| About The Angelus |
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Speak Lord Your Servant is Listening Teach me how to pray
Mary of the Angelus is a Prayer Association Based on the teachings of the Catholic Church, it promotes prayer exercises to teach people how to pray for the healing of their life's hurts and to pray for others with similar needs. . Inaugurated in 1996, it aims to provide teaching resources and a prayer support network for those spiritually burdened or oppressed. "Ask and you shall receive, seek and you will find, Knock and the door will be opened to you" Matt 7:7 God opens the doorways of grace to those who are humble of heart and the Angelus Way of Prayer lays the prayer stones for us to be filled with God's grace. Angelus Prayer Ministry Laying the prayer stones for us to be Temples of Grace. God's House of Prayer has three foundational stones that are entwined with one another. They are: Contemplative Prayer: This prayer stone is the cornerstone that unites our heart with God's heart for the infusion of His love and the Holy Spirit prayer gifts. These gifts mentioned in Isaiah 11:2 of wisdom, knowledge, understanding, good counsel, piety, fortitude, and reverence of God guide and assist us on how to pray for the healing of our wounded spirit. The Prayer of Inner Healing: is the second building stone necessary for us to become whole and fully alive in the power of God's love and grace. The Holy Spirit will help us to identify any past hurts, fears, traumas or unresolved emotional conflicts. As we visualise Jesus with us in those memories the spiritual gifts guide us how to pray for the healing of those specific wounds. Intercessory Prayer: is the third stone to rebuild and restore God's temple of grace for others. We pray in union with Jesus the intercessor who is always praying before the Father for us. (Hebrews 7:25) God always hears the cry of the poor who pray with a humble and contrite heart. A prayer Mission of Compassion When we believe that everything is gift we too can believe and pray for God's promises to be realised like Jesus did when he proclaimed The spirit of the Lord is on me, For he has anointed me To bring the good news to the afflicted He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives Sight to the blind To let the oppressed go free To proclaim a year of favour from the Lord. Luke 4:18-19 The Angelus Mission
A prayer Mission to evangelise and intercede for the Healing and conversion of hearts Vision for the Anawim As a parish priest the Lord placed upon my heart a love and desire to do something for the Anawim. This ‘Anawim' is the Hebrew word for God's poor, the humble, the needy, the oppressed. It was to the anawim that Jesus promised the riches of the kingdom of heaven. How happy are the poor in spirit; theirs is the kingdom of heaven Matthew 5:3 I believe they can be helped by introducing them to the saving message of Jesus. There is no limit to God's grace for the salvation and healing of mankind. I realised that most of the Anawim fail to recognise and accept Jesus' blessing that the poor are specially blessed by God. (Matthew 5:3) They are unable to see and believe due to their oppresive poverty and unhealed sins. They may also carry the scars from the injustice of others sinning against them. I have found that in most instances the Christian community places God's poor (Anawim person) in the too hard basket. This ministry recognises that no one is outside the grace of Jesus as Lord and saviour, except those who choose not to receive God's promises. This prayer ministry for the Anawim brings to the poor an awareness of God's blessings, and an experience of His unconditional love through the power of the Holy Spirit. It is not intended to be a councelling ministry, but one of care and sharing with the love and hope of God's healing presence. Some Scripture scholars inform us that the power of the Holy Spirit is a free, libarating, enabling grace that anoints the Anawim to recognise their personal dignity and to believe they are totally accepted by God. Even in the midst of life's turmoil, this grace gives them an extraordinary freedom to be open to receive God's healing and restorative love. (Baptism of the Holy Spirit / Mark 3:11, Mark 1:8, Luke 3:16, John 1:33)
John baptised with water, but you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit. Acts 4:5 ...and now I am sending upon you what the father has promised. Stay in the city, then, until you are clothed with power from on high. Luke 24:49 This grace of salvation experienced by many of God's poor, spontaneously moves them to share with others who have similar experiences of life e.g. emotional imprisonment - mental illness - fear - abusive relationships - rejection - substance abuse - etc I believe that the Anawim Prayer Ministry encourages the anawim person to seek forgiveness of God and of others. The prayer of Inner Healing helps them to go through the stages of forgiving those who have sinned against them. They invite Jesus to take them into the Father's presence to set them free from their fears, oppression and all the obstacles they have erected which prevent God from blessing them. This way of praying with the Anawim nurtures spiritual growth and helps them to embrace their own weaknesses (the virtue of spiritual poverty of knowing that they can do nothing without God's help) and disciplines their thoughts and fears (helps them to be still and listen to God's Holy Spirit - contemplative prayer). This prayer ministry is primarily a healing ministry that flows from the love of God leading us to love each other in the common journey of life. We all have anawim people in our family or in our associates around us and we can adopt one of them and walk with them on their journey. This prayer partnership challenges us to be committed, support and assist our Anawim prayer partner according to the prompting of the Holy Spirit. The Angelus way of prayer can offer assistance, support groups and resources. To guide those who feel they have been called to Anawim prayer partnership.
