PLENTONG (Herald Malaysia): Christians must know the differences between the various types of prayer in order to grasp better intercessory prayer.
The history of the Church is replete with examples of men and women, those canonized and others, who have interceded for their fellow humans and brought many blessings to the world.
Speaking on The Ministry of Intercession to some 180 participants at a two-day Charismatic Seminar at Majodi Centre, Plentong, Jesuit Fr Fio Mascarenhas said a distinction is made between the prayers of praise, thanksgiving, petition and intercession.
The seminar was organized by the Melaka-Johor Diocesan Service Team of the Charismatic Renewal. Participants came from the Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Melaka-Johor arch/dioceses.
Fr Mascarenhas went on to say that praise and thanksgiving are frequently united in the same movement of the soul since God is revealed as worthy of praise in all his good deeds towards man. Praise quite naturally becomes thanks and blessing, and is expressed with joy, especially in common worship.
He then clarified that petition prayer focuses on one’s personal needs, whereas intercessory prayer is related to the salvific plan of God: one intercedes to ask that the salvation of God may be granted to many on earth.
The 67-year-old priest who once served as chairman of the International Council for Charismatic Renewal in Vatican City said: “Moses predominates among all the Old Testament men of prayer and his prayer of intercession foreshadows that of Jesus.”
He explained that it is out of consideration for Moses that God saved the people, as Exodus reveals: “This very thing you have spoken I will do; for you have found favour in my sight, and I know you by name” (33:17).
Fr Mascarenhas cited the examples of the prayers voiced in the Psalms. “The psalmist seeks good things, and expects them only from God. He calls upon God with loud cries because everything is at stake; one needs Him with all one’s being, body and soul,” said Fr Mascarenhas who is currently the rector of Vinayalaya Jesuit Retreat House in Mumbai.
Speaking on Charisms for the Common Good, Fr Mascarenhas said all Christians have access to the charismatic gifts in the Church and in the world which must be used for the building up of the people of God but these gifts cannot be understood by the rational faculty of man.
To understand the charisms, one must be ready to allow faith to enlighten reason. St Paul explains that charismatic gifts can only be understood by those ‘who possess the Spirit.’
Fr Mascarenhas was quick to add that one can accept the gifts only in a spirit of childlike faith, and one must then judge them by their fruits.
In his talk which was laced with humour, he stressed that the scriptures, the lives of the Saints, and the testimony of thousands of Catholics involved in today’s prayer groups demonstrate that the charismatic gifts are meaningful and good, in God’s providence and mercy.
He explained that what the charismatic prayer groups know as ‘singing in tongues’ is similar to what Christian tradition calls ‘jubilation’. “St Paul encouraged the practice of singing in tongues and some Fathers of the Church wrote about a kind of spontaneous congregational singing which they call ‘jubilation.’”
He also touched on the interpretation of tongues, the gift of healing, the ministry of deliverance, the gift of miracles, the gift of faith and discernment of spirits.
Participants also heard him preach on the theme Co-Heirs with Christ in which he said an important insight that can help re-orient the whole way we think and behave is that we are ‘coheirs with Christ’ and God has revealed this new reality to us through St Paul.
Expounding further, Fr Mascarenhas said an heir is someone who has a legal right to inherit the possessions and title of a close relative or friend.
He said: “The Bible tells us that every Christian is an heir of the heavenly Father, because by dying and rising with Christ in baptism, a Christian is ‘born again’ or ‘born from above’ as a son/daughter of God,” adding that by grace and not law, a Christian truly becomes a brother/ sister of Jesus Christ; with Jesus the first heir of the Father, every Christian is a co-heir with Christ.
Fr Mascarenhas, who is the author of 11 books and innumerable articles on biblical and Ignatian Spirituality, published worldwide in 12 languages, said a major part of our inheritance as “co-heirs with Christ” is an intimate relationship with God, expressed first of all in a life of deep prayer.
He said that Jesus also spent hours in loving communion with the Father, getting up early in the morning or going up to the mountain late at night.
Fr Mascarenhas, who participated at the 2008 Synod of Bishops in Rome on The Word of God in the life of the Church, urged the participants to make time for personal prayer, even if it is just seven minutes daily and not to ask for favours or to meditate on Scripture as these can be done at other prayer moments, but to contemplate the marvels God has done for us.
He called on everyone to “make their prayer simple, as simple as they can, reason little, love much, and they will pray well.”
