There are a variety of resources available to help a praying community within a parish to pray for people they know and love to come closer to Christ.
A simple way to involve your parish in this time of prayer is to pray – as you normally would – but with a particular focus on evangelisation.
This could be done by using the Prayer Intentions for Mass or another time of prayer each day so that those present can pray for their loved ones using those intention.
A nicely presented box into which the names of loved ones could be placed could provide tangible focus for the prayer of the community.
So many Catholics would like to pray more than they currently do, perhaps Thy Kingdom Come could be a springboard for some to grow in this area of discipleship. There are a variety of resources available to download or order, many of which are available at reduced cost or for free.
Recognising the tension between the fatigue of living through these times and the desire to attract those who have drifted away, the resources available are designed to make it as easy as possible to inspire and enable prayer.
They will also equip the praying community to reach out to the people for whom they have been praying. Thy Kingdom Come has put together bundles of resources for different sized communities to provide parishes with all they need to help people to pray, give them different types of Catholic prayers to use, and provide them with a simple gift they could give to the people they have been praying for.
Whilst we can pray alongside our Christian brothers and sisters in our own tradition, there are also opportunity to pray with them using some of the general resources available through Thy Kingdom Come.
Churches Together are active partners in this time of prayer and your local group would be a good place to start should your parish want to get involved with an ecumenical time of prayer.
There are also some great ideas of how to pray together on the official site:
Cardinal Vincent Nichols has recorded a special message for the global prayer initiative 'Thy Kingdom Come'.
