More Things

While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then, completing their fasting and prayer, they laid hands on them and sent them off. (Acts 13:2-3)

Not all of us are called to go off to foreign lands and do mission work. Here in the Book of Acts, after a group of disciples and followers of Christ fasted and prayed, they discerned God wanted Saul and Barnabas to go to Cyprus to proclaim His Word. How about us? If we are not called to mission fields far away, we are still to do God’s work where we are with what we have. One of God’s great work for us is prayer. Mary, Jesus’ mother, did not go very far, but we know she was always praying. Many saints spent most of their time praying. A Bishop in China once said that ten Carmelite nuns praying will be of greater help to him than twenty missionaries preaching! Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote, “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.”

Sister Barbara Jean LaRochester started work as an x-ray technologist in a Catholic hospital, and a teacher’s aide in an inner-city school. She was even active in the civil rights movement during the height of the race riots in the 60’s. But then she discerned her real calling, and turned to cloistered life as a Carmelite nun in Baltimore. "As a physcial presence out in the world I could only be one person with two hands and two feet," says Barbara Jean. "But through prayer, I felt I could reach more of my brothers and sisters. The spiritual dimension is limitless."

If we realize how important and far reaching prayer is, we will remember to spend more time at the feet of Jesus.