Bishop’s Monthly Letter

My Dear Rev. Fathers,

Fresh from our Annual Retreat during which all of us prayed together and in the deep silence of the Retreat House reflected on our Priestly commitment, I am confident that we had the opportunity to recapture the Joy of the Priesthood whether we be young or not so young Priests. Let us keep up the beautiful experience of our Retreat fresh within us in the days, weeks and months ahead of us.  The Holy Father Pope Francis has written a beautiful letter to the Priests all over the world on the 160th anniversary of the death of the Holy Cure of Ars, St. John Vianney. As you know St. John Mary Vianney is the patron of all Priests. Pope Francis has written this long but beautiful letter in a very simple and personal way to the priests. He says, “As an older brother and a father, I too would like in this letter to thank you in the name of the holy and faithful People of God for all that you do for them, and to encourage you never to forget the words that the Lord spoke with great love to us on the day of our ordination. Those words are the source of our joy: “I no longer call you servants… I call you friends” (Jn 15:15) .    In his letter our beloved Holy Father repeatedly thanks every priest for their fidelity, perseverance and the shepherding that we carry out unceasingly.  “I do not cease to give thanks for you” (Eph 1:16). Vocation, more than our own choice, is a response to the Lord’s unmerited call. We do well to return constantly to those passages of the Gospel where we see Jesus praying, choosing and calling others “to be with him, and to be sent out to proclaim the message” (Mk 3:14).  “Thank you for your witness of persistence and patient endurance (hypomoné) in pastoral ministry. Often, with the parrhesía of the shepherd, we find ourselves arguing with the Lord in prayer, as Moses did in courageously interceding for the people (cf. Num 14:13-19; Ex 32:30-32; Dt 9:18-21). “For his mercy endures forever”. In the second part the Holy Father encourages the priests all over the world. His Holiness is fully aware of the pain, the suffering and disappointments which are part and parcel of our priestly life and ministry. But the Holy Father encourages us by saying,    “Let me repeat: in times of difficulty, we all need God’s consolation and strength, as well as that of our brothers and sisters. All of us can benefit from the touching words that Saint Paul addressed to his communities: “I pray that you may not lose heart over [my] sufferings” (Eph 3:13), and “I want [your] hearts to be encouraged” (Col 2:22).    The letter refers immediately to the Joy in our Priesthood,
“In our own lives, we have seen how “with Christ, joy is constantly born anew”. Although there are different stages in this experience, we know that, despite our frailties and sins, “with a tenderness which never disappoints, but is always capable of restoring our joy, God makes it possible for us to lift up our heads and start anew”. That joy is not the fruit of our own thoughts or decisions, but of the confidence born of knowing the enduring truth of Jesus’ words to Peter. At times of uncertainty, remember those words: “I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail” (Lk 22:32). The Lord is the first to pray and fight for you and for me. And he invites us to enter fully into his own prayer. There may well be moments when we too have to enter into “the prayer of Gethsemane, that most human and dramatic of Jesus’ prayers… For there we find supplication, sorrow, anguish and even bewilderment (Mk 14:33ff.)”.

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In the third section, the role of Mary our Mother in our priestly commitment is highlighted,  “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord” (Lk 1:46). How can we speak about gratitude and encouragement without looking to Mary? She, the woman whose heart was pierced (cf. Lk 2:35), teaches us the praise capable of lifting our gaze to the future and restoring hope to the present. Her entire life was contained in her song of praise (cf. Lk 1:46-55). We too are called to sing that song as a promise of future fulfilment.” To contemplate Mary is “to believe once again in the revolutionary nature of love and tenderness. In her, we see that humility and tenderness are not virtues of the weak but of the strong, who need not treat others poorly in order to feel important themselves”.    I would urge each of you to read and reflect on this letter,as it is addressed to every priest by Pope Francis as a personal letter. St. John Mary Vianney should be, along with St. Joseph Vaz our models in the Priesthood.

