We need heavy prayers, particularly from you "Sick and Suffering Co-Catholic Workers," or those with the most severe suffering (physical, mental, spiritual), because you are our prayer warriors. See our article on this under "Older Posts." We will hold you up in our prayers as well and want to know your stories. We ask our moral leaders to pray for us as well, and people of all faiths. This community will mainly serve our city's immigrant women and children, which is something of which people of all faiths can pray.
Since the Catholic Worker model is so closely aligned with the early Church communities of the Book of Acts and the Epistles, we especially ask guidance from the Holy Spirit, as He had guided those early Christians with the fire of His love! A miracle is in the works for a Muslim friend who has entrusted a healing of stage 4 metasticized breast cancer (in her brain, liver, and spine by last fall) to the intercessory prayers of Mother Mary (Mariam) and Dorothy Day, one who loves all.
God's mighty hand has reached down in His great love. She had been told last September by her original doctors that there was nothing else that can be done and to make her arrangements. I immediately asked for intercessory prayers from Mary and Dorothy Day. I also went in proxy for her in December to pray with Fr. John Stowe at Our Lady of Consolation Shrine in Carey, Ohio, bringing back holy water for her. Instead of her cancer moving swiftly with the soft tissue of the liver and brain, the liver cancer has shrunk in half ( by April) and her half-face paralysis/palsy is miraculously going away - she can now close that eye and use her whole mouth in a smile. She recently told me that she has been sprinkling the holy water on her bed every night since I gave it to her (in December), and I did not even tell her to do that!
We are trying to collect the medical records to go toward Dorothy Day's beatification. Just think that little old Columbus, Ohio and The Lamb Catholic Worker may be associated with beatifying this most holy woman. It would not be surprising that Dorothy Day would be a key part of a miracle that healed a Muslim woman, too. Please continue to pray for my Muslim friend and for us, Mother Mary and Dorothy Day!
Also, God had recently placed in our path an elderly, holy, Dominican priest associated with the Dominicans at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Zanesville, Fr. Emmanuel Bertrand, who had been a missionary to the Middle East for 30 years in Pakistan. After hearing of our endeavor, he enthusiastically suggested that we ask for the blessing of Pope Francis for this mission we are trying so hard to move forward. We have done so. Also, he explained how in many Middle Eastern mosques there are statues of "Mariam," Jesus' mother, who is revered for her holiness (in part, the veil). I thank the Holy Spirit for steering him my way and have given a written request for Pope Benedict Emeritus' blessing as well, whose final large public address included praise of Dorothy Day and her work. We are hopeful! Come Holy Spirit!
