Special Ministers day of Prayer
Over 100 Special Ministers from our deanery, the majority from our three city churches came together with Fr Nicholas King to look at the Gospel of Luke and hear him speak about the importance of prayer in our lives. Luke is our Gospel for the year of prayer next year. The day started with Mass at St Osmund’s followed by the first session from Fr King in the parish hall. We were told that we should never be too busy to pray however cluttered our lives might be, prayer each day will make a difference to us. Pray to God who is our Father and where possible spend time alone with him. He is always available to us and calls each one of us to Him. Even when we run away, he waits for us and is always there to help us. Spending time with Him gives each one of us our identity and helps us to understand what we are and why. After that session we broke for lunch before going into the second session where we looked and reflected on Luke and the experience of prayer. The prayerful atmosphere of the opening chapters; the ‘overture’. Why are the first five mysteries of the Rosary taken from Luke 1 & 2?
Read Luke 1: 5-25, looking out for signs of prayerfulness.
The Magnificat
The Benedictus
The prayerfulness of Mary
The prayerfulness of Simeon
The prayerfulness of Hannah
The ‘Hail Mary’
We were taught how to pray through the passages and given an insight into how and why they were written. The day finished mid afternoon with a period of quiet reflection in the church.