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Hello everyone,

Today, Sunday 22nd December, we have 293 people from all over the world and from many Christian denominations joining together in prayer. Our reflection this week is about Angels and the one from Bob and Debbie Gass, from their "Word for Today" is called The Hitchhiker!.

The Weekly Intentions are included below and available on a plain page to be able to print off and kept to hand for your own prayer time.

"Father, bless all those who have requested prayers in whatever it is that you know they may be needing this day! Father, we ask You to heal the broken bodies, broken hearts, broken spirits and broken relationships and may all their lives be full of your peace, prosperity, and power as they seek to have a close relationship with you. Amen."

http://www.circleofprayer.com/prayerbook.html
http://www.circleofprayer.com/weekly-intentions.html

Thank You Jesus for answering our prayers because we know You hear every prayer and never refuse to answer. You are providing answers and healings from the prayers of all these wonderful people. Praise God!

God Bless you all and thanks a million for being part of the Circle of Prayer - the Prayer Warriors. And may I wisg each and every one of you a truly blessed and peaceful Christmas filled with love and joy.

Mary Mullins in Galway, Ireland
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Please say the two wee prayers below as often as you can, particularly the first one to the Holy Spirit if you need to see things in
a clearer perspective.

"O Holy Spirit, beloved of my soul, I adore You. Enlighten me, guide me, strengthen me, console me, tell me what I should do. Give me Your orders. I promise to submit myself to all that You desire of me and to accept all that You permit to happen to me. Let me only know Your will.
Amen"

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"Dear Lord, I give you may hands to do Your work; I give You my feet to go Your way; I give You my eyes to see as You see; I give You my tongue to speak Your words; I give You my mind that You may think in me; I give You my spirit that You may pray in me. Above all, I give You my heart that You may love in me - love the Father and love all humankind. I give You my whole self, Lord, that You may grow in me, so that it is You who lives, works and prays in me. Amen."

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I've been meaning to write something on Angels for some time now but other stuff always seemed to come along. Perhaps, with the weeks that's in it, today might be appropriate to look at those heavenly protectors assigned to each and every one of us right from our conception, if not before.

Angels played such a huge role in the Old Testament and there are numerous mentions of them in both the Old and the New Testament, over 200 in fact. Somehow, we lesser beings seem to have lost our awareness of the importance of having an angel all of our own. So What or Who are angels?

An angel is a pure spirit created by God. The Old Testament theology included the belief in angels: the name applied to certain spiritual beings or intelligences of heavenly residence, employed by God as the ministers of His will. The English word "angel" comes from the Greek angelos, which means 'messenger'. In the Old Testament, with two exceptions, the Hebrew word for "angel" is malak, also meaning 'messenger'. The prophet Malachi took his name from this word. He was himself a messenger, and he prophesied about the coming of "the messenger of the covenant", Jesus Christ (Malachi 3:1).

Although the word "angel" in the Bible, meaning a messenger, nearly always applies to heavenly beings, it can occasionally apply to human messengers. Malachi himself said a priest was a messenger (malak) of the LORD of hosts (Malachi 2:7), and in the Book of Revelation the elders of the seven churches of Asia were called angels (1:20; 2:1 etc.). But when we meet messengers doing supernatural things, there is no doubt they are heavenly beings - God's messengers, working for Him and for the ultimate benefit of mankind.

Angels are purely spiritual or bodiless persons (Mt 11:30), some of whom behold the face of God and thus are in bliss (Mt 18:10). These spiritual beings comprise the celestial court and are called angels because, according to the Bible, they carry out missions at God's command. In order to complete these missions, they can at times assume bodily form. According to the Bible, their missions are sometimes of great importance - eg, the Annunciation (Lk 1:26; 2:9-14). Like us , the angels are the objects of God's grace and love. But because, unlike us they are non-bodily creatures, their response to God's love did not require time and reflection to grow and mature. As soon as they were created and received grace, they had the opportunity to respond to God's love and thus be welcomed into bliss. While many did so, some did not. Perhaps the most significant continuing activity of the good angels is to be the agents of God's particular providence for mankind. Thus, the Church teaches that everyone has a guardian angel, based on references to them throughout the Bible.

Some of the Angels we know by name - Michael, Gabriel and Raphael - and these are among the great Archangels. Michael's role is as the protector or defender against all evil, particularly for the protection of the church. Gabriel is known as God's Messenger and was made manifest in the Old Testament through his contact with Daniel. In the the New Testament we read of the encounter of the Archangel Gabriel with Zacharias to announce the conception of John the Baptist, and also to Mary to announce her Immaculate Conception of Our Divine Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. The only Biblical reference we have of Raphael is his appearance to Tobit and it is for this reason he is associated with the protection of youth. Not a bad chap to have on board for any of us with teenagers!

As children we were taught to love and pray to our Guardian Angel and this lovely tradition lives on even today as my 'chappie' gets a wee prayer morning and night. I have countless stories of what I genuinely believe to be the protective intervention of Guardian Angels for me and my family - potential or actual road accidents where we have miraculously escaped injuries or avoided major pile-ups.

