www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Prayer Request for prayers of forgiveness and assistance

I came across Jesus' teaching about anger tonight, Matthew 5:22-24, and realized that I needed to seek your forgiveness before continuing in my vocation to help St. Therese shower the earth with roses in new venues.

First, please pray that Jesus will forgive me for breaking my promise of silence I made at: https://www.byzcath.org/bboard/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=003803;p=2. I thought this apology took prominence over my promise to remain silent.

Please pray that Jesus will forgive me for mentioning St. Therese in the first paragraph of this post. I know that the very mention of her name causes the blood in some of you to boil, but I thought it was necessary to explain the reasons for this apology.

Please ask Jesus to forgive me for being so thick-headed and slow to recognize the advice others were graciously giving to me.

Please ask Jesus to forgive me for failing to rejoice and be glad when I thought I was being unfairly insulted and persecuted. Matthew, 5: 11-12.

Please ask Jesus to forgive me for feeling proud when I received the post from Hesychios at https://www.byzcath.org/bboard/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=3;t=000440;p=5#000069.

Please ask Jesus to forgive me for the countless number of times I have been argumentative.

Please ask Jesus to forgive me for my insensitivity to the feelings of oppression felt by many Byzantine Catholics in America.

Please ask Jesus to forgive me for the times I have offended the Orthodox readers on this Forum.

St. Therese said she would spend her heaven doing good on earth, and that she would let fall a shower of roses from the heavenly garden. Please ask Jesus to help me assist St. Therese in some minuscule way in doing good on earth in my future venues.

Please ask Jesus to grant me the gift of wisdom so that I don't repeat in future venues the same mistakes I made in this Forum.

Please ask Jesus to grant an abundance of grace to the Metropolia of Pittsburgh, the Eparchy of Parma, and especially the St. Louis Byzantine Catholic Mission.

Please ask Jesus to grant an abundance of grace to each of you, and all past and future members of this Forum.

Please ask Jesus to grant an abundance of grace to the administrators of this Forum.

Please ask Jesus to grant the prayers of the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI.

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
The rains fall soft upon your fields;
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

JP

I think St. Therese can have an appeal to Byzantines since she was a Carmelite. That order originated in the East and seems to me to have an eastward-leaning spirituality even to this day. Do I want to throw out eastern saints and plaster western saints on the walls of my church? No, of course not. However, some saints do cross the east/west barriers and become known in both areas. St. Seraphim of Sarov is an Orthodox saint whose message is timeless and relevant to his own time and perhaps, even more relevant to our time. But a number of easterners I know are quite fond of St. Therese.

John,

In my lurkings here, I have often disagreed with the tone of your postings, or the content, or both, but have always admired your single-minded zeal. If only the greatest fault we all had was an excess of zeal for the faith, think of how we could change the world.

May Jesus grant you all that you asked for in your post.

-- Ed

PS I come to the St. Louis mission at least twice a year when I visit my family. I will look for you the next time I am there - maybe around the 4th of July. Give a big "Christ is risen!" to Mike and Damian and all the folks at the St. Louis mission for Ed and family from Tennessee.

Dear John Patrick,

May God bless you for your humility...
Christ forgives and I forgive!
Actually, come to think of it, you haven't offended me at any time that comes to my mind though a few of your posts may have been a bit insensitive...

Wishing you every blessing in your devotion to St. Therese, the little flower,
and may she intercede before the heavenly throne on your behalf,
Alice

P.S. I am grateful for the sanctity of all holy saints of Christianity, East and West! Thank you for sharing about her.

Dear John,

I pray that Our Lord will forgive you for all of your sins. I pray that He will assist you and guide you. I pray for the St. Louis Byzantine Mission. I also promise that soon my wife and I will come to worship with you.

Saint Therese, pray for us!

Blessed John XXIII pray for us!

God Bless You,

Dr. Eric

JP,

Jesus forgives; I have prayed for you to Him.

I have even asked St. Therese the Little Flower to intercede for you.

As for the Forum, it often takes some time to settle in . . .

-- John

It is God who forgives. May the Risen Christ bless you through the prayers of his Most Holy Mother of Carmel and His servant St. Therese. I am still working on preparing that Moleben to St. Therese for you.

Fr. Deacon Lance

Prayers for your intentions...

james

Dear John Patrick Poland,

It is I who should be begging forgiveness from you, sir!

