THE HEART AND SOUL OF THE APOSTOLATE OF DIVINE MERCY AND HEALING Reverend Father Ralph A. DiOrio
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The Apostolate in Essence and Ministry
substantiates its effectiveness in union with God.
This alone is the Heart of The Divine Mercy and
Healing.
Our
works do not make us holy; it is our union in, with and through Christ who
makes our works effective. It alone makes us sanctified with and in him. “ I live no longer I, but Christ lives in me.” (
I- MAJOR FUNDAMENTALS:
(A) The
Essence of Christ’s Ministry
(B) Its purpose or its nature / operation - be it
to the
community ecclesiastical or civil -
all peoples !
Essence:
The Soul of the Apostolate in its new
Operational Base Locale: Notre Dame, Southbridge ,
Massachusetts
The Apostolate of Divine
Mercy and Healing is most grateful to Almighty God to accept the very cordial
and mutual ministerial invitation from the local pastor, Fr. Leo-Paul LeBlanc,
and his most gracious staff coordinators to joyfully, authoritatively and
ecclesiastically function with both Father LeBlanc and the parish’s personnel
in Notre Dame Church, Southbridge, Massachusetts.
Nature and efficiency of the Ministries:
It is definitively and most
important, in this new association of mutual ministry, that there be an
holistic understanding and reassurance both by Fr. DiOrio and his staff in
dealing with the Notre Dame faculty, the Reverend Pastor Fr. Leo-Paul LeBlanc
and his parish associates, that both priests and both ministries are uniting in
ministerial unity in seeking only one basic Godly purpose – SOULWINNING – for all peoples, for all denominations, and for all
races. Every other intent is secondary, and under the
DIVINE
Secondarily:
In so
fulfilling the above divine purpose in Soulwinning, the
secondary purpose will rationally and materially satisfy both
ministries’ operational and functional ministerial expenses by serving the
people of God.
THE SOUL of THE APOSTOLATE – is the bleeding wounded Heart of Christ. It
evangelizes its primary purpose through zealous prayer, teaching and preaching.
It directs these essentials to its associated ministerial labors in the hope of
individual acceptance and personal surrender in God’s Holistic Healing through
the Church. These realistic, consequential healings pertain to mankind’s
spiritual, psychological and bodily needs. “Qui non
amat, non zelat / who does not have love has no zeal.”
(
1-
As Bishop Sheen taught us so long ago in the 50’s, there must be in
whatever we do passion- fire from within
which must be in God… then transfused into the spirits, souls, bodies, and community
Wounded People.
2-
We, and all peoples from their own respective walks in life, of
necessity, to be successful, must be men and women of Quiet
Strength – namely, men and women of prayer – pure, clean thinking
prayer. Without this, we miss whom and what we represent.
3-
The religious Spanish Community call this force in their native language “El Silencio de Solidad.”— the
silence of solitude . This prayerful force speaks inspirationally. It
motivates. It directs with prudence into zealous, healthy endeavors. Its silent voice
from the power of solitude loudly energizes!
For
those interviewing our mutual individual ministries,
1-
who ?
2-
what ?
3- when ?
4- where ?
5- why ?
6- How?
QUESTION: How to
be Successfully Successful ?
My life ( and the lives of my
sincere brother clergy in all of their ranks, both Christian and Jewish ) has
not been successful before God and the community just
because I, or they, are
apparently an effective Evangelist, blessed in one or more of the Holy Spirit’s
Charisma of holistic gifts of healing coupled through preaching and teaching.
These enriching effects or consequences flow basically from
a soul in union with the author of life, the Giver of gifts, the Savior with
his sacrificial love for all peoples --
persons regardless of different faith or nationality. The birth, life,
passion, death and the victorious foundation of our faith, the Resurrection, is
individually and unitively both the essentials of the Apostolate of Divine
Mercy and Healing as it is the same love and zeal existing at Notre Dame Church
in Southbridge, Massachusetts, as well as with other religious parishes working
with their Respective “Apostolate of the Laity.”( Leo 13 ).