Vision for Intercessory Prayer Cells A great need for this time in the Church's history is the evangelisation of its people. The vision of the Angelus Association is to form and nurture an army of intercessors to pray for the hearts of God's people to return to God. They perceive their calling for prayer evangelisation is an important step to set God's people free. As lay people they are very aware of how worldly values and aspirations can prevent them from hearing and responding to God's Word. In the Old Testament two ideas helped to define God's poor.
In the New Testament these two ideas are merged when Jesus says to His disciples, "Without me you can do nothing". Jesus is not reaching out to a particular social or economic class but people suffering from their own spiritual and physical needs. The acceptance of ones own poverty as a common denominator to unite us with everyone else is the foundation stone of Angelus Intercessory Prayer Ministry. Each member is called to pray from their own life experiences and healings. Not only for themselves but for those in the wider community with similar hurts and fragilities (Catholic Catechism Prayer of Intercession 2634 - 2636) When Angelus members meet in groups to pray for specific area, locations or events, the Holy Spirit will often direct their prayers towards Scripture and the need of prayer for the sins of the forefathers (Exodus 34:6-9) the effects of curses, absence of parental blessings (Ephesians 3:14-21) and cultural influences. The Holy Spirit's prayer gifts may also anoint them to see how various scriptures of God's Living Word are applicable to their own spiritual bondages. They may be prompted to invite the intercession of specific saints, souls in purgatory or Catholic devotional prayer practices. (Rosary, Litanies, Chaplets and Novenas) If the previous generations have failed to bring their sins to the Lord for forgiveness and healing then those same spirits continue to influence the succeeding generations and oppress the land and its people. An Angelus Intercessory Prayer Group is like God's gardeners who prepare the soil so the harvest will be rich and produce a crop one hundred fold now sixty, now thirty (Matthew 13:18-23, 36-43) Angelus members are encouraged to form small groups to share and grow in the spiritual gifts of faith, hope and love. Individual members bring to the group their positive life experiences as well as the ones that have bruised or crushed their spirit. They invite Jesus to be present as they share their pain with each other and minister to one another. The spirit of the Angelus Community is developed through the trust and humility of becoming poor in spirit by seeking prayer support and ministry for their spiritual needs. This way of community outreach reflects the first Beatitude, ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit the Kingdom of God shall be theirs' (Mat 5:3) and the Psalmist's cry, ‘God hears the cry of the poor (Psalm 69:33a) In this way the poor are able to minister to the poor with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Barriers erected to protect the members' personal vulnerability are dissolved as they meet one another in their pain and share their experiences. We learn to love one another through our weaknesses and not just our strengths. The bonding of a shared faith journey creates a spiritual commitment towards one another as we accept each other's weaknesses. We, in turn, are challenged to seek prayer for inner healing for similar weaknesses within ourselves and then to pray for each other within the group. Spiritual superiority or egocentric forms of holiness are reduced to a humble contrite heart when each member prays firstly, from their own awareness of their spiritual poverty and then their own shortcomings in God's love and service. Together, members discover God's healing gifts of the Spirit, so they can grow in God's love towards wholeness and holiness, in mind, body and spirit.
The Cracked Pot This allegory illustrates the charism of Spiritual Poverty A water bearer in India had two large pots, one hung on each end of a pole which he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, but another was perfect, and always delivered a full portion of water at the end of the long walk from the stream to the master's house, while the cracked pot arrived only half full.