If I have given the impression that I am somehow against devotion to St Therese, well, ANATHEMA on me!

My ONLY disagreement with you, sir, was in your contention that St Therese is a Byzantine Catholic Saint.

She is, in fact, a Latin Catholic Saint whose spirituality has led many other Catholics, Orthodox and other Christians to adopt her for devotion privately and also, in a number of cases, publicly as well.

We Byzantine Catholics also have churches named for St Francis of Assisi, St Benedict, Our Lady of Fatima etc.

These devotions need not be first "cleared" as being "Byzantine" - as they certainly are not - before we have devotion to them.

The Melkites, for example, have St Therese in their Byzantine Catholic calendar. My friend, a Ukrainian Catholic priest, exposed an icon of St Therese in his parish in St Catharines and preached about her.

As for being "Byzantine," we "dress up" all Western saints we accept as Byzantines.

If Fulton Sheen ever becomes a saint, there are even pictures of him dressed in Byzantine episcopal vestments . . .

As for your comments on the Divine Mercy devotion, I think I'm beginning to see your point . . .

It is God Who forgives! May He forgive me as well!

Alex

Now accept his forgivenss!
Our Father, Who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. Amen....Sweet Jesus you are the lifter of our heads, our Provider, and our best friend, come quickly Lord Jesus, providing for all the needs at hand.

Dear John Patrick,

I don't know why you are asking forgiveness? I believe that Saint Therese has blessed you in various ways, and one must continuously mention the blessings that were imposed on you. It is edifying to the souls of others, and therfore a Christian obligation to mention it.

That you tried to do what our Lord demands you to do, and by doing so annoyed others that might have certain 'issue's' about it, is their problem....or so I think!

But...it is very humbling of you to apologize, and it does your soul good. Now if those offended were to apologize to you, they too would gain through it.

Zenovia

As a devoted follower of the Little Flower, I offer my sympathy to you at this time.


her little flower

To all of you who have posted and those who have sent me private messages and e-mails:

Thank you very much. Your thoughts and prayers mean very much to me.

I love my new venue for helping St. Therese continue to shower the earth with roses. Last night, she helped me pick 16 $25 roses, and then make a list of 16 recipients.

I hope we do it again next month.

May God bless you and yours.

JP

That is because Servant of God Fulton J. Sheen was bi-ritual, being Latin and later becoming able to celebrate the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom so as to understand the East.

John Patrick Poland,
I hope to see you tomrrow night as my wife and I are going to try to come to the Byzantine Mission at the Blessed John XXIII center.

This is a follow-up reply to a certain private message I received on examination of conscience. For some reason, I can't figure out how to send a reply to the message, but I am sure he will read this posting. Regular posters and lurkers may also find it to be interesting.

I recently found a good article on AmericanCatholic.org on examination of conscience. I think it applies equally to all American Catholics: Byzantine, Roman, or Maronite.

I think that any spiritual director would suggest that penitents using an examination of conscience look for what we call the predominant fault. Try to determine what drives you in your daily life. What motivates your actions? What determines the decisions you make in family life, in social life, in your business dealings? And look not just at the wrong you may have done but also at the good you left undone.

Is personal comfort the great determinant of your life? Are pleasure and sensual satisfaction your main consideration or motive for your actions? Or is your life characterized by pride, vanity or ambition? What would a confession following such an examination of conscience sound like? It might go something like this: "I find that I am very self-centered in my life. I spend more on my own pleasure and amusement than on anyone else in the family. I control the TV all the time. I determine with whom we are going to socialize. I overspend on clothing for myself. I took credit for another employee's idea to get ahead."

Or, "I discover I am proud and overly ambitious. I can never admit I was wrong, that a mistake was mine. I brag and take credit for all that goes right and blame others in the family or at work for what goes wrong. I'm so busy trying to make a buck I have no time to spend with my spouse and children. I have to have the newest in everything and put my family in debt unnecessarily to have it. I jeopardize the security of my spouse and family because of my extravagance and failure to provide for sickness and our old age."

This sounds like an excellent examination of conscience for any Catholic preparing to receive the Mystery or Sacrament of Confession. I do not know if it would be applicable to Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists, Orthodox Christians, or Presbyterians because I have never studied any of those faith traditions. I know even less about Evangelical Christians. However, I suspect it is a good practice for all Christians.

I hope this answers your question. If not, send me another private message.

JP