I wish to thank the committee of our priests who have planned a very good program for the forthcoming great Extraordinary Missionary Month of October.In addition to various animation programs at the Vicariate and parish levels, they have proposed the following:   1.    Parish level Vigil Services- Besides organizing Vigil Services at Parish level, talks on mission can be organized for different age groups.  Ex: Parents, Children, Youth, Pastoral committee members       2.   The four weeks of the month of October to be celebrated separately as follows –         1st Week –  To welcome those who have gone away from the Church to various denominations by visiting them and invite them to return to the Catholic community.  –         2nd Week – Highlight the missionary mandate of Jesus Our Redeemer, pay attention to visiting the sick, the aged, feeble and the house-bound in every parish. –         3rd Week – Highlight the mission of the early Christian communities with emphasis on strengthening and revitalizing the Small Christian Communities and Asipa groups –         4th Week – 4th Week – Organize pilgrimages to our diocesan shrines namely, Wahacotte  – St. Anthony’s Shrine Ampitiya – St. Joseph Vaz Shrine Nanuoya – St. Joseph Vaz Shrine Battalgala –  St. Joseph Vaz Shrine Padiwatte – Marian Shrine   3. In this regard please note as we decided at the Presbyteral meeting, for the next Kandy                      Diocesan Pastoral Council  session ,three active members of the Parish Pastoral Council are be sent to Gatambe along with the Parish Council Secretary and the designated representative of each parish accompanied   by the Parish Priest.        4.  Diocesan Celebration –A Thanksgiving Mass will be held on 28th October 2019 at St. Mary’s Church, Ampitiya with a Rosary procession beginning from St. Joseph Vaz Shrine at Ampitiya.

Please extend your fullest corporation in all these  endeavours for the Extra Ordinary Missionary Month in order to have a missionary revival in our Diocese.
I will be away from 22nd September from the Diocese. The Vicar General Very Rev. Fr. Milroy Fonseka will be the Administrator of the Diocese until my return.
Wishing you all God’s abundant blessings as you serve the Lord faithfully and shepherd His flock with dedication and joy.
Yours devotedly in the Lord,

Bishop Vianney Fernando,

Bishop of Kandy

 

Bishop’s Engagements in September

 

1st-  9.30 am -Feast of the Peradeniya University Chaplaincy,  Mary Seat of Wisdom
2nd & 3rd   -Interviews of Seminarians
5th – 3.00 pm -Final Vows of four Religious Sisters     (Daughters of the Eucharist) at St. Anthony’s     Cathedral, Kandy
7th – 9.00 am -Confirmation Service at St. Anthony’s College, Katugastota
8th – 10.30 am -Confirmation Service at St. Thomas’ Church, Matale
12th – 10.00 am -Annual Prize Giving at St. Thomas’ Girls’ School,     Matale 13th – 9.00 am -Confirmation Service at Nawalapitiya
14th – 10.00 am -Kandy Diocesan Pastoral Council meeting at, Gatambe
14th Afternoon to 18th Morning – With Major Seminarians at Pastoral Centre, Wahacotte

 

Catechetical Apostolate Diocesan Programme for the  Month of September 2019.

National Level Bible Written Competition (Diocesan Programme)

Date ; 13th September 2019 (Good Shepherd Convent Kandy)
Catechists’ Revision Examination (Diocesan Programme)

Date  ; 21st September 2019 Time  ; 8.30 am  Places

; Good Shepherd Convent, Kandy      –    (Kandy)

: St. Patrick’s College, Talawakelle   –    (Nuwara Eliya)

: St. Agnes Convent Matele   –    (Matale

Sent By: Rev. Fr. Camillus Jansz Diocesan Director – Catechetical Apostolate

 

Pope writes to priests: “Thank you for your service”
Pope Francis’ letter on the 160th anniversary of the death of the Curé of Ars, St John Vianney: support, closeness and encouragement to all priests who, despite their hard work and disappointments, celebrate the sacraments every day and accompany the people of God.
Pope Francis has written to priests recalling the 160th anniversary of the death of the Curé of Ars, Patron Saint of parish priests around the world. It is a letter that expresses encouragement and closeness to “brother priests, who without making noise” leave everything to engage in the daily life of communities; those who work in the “trenches”; those who confront an endless variety of situations in your effort “to care for and accompany God’s people.”   “I want to say a word to each of you, writes the Pope, who, often without fanfare and at personal cost, amid weariness, infirmity and sorrow, carry out your mission of service to God and to your people.  Despite the hardships of the journey, you are writing the finest pages of the priestly life.”

