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Posted on 09/01/2012 7:05:48 AM PDT by Mad Dawg
Clearly we need to seek, to beg God's help in the coming election. I invite all to join in a "Novena" -- a LONG one -- with just such an intention.
If you start on 9/11 (!) and pray for 56 days, you end the day before election day.
If you start on 9/13 and pray for 54 days... you do the math. :-)
I am asking us to consider ADDING something to our daily prayers. I know you all are busy and I suspect many of you spend a good deal of time in prayer anyway. I do not seek to bind burdens on anyone's back. Though prayer sometimes involves teeth-gritting, that should not be the main theme! The main themes should always be hope, joy, and gratitude, IMHO.
But the prayer of a just man avails much, and we are justified in Jesus! So let us pray! Please consider adding ONE thing -- an act of charity and mercy, a little extra time in prayer and/or with Scripture, maybe a little fast -- or a even little extra physical exercise! But add just one thing to the Glory of our loving God and with a petition that He do HIS will in the coming election.
[Boring technical stuff for non-Catholics. The term "novena" refers to a period of prayer. It derives from, so to speak, riffing on the nine days of prayer between the Ascension and the Pentecost. Hence the name, which pretty much means "niney-thing" -- Mad Dawg translation.
[ Not so long ago, in our tradition, somebody was instructed to pray a novena of 6 novenas -- 3 of petition and 3 of thanksgiving. Good stuff ensued. Thus arose the 54 day novena. With JPII's change of the Rosary, a figure divisible by four is tidier for those who pray the Rosary. Hence my suggestion of 56 days.]
May God grant us ALL the grace to keep this Novena.
Thanks, Mad Dawg!
:-)
Amen!
“No alcohol, except Sundays and Solemnities”
I’ll substitute chocolate for the alcohol. :-)
Other than that, I am committed.
God bless America.
I’ll substitute chocolate for the alcohol.
Let's not go overboard here ...
:-)
Daily Mass, Daily Rosary, Dail Prayers of St. Bridget and of course, daily posting. LOL!
I’ll do no chocolate and two meals a day with a snack.
And so, by God’s grace, we begin. May God prosper the work of our hands and hearts.
May God prosper the work of our hands and hearts.
______________________________
Amen...and alleluia!
We read in the gospel that when the Lord was teaching his disciples and urged them to share in his passion by the mystery of eating his body, some said: This is a hard saying, and from that time they no longer followed him. When he asked the disciples whether they also wished to go away, they replied: Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.
I assure you, my brothers, that even to this day it is clear to some that the words which Jesus speaks are spirit and life, and for this reason they follow him. To others these words seem hard, and so they look elsewhere for some pathetic consolation. Yet wisdom cries out in the streets, in the broad and spacious way that leads to death, to call back those who take this path.
Finally, he says: For forty years I have been close to this generation, and I said: They have always been faint-hearted. You also read in another psalm: God has spoken once. Once, indeed, because for ever. His is a single, uninterrupted utterance, because it is continuous and unending.
He calls upon sinners to return to their true spirit and rebukes them when their hearts have gone astray, for it is in the true heart that he dwells and there he speaks, fulfilling what he taught through the prophet: Speak to the heart of Jerusalem.
You see, my brothers, how the prophet admonishes us for our advantage: If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts. You can read almost the same words in the gospel and in the prophet. For in the gospel the Lord says: My sheep hear my voice. And in the psalm blessed David says: You are his people (meaning, of course, the Lord’s) and the sheep of his pasture. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Hear also the prophet Habakkuk in today’s reading. Far from hiding the Lord’s reprimands, he dwells on them with attentive and anxious care. He says: I will stand upon my watch-tower and take up my post on the ramparts, keeping watch to see what he will say to me and what answer I will make to those who try to confute me. I beg you, my brothers, stand upon our watch-tower, for now is the time for battle. Let all our dealings be in the heart, where Christ dwells, in right judgment and wise counsel, but in such a way as to place no confidence in those dealings, nor rely upon our fragile defenses.
Fantastic! These readings have always had a special meaning for me...especially that from Habakkuk. Something else from Habakkuk is THIS:
1:2 How long, O LORD? I cry for help but you do not listen!
The anguish of a downtrodden people.
(Habakkuk finds the Lord’s toleration of the wicked
very difficult to understand. God’s inactivity is intolerable.)
I cry out to you, “Violence!”
(This is a key word in Habakkuk and it refers to the violation of basic human rights which characterizes the confusion and anarchy of the times.)
but you do not intervene. 3 Why do you let me see ruin; why must I look at misery? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and clamorous discord.
(These evils are best identified with oppression by foreigners.)
2:2 Then the LORD answered me and said: Write down the vision clearly upon the tablets, so that one can read it readily.
(The Lord’s words are not meant for Habakkuk’s ears alone; the message is to be written down in letters so big that it can easily be read and at a later date checked to see if it is verified or not (See Isaiah 30:8).)
3 For the vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint; If it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late.
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Okay - my mother and I just finished our rosary. Day one - done!
Election Novena Ping!
Are you starting today?
Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:
Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of general interest.
Wonderful idea.
I’m in.
Thanks for starting this, Mad Dawg.
At daily Mass today I asked for those who were murdered on 9/11/01
Will begin before going to bed today, on this 9/11 anniversary.
Count me in.
I’m in...been praying the rosary since Nov 2008.
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