For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water to his master's house. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect to the end for which it was made. But the poor cracked pot ashamed of its imperfection, and was miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do - or so it thought. The cracked pot after two years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream. "I am very ashamed of myself, and I want to apologise to you" Why?" asked the water bearer. "What are you ashamed of?" For the past two years, I have only been able to deliver half of my real capacity, because this crack in my side allows water to leak out all the way back to the master's house. Because of my flaws, you have to do all of this work, and you don't get full value from your efforts," the cracked pot said. The water bearer felt sorry for the old cracked pot and compassionately said, "As we return to the master's house, I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path." As they went up the hill, the old cracked pot did notice the sun shine on the beautiful wildflowers growing along his side of the path, and this cheered it some. However, at the end of the trail, it still felt bad because it had again leaked and half its load, and so it apologised again to the water bearer for its failure. The bearer said to the pot, "Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side? That's because I have always known about your flaw, and put it to good use. I planted flower seeds on your side of the path for the return trip, and every day while we walk back from the stream, you've watered them. For over two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate my master's table. If you weren't the way you are, he wouldn't have the flowers for his house. Each of us has our own unique flaws. We are all cracked pots. But if we will allow Him, the Lord will use us in spite of our flaws, to grace His Father's table in some way. In God's great economy, nothing goes to waste. So as you seek ways to minister, and as God calls you to the job He has appointed for you, don't be afraid of your flaws. Acknowledge them, and allow Him to use them, so you too may help add beauty along the pathways He has chosen for you. Author unknown
Angelus Co -Founder Fr. Vincent Doyle
When Father Doyle was a Parish Priest he developed a love for God's poor who were spiritually burdened by the effects of abuse, rejection or emotional imprisonment. He recognised how their needs can be overlooked in the busy life of a Parish Priest. In 1985 he formed with Valerie an Anawim Community as a healing and spiritual support centre. The word Anawim is taken from the Hebrew language which describes God's poor who are spiritually burdened. The formation of this community became the nucleus for The Mary of the Angelus Association which was inaugurated in 1996. Fr. Vince and Valerie have been actively involved in the Charismatic Renewal movement for many years as teachers, in leading retreats and facilitating prayer workshops for contemplation, inner healing and intercessory prayer. They have always work worked under the authority of their local bishop. Fr. Doyle is now retired from being a Parish Priest but he continues to be a Chaplain to many organisations of the Catholic Lismore Diocese in New South Wales. His Chaplaincies include Mary of the Angelus Association, the Beginning Experience, (for separated, divorced or widowed) Legion Of Mary, Kairos Prison Ministry, Cursillo (Leadership training for Christians) and the Diocesan Liaison Priest of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. He is also an International Speaker on the Prayer Ministry of Inner Healing and a member of the International Association of Christian Therapist.
Co-Founder Valerie Murphy with Husband Paul
Valerie began a search for a meaning and purpose to her life through the pain and emotional trauma of being an abuse victim. She was able to re- discover the love of God and his healing power through the Catholic Charismatic Renewal and the prayer ministry of inner healing. Valerie has a Diploma in Community Services and combined God's healing gifts of his Holy Spirit with faith hope and love in a practical way for the healing of life's hurts. By initiating a series of prayer workshops she began to teach people through visualisation prayer exercises how to invite Jesus presence and the healing light of his Holy Spirit into the many wounded areas of their human spirit. From her own experience she became aware of the necessity to provide a safe haven for individual prayer ministry and with her husband Paul still continues to minister in this way at the Angelus Home stay Healing House for those seeking personal or individual healing prayer ministry. Valerie is still responding to God's call and desires to bring Jesus' healing touch to all who are spiritually burdened by nurturing and forming intercessory prayer groups to teach participants how to pray for themselves and for others. Mary of the Angelus Association‘s Vision has now been accepted internationally and Valerie promotes these groups within Australia and overseas. Valerie is also a member of the International Association of Christian Therapists. The Angelus House A Home Healing CentreThe Angelus House is located in the city of Lismore. This regional centre is nestled in the rainforests of northern New South Wales, Australia and is forty minutes away from the famous surfing beaches of Byron Bay. This location enables many visitors to the area to combine a healing retreat with a holiday on the coast. The Angelus Healing Centre provides an alternative for those attempting to relax from work and stress and who desire prayer ministry for the healing of life's hurts and need to meet the family's holiday needs. Valerie and Paul Murphy have opened their home as a Home Healing Centre for Christians seeking prayer ministry. They reside on the premises with other members of the Angelus community and offer personal prayer ministry upon request. Prayer for Inner Healing - The healing of life's hurts such as:
Upon request, a small self-contained, overnight flat is available at Angelus House for those wishing to stay overnight. Alternative accommodation is readily available in the area to meet all budgets. Contact Address: - Angelus House 3 Lucia Crescent Lismore 2480 NSW Australia. Telephone:- 02 6625 2430 Fax:- 02 6625 2430 Email:- Contact Valerie Website:- www.angelusprayforus.com Travel ArrangementsSydney- Ballina- Airlines QANTAS or Virgin Sydney - Lismore - Airlines REX Airlines Sydney - Lismore - Bus Kirklands Sydney - Lismore/Casino - Train NSW Rail Brisbane - Lismore - Airlines REX Airline Brisbane - Lismore - Bus Kirklands or McCaffertys Please contact your local travel agent or the companies direct, to book transport.
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