are not the whole Church!  This is something I thought about after the church retreat.  We have the Vincentian Family and are never alone.  Sometimes we think it is all our responsibility.  Presidents take on more than they need to do and tire out.  “I am not the only Vincentian.  Let someone else do the work.”  Who knows, we could be standing in their way.  We cannot isolate ourselves or cut others off from their calling.  Our role as Church is to make it grow.  Our role as Vincentians is to embrace everyone’s calling and share the load.  Jesus makes the journey in us and with us.  We are the seed to be planted.  We trust in His guidance for us and others who have the same passion and love of those in poverty.  We are called together, we are not alone.

What is Failure?  I think about this quite a bit.  There are so many answers.  Failure means you have not reached success, YET.  The biggest failure is not to try.  Have you noticed so many failures have become great inventions?  Failure is not existent when you turn it into success.  There are so many things to think about in your plan for success.  One thing, it may have a different ending.  Do not look for failure, look for success and let God claim your heart and project.  Enjoy success.

Choose to spend time today fasting and praying.  Search www.famvin.org/en .  Focus on one or two things.  There are many ideas for us to celebrate the feast of St. Vincent and Blessed Frederic Ozanam and others in the Vincentian Family.  I encourage you to pray in thanksgiving for our founders and our wonderful family.

Blessings,

Lynn

Lynn  L’Heureux is Special needs co-coordinator & Advisor of the Society of St Vincent de Paul Calgary Alberta Canada

Subscribe to her weekly newsletter  Vincentian Day of Prayer and Fast (English and Spanish) by sending an email to calgaryssvpadm@gmail.com