NETWORKING
by Henri J.M. Nouwen
(from Returning: God’s Love Call Us Home )

I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions and thanksgiving be offered for all . (1 Timothy 2:1)

During a recent period I discovered the power of the intercessory prayer of others. It was a time when many crucial decisions needed to be made, many classes taught, many promises kept. Yet I felt so tired, so heavy of heart and so melancholic that I wondered how I would survive! I couldn’t pray. When I found the time to pray, my prayers seemed cold and lifeless.

Finally, I decided to write to twelve friends. I asked them to pray for me each day for the next month. I explained to them my spiritual dryness and my inner fears. I soon experienced something new. Though my prayers remained painfully barren, I gradually felt surrounded by a network of prayerful support. I knew I belonged to a spiritual family who lifted me up to God, and I sensed I was part of an active community of prayer.

A task that seemed impossible proved possible, people whom I feared proved to be friends, and deep temptations which seemed insurmountable proved to be temporary distractions. During that month I kept feeling the real presence of my praying friends. For a moment, I claimed for myself what was pure gift. But when one of my praying friends wrote me about how seriously she had taken my request, I realized how God responded to the prayers and I felt humble and very grateful.

Do I pray for my relatives and friends? Do I encourage them to pray for me? When was the last time I felt the support that comes from the prayer of others?

HEALING AND KEEPING PRAYER

Heavenly Father, I thank you for loving me. I thank you for sending your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to the world to save and to set me free. I trust in your power and grace that sustain and restore me.

Loving Father, touch me now with your healing hands. For I believe that your will is for me to be well in mind, body, soul and spirit. Cover me with the most precious blood of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ from the top of my head to the soles of my feet. Cast out anything that should not be in me. Root out any unhealthy and abnormal cells and multiply my healthy cells. Open any blocked arteries or veins and rebuild and replenish any damaged areas. Remove all inflammation and cleanse any infection by the power of Jesus' precious blood. Let the fire of your healing love pass through my entire body to heal and to make new any diseased areas so that my body will function the way you created it to function. Thouch also my mind and my emotion, even the deepest recesses of my heart. Saturate my entire being with your presence, love, joy and peace and draw me ever closer to you every moment of my life.

And Father, fill me with your Holy Spirit and empower me to do your works so that my life will bring glory and honor to your holy name.

I ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

PRAYER REQUESTS

To all Prayer Groups and Prayer Communities in the Alliance :

Please include the following petitions in your intercessory prayers. Our 15-member Intercessory Ministry headed by Bob and Liza Jablonski will be praying along with you.

• For safety and peace for daughter Stefanie who left home and is now exposed to constant danger and for a reconciliation with her Christian ex-fiance. Requested by LS, mother, via our website.
• For Sean Davidson, first year seminarian in Maynooth Seminary in the Republic of Ireland . Sean requests for prayers for his class of 25 to help them contend with “the daily challenges and temptations”of seminary life. Requested via our website. Sean adds: “I know this may be a strange request but I read your website and thought it was very inspiring. Please help if you can.”
• For Pat Schirtzinger in Columbus , OH . Pat is recovering from cardiac by-pass surgery. Please pray for her continued recuperation.
• For Sister Purita Vazquez and the various Ministries for the Alliance 2005 National Convention. Our Intercessory Ministry is praying for them but we need the prayers of the rest of the Alliance also.
• For our new webmaster, Carolyn Stemen, and for Prime Abiado , our outgoing webmaster who helped us tremendously in getting the website project off the ground. Let us pray for their families and their careers and their expertise, a portion of which they are sharing or have shared with us.
• The new set of Alliance officers, from Bob Canton down to regional coordinators, whether newly elected, re-elected, newly appointed or re-appointed, as they begin their four-year service to the Alliance in 2005.
• For our Las Vegas community now planning and preparing for our National Leaders’Meeting in February.
• For our Mid-Atlantic community now planning and preparing for our National Leaders’Meeting and Retreat in September.
• For all Alliance prayer communities that their members be enabled to attend the 2005 National Convention. Please include in your prayers the youth and the children that they be given the opportunity to be inspired, built up, transformed by their attendance in the Convention.
• For President Bush and his Cabinet as they begin a new 4-year term. In these difficult times, divine guidance is needed more than ever.
• Let us not forget our service men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan . One of them is our very own –Brother Morris Carrillo, regional coordinator, Alaska . They are constantly in harm’s way and constantly suffer the deprivations of being away from home and family. We should not only pray but write them too. If any of you happen to access this website, the Alliance of Filipino Catholic Charismatic Prayer Communities would like to let you know that we are praying every day for you and that we love you and appreciate what you are doing for us.
• For Courtney –for wisdom and guidance and for her safety and well-being. Requested via our website.
• For Phyllis in Malaysia –for healing of cervical disk prolapse and pain of neck and shoulder. Requested via our website.
• For Brother Bob Canton –for anointment in his participation in the May 13-15 Cenacle of Prayer to be held in Miami under the auspices of the National Service Committee, the Hispanic Charismatic Renewal Movement of the Archdiocese of Miami, and the International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services (ICCRS). In what is anticipated to be a large gathering, Brother Bob will represent the Alliance of Filipino Catholic Charismatic Prayer Communities.
• Flor Sikat, sister of Sister Melba Barrameda,  and Angela Abuan, niece of Sister Lisa Jablonski, that their souls rest in peace with the Lord.
• For all the heads of the different Ministries preparing for our National Convention: Nenett, Max & Fler, Oscar, Weng, Lulu, Bob & Lisa, Terry & Andrea, Sidney and Butch, Melba, Linda, Flor, Gonette, Tina Mario & Purita, Father Bill Halbing. May all be strengthened, and guided, and directed by the Holy Spirit as they give of themselves in the service of the Lord.

ANSWERED PRAYERS

• Success of the North Pacific Regional Conference
• Success of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference
• Success of the Baltimore National Leaders’Meeting, Elections, and Retreat
• Completion of the February issue of The Trumpet
• Financial stability for the Alliance
• Successful Alliance Leaders Meeting in Las Vegas