PAIN The papal letter opens with a look at the abuse scandal: “In these years, we have become more attentive to the cry, often silent and suppressed, of our brothers and sisters who were victims of the abuse of power, the abuse of conscience and sexual abuse on the part of ordained ministers.”  But, Pope Francis explains, even without “denying or dismissing the harm caused by some of our brothers, it would be unfair not to express our gratitude to all those priests who faithfully and generously spend their lives in the service of others.” “Countless priests make of their lives a work of mercy in areas or situations that are often hostile, isolated or ignored, even at the risk of their lives.”  The Pope thanked them “for their courageous and constant example” and writes that “in these times of turbulence, shame and pain, you demonstrate that you have joyfully put your lives on the line for the sake of the Gospel “.  He invites them not to be discouraged, because “The Lord is purifying his Bride and converting all of us to himself. He is letting us be put to the test in order to make us realize that without him we are simply dust.”
GRATITUDE The second key word is “gratitude”. Pope Francis recalls that “vocation, more than our choice, is a response to a free call from the Lord”. The Pope exhorts priests to “return to those luminous moments” in which we have experienced the call of the Lord to consecrate all our lives to his service, to “that “yes” born and developed in the heart of the Christian community.” In moments of difficulty, fragility, weakness, “the worst temptation of all is to keep brooding over our troubles”.  It is crucial – explains the Pontiff – “to cherish the memory of the Lord’s presence in our lives and his merciful gaze, which inspired us to put our lives on the line for him and for his People.  Gratitude “is always a powerful weapon. Only if we are able to contemplate and feel genuine gratitude for all those ways we have experienced God’s love, generosity, solidarity and trust, as well as his forgiveness, patience, forbearance and compassion, will we allow the Spirit to grant us the freshness that can renew (and not simply patch up) our life and mission.”  Pope Francis also thanks his brother priests “for their fidelity to their commitments”. It is “truly significant” – he observes – that in a “ephemeral” society and culture, there are people who discover the joy of giving life. He says “thank you” for the daily celebration of the Eucharist and for the ministry of the sacrament of reconciliation, lived “without rigor or laxity”, taking charge of people and “accompanying them on the path of conversion”. He thanks them for the proclamation of the Gospel made “to all, with ardor”:
Thank you for the times when, with great emotion, you embraced sinners, healed wounds… Nothing is more necessary than this: accessibility, closeness, readiness to draw near to the flesh of our suffering brothers and sisters.”
The heart of a pastor – says the Pope – is one “who has developed a spiritual taste for being one with his people, a pastor who never forgets that he has come from them…this in turn will lead to adopting a simple and austere way of life, rejecting privileges that have nothing to do with the Gospel.”
But the Pope also thanks and invites priests to gives thanks “for the holiness of the faithful people of God”, expressed “in those parents who raise their children with immense love, in those men and women who work hard to support their families, in the sick, in elderly religious who never lose their smile.”

