Prayer Service Flows from the Heart

On Saturday, February 4th, the student preachers and moderators Mrs. Marcia Peyton and Mrs. Katie Almon, traveled to Rosaryville where they led morning prayer for members of the Dominican laity from the St. Martin de Porres Southern Dominican Province. The preachers, who were invited by Provincial President Mrs. Jo Ann Cotterman, O.P., presented an adapted water prayer service used during last summer’s Dominican High Schools’ Preaching Conference in Adrian, Michigan.

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Participants at the Rosaryville morning prayers were from Texas, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana and North Carolina. They brought water from their respective states and waterways, and from significant locations they had traveled on pilgrimage around the world. During the service, the waters were combined. They prayed a blessing over the waters  and redistributed for all present to bring back to their communities. The group also sprinkled some water in Rosaryville’s Cemetery as a sign of their connection with those Dominicans who have gone before us.

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The prayer service represented a beautiful display of hope, common goals and the Dominican family coming together to support and love one another! Many in attendance were moved to tears. In sharing their water, participants offered stories, prayers and intercessions for victims of human trafficking, Christians persecuted in the Middle East, the US military, families who have lost loved ones, families struggling with infertility, the unborn and refugees. For the student preachers, connecting with the larger Dominican family was one of their major action plan items they committed to pursue at the beginning of the school year. Preachers were happy to get to know members of the Dominican laity.