It is basically interesting and a reality observation that
my life, and the lives of other effective clergymen
and religious women, that to be effective agents
of their profession or vocation should and must be absorbed in belonging to Christ. This alone is through Silent Prayer
in the Presence of Solitude. It is the daily meeting with the Commander in
Chief in his office, in one’s heart.
THE DAILY WATERWELL OF PRAYER:
This powerful and thoughtful essential need for
daily victory in mission, work, or ministry cries desperately for more serious
and resolved silence. This silence searches and comes from determined solitude.
It is the only positive doorway to effective, essential and personal
sanctification.
It is interesting to observe that when God is determined
to want and to notify his leaders in guiding his people to victorious living,
that he unifies leaders in community with the same essential theme. This
realistic advice produces consequential healthy, substantial and realistic ministry.
God dwells in his validly appointed authorities. Only a few weeks
back, God gave a marvelous inspirational exhortation to the clergy by our own dear Bishop Robert J. McManus. His
presentation on the undisturbed need for silence and prayer through
uninterrupted solitude was sensitively not
only preached, but also written a few weeks ago in the diocesan Catholic Free
Press of the Diocese of Worcester.
This power of prayer, thereupon healthily
embellishes the religious spirit and life of the Community. We go as far as our Prayer. This is the basic
statement I coined and impose, gave, and continue to give to my Apostolate
Workers, both staff and volunteers. This strengthens and makes the Apostolate
of Divine Mercy and Healing sound, well founded, and effective.
IN PRACTICE:
There must be without any exception at all an absolute,
trustful exclusion to everything secondary. It is a “Condition
Without Which – a Conditio
Sine Qua Non.” The secondary, material benefits will happen automatically. They
will ensue following successfully and victoriously as a consequence from the
first priority. This is the authentic and pure power of passion, this is the
holy fire; this is the flame of love in the effectiveness of Soulwinning.
SPEAKING PERSONALLY:
By way of Conclusion:
May I re-accentuate with the educational learning
experience of repetition – “repetition is the mother of learning /
repetitio est mater studiorum”- the power of integrity in service to the Almighty and to the Community,
religious or secular.
In fifty years of
priesthood, and twelve years in seminary training, all my goals of work were and
are “nice;” but there
is only one basic ingredient most important.
Prayer eventually brings us to God’s Will. We come in life,
so often after a life of wandering, to where the good Lord in his Divine
THAT SPECIAL SOMEONE WHO WORKS:
Our Identity:
… our identity is to put
our “Who We
Are” not in
our acts ( jobs or ministries ). If we do, as many persons from all walks of
life have experienced, we will fail with unhappiness and crash. We become burnt
out. We end up in depression. We may even walk away from our call.
I do not have definite answers to people’s
problems or situations. Nobody really has.
In this world there is nothing really absolute. But, I think I know what works.
What I believe, and experience continuously, is
that one needs to put oneself in the spirit and in the life of the Lord. He
made us with a definitive purpose which so often is sidetracked by materialism,
relativism, and other ego-centric unrealistic self seeking. We all at times
look for the “Pity-pat Job.”
If we have the character strength to rise above this
through the presence and the power of honest prayer, we can then do so. We will
peacefully be fulfilling the splendor of being a servant-friend of God.
Influential Ministries both religious and secular
are successful when they and we know who they are, and who we are. Then we
realize, who made us; and thereupon, we know where we are headed. We then come
to grasp that we finally have faced an important matter --- our union, or what
we in Evangelization circles call “ a personal relationship
in God.” We live then in, through and with his Christ
who activates us in
their Holy Spirit.
All created people of God, all the nations of the world need only one basic life, and that is “The Spirit of God.” The only spirit the
church needs is The Spirit of God! He alone, the Spirit of the Father and the Son
alone produces only absolute essential power --- that is, Godly Character.
The integrity of Godly Character is Christ.
This Spirit above all else is of absolute
necessity. It must be first in our lives. This reality is utilizing man’s
finest gift. This gift is man in his reasoning power—the Power of a Thought,
the purifying power of clean, clear thinking prayer. This is Priority,
Blessing you in God’s Mercy and love,
I remain,
Sincerely,
Reverend
Father Ralph A. DiOrio +
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