ENCOURAGEMENT The third word is “encouragement”. The Pope wants to encourage priests: “The mission to which we are called does not exempt us from suffering, pain and even misunderstanding. Rather, it requires us to face them squarely and to accept them, so that the Lord can transform them and conform us more closely to himself.” A good test for knowing how to find the shepherd’s heart,” writes Pope Francis, “is to ask ourselves how we are dealing with pain. Sometimes, in fact, it can happen that we behave like the Levite or the priest of the parable of the Good Samaritan, who ignore the man who lies on the ground, other times we approach pain intellectually, and taking refuge in clichés (“life is like that, we can do nothing”), ending up giving space to fatalism. ” Or else we can draw near with a kind of aloofness that brings only isolation and exclusion.” The Pope also warns against what Bernanos called the “the most precious of the devil’s potions”, that is “the sweet sadness that the Fathers of the East called acedia. The sadness that paralyzes the courage to continue in work, in prayer”, which “makes sterile all attempts at transformation and conversion, spreading resentment and animosity”. Pope Francis invites them to ask “the Spirit to come and awaken us”, to “shake our torpor”, to challenge habituality and “let us rethink our usual way of doing things; let us open our eyes and ears, and above all our hearts, so as not to be complacent about things as they are, but unsettled by the living and effective word of the risen Lord”. “During our lives, we have been able to contemplate how joy is always reborn with Jesus Christ. A joy, the Pontiff points out, that “does not arise from voluntary or intellectual efforts but from the confidence to know that the words of Jesus to Peter continue to act”. It is in prayer – the Pope explains – that “we experience our blessed precariousness which reminds us of our being disciples in need of the Lord’s help and frees us from the Promethean tendency of those who ultimately rely solely on their own strengths”. The pastor’s prayer “is nourished and incarnated in the heart of God’s people. It bears the signs of the wounds and joys of its people”. An entrustment that ” sets us free from looking for quick, easy, ready-made answers; it allows the Lord to be the one – not our own recipes and goals – to point out a path of hope. So “we recognize our frailty, yes; but we allow Jesus to transform it and project us continuously towards the mission”. The Pope observes that for one’s heart to be encouraged, that two constitutive bonds must not be neglected. The first is the relationship with Jesus: It is the invitation not to neglect “spiritual accompaniment, having a brother with whom to speak, discuss, and discern one’s own path”. The second link is with people: “Do not withdraw from your people, your presbyterates and your communities, much less seek refuge in closed and elitist groups…a courageous minister is a minister always on the move”. The Pope asks priests to “be close to those who suffer, to be, without shame, close to human misery and, and indeed to make all these experiences our own, as eucharist.”. To be ” builders of relationships and communion, open, trusting and awaiting in hope the newness that the kingdom of God wishes to bring about even today.”

PRAISE The last word proposed in the letter is “praise”. It is impossible to speak of gratitude and encouragement without contemplating Mary who “teaches us the praise capable of lifting our gaze to the future and restoring hope to the present. “. Because “to look at Mary is to go back to believing in the revolutionary power of tenderness and affection”. For this reason – concludes the Pope – “if at times we can feel tempted to withdraw into ourselves and our own affairs, safe from the dusty paths of daily life.  Or regrets, complaints, criticism and sarcasm gain the upper hand and make us lose our desire to keep fighting, hoping and loving.  At those times, let us look to Mary so that she can free our gaze of all the “clutter” that prevents us from being attentive and alert, and thus capable of seeing and celebrating Christ alive in the midst of his people.” “Brothers – these are the final words of the letter – once again, I continually give thanks for you… May we allow our gratitude to awaken praise and renewed enthusiasm for our ministry of anointing our brothers and sisters with hope.  May we be men whose lives bear witness to the compassion and mercy that Jesus alone can bestow on us.”

