From the Archives: February 2024 Bulletin
On January 21st 2024, the brothers and sisters of the Lighthouse, Compass, and Petros communities had the blessing of coming together for a joint prayer meeting at Koinonia Academy.
Not having grown up in a community, I hadn’t even heard of prayer meetings until a few years ago. Even when my husband and I committed to life in the Petros Community, just after we were married in 2021, my understanding of Prayer Meetings was tenuous at best. I understood that it was a time to come together and thank the Lord for our lives in the community, and also to grow together to be closer to the Lord. But, even after growing to understand the point and see the benefit of prayer meetings, I’m usually met with a sense of anxiety going into them. Every prayer meeting, I am filled with the thoughts of “Am I Catholic enough to be here?” “What if I’m not praying correctly?” “What if everyone hears me sing?” “What if I don’t say the right words?” “What if I never hear the Lord?” Over the last three years, we’ve been so blessed by this time to worship together and come to understand the beauty and life that we get in prayer meetings. The January 21st prayer meeting at KA with the People of Hope was one such source of great life and joy for me!
Before the prayer meeting, being greeted with friendly faces of members of the People of Hope, even if they have only met us once, was welcoming and encouraging. We recognized faces and were greeted by those such as a couple with two young children who we hadn’t seen in over a year, large families who have invited us over for combined Lord’s Day dinners, our pastoral care workers and their families, and people we have seen before but to whom we have never spoken. The genuine friendliness helped to break down some of my stress and welcome me into a comfortable and open atmosphere for prayer. It was also the first prayer meeting without my daughter since she was born in September of 2022. I was so scared about leaving her! I dropped her off downstairs in childcare and despite her screams of protest, I made my way upstairs to take my seat and try to focus. The People of Hope's generosity to provide this service for us and careful consideration of each child’s safety and needs allowed me to trust those who take care of her to keep her safe so that I could have that time to myself. During the Prayer meeting itself, I was able to fully enter in and hear the Lord in all sorts of areas that I had been neglecting. I realized I had been using taking care of my daughter as a way to distract myself during prayer meetings. While it is necessary and beautiful to play with her, feed her, and change her diaper, I had been using these motherly tasks as a way to ignore the Holy Spirit moving inside of me. This was the first prayer meeting since she was born where I was able to focus on the Lord! I had an hour and a half of prayer to myself - a rare commodity in life with a toddler. It is also so beautiful to see the great, holy families fully participate. It’s wonderful - and dare I say, shocking, in our present day - to see teenagers praying and giving words that they hear! But it is so inspirational to me to see families raising their children in the light of the Lord and gives me a lot to look forward to and for which to be hopeful in my own family life.
After all the words of the Lord had been given, Ed Moccia stood up and told everyone to do something to document or remember some word that stuck out to them. Though I had been thinking through all the words, when I took out my phone to write something down, they all disappeared from my head except “Romans 8.” I don’t remember who said it or what verse he or she mentioned, but that’s all I could recall and all I wrote down. Praying on it and reading through it later that week in adoration, it was very clear why it had stayed with me when everything else disappeared from my head.
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. 27 And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. All my anxieties about praying, not being “enough” and everything else were gone! Any fears that I had were gone! The Lord makes all things work through him and the Spirit intercedes for us when we are at a loss for words. The Lord has called us to community life to help us in our areas of weakness and to call us to be better people. The Lord provides us with what we need and what I needed was faith in the Lord and trust in the Lord to rid myself of all my worries and questions. I’m so grateful for the experience to pray together with the People of Hope and I await joyfully the next time we’ll do it again! - Natalie, Petros Member
At the beginning of 2025, we are reflecting on the past year and all the reasons we have to be grateful for our life within a Christian community. You can see this in our February 2024 bulletin HERE This article is the continuation of a bulletin series which seeks to highlight the many ministries and communities around the world which we are blessed to call friends. If you are interested in learning more about the vibrant Petros community visit their page at stpeternewbrunswick.org/young-adults
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