January 2014

Dear Friend,

For Catholics, as well as for millions of other Christian believers, Lent is a special time of prayer.  It is a time to not only pray for one’s own needs, but also for those of others.

Is Lent also a special time of prayer in your own life?  I sure hope so.

If you don’t spend a lot of time in prayer during the rest of the year, please do try to give a little more attention to prayer during our 2014 Lenten season.  The time you give over to prayer this coming Lenten season will be time very well spent. 

I’m sure your needs and those of your loved ones are many.

Beginning on Ash Wednesday, March 5, please begin to ask the Lord daily for a favorable answer to your most important needs, that you might receive.  In your Lenten prayers, seek, so that you might find.  In your Lenten prayers, knock on heaven’s door that those doors of hope and healing might be opened unto you.

Pray with patience.  Pray with persistence.  Pray with deep faith and hope, all the while believing that your prayers can and will be answered. 

I just reread a note I received a couple of years ago from a 97-year old nun.  She told me she was going blind and that any letters she received had to be read to her by another person.  She said to me, “Patience is now my most cherished virtue.  Please say a prayer for me that I don’t run out of patience.”  This summer she will celebrate her 100th birthday.  I’m still praying that she will not run out of patience and that she will indeed live to celebrate her 100th birthday.

I personally plan to spend a lot of time this coming Lenten season praying for my own needs, yes, but a lot more time praying for the needs of others, and most especially for the needs of our Immaculate Heart of Mary Shrine’s friends.

So, as one of our dear and cherished friends, I do very much hope that you will please let me know about the needs in your life which you would like included in my 2014 Lenten prayers.  One of my most important responsibilities and ministries as a priest is to pray for the needs of others.  I daily pray, “Lord, through my ministry of prayer, please do make me an instrument of your peace.”

On the enclosed form you will find the outline of a cross.  I call it a Lenten Prayer Cross, and on it I would like you to please write one or more of your special prayer needs.  You may also simply write your name on this cross.  After I receive this cross back from you, it will be attached to one of our special 2014 Lenten Prayer Banners which will be displayed here at the Shrine during the whole Lenten season.

While I will pray for each of the needs written on all our Lenten Prayer Banner Crosses, our community of priests, brothers, and seminarians will do the same.  All those who visit and pray in Our Lady’s Shrine Chapel will likewise be asked to pray for the needs written on these many Lenten Crosses.

Since the space on your Lenten Prayer Cross is limited, please write any additional prayer needs on the back side of the form on which the Lenten Cross is printed.  These prayer petitions will also be taken to the Shrine Chapel to be prayed for from the first day of Lent to its last day, Holy Saturday.

When sending me your Lenten prayer petitions I hope you can also please direct some of your Lenten almsgiving to the Immaculate Heart of Mary Shrine.  Perhaps you could set aside a quarter, a half dollar, or even a dollar or two for each day of Lent in support of the Shrine and our many outreach ministries?  We deeply believe our ministry is God’s will, and that is why I continually invite you to be part of our important spiritual mission. 

May your 2014 Lent be the very best Lenten experience of your entire life.  That is my prayer today, and that prayer will continue to be prayed on each and every day of Lent.

In the love of the Lord,

Fr. Raymond M. Dien, CMC

P.S. During this year’s Lenten season please focus as much as possible on the things which really have lasting importance in your life, like prayer.  For some, this coming Lent will be their last Lent.  If you and I would face Lent of 2014 as perhaps our last Lenten season, I’m sure each of us would approach these six prayer and penitential weeks with much more devotion and seriousness.