Taken From : Vatican News

BAPTIZED AND SENT: THE CHURCH OF CHRIST ON MISSION IN THE WORLD
Prayer, reflection, and action will help us to live this dimension of the Extraordinary Missionary Month. In fact, “We, by Baptism, are immersed in that inexhaustible source of life which is the death of Jesus, the greatest act of love in all of history; and thanks to this love we can live a new life, no longer at the mercy of evil, of sin and of death, but in communion with God and with our brothers and sisters.”22 We are invited to confirm our baptismal identity in a personal encounter with the living person of Jesus Christ, who invites us to be his witnesses in the world.
The Church carries on the mission that Jesus received from the Father in the Spirit. By announcing Jesus Christ, in Word and Sacrament, the Church responds to the thirst for an authentic life and a sense of purpose that resides in the heart of every woman and man. By offering Baptism in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (cf. Mt 28:19) to the inhabitants of this world and in breaking the bread of the Eucharist with them, the very life of God, which saves us from evil and death (cf. Jn 6:48-51, 10:10), is made manifest and communicated to the world. In water and Spirit, Jesus Christ, through his Blood (cf. 1 Jn 5:1- 13), redeems us, gives us faith, and offers us to the world for the salvation of souls. The grace that frees and saves is truly announced to the poor and to those of us imprisoned by sin (cf. Lk 4:14-22). Nothing and no one is excluded from the merciful love of God, who invites us to go on mission, so that all may be drawn to the Lord.
We are grateful to our Holy Father, Pope Francis, for leading us and entrusting us with a fitting theme on this journey toward the Extraordinary Missionary Month of October 2019. With this in mind and in a spirit of fraternal communion between the particular Churches served by the ministry of the Successor of Peter, the Universal Pastor, I would like to propose some initiatives for the celebration of this important ecclesial event. I am aware that I am writing over a year in advance, but I believe this will provide the necessary amount of time for each local Church to begin prayerfully reflecting on how to live out the Extraordinary Missionary Month. It is our hope, as the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and the Pontifical Mission Societies, that the following proposals will help stimulate the creativity of the local Churches entrusted to your care. These suggestions are not meant to be exhaustive, but rather are some ideas and examples that are intended to facilitate local celebrations, which are to accompany those that will take place on a universal level.
1. Organize a Diocesan or national celebration for the Opening of the Extraordinary Missionary Month of October 2019. 2. Celebrate the Missionary Vigil, focusing on the theme given to us by the Holy Father. 3. Celebrate the Most Holy Eucharist at the Diocesan level on World Mission Sunday. 4. Propose that small groups of people or families gather in each other’s houses to pray the Holy Rosary for the missionary work of the Church, drawing inspiration from the original intuition of Venerable Pauline Jaricot, foundress of the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith. 5. Promote a pilgrimage to a Marian shrine or to that of a missionary saint or martyr. 6. Promote the collection of funds to support the apostolic work of the missio ad gentes and missionary formation. 7. Propose a public activity by which young people are involved in pro- claiming the Gospel. 8. Organize a Diocesan or national celebration for the Closing of the Extraordinary Missionary Month of October 2019.
With regard to these suggestions, you should find in the National and Diocesan Directors of the Pontifical Mission Societies, present in your local Churches, helpful references for ideas and collaboration. In fact, with their help we are putting together important reflections to serve as an aid for local Churches. This Guide, which will be completed and distributed before the end of this year, is the fruit of the faith of many of our brothers and sisters from around the world. I am sincerely grateful to all those who are making generous and valuable contributions to help promote this important work of missionary animation.
I hope and pray that all we are called to live and prayerfully reflect upon in preparation for the Extraordinary Missionary Month of October 2019 will contribute to a genuine, missionary conversion to Christ. With Mary, Queen of the Apostles, united in the Upper Room, we remain united in prayer for a special outpouring of the gifts of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Please know of my gratitude and fraternal best wishes for you and your ministry.
Sincerely in Christ,
Fernando Cardinal Filoni, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and President of the Supreme Committee of the Pontifical Mission Societies.
Taken From: Baptized and Sent : The Church of Christ on Mission in the world, Extraordinary missionary month 2019.

 

A ROSARY FOR THE EXTRAORDINARY MISSIONARY MONTH 2019

By Rev. Fr. Alvin Peter Fernando
It is providential that we have the missionary month in October. Mary our mother is missionary par excellence. As soon as she was filled with the Holy Spirit she went in haste to Elizabeth, her cousin to share her joy. She was with Jesus till the end. She was with the disciples praying and strengthening them to receive the Holy Spirit. The disciples became missionaries with the coming of the Holy Spirit. Though we do not have anything said about Mary afterwards, she would have been a source of joy and mission to all who came in contact with her. We can learn from her and together with her to carry out our mission through the various vocations God has entrusted us with.

His Eminence Fernando Cardinal Filoni, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, in his letter addressed to Bishops, on 08th April 2018, regarding the extraordinary missionary month of October 2019, with regard to the local celebrations he says, “Propose that small groups of people or families gather in each other’s house to pray the Holy Rosary for the missionary work of the Church,…”.

