"Prayer is the most powerful weapon a Christian has. Prayer makes us effective. Prayer makes us happy. Prayer gives us all the strength that we need to fulfill God's commands. Yes, indeed, your whole life can and should be prayer."
Blessed Saint Josemaria Escriva
"Everything starts from prayer. Without asking God for love, we cannot possess love and still less are we able to give it to others. Just as people today are speaking so much about the poor but they do not know the poor, we too cannot talk so much about prayer and yet not know how to pray."
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta
A network of intercessors committed to sustained prayer for
"Common Good", its mission and its members.
Without prayer, nothing of love can be built, sustained or grown. A popular spiritual writer of the nineteen seventies once wrote, "No time for prayer, no faith in God"
As we have come together for this work we know that everything we undertake must begin, be accompanied by and sustained in prayer.
As Christians from various traditions, communities and communions we have a rich heritage of prayer- Personal, communal, and liturgical. We have chosen the name "Oremus" from the ancient Christian Tradition.
"Oremus" is a Latin word that means, "Let us pray". It constitutes an invitation to pray.
In the Christian liturgical tradition it is said before all collects, intercessions and whenever the Presider is gathering together the prayer of the whole assembly. It appears as a word or phrase in every Christian liturgical tradition, East and West.
It is also used in our common history as a directive, translated "Stand for prayer" or as a call to personal and private prayer.
It is because of its deep multifaceted meaning that we have chosen this name for our network of intercessors.
The Gospel of St. Matthew records an encounter between Jesus and the disciples wherein He directs:
"Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the Kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.""Oremus" is one more response to this invitation to gather from the treasury of both the old and the new as we build a Christian movement for the Third Millennium. In praying together with and for one another we will rediscover the richness of our common treasury and become better equipped to serve and build together.
We will pray in a manner that reflects the rich diversity of the Christian community. We will pray before, during and after every one of our actions together. We will pray for all of the intentions of our movement. We will pray for the needs of our members and the needs of all those to whom we are sent. We will pray in response to the needs of the hour and in focused prolonged prayer efforts and chains.
Because we are Christians we know that prayer changes not only circumstances but also the ones who do the praying! Prayer expands our capacity to love and to live for God.
Prayer shapes and changes human history.
We will be faithful to our mission and pray. We know that we will see the wonders of God unfold.
OREMUS