Prayerful Concerns of Our Parish Community – 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

by OLH Staff | Aug 1, 2022 | Ignatian Year, Prayers of the Faithful

Prayerful Concerns of Our Parish Community – 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

We post our Prayers of the Faithful each week from the weekend prior with the hope that you find them helpful in your own reflections and prayer life. This year, July 31, 2022 the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time is also the Feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), and the close of the Ignatian Year, which celebrated the 500th anniversary of the conversion of St. Ignatius.

God, you taught Ignatius that life and the whole universe is a gift from you, calling forth our wonder and gratefulness. We gather today in gratitude for the vision of Ignatius and for the community you call us to be in this parish and schools. We ask your blessing on us and on our brothers and sisters.

We pray for a deeper and more personal relationship with Christ, for a love for the church. Charge and enable us to be a community of welcome and forgiveness, a community that in word and deed seeks justice. We pray to the Lord.

We pray for the young. Protect them from violence and drugs that can steal their lives. Help us to recognize and take opportunities to walk with them and share with them the paths of hope in God’s kingdom that they might know God’s great dreams for them. We pray to the Lord.

For our elders, give comfort and hope to those who struggle with ill health or mourn friends and partners; give patience, love and strength for those caring for friends or family with physical or mental impairment, or those raising grandchildren; support for those elders who are suffering poverty and for a change in our nation’s policies, so that every older citizen has sufficient income to live in dignity; and, for our community, that we surround our elders with comfort and kindness. We pray to the Lord.

Awaken in each of us, God, a desire to know you more clearly and love you more dearly. May our parish and the Ignatian Partnership of Maine lead people to this deeper relationship with you. We pray to the Lord.

Sustain and deepen our efforts to walk alongside those who are excluded, poor or lonely, and in more ways than financial support. We pray to the Lord.

Call us to an active collaboration with others in protecting this fragile earth, our common home. In our lives as individuals, citizens, and as a parish inspire us to take action against the destruction of climate change. We pray to the Lord.

Welcome home to you our loved ones who have walked the path of this life. Grant them healing and joy. We especially entrust to you:
4:30 PM Robert S. Banks, Jr.
7:30 AM For The People of the Parish both Living & Deceased
9:30 AM Sally Green
5:00 PM For the People of Ukraine

We pray to the Lord.

Hear our prayers, Lord. Come to us, Lord of life, as you come to all your friends. Send us to console those around us who hurt. Come, and send us into this daily world to labor full of hope for the reign of God. Amen.

Extravagant Tenderness in the Ignatian Year

by OLH Staff | Apr 22, 2022 | Events, Ignatian Year, Jesuits, Spiritual Life

Extravagant Tenderness in the Ignatian Year

Perhaps you’ve heard the word that there’s an upcoming talk in the spirit of the Ignatian Year by Fr. Gregory Boyle, SJ.

Fr. Greg (aka Fr. G) is a bestselling author and Jesuit priest. Based in Los Angeles (the other L-A), he is the founder of Homeboy Industries, the largest gang intervention, rehabilitation and re-entry program in the world. We’re thrilled that Fr. Greg will be here in Portland at Cheverus on the evening of May 24th at 7 pm. The event is free to the public, with reservations required. He’ll be speaking to themes found in his third and latest book, The Whole Language: The Power of Extravagant Tenderness. You can find an enthusiastic review in America Magazine at this link: https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2022/01/20/boyle-whole-language-review-242204.

We’re planning a Community Read of The Whole Language, with a discussion over coffee on the morning of June 4th at the Parish Hall on Ocean Avenue. Our friends at Letterpress Books, located in Northgate Plaza, have copies of The Whole Language stocked, and will gladly order more if needed. You can order by phone at 207-747-4232 or stop in. It is always so appreciated when we choose to shop local!

We hope you’ll join us to hear Fr. Greg and to share some time together reflecting on his talk and the book over coffee, tea and a snack. There’s a lot to unpack and relate to our own lives in beautiful ways. Please let us know if you’re able to participate by calling or emailing so we can be sure we have enough goodies.

To reserve your seat at Fr. Greg’s talk at Cheverus at 7 pm on May 24th, go to: https://bit.ly/RSVPMay24GregBoyleSJ

Have you read either of Fr. Greg’s other books, Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion or Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship? There’s a theme about what’s powerful, isn’t there?

Celebrating the Ignatian Year

by OLH Staff | Feb 28, 2022 | Ignatian Year, Jesuits

Celebrating the Ignatian Year

A prayer to celebrate the Ignatian Year from the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States.

God of all people,

You were there when the cannonball shattered the leg of St. Ignatius, shattered his dreams, and shattered what he assumed his life would be. Even in a moment of pain and uncertainty, doubt and darkness, you spoke to Ignatius a word of peace and light. You showed him the path to you and the person he might become.

We may not be soldiers, standing in the path of a literal cannonball. And yet, we’ve been hit all the same. Cannonballs shatter our own hopes and dreams and expectations.

Like Ignatius, may we hear the compassionate voice of your Son in the aftermath of these cannonball blasts. May we seek the face of Christ even when our dreams are shattered. May we turn and follow Jesus with the courage it takes to change and grow.

As we journey through this Ignatian Year, may we be shown the path to you, God of all people, and live out our vocation, becoming the person you have invited us to be. Give us the grace to work for reconciliation every day: with you, with others and with your creation. Open our eyes so we might see all things new in Christ.

Amen.