Our Lady of Good Counsel Prayer Meeting
Special Note
New location: The Parish House at 1160 Penniman (right next door to the old location).
New Start Time: 7:00 pm
General
Our Lady Of Good Counsel Prayer Meeting is based in the parish of Our Lady of Good Counsel. Although it primarily serves the parish everyone is welcome to attend our meetings. The leader and Shepard is our pastor, Fr. John Riccardo. We meet on the first and third Friday of each month in the Good Counsel Parrish House at 1160 Penniman from 7:00 to 9:00 pm, see map.
Location: 1160 Penniman Ave. , Plymouth Michigan 48170
What We Do
We meet to praise and proclaim Jesus. We will praise and worship Jesus in song and spontaneous vocal prayer. We will proclaim His truth as taught by the Holy Scriptures, the tradition of the Church and the examples of the saints. The more we praise and thank Him the more we come to know Him and truth. Praise is what helps decentralize focus on us and refocus on God. The more we come to know His truth the more we desire to praise and thank Him. This is potentially a powerful dynamic, especially when graced with charisms of the Spirit. Please see the Meeting Format document for more details of what we do at our meetings.
Evolving Charisms – In our meetings we expect the Holy Spirit to lead and direct us. We desire and are open to what God plans for us in terms of spiritual gifts, or charisms. We seek a balance between a rationalistic skepticism and a blind credulity in alleged workings of the Holy Spirit. “Those who have charge over the Church should judge the genuineness and proper use of these gifts, through their office, not indeed to extinguish the Spirit but to test all things and hold fast to what is good (cf. 1 Thes. 5:12, 19- 21). [Lumen Gentium 12]” Our pastor is in the position to judge the genuineness and proper use of the gifts exercised in our meetings. He also establishes direction and guidance for what we do in our meetings. His directions to us regarding the exercise of the “Gifts of the Spirit” are that we are to evolve in the use of the charismatic gifts as we grow in unity and love as a praying people, learn more about the charisms and their proper use, grow in experience, see how God leads us, and receive ongoing guidance from him. We initially will be open to the use of charisms more appropriate for a beginning prayer group (individual praying in tongues and inspired scripture reading) during the praise and worship time. Those who pray in tongues should be mindful that there are people present who don’t pray in the same manner and be considerate and loving towards them. Like wise, those who are not familiar or choose not to pray in tongues should keep in mind the exhortation to be accepting, loving , and not “extinguish the Spirit but to test all things and hold fast to what is good (1 Thes. 5:12)” We should all keep in mind that love is “the more excellent way” (1 Cor 12:31) and we are to “make love our aim” (1 Cor 14:1). Regarding the more powerful charisms (prophecy, healing, speaking/interpreting tongues, miracles, word of knowledge, etc) we will over time grow, evolve, learn, and be open to the use of these charisms as God leads us through the guidance of our pastor.
Traditional Devotions – While our meetings focus on praise and worship in a more “enthusiastic” style, we are also aware of the beauty and treasure of traditional Catholic devotions. Our pastor’s direction regarding this point is that there are many opportunities for parish members to practice traditional devotions but there is little in the way of just praising the Lord. However, having said that, we will end every prayer with the Friday Night Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours and on various feast days offer teachings and pray traditional devotions.
Desired Outcome of the Meeting
What we do usually has purpose. Our praise is gratuitous, without any specific expectation of returned favors. In our case the primary outcome from our gratuitous praise and proclamation of God is in the hands of the Lord! We praise Him and desire Him because He is; our statement of faith and love. We are confident that this will bear good fruit because if we draw near to God he will draw near to us (James 4:8). In doing this we pray that the Spirit of God will work in power for His glory in the Church (1Cor 2:5 and Eph 3:20).
