Shared prayer for November 19, 2024

prepared by the "Essonne-Sud" group of Eudist Friends and Associates (France)

Pope Francis in his apostolic exhortation Gaudette et Exultate calls us to holiness in today's world with joy and gladness.

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Greetings

On November 1 we celebrated with the Universal Church the feast of all the saints. Pope Francis in his apostolic exhortation "GAUDETE ET EXULTATE" calls us to holiness in today's world with joy and gladness. "Indeed, the Lord has chosen each one of us to be 'holy and spotless in his presence in love' (Eph 1:4)."

God we praise, Lord we acclaim

GOD WE PRAISE YOU
GOD, WE PRAISE YOU, LORD, WE ACCLAIM YOU
IN THE IMMENSE CORTEGE OF ALL THE SAINTS!

1/ Through the apostles who carried your Word of Truth,
Through the strength-filled martyrs whose faith never wavered:

2/ Through the Pontiffs who kept your Church in unity
And by the grace of your virgins who revealed your holiness:

3/ By the Doctors in whom the light of your Spirit shines,
By the abbots whose hives are full, celebrating your name day and night:

4/ With the saints of all ages, like so many elder brothers,
in whom all the gifts of your charity are unceasingly poured forth:

5/ For so many hands bandaging wounds in memory of your sorrows;
for the friendship given to the poor as being closer to your heart:

6/ For so many steps on the long plains in search of the lost,
for so many hands washing souls at the fountains of the shed Blood:

7/ For so much hope and so much joy more tenacious than our misdeeds;
for so much striving for justice, so much striving for your Peace:

8 / For the prayers and offerings of the faithful united in you
and for the love of Our Lady, our Mother at the foot of the Cross.

Book of Revelation - chapter 7

Revelation 7:9-17

9 After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands.

10 They cried out in a loud voice, saying,
“Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

11 And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God,

12 singing,
“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honor
and power and might
be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?”

14 I said to him, “Sir, you are the one that knows.” Then he said to me, “These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

15 For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.

16 They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat;

17 for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

To honor the saints properly

Saint John Eudes, O.C. I, p. 346-347

1. We must worship Jesus in them; for he is everything in them. He is their being, their life, their holiness, their felicity and their glory. We must thank him for the glory and praise he has bestowed upon himself in them and through them, and thank him more than for the graces he has communicated to them, and communicated to us through them, because God's interest must be dearer to us than our own. We must offer him all the honor and love his saints have given him, and beg him to make us partakers of that same love, and of all their other virtues. [...]

2. When we address the Saints, we must humble ourselves before them, considering ourselves very unworthy to think of them, nor that they think of us; thank them for the services and glory they have rendered to Our Lord; offer ourselves to them, and pray that they offer us to Jesus and that they pray him to destroy in us all that displeases him, and to make us partakers of the graces he has given them ; and pray that they may honor and love him for our sake, that they may give him back for us, and a hundredfold, all the love and glory we should have given him in all our lives; that they may associate us with the honor and praise they give him in heaven, and that they may use us to honor and glorify him in any way they please.

Meditation: Gaudete et Exultate

Pope Francis

Paragraph 15

“Let the grace of your baptism bear fruit in a path of holiness. Let everything be open to God; turn to him in every situation. Do not be dismayed, for you can do this with the power of the Holy Spirit, and holiness in the end is the fruit of the Holy Spirit in your life (cf. Gal 5:22-23). When you feel the temptation to dwell on your own weakness, raise your eyes to Christ crucified and say: ‘Lord, I am a poor sinner, but you can work the miracle of making me a little bit better.’ In the Church, holy and made up of sinners, you will find everything you need to grow towards holiness. The Lord has bestowed on the Church countless gifts through the Word, the sacraments, shrines, the life of communities, the witness of the saints, and a multifaceted beauty that proceeds from God’s love, ‘like a bride bedecked with jewels’ (Is 61:10).”

Paragraph 150

“In silence, we can discern, in the light of the Spirit, the paths of holiness to which the Lord is calling us. Otherwise, any decisions we make may only be window dressing that, rather than exalting the Gospel in our lives, will obscure or stifle it. For each disciple, it is essential to spend time with the Master, to listen to him, to learn from him, and to constantly learn. If we do not listen, all our words will be nothing but useless chatter.”

take a moment of silence 

Final prayer: All Saints

Saint John Eudes (O.C. II p. 143-146)

Why are we here on earth?

My God, your plan is for us all to be saints!
You call us to enter into the mystery of the Trinity, into that great movement of life, praise and love that is your very being, Father, Son and Spirit.
Let's look at the saints, those who lived before us. They worshipped the same God, shared the same faith, the same hope, meditated on the same Gospel.
They were men and women like us, made of flesh and bone like us, fragile like us.

We belong to the same Church, we have the same Savior, Jesus Christ.
My God, you know our frailties, our temptations, and yet you want this splendor of life for us. You are bringing us into a wonderful covenant with you.
So what if we started today to become saints? To live only for you, Lord, and to lead others with us towards this happiness!

Zoom meeting

Opening on November 19, 2024

During the meeting you will be invited to share your prayer intentions and reflections on the Word and text of Saint John Eudes.

Maricarmen López

Province of France
Online:
20:00 - 21:00
(local time - France)

Language: French

Estela Pino

Province of Colombia
Online:
19:00 - 20:30
(local time - Colombia)

Language: Spanish

To use the usual Zoom client, click on the orange button.
To use the web application, click on the blue button. This will open the Zoom page. The meeting number is: 99035925541.

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Congrégation de Jésus et Marie
Maison Générale - Casa Generalizia
Via dei Querceti, 15,
00184 Roma RM, Italia

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cjm@eudistes.org