Prayer is a Tribute to Loved Ones

The Congregation of the Mission Midwest Province has embarked on a new ministry, one that unites members of the Vincentian community with those who seek support through prayer. The Vincentian Tribute Program, which began on All Saints Day (November 1), is a ministry of prayer that provides an opportunity for you to express your support of friends and loved ones on a special occasion, during an illness, or at a time of death and loss.

The program features new, beautifully-designed prayer cards, which you can send to loved ones to notify them of your prayer intention. Using the provided response envelope, the Congregation of the Mission Midwest Province will assign your prayer to a senior Vincentian priest or brother – one of the newly appointed “Apostles of Prayer” – who will pray and make spiritual offerings on behalf of your loved one.

“The Vincentian Tribute Program is a way of expressing our gratitude to the many friends who share in our work and make it possible,” said Provincial Superior Father Jim Swift, CM.

Fr. Swift added, “In today’s world, the gift of prayer is among the most important and meaningful gifts one can give – or receive. Prayer is humbling ourselves before God and asking in confidence and with persistence. Prayer is power, spiritual power – not our power but God’s power.

“Our prayer becomes the occasion for God’s power to shine forth in our lives, to work miracles, to change lives. The Vincentian Tribute Program is a new apostolic outreach for us.”

The new prayer ministry is based at St. Mary’s of the Barrens in Perryville, Missouri. This is a natural home for this program, because generations of Vincentians have been missioned apostolically from this historic and holy place. The Vincentian Tribute Program is simply the most recent expression of the ongoing apostolic mission at the Barrens.

But of the many missions that have their beginnings at the Barrens, this one is special. Many of the priests and brothers living at the motherhouse have spent their careers going wherever their apostolic work took them. Now, in their senior years and perhaps with physical infirmities, they have found work that can come to them.

“Over the years, I have heard our senior or infirm confreres ask, ‘Isn’t there something apostolic I can do?’” said Fr. Swift. “While age and sickness often restrict our seniors, there is something apostolic they can do, and that is to pray!

“The Provincial Council and I are happy to inaugurate this new apostolate, which will serve all friends of the Vincentian family, the senior priests and brothers who participate, and of course, those for whom the prayers are offered,” said Fr. Swift.

In announcing the new work to the Vincentians at St. Mary’s of the Barrens, Fr. Swift said he had entrusted the ministry to two saints, St. Theresa of the Little Flower and St. Catherine Laboure. “Both saints lived simple, quiet lives and did not attract a lot of attention. Both saints believed their sanctification was to be found in such ordinariness: in doing well and for God whatever they did each day. Both saints accomplished great things through such a lived-out, ordinary spirituality,” he said.

“I pray that these two patrons will intercede for our Apostles of Prayer, helping them in age or illness to live peacefully and with joy, a life perhaps more quiet and more simple than their
earlier years in the Congregation of the Mission. I pray that following the example of Sts. Theresa and Catherine, our seniors and infirm at St. Mary’s of the Barrens may offer their prayers and sufferings for the intentions sent to us, trusting that from such ordinariness, God can work miracles for others,” said Fr. Swift.

Learn more about the Apostles of prayer & how to obtain tribute cards, click here…