January 26, 2004

"The Gift of Intercession"

I was a cloistered nun and thought that I would be cloistered forever and ever.  So I was very surprised when the Lord called me out of the cloister after sixteen years.  But before He called me out, the Charismatic Renewal came into the cloister, which was unusual.  One time a bishop was celebrating Mass in our convent and he just smiled from ear to ear continuously.  I went to my superior and said, "I've never seen a bishop look so happy in all my life.  What's going on?"  There were a lot of lay people that had come with him for Mass.  I looked over at the other side of the chapel where they all were and saw that they all had that same look that he had.  So my superior told me that the Charismatic Renewal had come into the Church.  We were cloistered, so we didn't know about this.  She explained what was going on in the Church.  I said, "Well, could this happen to us, too?  Whatever it is that they have, we want."  She said, "Well, we'll have to have a council meeting about that." 

So I went back to the cloister and told the sisters, "Pray your hearts out.  They're going to have a meeting to see if we can have what they've got."  Of course, God didn't refuse the fifty-two sisters who were cloistered.  We were in the Twin Cities and some of the leadership people from the Renewal came.  The course started on a Friday night and we were baptized in the Holy Spirit on Saturday night.  Saturday night you could hear the showers going all throughout the cloister because everyone was singing their hearts out in their new prayer language in the shower, not wanting, of course, to disturb anyone!  It was wonderful.  Each morning we began the Divine Office, "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."  Well that Sunday morning it was, "In the name of the Father" and we would all go into silence, totally lost in the Father.  Then we finally got to the Son.  Then finally, to the Holy Spirit.  It took us all morning just to pray a twenty-minute prayer because it was, "Praise the Lord!"  We were just lost in God's presence, wrapped up in His love.  You know how it is-the grass is always greener and the sky is bluer whenever we're wrapped in His love.  Everything came alive for us, and we were really on fire.

One of the gifts, among others, that I personally received that very special weekend was the gift of intercession, which is a charismatic gift of the Holy Spirit.  We were cloistered nuns, so obviously we were praying and interceding, but I didn't know that there is a special gift of intercession   So I urge you to ask for this charismatic gift of intercession over and over because He is true to His word.  He is true to His promises, and He truly will do what He says.  It's very much like when the Holy Spirit overshadowed Our Lady and the Word became enfleshed.  When the Holy Spirit overshadows us with this gift, the Word becomes enfleshed, not only in us, but also in others for whom we pray.  A charismatic gift is always for others.  Intercession is not prayer for ourselves; it's for others.  There is that type of prayer when we pray for ourselves, but I believe if you really want something for yourself, ask someone else to pray for you because there's a power in being the recipient of intercession. 

God said, "For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples" (Is 56:7).  I began to realize that intercessors have to go beyond all boundaries and bridges.  Intercession can penetrate anywhere, wherever the Lord leads, for all people.  He wants us to be a house of prayer for all people, filled with the Trinity, living out our baptismal gift.  The main power of intercessory prayer is that it's a gift of the Spirit, and it's directed and empowered by the Holy Spirit. 

Excerpt from "Power of Intercessory Prayer," Drexel, PA, 2002.