In keeping with this suggestion I propose this method of the Holy Rosary combined with the Sacred Scriptures for the Extraordinary Missionary Month. It is said ‘Repetition is the Mother of All Sciences’. Our goal here is to use these same missionary texts so that by the end of the month they become second nature to us. The format is easy.
 We begin the Holy Rosary as usual.  Read Isaiah 52: 7-10, Announce the 1st Mystery and pray the decade of the Holy Rosary.  Read / Sing Psalm 23, Announce the 2nd Mystery and pray the decade of the Holy Rosary.  Read 1 Corinthians 9: 16-23, Announce the 3rd Mystery and pray the decade of the Holy Rosary.  Read Matthew 7: 21-27, Announce the 4th Mystery and pray the decade of the Holy Rosary.  Read from the life of St. Joseph Vaz (or any other missionary saint), Announce the 5th Mystery and pray the decade of the Holy Rosary:
“Father Joseph Vaz was a very simple priest with nothing very striking in his personal appearance, being of medium height, fair-skinned, grave and serene countenance, but wiry and slender of build. He had always enjoyed good health till he came to Ceylon. In spite of illness that came upon him on arrival at Jaffna, he was physically vigorous arid active till his incessant journeys on foot, and nights spent in priestly labours, undermined his frame. In the last five years of his life he was subject to frequent illness and for the last twelve months he was an invalid. In old age he continued to be what he was in youth, an ingenuous soul, whose heart was with God and whose greatest desire was to serve God in his fellow men, especially the poor, the suffering and the neglected.

His whole life was devoted to the carrying out of his desire to serve others. It was his burning zeal that led him to do a work in Ceylon that no other priest had even dreamt of doing. He did it so successfully because he was so humble as never to trust his own wisdom and ever place himself in God’s hands by submitting to the advice given to him by others. This folly of the Cross ended in the Victory of the Resurrection.” (S.G. Perera, Life of Blessed Joseph Vaz: Apostle of Sri Lanka (Sri Lanka: Fine Graphics, 2010) p.221).

 Then follow the prayers and the litany as usual.  End with the Prayer for the Extraordinary Missionary Month and Hymn to St. Joseph Vaz.

(Prayer for the Extraordinary Missionary Month – October 2019:

Heavenly Father, when your only begotten Son Jesus Christ rose from the dead, he commissioned his followers to “go and make disciples of all nations” and you remind us that through our Baptism  we are made sharers in the mission of the Church.

Empower us by the gifts of the Holy Spirit to be courageous and zealous in bearing witness to the Gospel, so that the mission entrusted to the Church, which is still very far from completion, may find new and efficacious  expressions that bring life and light to the world.

Help us make it possible for all peoples to experience the saving love and mercy of Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, One God, forever and ever. Amen.)

Comments on the biblical texts:

Is 52: 7-10: The Israelites in Babylonian Exile realized that due to their sinfulness they had lost the Promised Land, the King and above all the Jerusalem Temple. It was the cause of their great sorrow. When the Good News of their return to the homeland was announced, it brought great joy for them. Today our abandonment of God has become the cause for great sorrow, struggle and pain. Our mission as Christians today is to announce the Good News to the world that God is with us in our struggle. If we do so as in the case of the Israelites, people will praise God saying How beautiful are the feet of the one who brings the Good News.

Ps 23: We as Christians know that the Lord is our Shepherd. It is our common experience. While acknowledging this fact it is also necessary on our part to be with the Shepherd. The sheep that remains with the Shepherd is always secure. Even today our Shepherd Jesus Christ feeds us, guides us and embraces us through the Eucharist and the Word of God. For a missionary the Sacraments, above all the Eucharist and the Word of God are fundamental.

1 Cor 9: 16-23: Paul considers him a slave. A slave has no rights other than doing the will of the master. A slave is not paid a salary. He totally depends on the master for everything. As a missionary Paul has received the mandate to preach the Gospel from the Risen Lord, the Master. He was willing to sacrifice anything to fulfill this task.

As Christians, we are baptized and sent to do this mission of proclaiming the Gospel to the world. We have no excuse. We need to proclaim the Gospel in every situation we are faced with. We need to remind ourselves with Paul ‘Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel’.

