Emmaus Retreat Prayer

I attended the North Georgia Women's Walk to Emmaus, where I sat at the Table of Deborah.

If you've been on this retreat, you recognize the pattern. You have your own Emmaus identifier. Your own version of the secret handshake. In the early 1990s, when I attended my retreat, I was married to an associate United Methodist minister. The "on fire" Methodists in our parish were drafted one-by-one to go to the Emmaus Retreat. For many, it was a turning point, a springboard for deep conversion.

At the retreat, we learned a new prayer, and it became our theme. We claimed it as our great petition. We recited it together when we met in small reunion groups.

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful and kindle in them the fire of Your love. Send forth Your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth. O, God Who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy Your consolations. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Little did we know. . . this prayer came from a book we didn't even recognize as part of the canon of Sacred Scripture. When we memorized the Books of the Bible (as children in Sunday School classes), this one wasn't among the titles.
We simply did not realize that this prayer - this beautiful Emmaus prayer - was spoken by Judith. We didn't know that it was lifted from the pages of a book we had never read. We had no idea what we were missing. Oh, Judith, your story is such a treasure! Oh, that more and more people would come to know this story . . . and learn of your great courage and unwavering devotion!

Judith 16
Make music to my God with drums,
sing to my Lord with cymbals.
Begin a new song to him,
extol and call upon his name.
You are the God who crushes battle-lines,
you set up your camp among your people,
you save me from the grip of my persecutors.
I will sing a new song to God:
Lord, you are great and glorious,
wonderful in your unconquerable power.
Let all your creatures serve you,
for you spoke and they were made,
you sent forth your spirit, and they were created:
there is no-one who can resist your command.
For the mountains will be shaken to their roots,
the seas will be stirred up,
at your sight the rocks will melt like wax –
but to those who fear you,
you will show your loving kindness.

*This passage was reprinted from the Universalis website.

**To read more from the Book of Judith, click here.

Emmaus Retreat Prayer

What is your favorite prayer?

Apart from the obvious (The Our Father, The Hail Mary, and The Glory Be), what is your favorite prayer?

We are going to highlight some Catholic prayers in our Confirmation class this year and we would like your thoughts.

I find great help in praying the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel. I also rely on the help gained by invoking the help of the Holy Spirit through the Prayer to the Holy Spirit (Come Holy Spirit).

Now, I want to know your favorite prayer. . .

What is your favorite prayer?

Once Upon a Time, When I was a Methodist. . .

In the 1990s I went on a Walk to Emmaus Women's Retreat in North Georgia. On that first day of the three-day retreat, we learned that this United Methodist retreat had sprung from a Roman Catholic retreat experience called Cursillo.


I was suprised. Shocked. Confused.


There have been moments in my life when I have come face-to-face with my anti-Catholic bias. This was one of those moments.


The Walk to Emmaus Retreat was fantastic, powerful and a potentially life-changing retreat. I could hardly believe that we had "borrowed" the concept from the Catholics.


Had the retreat leaders told me that this experience came out of the charismatic or evangelical movements, I wouldn't have been surprised, but I had an idea of the Catholic Church back then, and it didn't fit with this incredible encounter with grace.


I am ashamed I ever felt like this because, the truth is, every good gift we have from Our Lord Jesus Christ has been entrusted to His Church in such an abundance that it has spilled over into other faith communities. The keeper of the Faith has always been the Catholic Church - from the moment of that first Pentecost day when the Church was born. Any honest read of history proves this. She has given all believers the powerful teachings on the Trinity, the Incarnation and the Redemption.


When I became Catholic, I frequently heard a prayer that I first learned on that retreat. To this day, when I hear that prayer, I think of my old bias, and I am humbled but I am also in awe of a God who would shower the Catholic Church so richly that her treasures spilled over and enriched so many other faith communities.


What is the prayer? It is the Prayer to the Holy Spirit.


I attended the North Georgia Women's Walk to Emmaus where I sat at the table of Deborah. . . and this is the Catholic prayer that has filled my life with good things:


Come Holy Spirit, and fill the hearts of your faithful, and kindle in them the fire of Your Divine Love. Send forth Your Spirit and they shall be created, and You shall renew the face of the earth. Oh God, Who by the light of the Holy Spirit instructed the hearts of the faithful, Grant, that by the same Spirit we may be truly wise and ever rejoice in His consolation. We ask this through Christ Our Lord.


Amen.


What made me think of the prayer today? The Gospel reading for today's Mass is from John 16 (12-13):

I still have many things to say to you
but they would be too much for you now.
But when the Spirit of truth comes
he will lead you to the complete truth. . .

Once Upon a Time, When I was a Methodist. . .