By Most Rev. Dr. Yvon Ambroise, Bishop of Tuticorin –
From my earlier article, we understand that the intimate link of prayer with mission work prayer goes to the very source, namely God, who will sow the seed, give its growth and work towards its rich harvest through his missionaries at work. The entire Church will contribute to it through prayer arising from the hearts of the faithful.
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Prayer and Missionary Work Go Hand-in-Hand
We do not see also the same personnel doing all these works together: one may only sow the seed by one’s preaching ministry, another prepare the ground and water the field for a good crop and someone else may harvest through their labour. God is the one who gives the growth and the origin of mission work. None of us could be the author of all these three together in an ordinary way. But prayer is always at the heart of the mission work, serving as a motivating and energy giving activity.
Prayer for mission work by each Catholic serves as the real moment to inspire, to start, to energize and to bring it to completion. As we read in the life of Moses who got advice from his father-in-law Jethro in resolving the cases brought to him for resolution, “you shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God (Ex.18:19)”.
Every Catholic, particularly priests and Religious, could make themselves earnest seekers in prayer so that the mission work is accomplished through their intercession and bear fruit. The marvellous aspect is that we draw the attention of God towards his children and elevate them to God himself to take care of them and to do everything needed for them. In this context we also see the sense of our humility to God through our prayers. As Ps.18:6 says “In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice and my cry to him reached his ears”.
Prayer is not only the cry of our heart but also the impetus of our heart towards mission work which is the spirit of love and the throbbing of our heart, given a shape through such prayers. In St.Theresa of Lisieux’s expression, prayer is a simple yearning and a look towards heaven. It is the cry and recognition of love from the core of a heart, full of joy. Finally it is something great and supernatural which expands the heart or makes the heart open to be united to Christ.
Thus this impetus, this look towards God and this cry are as many forms of our prayer during our journey of life. It is a response of love, a time of contemplation or a physical or moral suffering offered to God. It is not only my personal prayer but in union with the entire Church. It is the cry of others or for others as prayer unites all us very profoundly and in a mysterious manner.
For St.Theresa of Lisieux, it gave her also physical force. Because of her acute disease of tuberculosis in its advanced stage she was unable even to walk, but the medical doctor advised her that she should walk every day for some time. In order to fulfill it, it was the deep missionary desire that gave her the needed physical strength to walk as she offered every step painfully but with joy so that a tired and worn out missionary may get the force to walk and fulfill the mission work, a missionary has undertook to accomplish. Hence prayer is not an erosion of work but it makes you enter into communion with those involved in apostolic action and mission work. It is the projection or imparting of power to be the witnesses of the gospel. Without prayer the mission work could be but a mere human endeavour.
We must realize that we are sent by God and nothing could be accomplished without the grace and gift of God. If not, our outlook on the Church is vague and misses the target. We may have our own plans but each one much realize that God has always his plans and accomplishes it in and through our life. As in Jn.4:35, we must lift up our eyes and see that they are the works of the Father. It is not only our own which we need to fulfill. We may have our own idea of the work and the conditions of our work as if the mission workers depend on us only. But the words of Christ are different. He asks us to pray to the Lord of harvest to send labourers to his mission work. He chooses the workers, calls them and sends them. We need only to ask him through our prayers to send workers for mission work. It is not we who would determine the condition of the mission work but God.
Prayer is above all an act of faith and hope of the people. We may have to ask the Lord like the Apostles “Lord teach us to pray” (Lk.11:1) in order to fully understand the missionary place of our prayer in the life of the Church. We cannot do anything by ourselves to make the Church grow. If we try to do it as our own efforts only we would not be able to bring it to completion.
This article is used with permission from CBCI