I read a lovely little piece on Angels lately which tells of their 'board-room consultative activities'. The story goes that Guardian Angels, if requested in prayer, will consult each other to provide all round protection and guidance for those around us in any given circumstance. What a lovely idea! So, when we start out on a journey we should say a prayer to our own Guardian Angel and ask him to conflab with all the other Guardian Angels of the drivers we will meet and keep us all safe. Imagine the reduction in road accidents and fatalities if everyone did this little exercise as soon as they stepped into their cars, trucks, buses, trains, or onto their bikes and even into airplanes ! Or if we have an interview or important meeting, to seek the assistance of our angel and ask that he have his own wee meeting with the angels belonging to the other people in the meeting so that all will go well.

Thinking of the days ahead of us I was reminded of the humble shepherds who were shocked yet overjoyed to see the heavens filled with singing angels announcing the birth of Christ. The three wise men were warned by their angels to avoid Herod on their return journey to the East and Saint Joseph was told by an angel to flee to Egypt in order to protect the child Jesus from Herod.

Angels carry our prayers to God and bring back the answers, if we are open enough to 'hear them'. I love my Guardian Angel to bits and have, for the past few months been pestering him to tell me his name. Timothy keeps popping into my head, not a name I'd have chosen for any of our 4 guys, so it must be coming from somewhere. Whether or which, I have these crazy little conversations with 'Timothy' as I potter around the kitchen and have decisions to sort out.

Anyway, folks, short and sweet this week as we face into one of the busiest times for Moms in the year. No Santy in our house as the magical time of belief is long gone, but the grandchildren renew that little bit of wonder for us. I've been giving the commercialism of the Christmas season some thought lately and might just write a page in the discussion section of the website called 'Let's Ban Christmas!'. That should stir it up a bit, eh?

So now I leave you with the very best wishes for a peaceful, holy and blessed Christmas. One filled with happiness and joy, I hope, yet conscious that for many this time of year can be extremely stressful, very painful emotionally or physically, and often a very lonely time. I thank you all most sincerely for your prayers and would ask that you whisper an extra little one for those who find  Christmas difficult. Here's the lovely little prayer to our Guardian Angel, a nice habit to get into on a daily basis when we wake and before we sleep.

"O Angel of God, my Guardian dear, through whom God's love commits me here. Ever this day (night) be at my side. To light and guard, to rule and guide me, Amen"

God Bless till next weekend.

Mary

The Hitchhiker!

" he orders his angels to protect you wherever you go. "  Psalm 91 : 11

Late one evening, a missionary asked the Lord to help him stay awake as he drove through the night to speak at the next church.

Just then he saw a hitchhiker walking in the rain and picked him up. As they talked, he discovered that the stranger was a believer and that they actually had many of the same Friends.

They laughed, shared stories and, before they knew it, dawn was breaking and the hitchhiker was saying, 'Here's where I get out.' Before they parted, they had a cup of coffee together at a roadside cafe and promised to pray for each other.

By now the rain had stopped and it was daybreak. A few minutes down the road, the missionary suddenly realised that he hadn't got the man's phone number, so he returned to the cafe hoping to catch him. But there was no sign of him.

When he asked the waitress which way he had gone, she looked puzzled and said, 'Who? You came in here alone! I wondered why you ordered two cups of coffee.' The missionary glanced at the table where they'd sat and, sure enough, the hitchhiker's cup was still full to the brim and cold. Then suddenly he remembered that when he'd picked him up the night before in the pouring rain - he wasn't even wet!

Sometimes you see them - generally you don't. But just when you need them most, '...he orders his angels to protect you wherever you go' (Ps 91:11 TLB).

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Weekly Prayer Intentions for December 22nd 2002

For Mary's Fiance, Alexander, for a safe journey to the US

For Caroline McKinney, a young mother of 3 who is dying of cancer.

For Oscar, that enough money can be raised for a life saving bone marrow transplant

For Michael seeking serenity in the year ahead and for strength to cope with life's challenges.

For Dan who is facing various challenges.

For peace in the world and a more just and less materialistic social/political world order.

For Geraldine that she gets a college place in Galway to do the HIgher Dip in Education.

For Janet's grandson undergoing an eye operation, and for her own problems

For John's two children Stephanie and John Jr.

For Elena seeking career guidance, health, and 2 long-standing personal intentions...

For Bill, Elaine and Tim, One is recovering from open-heart surgery, one is suffering with cancer, and one just had major surgery.

For Edwin's personal. business and financial situation.

For all those who find Christmas a lonely or difficult time, that the Lord will pour His Peace and Love on each situation.

For all those who have sent in prayer requests since the Circle of Prayer started

For all families that they will place the Lord in the centre of their homes and their hearts and that peace and happiness reigns.

For all our prayer friends, with each one's needs, hopes and dreams

For our national leaders that their decisions will be Christian decisions

For our church leaders that they will be true and honest shepherds

For our health care workers that no decision or treatment of theirs will ever damage life from its very beginning to its natural end

For our leaders in the business world that integrity and honesty will prevail

For world peace and international forgiveness

For all those who are in pain or dying today

For all those who are in sin and hurting others today

For all those who are lost, lonely or low in mind, body or spirit

Lord in Your Mercy hear our prayers, in faith we know You will answer.

God Bless till next week,

Mary