“The Spirit is ready to bring us the gift of infused contemplation, by which we can, with humility and gratitude, see the hand of God in every circumstance of our lives, and with invincible faith abandon ourselves to his loving providence,” he added. — By Vincent D’Silva
The history of the Church is replete with examples of men and women, those canonized and others, who have interceded for their fellow humans and brought many blessings to the world.
Speaking on The Ministry of Intercession to some 180 participants at a two-day Charismatic Seminar at Majodi Centre, Plentong, Jesuit Fr Fio Mascarenhas said a distinction is made between the prayers of praise, thanksgiving, petition and intercession.
The seminar was organized by the Melaka-Johor Diocesan Service Team of the Charismatic Renewal. Participants came from the Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Melaka-Johor arch/dioceses.
Fr Mascarenhas went on to say that praise and thanksgiving are frequently united in the same movement of the soul since God is revealed as worthy of praise in all his good deeds towards man. Praise quite naturally becomes thanks and blessing, and is expressed with joy, especially in common worship.
He then clarified that petition prayer focuses on one’s personal needs, whereas intercessory prayer is related to the salvific plan of God: one intercedes to ask that the salvation of God may be granted to many on earth.
The 67-year-old priest who once served as chairman of the International Council for Charismatic Renewal in Vatican City said: “Moses predominates among all the Old Testament men of prayer and his prayer of intercession foreshadows that of Jesus.”
He explained that it is out of consideration for Moses that God saved the people, as Exodus reveals: “This very thing you have spoken I will do; for you have found favour in my sight, and I know you by name” (33:17).
Fr Mascarenhas cited the examples of the prayers voiced in the Psalms. “The psalmist seeks good things, and expects them only from God. He calls upon God with loud cries because everything is at stake; one needs Him with all one’s being, body and soul,” said Fr Mascarenhas who is currently the rector of Vinayalaya Jesuit Retreat House in Mumbai.
Speaking on Charisms for the Common Good, Fr Mascarenhas said all Christians have access to the charismatic gifts in the Church and in the world which must be used for the building up of the people of God but these gifts cannot be understood by the rational faculty of man.
To understand the charisms, one must be ready to allow faith to enlighten reason. St Paul explains that charismatic gifts can only be understood by those ‘who possess the Spirit.’
Fr Mascarenhas was quick to add that one can accept the gifts only in a spirit of childlike faith, and one must then judge them by their fruits.
In his talk which was laced with humour, he stressed that the scriptures, the lives of the Saints, and the testimony of thousands of Catholics involved in today’s prayer groups demonstrate that the charismatic gifts are meaningful and good, in God’s providence and mercy.
He explained that what the charismatic prayer groups know as ‘singing in tongues’ is similar to what Christian tradition calls ‘jubilation’. “St Paul encouraged the practice of singing in tongues and some Fathers of the Church wrote about a kind of spontaneous congregational singing which they call ‘jubilation.’”
He also touched on the interpretation of tongues, the gift of healing, the ministry of deliverance, the gift of miracles, the gift of faith and discernment of spirits.
Participants also heard him preach on the theme Co-Heirs with Christ in which he said an important insight that can help re-orient the whole way we think and behave is that we are ‘coheirs with Christ’ and God has revealed this new reality to us through St Paul.
Expounding further, Fr Mascarenhas said an heir is someone who has a legal right to inherit the possessions and title of a close relative or friend.
He said: “The Bible tells us that every Christian is an heir of the heavenly Father, because by dying and rising with Christ in baptism, a Christian is ‘born again’ or ‘born from above’ as a son/daughter of God,” adding that by grace and not law, a Christian truly becomes a brother/ sister of Jesus Christ; with Jesus the first heir of the Father, every Christian is a co-heir with Christ.
Fr Mascarenhas, who is the author of 11 books and innumerable articles on biblical and Ignatian Spirituality, published worldwide in 12 languages, said a major part of our inheritance as “co-heirs with Christ” is an intimate relationship with God, expressed first of all in a life of deep prayer.
He said that Jesus also spent hours in loving communion with the Father, getting up early in the morning or going up to the mountain late at night.
Fr Mascarenhas, who participated at the 2008 Synod of Bishops in Rome on The Word of God in the life of the Church, urged the participants to make time for personal prayer, even if it is just seven minutes daily and not to ask for favours or to meditate on Scripture as these can be done at other prayer moments, but to contemplate the marvels God has done for us.
He called on everyone to “make their prayer simple, as simple as they can, reason little, love much, and they will pray well.”
“The Spirit is ready to bring us the gift of infused contemplation, by which we can, with humility and gratitude, see the hand of God in every circumstance of our lives, and with invincible faith abandon ourselves to his loving providence,” he added. — By Vincent D’Silva
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