Building on Faith, Hope and Love

Building on Faith, Hope and Love

 Faith - the theological virtue — enables us to believe in God and believe what He has revealed. Faith is also to be regarded as a spiritual gift from God; we can’t get it on our own. It also requires our Amen. In turn, we must willingly yoke Faith with the spiritual sensibilities of Hope and Charity. Faith without Works is dead; and works without faith is just work. Faith drives why we pray. It’s the why we participate in the Church. Faith provides us with a unique identity — followers and believers of the Trinity. Faith provides us with the blueprint for a moral life. Faith helps to integrate the human heart, intellect, mind and will. Faith beckons us to keep growing in our knowledge and love for God. 

Some of the ways to keep growing in our faith is to practice it more deliberately. Let’s talk about shoring up Faith by joining prayer groups. If you have not yet experienced prayer group, please consider joining one. Prayer group is more than an intellectual study of God’s Word or His Church. It increases our ‘book knowledge’ of God; but, the effort it takes to get to bible study also works to increase our theological virtues - Faith, Hope and Charity.

Thirty-five years ago, I joined my first prayer group at my husband’s encouragement. We were together for about ten years  and during that time we studied a wide variety of the different Books of the Bible. Then our group joined a new group that invited women from parishes throughout the archdiocese. This Group [about 100 women] operated for another decade. The leaders did a great job; however, it eventually outgrew the facility and the energy of the coordinators. We were invited to spread out into our home parishes — and so many of us did that. 

Prayer group members need to feel free to join or leave prayer groups because personal circumstances crop up that makes it necessary to drop out of form new groups. If you would like to form or join a prayer group, I recommend that you call your pastor for his advice and options. If your parish doesn’t have any prayer groups, call your Diocese or Archdiocese for information. If groups are not available, ask you pastor for permission to get one started. If you are in a prayer group and want to find a different one, follow the same process. Finish the current study, then announce your departure. If you can’t find a prayer group or don’t feel you can form a new one, feel free to give me a call and join our group via Zoom!

Prayer group is a very important part of my life; it has helped me grow spiritually, socially, personally, etc. It fills my need to feel like I belong to a group that loves God and His Church. It also  fills my cup of desire to be heard and understood; to be known, and to be accepted by faithful brothers and sisters in Christ. Over the years I have studied everything from Genesis to Revelation and back again with the help of very gifted authors, writers, and speakers. Even COVID couldn’t dampen the enthusiasm of our current prayer group to keep learning and praying together so we went from in person meetings to Zoom. So, there are lots of options for study and how to meet out there. 

What to study? In my opinion, new groups benefit from studying the Books of the Bible starting with the Book of Psalms or the Bible Timeline by Jeff Cavins. There are so many different prayer study options available from all the big Religious book publishers including [but not limited to} Ave Maria Press, Ascension Press, etc. My group just finished What We Believe by D’Ambrosio and we will be starting When You Pray by Edward Sri. You might also consider conversing about the previous Sunday Scripture with your group using Journaling with Sunday Scriptures: A Book for All Seasons [https://fortifyingfamiliesoffaith.com/shop/ols/products/journaling-with-sunday-scriptures---a-book-for-all-seasons].

All prayer groups need spiritually and personally sound rules. All members agree to: 

Strive to be authentically Catholic members in word, deed, study, and action. 
Be kind, inclusive and welcoming to new and current members. We will invite new members before each new bible study series.  
Use study materials that have the Imprimatur./Nihil Obstat.  
Agree to be courteous, truthful, kind and respectful with each other. We will freely express our deepest thoughts; ideas and insights.
Promise to love each other as fellow sisters and brothers in Christ. 
Avoid personal discussions that distract or dominate the time that we have each week.
Pray at the start and end of each session and ask for personal prayers. 
Free to move/start another group.  
Consist of men only, women only or form a mixed group. The dynamic of prayer groups change depending on its composition. New groups often prefer to start out as men or women only prayer groups. 
Prayer groups normally meet during the school year for 2.5 to 3 hours/session. This allows for two studies per year — fall and spring.