Sister Brigid O’Mahony has two words for people who are seeking to pray: “Just start.”
O’Mahony, of the Binghamton-based Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus, suggests talking to God with a listening heart.
“Don’t try to climb Mount Everest and set prayer goals that are so great that you become discouraged. Chat with the Lord. He’s quite chatty. And, he’s interested in us,” she said.
O’Mahony has taught a Bible study for about 20 years in Binghamton, Syracuse and Pennsylvania. During COVID, she started a weekly Zoom session with participants. Only recently the study was re-started in person at St Vincent de Paul Blessed Sacrament Church in Vestal.
But the online teaching continues, drawing 75-100 people each week. They’re welcoming sessions, education on the scripture mixed with take-away advice. On a recent Friday night, O’Mahony was speaking about St. Paul’s Letter to the Colossians.
“Be devoted to pray as intercessors who are fully alert in giving thanks to God.” said O’Mahony.
“We are a lot of things but we’re not the best intercessors in the world because,” she said, “I don’t know whether we think prayer is a last resort.”
“Something happens and someone says pray about it and you think ‘Oh my God’ has it come to that? That’s the first thing that we should do when we’re facing any situation,” O’Mahony said.
She told her class that Paul agonized over prayer as “he too is struggling and wrestling with what spiritual forces he is really contending in prayer for these people.”
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O’Mahony is a founding member of the Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus. Though locally based, it has work that stretches out into the world. The main focus is Haiti, where there’s a local staff to provide homes, medical care and more to a variety of people. It’s based on the acronym WORD … widows, orphans, refugees and the displaced.
In recent…
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