Mt 7: 21-27: Jesus gives us the secret to arrive at our destination. Christians for name’s sake will not take us to heaven. Doing great things for the Lord will not gain us our salvation. Only those who listen and follow the Gospel in their day to day struggles will ultimately reach the Father.

We need to experience the joy of the Gospel here on earth. There can be the storms of our life, but if we are firmly rooted in the Gospel, we will not be shaken. It is not enough to experience this truth, but we need to share this joy of the Gospel. This is our mission: to tell the suffering world that Jesus is with us in our daily struggles.

Fruits of Private Prayer

If we had just take the time to get alone with God and seek him, If we had take the time to get alone with God and seek Him to have a regular daily intense time of prayer with the Lord…… Every man of God in history in the Old Testament  that used by God was an instrument  of the Lord, and anointing of God ,miracles happen through his or her life. You will find that they were men and women of intense prayer.

They have the custom of shutting the world out. Separating themselves from everybody and everything and have a quality time with the heavenly father. Daniel went to his room and opened the window and he prayed. But he prayed in secret. He did it three times a day. He knelt upon his knees three time a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God morning, noon and evening bowed to give thanks and to worship and praise his heavenly Father.

Jesus set the example for private praying sacrifice is full of it He constantly sought out  private places to pray when he pray, he send his disciples away, because he st alone with his heavenly father.. Mt 14/23 – After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountain side by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone.

You will find it all through the ministry of Jesus. And in the morning rising up. He went out departed into a solitary place – no body’s around and there He prays. MK 6/46 – After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray. He sent them away. God has to have you alone to Himself.

If I have to learn anything, I will not get direction from the lord. I will never reach my potential in Christ. I will never have the ministry. He wants me to have unless I have quality time alone. This is what Jesus is saying to us – Isolated alone an isolated place.

Lk 6/12- On those days Jesus went out to mountain to pray and spent the night praying to God. It is in secret prayer that God most reveals His heart to his people. God touched Daniel when he is secret prayer. But he alone informed  him, He also gave him the revelation only when he shut in with God.

Daniel said” I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin while I was speaking to God in prayer”. Gabriel touched me and he informed me and talked with me” and said I come to show thee for thou art greatly beloved. Daniel 9/23 While in prayer God gave Daniel the revelation that goes all the way through history by alone with him.

According to Zachariah the prophet Zach 12/10 –If you have the Holy Spirit in you there is an urgency to pray. You take time, you set the time. You will find “ he set his heart to seek the Lord” God always makes a way for a praying person. God always know the man or woman who prays and God will make a way.
Sent by Fr. Bala Rajendram

 

 

 

Birthdays

04th -Wed  – Rev. Fr. Shiwantha Rodrigo

07th -Sat  – Rev. Fr. Denzil M. Perera

08th -Sun  – Rev. Fr. Roshan Claude Almeida

10th -Tue  – Rev. Fr. Saliya Wijesooriya

11th -Wed – Rev. Fr. Cecil Xavier

28th -Sat    – Rev. Fr. Vincent Wijesuriya    – Rev. Fr. Sudath Rohana Perera

 

Ordinations

02nd  -Mon  – Rev. Fr. Locksley Peiris

10th  -Tue  – Rev. Fr. Clement Jesudasan   – Rev. Fr. Sudath Rohana Perera   – Rev. Fr. Dominic Sandanam

16th  -Mon  – Rev. Fr. Camillus Jansz   – Rev. Fr. Leslie Perera   – Rev. Fr. Saliya Wijesooriya   – Rev. Fr. Alvin Peter Fernando

27th  -Tue  – Rev. Fr. Eugene de Silva, OSB

 

Deaths

04th   -Wed  –    Rev. Fr. Claude Camillus Peiris

11th   -Wed   – Rev. Fr. D. A. Rosati, OSB

12th   -Thu   – Rev. Fr. Aiden de Silva, OSB

13th   -Fri     – Rev. Fr. D. N. Van Reyk, OSB

15th   -Sun   –  Rev. Bro. D. C. D. Vincent, OSB

27th   -Tue   – Rev. Fr. Benedict Perera, OSB

28th  -Wed   –  Rev. Fr. Maria Arickiam