Prayer calendar unites Catholics in Stamford

Like Catholics everywhere, parishioners of Sacred Heart Church in Stamford and its mission, St. Philip Neri in Grand Gorge, profess to believing in the power of prayer.

What sets the 450 families in these southwestern New York mountain towns apart from many others in the Diocese is that they make it a point to pray for one another on a daily basis. They even have a special calendar to remind them who to keep in their prayers on a particular day.

Rev. Joseph Cebula, pastor of the Delaware County parish, said the idea for the prayer program was inspired by a calendar put out for priests by Rev. Frank Gilchrist, a retired priest of the Diocese.

"I thought, `Wouldn't it be nice if we could do something like this right here in our own parish?'" he said. "I decided to pass the idea along to our Respect Life Committee to see what, if anything, they could come up with in the way of implementing a prayer-related program for the parish."

On computer

Mary Jane Butler, a committee member and teacher's aide at Stamford Central School, stepped forward with an idea that turned out to be an answer to Father Cebula's prayers.

"I use computers a great deal in my work with remedial and enrichment students at the school, and thought perhaps I could put my computer skills to use on behalf of the parish," she recalls.

The hardest part of the project, she says, was designing the quarterly calendar in such a way that it could be photocopied in a variety of sizes by church secretary Cathie Weredyk. The final result includes the names of about 75 families whom parishioners are asked to remember in their prayers during each three-month prayer cycle.

Prayer list

Essentially, names of parish family members are inserted in the calendar blocks in alphabetical order, on a Monday through Saturday cycle. The Sunday blocks have been filled in with prayer requests for special intentions. Those range from prayers for MIAs and POWs to prayers seeking respect of our natural resources and the safety of hunters.

Special holiday prayer requests remember "those travelling and attending homecoming celebrations" and "for help in sharing the message of the Light of the World."

Members of the parish Respect Life committee contributed many of the ideas used in the Sunday slots, according to Mrs. Butler.

Time-consuming work

In addition to typing parish family names and special intentions into the calendar blocks on her home computer so copies can be inserted into the church bulletin about a week before the next prayer cycle begins, Mrs. Butler personally mails out copies to those whose names appear on that particular calendar.

The project is time-consuming, but Mrs. Butler, a mother of four grown children, hopes parishioners will benefit in a number of ways.

"I personally feel that prayer is very important and that people need to know others are praying for them," she says. "These days, it seems it's harder than ever to find time to pray each day. My own special time is early in the morning around 6 a.m. when I'm out walking. Everyone is different."

Although the cover of the prayer request calendar contains a sample suggested prayer, Mrs. Butler says people should do "whatever works for them" when it comes to petitioning and praising God through prayer. "Whatever the Lord inspires you to offer is what you should do," she says.

(12-12-96) [[In-content Ad]]