In my last post I shared a prayer that I wrote. I am pretty proud of how it turned out, but I did want to share a little about writing the Chaplet for Lost Sheep. Why? Because after year of working at a church, I know that people will eventually wonder why this word was used, instead of that one. For example, I don’t know how many times I have been asked if Satan is “cast” or “thrust” into hell in the St Michael Prayer. I want to try to answer some of these questions about my prayer.
If you spend any time in a church, you will find one of the great heart aches members have is worrying about family and friends who are outside the church. Some have left, and some have never been a part of that church, but they worry about them all the same. This is probably obvious to anyone who believes in the teachings of a church but may seem strange to someone from the outside. Simply put, if you believe that you have found salvation, you want those you care about to be saved too.
While this is pretty straightforward people’s reaction to this reality can be very different. Some people will fight with their loved ones about the truth they understand. Some will try to coerce them into belief. Others, and this is the group that this chaplet is written for, are willing to pray and trust that the Lord extends his grace on their lives. This can be the hardest position to take. It is hard to trust someone else, even God, will do the heavy lifting.
In the Catholic Church, similar groups are often called “St Monica” groups in remembrance of the mother of St Augustine of Hippo who spent 17 years praying for her son to come into full communion with the church. St Augustine not only eventually came into the church but became one of its greatest teachers and thinkers. While there is nothing wrong with this patronage, I feel that the true miracle is not that St Augustine came into the church, but that St Monica did not loose hope over those 17 years. Because of that, I wanted to work on the idea that we would pray to St Monica to strengthen our resolve, and pray that St Augustine, the actual convert, to intercede on the conversion of our loved ones and a continued conversion of our hearts. There is also another saint of the church who plays in this story. St Ambrose, the Bishop of Milon, is the person in the end who helped Augustine enter the church, not the direct words or concerns of Monica. It only makes sense to me that if we are going to ask for the interception of the saints, that we would also ask Ambrose to help find someone to help our loved ones while they are busy not listening to us… even more importantly, that we could serve that role for others.
Realistically, no one wants to join the St Monica/ St Augustine/ St Ambrose Prayer Ministry. That is too wordy. Instead, it made sense to name it after the Good Sheperd, who is willing to leave his 99 sheep to find the one, lost sheep. After all, even if we are praying for the intersection of the saints, it is still God who is the one who does all the work. The saints can be our advocates, but we must remember to put our trust in God.
Another feature of the chaplet includes repeatedly calling out to the triune God by using the formula of, “Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us.” This beautiful and ancient prayer is known as the Trisagion. I think it is important to always remember the Trinity in our prayers, but I also liked the symmetry of calling out to the Trinity three times, after we ask for the intersection of three great saints. My only fear of including the Trisagion wat that many Roman Catholics know it best from being included in the Divine Mercy Chaplet, and don’t realize it has a much older tradition.
The last part I wanted to highlight is the line, “give me the ability to forgive myself and those I love.” This was not part of the earliest working version, but the more I spoke to people who have loved ones outside the church, I found that many of them had overwhelming guilt because they felt that they had failed their loved ones at God. There was a lot of anger and frustration with themselves and with their loved ones. Did they do something wrong? Were they bad people? Why don’t they know what to do to save their loved ones? I don’t know that any of these questions are helpful. Most of us have tried our best, even if we have made mistakes. We are human. God will forgive our sins, but we also need to forgive ourselves. We also need to forgive our loved ones, because they are human too. We all make mistakes. Part of this prayer is that we surrender all of this baggage to the Lord. Jesus saved the world, not us. The Holy Spirit will stir their hearts, not us. God the Father, loves them more than we do, even if that is hard to believe sometimes.
In the end, I hope writing the Chaplet for Lost Sheep will help someone out there. Maybe it will bring lost souls to the Church. Maybe it will help those of us with friends and loved ones outside the church not lose hope and open our hearts to our own conversions. I trust God will use it as he wills.
