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Pathways to Discipleship: Serving Jesus

Session 2: Intercessory Prayer

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Serving Jesus: Intercessory Prayer

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Come, Holy Spirit!

“And behold, they brought to him a paralytic, lying on his bed; and when Jesus saw their faith he said to the paralytic, ‘Take heart, my son, your sins are forgiven.”

Merciful Lord Jesus, may our faith in You help us to love and pray for others. Like the friends of the paralytic, we bring our loved ones to You in prayer asking for Your blessing and healing in their lives. May Your peace fill their hearts and fulfill all their needs according to Our Father’s will. (Continued…)

OPENING PRAYER

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Serving Jesus: Intercessory Prayer

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Have mercy Lord, especially on all those people who we hold in the silence of our hearts in need of physical, emotional, or spiritual healing.

Heavenly Father, give us the grace to respond daily to Your invitation to pray for others as an act of compassion.

May we follow Christ’s example of prayer and grow in a deeper understanding of the power of intercessory prayer.

Jesus, we trust in You. It is in Your name that we pray. Amen.

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Serving Jesus: Ministry

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Our hope for this session:

See how Jesus models intercessory prayer
Learn to imitate Jesus in praying for others

In this session we learn how we may live

the 9^th Habit of a Disciple:

Prays for Others

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Consider some ways we “intercede” in our daily life:

Parents for their children
Friends intercede for each other
Lawyers for legal help
Doctors for medical help

*An intercessor is simply one who acts on our behalf

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Serving Jesus: Intercessory Prayer

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INTERCESSION IS ROOTED IN THE TRINITY

Divine Love flows between

the members of the Holy Trinity

Prayer is the way we access this Love

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Serving Jesus: Intercessory Prayer

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“I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.” (Jn 14:13-14)

“The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.” (Romans 8:26)

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INTERCESSION OF THE SAINTS

"Being more closely united to Christ, those who dwell in heaven fix the whole Church more firmly in holiness. . . They do not cease to intercede with the Father for us.” (CCC 956)

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ACTING AS INTERCESSORS

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Jesus modeled intercession for friends and for his persecutors
Intercession shifts our gaze away from ourselves

“…pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective” (Jas 5:16)

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PRACTICAL WAYS TO PRAY FOR OTHERS

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Silent or spoken, rote or spontaneous
Make daily offerings and sacrifices�

The Church prays for others:

Mass petitions
Laying on of hands
Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick

Pathways to Discipleship

There are many ways to pray for others. God is pleased with our prayers for others because we thereby are participating in the flow of Divine Love. Our prayers can be in our own words, or we can pray using favorite memorized prayers. We can pray with or for someone right on the spot when they need it and ask for our prayers.

Notice that at Mass there is a special time for offering prayers on behalf of our Church leaders, world leaders, community, and specific people who are sick, dying, or recently deceased. You may have experienced a “laying on of hands” as a circle of friends gathered around you to pray in a time of need or blessing. The Church offers prayers during all the sacraments, but the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick is a particular time of intercession on the behalf of an ill or dying person.

The book suggests several practical ways to incorporate intercessory prayer into your daily routine, and you may want to look at that list to get some ideas.

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Knowing Jesus: The Way

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Take a moment to reflect on the opening video. What is your response to the testimony? Share your thoughts with the group.
Do you pray more to a specific member of the Holy Trinity than the others? Why?
Share any saints for whom you have a devotion and why you call upon their intercession. Share a time when you asked a saint to pray for a specific intention.
Share a time when you have prayed fervently for someone else.

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ASKING FOR PRAYERS

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This is a gift to us and those who pray for us
Even the saints asked for prayers:

“I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in earnest prayer to God on my behalf, that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my ministry to Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, so that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company” (Rom 15:30-32).

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PRAY WITH TRUST

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Like the Roman Centurian who implored Jesus to heal his servant, we show trust and confidence in God. (Lk 7:7)

“…only speak the word, and let my servant be healed…”

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“I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm…” (Jer 29:11)

Intercessory prayer has merit, even when we don’t see how God is working in the situation:

Pathways to Discipleship

We all know that there are times that our prayers appear not to be answered the way we would like. Here again, trust is required. As St. Paul tells us, “For now we see in a mirror, dimly,^[^a^] but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully…” 1 Corinthians 13:12 In that era, mirrors were highly polished metals, not the glass mirrors we have today, so that gives us a clue of the image Paul was presenting.

St Peter tells us:

¹²Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. ¹³But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. 1 Peter 4:12-13

The grace to persevere our difficulties and sufferings comes to us often through the prayers of our intercessors.

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SPOTLIGHT DISCIPLE: ST. MONICA (AD 332-387)

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St. Monica prayed unceasingly for the salvation of her pagan husband, Patricio, and her son, Augustine.
Both were eventually brought to the faith through her prayers
Augustine became a great saint in his own right.

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Knowing Jesus: The Way

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Share a favorite way to pray in intercession for someone.
Share a time when you asked for prayers from someone else.
What might hold us back from asking for prayers from others? How can we overcome this?
St. Monica’s perseverance in prayer for both her husband and her son was eventually rewarded. How can her example encourage us to persevere in our prayers? Share an experience of persistent prayer for an intention.

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PRACTICE TOGETHER

Take turns sharing specific prayer intentions for which you seek prayers. Then as a group, conclude your time praying together for the intentions that were shared by the members.

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DISCIPLESHIP NEXT STEP

Incorporate intercessory prayer more fully into your prayer life. Pray for others and their intentions and ask others to pray for you and your intentions.

How might you incorporate intercessory prayer throughout this next week.

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REMINDERS FOR NEXT SESSION

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Read or listen to Session 3: Sharing Our Faith before our next meeting.
Thank you to those who brought snacks!
If you would like to go deeper on Intercessory Prayer, check out our additional resources here:

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CLOSING PRAYER

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Blessed Monica, mother of St. Augustine, we give thanks to our Father in Heaven who looked with mercy upon your tears over your wayward son. His conversion and heroic sanctification were the fruit of your prayers. Dear Saint Monica, we now ask you to pray with us for all those sons and daughters that have wandered away from God, and to add your prayers to those of all parents who are worried over their children. Pray also for us that, following your example, we may, in the company of our children, one day enjoy the eternal vision of our Father in Heaven. Amen.

St. Monica, pray for us.

Pathways to Discipleship