| December 22,
2009
Dear lay apostles,
May God send His blessings to you and your
family. We look forward to
another year of service and sacrifice for
Jesus Christ, our Returning King,
even as we look back at the service and
sacrifice of last year. With Jesus,
we offer God our lives, hoping that we will
persevere in holy service.
Our little apostolate continues to grow
and we welcome with happiness all of
the new lay apostle groups. Last year at
Christmas we had 361 registered lay
apostle prayer groups. This year we have
452 registered lay apostle prayer
groups in 15 countries. I know that many
do not register and this is fine
but if we know where you are, we can ask
you for periodic help in your area
if necessary. That stated, some people like
a private prayer group and that
is also fine.
The prayer groups are an important part
of the Lord’s plan so we must be
constant in our commitment. God sends many
blessings through the prayer
groups and I know that if a group makes
a prayer request, together as a
group, God will be generous. Use this intercessory
power. Heaven wants to
help us.
At this time, I would ask everyone who
is in a large group, perhaps with ten
or more people, to discern whether or not
Jesus needs them to sponsor a new
group in another location or even in the
same parish but at a different
time. This is happening naturally in many
places and this ‘opening out’
is
heavenly ordained.
There are many changes in our apostolate
in terms of growth, and there are
many things that have remained the same.
The changes are all good and the
things that have remained the same are the
blessings that God sends into the
world through the holiness and commitment
of each serving apostle. What we
do matters. Someone asked recently about
the lay apostolate. “What does it
look like? What kind of people are in it?”
I answered, “If you want to know
what the lay apostolate looks like, simply
look in the mirror.” The lay apostolate
of Jesus Christ, the Returning King
looks like all of us because we are all
important to it and we are all
welcome in it. We are young people, old
people, married people, and single
people. We work alongside priests, nuns,
religious brothers and sisters, and
consecrated lay people. The lay apostolate
is not a club or even an order.
It is, in its entirety, a movement of the
Spirit in the Church. Praise God
for it.
At this time, we are still negotiating
with the Norbertines for the purchase
of Holy Trinity Abbey in Kilnacrott, County
Cavan, Ireland. This is not
going as quickly as we would like but perhaps
it is going as quickly as
Jesus Christ requires. We are in a period
of waiting as the Norbertines are
considering their options. I am at peace
that the Irish Board of Directors
has done all that they can reasonably do
at this time. Please pray for all
concerned as we try to facilitate this plan.
We are moving forward with post
purchase planning in terms of a Centre for
Prayer which can serve as a
headquarters for this apostolate.
In other news, Ryan Cody and Patrick Howard,
two men from our men’s
discerning house, have completed their first
semester in seminary at
Maynooth for the diocese of Kilmore. We
are so proud of them and of all of
the young people who completed the first
year. Currently we have two women
and two men discerning and working. God
is good to us. The two houses have
also played a role in hospitality. Young
women and religious sisters come
and stay in the women’s house to pray
and rest and young men and priests
come to the men’s house to pray and
rest. This is working out beautifully
during this period prior to having our own
‘home’.
My biggest hopes for the New Year come
in two forms. One, I am praying that
as an apostolate we can make a serious advance
in our translations work.
Internationally, the apostolate is filled
with selfless soldiers of Christ
and we must provide them with every support
possible. Two, I am praying
that we can push out through our prayer
groups into society through the
Volumes, yes, but also through the “Heaven
Speaks” booklets. Please think of
the booklets as invitations to the mission.
These little writings are
heavily weighted with graces and God makes
the most of His opportunity when
one of these lands in the hands of a person
needing love. We must act as
heavenly mailmen and deliver them.
Dear lay apostles, I am grateful for all
of your prayers. I am grateful to
be able to serve heaven alongside each of
you. When we get to heaven we will
look back at our service and we will be
able to fully appreciate and admire
all of the work each one of us did for the
apostolate and the Church. I
cannot see each of you but I am very aware
of you. I certainly feel your
prayers and I am steadied by them, again
and again.
I am asking Jesus to give us all a special
blessing this Christmas. Jesus
will know what we need most but I hope that
we will be blessed with greater
holiness, greater confidence in the presence
of the Holy Spirit and a more
complete abandonment to the divine will
in our lives and in the world. I
love you and I am so proud of the hard work
and hard suffering we have
contributed this year.
Merry Christmas with great rejoicing from
your sister, Anne, a lay apostle
Many lay apostles do not have e-mail and
may not be on our mailing list.
Please share this message with other lay
apostles in your prayer group who
may not have had a chance to see it.
Wishing you a Blessed and Merry Christmas,
Kevin Sullivan
Director of Operations |
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