Prayer Partners

January 2021

Dear Prayer Partner,
We are so grateful for your prayer support! Please continue praying for an end to covid-19 and for all healthcare workers and priests who are giving themselves so selflessly for the sick. The Lord has granted us a new year and we'd like to share with you something that inspired us recently from In Conversation With God by Francis Fernandez, Scepter Publications, vol. 1, 37.3:

"A good year for a Christian is one in which both joys and sorrows have helped him to love God a little more [...]one in which we have served God and our neighbor better, even if, on the human plane, it has been a complete disaster[...]. For the year just beginning God has prepared all the help we need to make it a good year[...]. Let us resolve to convert our defeats into victories, each time turning to God and starting once again."

In the joy of the newborn Christ,
Mother Stella, CJD

1. Let us begin the New Year by first remembering that we are all called to be saints. Wouldn't it be great if with a magnanimous heart we could respond to God's designs for each of us? The souls that we could save by doing that will forever rejoice with us in heaven.
2. Our Catechesis of the Good Shepherd and Parish School of Religion classes at Our Lady Lourdes in Raytown are growing. We must realize the full implications of the current statistics in the United States showing that 80 percent of our Catholic young adults leave the Catholic Faith after high school. It certainly leads us to realize that we have to pray and teach with loving devotion about Christ and His Church, in order to have our young people stay close to Christ and His Church for the rest of their lives.
3. January 1, Feast of the Most Holy Mother of God, was a special day for our Most Holy Mother of God Church in Vladivostok. Let us ask Our Lord to help us grow the number of parishioners, both here and in Russia, and then help them in turn to bring others to the Faith.

O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!

Gentle Jesus, may my every action say "You are my utter all!
May my every breath be a spiritual communion!
May my every heartbeat offer you all the love you have received and will forever receive!

Thank you!

Prayer to Our Suffering Savior For the Souls in Purgatory by St. Alphonsus Liguori

O most sweet Jesus, through the bloody sweat which Thou didst suffer in the Garden of Gethsemane, have mercy on these Blessed Souls. Have mercy on them, O Lord, Have mercy on them.

O most sweet Jesus, through the pains which Thou didst suffer during Thy most cruel scourging, have mercy on them. Have mercy on them O Lord.

O most sweet Jesus, through the pains which Thou didst suffer in Thy most painful crowning with thorns, have mercy on them. Have mercy on them O Lord.

O most sweet Jesus, through the pains which Thou didst suffer in carrying Thy cross to Calvary, have mercy on them. Have mercy on them O Lord.

O most sweet Jesus, through the pains which Thou didst suffer during Thy most cruel crucifixion, have mercy on them. Have mercy on them O Lord.

O most sweet Jesus, through the pains which Thou didst suffer in Thy most bitter agony on the cross, have mercy on them. Have mercy on them O Lord.

O most sweet Jesus, through the immense pain Thou didst suffer in breathing forth Thy Blessed Soul, have mercy on them. Have mercy on them O Lord.



Prayer Partners: Please pray that young women who have a vocation to the missionary life will come, and that our community will develop according to God's plan.

Prayers to the Sacred Heart of Jesus for our mission work would be most appropriate.



Our community, Sisters in Jesus the Lord, is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690) who was a sister of the Visitation Order in France was responsible for spreading the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus throughout the Church. She said in one of her letters:

"It seems to me that our Lord's earnest desire to have his sacred heart honored in a special way is directed toward renewing the effects of redemption in our souls. For the sacred heart is an inexhaustible fountain and its sole desire is to pour itself out into the hearts of the humble so as to free them and prepare them to lead lives according to his good pleasure.

A prayer that we sisters say daily is the following:

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus – Have Mercy on us
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus – Inflame our hearts with Your love
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus – Help us to make You known and loved by all