World Day of Prayer 2023

The artist, Hui-Wen HSAIO, used several motifs that highlight Taiwan’s best-known features to express how the Christian faith brings peace and a new vision to Taiwan. 

The World Day of Prayer is a global ecumenical movement that invites people of different cultures and Christian religious traditions to unite in spirit on a common day of prayer each year. This service is usually celebrated on the first Friday of March. 

A different country writes the service each year and transmits it globally. This year, the theme, ‘I Have Heard About Your Faith’, based on St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians 1:15 - 19 has been prepared by a group of Taiwanese women. They also composed the music to accompany St. Paul’s message: 

I have heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, 

I have heard about your love towards all the saints 

I have not stopped giving thanks for you, 

And remembering you in my prayers.  

Music © Lai, Yin-ting for WDP 2023 

The service opens with the greeting: “Pîng-an.” “May God grant you peace, a peaceful relationship with God and with one another”.  The welcome follows: “On behalf of the sisters in Taiwan, we would like to welcome all of you to join us today in worship. Through this celebration, we would like to share our experiences with you, and witness God’s wonderful grace and mighty works.” 

The Sisters of St. Joseph are included with the United, Anglican, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Roman Catholic Churches in the North Central area of London.  Each church has a small planning group, and I am the representative for the Sisters.  The area churches take turns hosting the worship service and this year, The Sisters of St. Joseph are the hosts.  Due to Covid restrictions, the service will be held virtually.  This is unfortunate because it is more meaningful to gather and pray together to fulfill the spirit of the movement.  

It has been inspirational for me to participate with the various church groups, preparing and leading those from the area who gather in the host church for the prayer service. It has given me the opportunity to meet and share with women from different church congregations.  Hearing about the history, geography, and the customs of the people of the various countries has been a meaningful experience. 

Uniting in prayer and spirit through the World Day of Prayer has the potential to change the lives of women and children. The movement’s 100 years of global prayer cannot go unnoticed! 

-Sister Loretta Hagen, CSJ 

The Power of Prayer

If you’ve been watching the news these past couple weeks, no doubt you will have heard about the cardiac arrest that 24-year-old Damar Hamlin of the Buffalo Bills football team suffered after receiving a blow to the chest by a team member of the Cincinnati Bengals.  Aware that a serious injury had occurred, a group of players and staff knelt in prayer around Damar as medics worked with him until an ambulance arrived to transport him to a nearby hospital.

As Hamlin lay in a coma, the world watched as sports fans and people around the globe prayed for his recovery.  The media announced that staff and students at Pittsburgh’s Catholic High School, from where Hamlin graduated in 2016, prayed throughout those early days. An evening prayer vigil was held at the school as the medical crisis unfolded.

““If we didn’t believe that prayer (works), we wouldn’t ask this of you, God,” Orlovsky said in the prayer. “I believe in prayer. We believe in prayer. We lift up Damar Hamlin’s name in Your name.””

— Orlovsky, a former NFL quarterback, prayed for Hamlin during Tuesday’s NFL Live broadcast as his two co-hosts bowed their heads and said “Amen” when he was done.

'God Using Me in a Different Way': Damar Hamlin Tweets His Faith as Entire NFL Teams Bow in Prayer

As the days passed, more and more people joined their hearts and voices in prayer as Damar began his slow but remarkable recovery.  The now famous footballer, a man of faith, was loud in his praise and thanksgiving to God, the attentive doctors, and medical staff for helping him to stay alive.  Newspapers even reported on the healing power of prayer and faith.

Now, as Hamlin continues his recovery, our society is beginning to reflect on the power of prayer in healing.  This was evidenced in the faith of Damar, his family, friends, teachers, and countless others placing their trust in God’s love. Many people already experience the gift of faith in their lives and the power of prayer to uplift and sustain, especially in times of crisis.  At this time in history, with global fanaticism about sports, Hamlin’s cardiac arrest caused citizens to pause and witness faith-filled athletes and people turn en masse at the encouragement of Damar himself, and storm heaven for divine assistance.

