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Tuesday 14 February 2012

Sources for February 2012 issue



Sky News
Vision Vocation Network
Correspondence with the Tyburn Nuns
Regula Benedicti (The Rule of St. Benedict)

News Feed and Prayer Requests



Please pray for the repose of Mother M. Edmund Campion's soul. May she rest in peace. Amen.
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Please also remember the Diocese of East Anglia as we do not have a Bishop at the moment. Please pray that the Lord may send us a new shepherd to guide us, His sheep. Amen.
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Please pray for all the souls of the faithful departed, especially those who have just left us and gone to the Lord, and those whose anniversaries of death occur around this time. Jesus say Amen.

Please pray for all those anxiously waiting for exam results as it can be very stressful. Pray they may find peace in their hearts and accept whatever the outcome may be, and that they do not give up even if they haven't done very well in the exams. Pray also that they may have patience and work hard at getting better at their chosen subjects.  Please pray also for those who need to go on to find jobs and apprenticeships and study programme placements after the exams, with their exam results at hand. Pray that if it be God's will, they will find something suited to their needs and their talents, so they may feel a bit more at ease. Jesus say Amen.
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God Bless you all. :)

Please pray for all God's children.
"Many who you don't know will benefit from your prayers"
- Mother M. Edmund Campion OSB
R.I.P.



FEATURED

 
The latest group I have started for Catholics and Christians, and well, just about everyone around the world, all God's children—our brothers and sisters in Christ is the Sacred Heart of Jesus Prayer Warriors Group (often abbreviated as SHJ). So far, we have 20 members from various places around the world, from Poland to the Philippines to the USA. We hope to keep adding more members to pray for the intentions of the World.  To Join us, please have a look at out Facebook Page: SHJ Prayer Warriors, Twitter: @klegah or email me: scholar_kg@mymelody.com.

Emily Ann's blog: http://emilyannscorner.blogspot.com/
This is a blog written by a fellow forum member and friend of mine, Emily Ann. She includes her thoughts and information such as a catalogue of religious communities for men and women, categorised by spirituality. We are working together to build up a substantial list of religious communities so that we can tell fellow discerners and people where to find different communities with different spiritualities and help them to perhaps, find the right "spiritual home".  Emily Ann also includes vocation resources on her blog for those wishing to know more about discerning their vocation. Emily Ann is on twitter as @emilyannscorner.


LET US KNOW IF YOU WANT TO FEATURE A GROUP OR COMMUNITY HERE.

CONTACT: Kim Lee

(contact details can be found on my blog home page).







Ora Et Labora



The phrase, "Ora et Labora" is often associated with the Rule of St Benedict (Regula Benedicti). It is a general sum of the Rule implying that, in Benedictine Monastic life, one should centre their life around prayer and balance that with "work". "Ora" is Latin for pray, and "Labora" is the Latin for "work". What many people do not actually realise is that the phrase itself does not appear in the Rule of St Benedict itself, but rather it came into use, it is said around the 18th or 19th Centuries.
As some of you who may know Latin know, one must be careful in the use of Latin as there are a number of words that are very similar and could completely change the interpretations in translations completely, even to mean a very different thing.  Some people have suggested that it could have been "Ora EST Labora" as opposed to the original version we are used to seeing, so in this translation, it would read "prayer=work", which may, to some pose a problem with what the Rule was saying, however, if you read the article below (On Prayer Requests…), you may find that either version will still work.





A Prayer for Difficult Times



Lord, when I hope in Your work, the weariness and sorrow that come from disappointment vanish like smoke in the wind. Keep me from deceitful ways and help me always to make the difficult choice for the truth, keeping my heart set on Your ways, hoping in Your word. Your way for me is the way of love, and this increases my hope in You, which does not disappoint. Your love poured into my heart by the Holy Spirit protects me from all disappointment by giving me the power to bounce back from every failure of my expectations of myself or of others, so to bounce back from every discouragement arising from lost opportunities or anything else that would threaten the joy of my hope in You. When I fail, I will not lose heart. Help me to make an act of humility, so that the joy of bouncing back—beginning again–will set me out once more on the path of Your way for me, confident and joyful, trampling down all traces of disappointment with the joy of being loved by You. Amen.

"For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."
Matthew 18:20





The Prayer Hand...

 
Praise: Voicing my wonder about who God is.
Thanksgiving: Thanking God for all his blessings.
Intercession: Praying for my brothers/sisters in Christ.
Petition: Asking God for my needs.
Confession: Agreeing with God about my sin.

I thought I might just share this with all of you as I found it a useful resource when I first started really consciously praying, and when I wanted to develop my prayer life, and be more "at one with God", as I like to say, I found this quite helpful. :)


On Prayer Requests...

 







Prayer Requests. Don't they seem ever present, and never-ending? Perhaps you feel like you can't pray for everyone and everything they want prayers for? Well, in a letter I received recently from one of the Mothers at Tyburn, a solution to this supposed predicament was suggested.
Mother M. Catherine OSB, the sub-prioress to Tyburn Convent's Benedictine Monastery in Largs suggested that there is a way to pray for everyone and all their needs and intentions, even if we do not know what those needs and intentions even are...
She wrote to me essentially saying that "the most important thing is to work at living each moment in union with Jesus. In this way each thought, word and deed is a prayer, and simply by holding the various intentions in your heart, you pray for them. If we consecrate our lives to God we become living holocausts, ~ a living prayer, for intentions which we do not even know about". If we just remember this then we will be able to pray for everyone and everything, without ever having to worry that there are people we are not praying for. All we need to do is strive to be in Union with Jesus in everything we do in our lives and hold those precious intentions in our hearts, and we could become a "living prayer" for the people.  God Bless you all. Keep Praying. :)

Religious Life Timeline (from Vision Vocation Network)

A Vocation to the Death






A sister once said that our vocations eventually lead to our deaths, and how right she was when she said that. Down one path or another we go, but sooner or later, God will call us Home to Him. On one hand you might think that is rather sad, how people come and go, live and die, and although they may have devoted their whole life to everyone around them, eventually they will no longer be with us, but think about what peace they will be at one day, in the presence of Our Lord and Our Lady, together with them at Home. One day that will be me and you, and I do not believe it is anything to be afraid of. Just remember to always pray for the souls of the faithful departed - that is why that is always the last prayer before we go to bed each night. When we awake "alive" in the morning the next day, always remember to thank God for another day in this world, so that you can pray more, learn more, give more, and ultimately love more.
On Tuesday, 31st January 2012, one of the Tyburn Nuns (Benedictine Adorers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Montmatre), Mother M. Edmund Campion OSB went to the Lord at 5.45pm. May she rest in peace. Please pray for the repose of her soul.


"You could do no better than live absolutely by faith and God will always guide you."

- Mother M. Edmund Campion OSB R.I.P.

January Exams over, awaiting Results and the Summer Exams

 
The January A level exams are now over, and we are starting the next lot of modules for the summer exams. The way exam seasons work are quite different as we have several papers spread across the two years in which we complete our A levels. In the old days, people talked of three hour long papers at the end of two years—there was no such thing as re-takes or any coursework. Most subjects were exam based. Now we have modules and coursework and many papers which last on average, one and a half to two hours. The longest paper, which is rarely taken, is two and a half hours long. I do not think we have three hour written exams anymore. As we approach the next set of exams, we await the results of the January batch. Let's hope it's ok. :)