Prayer Requests and Works of Mercy
A loving mother asks that I pass this along:
B, Our Beloved 2nd son of six children is 27yrs old (12/16/1987) he checked himself into a rehab to begin once again his journey of sobriety. We moved to Atlanta in 1996, from Angola, SW Africa. We began going to St Catherine’s daily MASS, and he began talking about being a priest, he asked Fr Theodore Book to guide him to be a priest. Then he got into football in high school, got hurt, we had no health insurance, that’s how he got into opiates, later heroine, he has been fighting this addiction for the last 7yrs. He went to rehab 2 yrs ago and fell back on it last year. Went to jail for driving so high that the police pulled him over thinking he was drunk. In jail he could not get any Catholic ministry to visit him. Unfortunately, only the Mormons, Church of Christ and Jehova Witnesses visited w him twice a week. When he got out he was extremely confused about his Catholic faith. He checked himself into rehab.
Would kindly consider sending him an encouraging short note he told us last night how he would enjoy receiving correspondence from Catholic devouts like yourself, if possible. God Bless, JMJ4LIFE
Encouragement, even in the form of a short note, would mean a lot. If you want to write him, please email me here and I will send you his address. Also, prayers for this brother in Christ and his struggling family would mean even more.
Father, help bring this man and his family healing in body, soul, and spirit. Give his caregivers grace, compassion, wisdom, counsel, knowledge, understanding, creativity, insight, charisms of healing, intercession, and spiritual warfare, and the proper technology to assist in that healing. Give him and all who love him grace, peace, strength, consolation, all the necessary financial resource, faith, hope, and love. Mother Mary and St. Luke, pray for them. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Another reader writes:
I have been living with my landlady for almost 6 years, she is a very difficult person and hoarding a lot of junk that is never used she recently denied that I keep using the common open storage area next the laundry room because much more stuff was brought into the house and she often puts the blame on me to pay for plumbing and high water bill that it was a leak and all her responsibility and after the last crisis because of bedbugs that I paid her $5,000.00 for the pest control company of her choice she started the process to evict me, please pray for me that Justice Prevails in this wrongful eviction and I find soon a much better peaceful home to live here in San Francisco, California.
Thank you for praying for this miracle in my life.
Father, hear our prayer that justice, peace, forgiveness, and decent housing prevail in this man’s life through Christ our Lord. Mother Mary, pray for him and his landlady.
Another reader writes:
I would like to request prayers for someone I know who is having some serious problems at work which we believe may be the manifestation of a spiritual assault due to the circumstances surrounding them. She works for a pro-life organization and during her nearly seven years there has never had any significant problems. In fact, she was recently complimented by the members of the board on the quality of her work. She was completely blindsided by all of this, which is really the result of non-issues being blown way out of proportion and her supervisors being quick to jump to the worst possible conclusions and being unwilling to listen to reason; it just doesn’t make any sense.
There is a meeting this coming week to try to resolve things. Please pray for her that she has the ability to persevere, for protection against further spiritual attack if that is indeed what is taking place, and especially for the light of truth to break through her supervisors’ unwillingness to be fair and reasonable. This all started the day after Ash Wednesday; she is hoping there will be an Easter Sunday at the end of what has already been a very long Lent.
Father, grant this woman perseverance, protection, wisdom, guidance, light, and love so that things can be resolved justly and peaceably. Mother Mary, St. Michael, and her guardian angel, pray for her and for all involved in this situation. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Finally, the bishop of Diocese of Tombura–Yambio in South Sudan writes:
For more than two decades, my diocese was laid waste by the ugliest, most brutal war you can imagine. We were starved, raped, tortured and slaughtered by the radical Islamic government of North Sudan. We were driven off our lands, our crops were burned and our wells poisoned.
All around us, war still rages and my people suffer daily. Just recently, a hospital in the Nuba Mountains was intentionally bombed, and attacks by the radical Islamic government continue. My people fear that all-out war will once again bring destruction and death down upon us. That is why I have begun our Sudan Relief Fund Annual Lenten Appeal. Donations from this appeal will go directly to the people who are suffering everyday in the Sudan.
When I learned of the bombing of the Mother of Mercy Hospital I was heartbroken that this Catholic hospital where Dr. Tom Catena saves so many lives would be targeted by North Sudan. Elsewhere, across South Sudan, we’ve endured a year of conflict between two political factions. Entire villages were emptied and burned … crops were destroyed … and people were sent fleeing without food, water or anywhere to go. I’ve heard of so many people killed, and woman and girls traumatized and sexually assaulted. I’ve seen the fear in far too many children’s eyes.
I pray to God that peace and some measure of normalcy will come. Until then, we wait, we work, we pray and we have faith in God’s mercy and in good people like you.
As we begin our Lenten journeys, I hope that you will pray for us and for peace in Sudan. And because we depend on your gifts to make life more bearable and better for my people, will you please make a Lenten donation to the Sudan Relief Fund? Please click here to help. Your Lenten gift to the Sudan Relief Fund will give my people and me the hope that comes with knowing that you’ve not forgotten us. Your prayers and your gifts give us the strength to endure terrible hardships and suffering.
With charitable Lenten gifts given by caring donors like you, we can:
- Provide food staples (sugar, salt, flour), blankets, water containers and other basic lifesaving supplies.
- Bring basic medicines and more medical services to the diocese. Continue the arduous process of rebuilding and repairing our parish centers and schools.
- Provide food to the hungry, and give them improved tools and seeds so they can grow food for themselves and maybe even a little extra to sell at market.
- Dig 50 more bore hole wells so that more people will have the clean, safe water they need for drinking, washing, and cooking.
So please, take a minute now to reflect on how critical your gift to the Sudan Relief Fund Annual Lenten Appeal is to these poor people who depend on the Catholic Church for their spiritual and temporal needs.
In addition to your gift, I hope that as you participate in Lenten observances in your parish and in your home, you’ll pray for the Church and your struggling brothers and sisters here in South Sudan where people’s lives and faith are under attack.
Life in my diocese is incredibly difficult and fragile. Yet, the love of Christ radiates hope amidst the poverty and suffering. And because of your generous gifts to the Sudan Relief Fund, we remain in South Sudan to do God’s work.
Please send your special Lenten Gift, today. I am so deeply grateful to you for your charity. I don’t know how we could save these people and build this new nation out of the ashes of poverty and war without you.
May God bless you for your faithfulness and love for the your brothers and sisters in Christ in South Sudan.
Yours in Christ,
Bishop Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala Diocese of Tombura–Yambio, South Sudan
Father, hear our prayer for your children and martyrs through Christ our Lord! Mother Mary and all the holy martyrs, pray for them! Amen!