“There is power in prayer.”

God’s grace and help are with us at every moment.  All we need to do is acknowledge it and lean on each other for support.  I’m sure that’s why the phone in our home rings often with people requesting our prayers for various needs.  There is power in prayer, especially where two or three are gathered.  Go Bills!

-Sister Jean Moylan, CSJ

A Prayer this Canada Day

Today, on Canada Day, O Creator,

We offer You gratitude for Canada’s great beauty,

for the power and the majesty of its land and waters.

As descendants of settlers and newcomers

we recognize the Indigenous Peoples

who have long cared for these lands and waters.

Creator, we ask for your guidance

as we commit once again to truth-seeking, to self-reflection,

and to building just and mutual understanding

between ourselves and Indigenous Peoples.

The Word That Unites Us

In September 2019, Pope Francis promulgated the Third Sunday in Ordinary time to henceforth be the Sunday of the Word of God.  The purpose of this new decree is to remind us of the importance of knowing, what he referred to as, the Scripture of the Word.  Pope Francis explained: “The Word that saves us does not go looking for well preserved, clean, safe places.  It comes into our complexities, into our darkness.  Today, as then, God desires to visit those places where WE think he doesn’t go”. The next year, after Pope Francis celebrated Eucharist on the Sunday of the Word of God, he gave bibles to many of those gathered.

The bible is the most read book in the world.  I treasure my mother’s well-used, tattered bible which became her prized possession. It was Mom’s special companion during her long years as a widow. She received it decades ago from Sister Eveline Gagner, in a scripture course conducted in the church hall in our little hometown.  Sisters of St. Joseph have been evangelizers since our early beginnings. 

I often think that I should spend more time plumbing the depths of my own bible.  However, a few years ago, I heard that if one follows the liturgical cycles A, B, C and ponders the OT books, follows Jesus’ life in the Gospels of the New Testament and epistles of his followers, one will have covered a lot of scripture. Someone has counted it as 85% of the bible excluding counting the psalms.

January 18-25th is the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.  Before COVID time, various Christian churches gathered for annual intercommunity prayer services to celebrate the shared tenets of our faith, the most important of which is the Word of God.  Additionally, in the preparatory document for a Synodal, Pope Francis points out that we are called to deepen our relationship with other Church communities with which we are united by the one baptism. How can we fail to be united in heart when we share Jesus and the unfolding of God’s revelation throughout time and history?

-Sister Jean Moylan, csj

Image: Unsplash/Humble Lamb

International Sisters of St. Joseph Pray for Peace and Healing in our World

In the midst of the world’s woes of ragging fires, torrential storms, hurricanes, earthquakes, aggression, and violence, for one quiet hour on Saturday, August 28 hundreds of Sisters of St. Joseph and Associates throughout the world settled into a period of reflection and prayer for the sake of our cherished earth and its peoples.

The international CSJ Chambéry Congregation designed and hosted the prayer hour using quotes from Pope Francis’ encyclical Fratelli tutti. Readings and prayers were spoken in various languages: Italian, French, Portuguese, English, with music in those languages as well as being sung in Urdu. To focus our reflection the hour was divided into these topics cited in the encyclical: Social Friendship, Envisaging and Engendering an Open World, A Better Kind of Politics; A Heart Open to the World; Dialogue and Friendship in Society; Paths of Renewed Encounter; and Religions at the Service of the Our World. Each focus contained brief statements, prayer, and song.

If you wish to join in the prayer:

Go to the home page of the Chambery congregation: https://www.csjchambery.org/pt/inicial

Click on the symbol for Facebook.

Why was this moment significant?

The energy of solidarity and compassion released a deep hope across the earth, rising from major continents with a heartfelt cry for healing. We were blessed to participate.

We know that many other faith communities hold similar events of prayerful reflection, contemplation, and petition. We join this singular moment on August 28th in solidarity with all who strive to bring healing and wholeness to our world.

Image from Unsplash, created by Elena Mazhvila @miracleday