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November
6 , 2006
VOL.
44, NO. 19Oakland,
CA
In
His Light
With gratitude for your persevering prayers for healing
I am writing
to you from my office on the last Monday of October—the first day
I am back to my office for work since I broke my arms on Sept. 15. It
was exactly six weeks plus one day ago that I had the surgery to repair
the bones I broke in my left forearm when I took my tumble off my front
porch.
I come back to work filled with praise and thanks to God for the good
progress I have made in my recovery, for the outstanding service I received
from the doctors and nurses who so generously cared for me, and –
especially -- for the ardent and persevering prayers so many of you offered
for me over these last six weeks.
It is about this last motive for gratitude that I want to share some thoughts
with you.
I have learned once again that prayer is, indeed, a great mystery. To
begin, I want to acknowledge that part of the mystery is simply that I
should be the object of the prayers of so many of you.
I have received hundreds and hundreds of cards and notes assuring me that
I was lifted up to God; and, for all the notes I received, I am sure there
were so many more who were praying but did not write.
So, so many prayers for me from so many people whom I have met briefly,
if at all, in my relatively short time (three years) as your bishop is
a marvelous part of the mystery. That you care about me enough to hold
me in prayer, not because of anything else except that I give you priestly
service as your bishop.
That you have responded to my trial with your prayers and concern is a
fruit of the Holy Spirit binding us together into a family of faith.
I particularly want to mention all the beautiful cards I received from
the children in our schools. I would like to tell you about just two,
since they serve as good examples of the many I received.
From a seventh grader I received a card, and on the front the student
had drawn four flowers, with their roots labeled “peace,”
“love,” “joy,” and “happiness.” The
message inside read:
“Dear Bishop Allen, I hope and pray that you get well soon, and
I also wish that you feel the roots of my flowers! I offer to pray one
decade of the Rosary for one week. May God and all the saints come upon
you and help you heal faster.”
One of the children in the primary grades wrote: “Dear Bishop Vigneron,
I hope you feel better soon. We live in your heart, Bishop. You are so
special to us. We love you very much. We care about you today.”
I also want to give witness here to the efficacy of your prayers –
to their effect on both my spirit and my body.
About my body: my doctors say I did a great deal of damage to my left
forearm and that I am making a remarkable recovery. Further, I have made
this progress with a minimum of pain. I know that this blessing is a fruit
of your prayer.
Perhaps more important, however, is the fruit your prayers have borne
in obtaining for me the gift of serenity which I have experienced since
my accident. My heart and mind have been very much at peace these last
six weeks – and that is remarkable for someone like me, who is ordinarily
on the opposite side of the spectrum from the “laid-back”
pole.
This peace I have had was, I know, not from me but from God, and your
prayers obtained this great gift for me.
St. Paul teaches us that the Church, the community of Christ’s disciples,
is His Body – His Mystical Body. To call it “mystical”
is to say that it is a mystery. Your prayers for me and their effects
in my life these last six weeks are a window into that mystery. I praise
and thank God, Our Father, for this gift of our communion.
I assure you that I have ardently prayed for all of you as well. I could
not be working in my office or out in the parishes to serve you directly,
but I prayed for you, I offered my cross for you. In the end that counts
as a great service, too.
Let us continue to be one in prayer, each for the other, because the salvation
of each is inextricably linked to the grace of all.
Let us rest secure in the knowledge that through the channels which the
Holy Spirit opens through our prayer, He is drawing us to the blessed
life we long for in the world to come.
Previous "In His Light" Columns by Bishop Allen H. Vigneron
