Dear Friends
Easter 2020:
Prayer and Quiet Service
Week of April 1, 2020
Prayer Requests
Dear Friends,
What a Lent this has been. What a Holy Week and Easter it will be. So many new caregivers and care-receivers because of COVID-19. So many deaths. So many who now grieve the loss of their loved ones.
In his extraordinary Urbi et Orbi address on March 27 -- from a vast and empty St. Peter's Square -- Pope Francis spoke to the world and to each of us:
"It is the life in the Spirit that can redeem, value and demonstrate how our lives are woven together and sustained by ordinary people – often forgotten people – who do not appear in newspaper and magazine headlines nor on the grand catwalks of the latest show, but who without any doubt are in these very days writing the decisive events of our time: doctors, nurses, supermarket employees, cleaners, caregivers, providers of transport, law and order forces, volunteers, priests, religious men and women and so very many others who have understood that no one reaches salvation by themselves.
"In the face of so much suffering, where the
authentic development of our peoples is assessed, we experience the
priestly prayer of Jesus: "That they may all be one" (Jn 17:21). How
many people every day are exercising patience and offering hope,
taking care to sow not panic but a shared responsibility?
"How many fathers, mothers, grandparents and teachers are showing
our children, in small everyday gestures, how to face up to and
navigate a crisis by adjusting their routines, lifting their gaze
and fostering prayer?
"How many are praying, offering and interceding for the good of all?
"Prayer and quiet service: these are
our victorious weapons.
Prayer and quiet service. That's family caregiving. That's what you've done and what you continue to do.
That's love.
God bless you all.
You remain in my prayers,
Bill
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You can see a video of Pope Francis' message and celebration of Benediction here.
For a written transcript, go here.
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This week we're so pleased to welcome Norma J. and Candace H. of Ohio as the newest members of the Friends of St. John the Caregiver. Please keep them and their intentions in your prayers. They have promised to pray for you and yours.
And again this week we cordially invite you to join the Friends of St. John the Caregiver! (FSJC's programs include YourAgingParent.com and CatholicCaregivers.com.) You can find out more about becoming a member here.
No meetings, no dues. All we ask is that you pray for caregivers and those receiving care. Our members include caregivers, care-receivers, and those who support both (including quite a few former caregivers).
You can:
sign up online here
or call us toll-free at 1-800-392-JOHN (5646)
or
print and mail an application form.