M
mjf2
Guest
I have a question about the work of the Holy Spirit in catechumens who have yet to be baptized. I was raised without any religious education but seeing the pain that led to the decision of a close Catholic friend of mine to no longer follow Christ and His Church led to my decision to run in that direction. My friend was the first person who spoke intimately to me about Catholicism and most everything he told me was negative and communicated through a wave of tears. He had spent several years praying for a specific healing he wanted. He said he gave up hope because he got exhausted. Hearing him share his story, completely unknown to him, evangelized me. He said that while he was still a practicing Catholic, he wrote written prayers for his future wife, all while thinking that no woman would ever want to marry him because of his disease (not terminal but a cross nonetheless) but still felt moved to pray for her. At first, hearing he did this didn’t bring happiness to my heart, but much sadness as I pictured him writing these letters of prayer for a wife that may never be his. Images of him writing and weeping was in my mind constantly. As an catechumen not well versed in the ways of prayer, I struggle with understanding how much to pray for this friend. Whenever I ask God to guide me in prayer, the movement I feel, without exception, is to pray for my friend and his future wife. It goes without saying that I don’t know for sure if he will ever marry, or if he will ever be healed, yet I find myself praying for specific things for their marriage. This is a daily occurrence. The letters are getting quite long. These letters have been priceless in my faith development. They’ve led me to love God more as I ponder His mystery and made me realize that the Holy Spirit, who already knows the future and if that contains marriage and/or healing for my friend, is an actual person helping me write them. Of course I cannot say that every word was inspired by the Spirit; I’m sure they’re stiched with sin and the Spirit is not responsible for that. Nevertheless, these letters have been one means of chasing the end (God) and I’m not sure what to do because the pull to keep writing more of these letters just gets stronger the more I pray and write them. More words keep pouring out. It’s not tiring, it’s joyful and I don’t even know the “answer” other then to keep praying for my friend’s marriage. My question is this: I’m so convinced the Holy Spirit is at work in my life, in my heart, and in these letters, but should I be? As an unbaptized person, how are my prayers for him effacious? I know these letters have changed me. I look back at the first ones especially and see festering pride in my heart of wanting my prayers answered precisely as I wanted them. Looking through them, I see my as I learned more about divine providence and realizing petitions don’t change the will of God. But how are these letters helping my friend? I would appreciate any advice whatsoever. If you’ve managed to read all of this, thank you.