Hearts on Fire Prayer Group

Dear HoF, below please find my notes from tonight's meeting 10/17/23. Please let me know if you have any corrections or questions. As a reminder, I am including minimal information on prayer requests and praise reports out of respect for the privacy of our members. God bless!
• Opening Prayer
• Praise and Worship Music
• Prayed in Tongues
• Silent Time
• Word Gifts/Visions/etc
o Alex: Building/constructing- something to do with ministry - maybe building a ministry - thinks this is for JC
o Alex: Anointing - for Robert
o Alex- the word Magnum
o Alex- Peace (Pray for Peace)
o Betti - heard fullness then enjoy my fullness then enjoy my presence then be present with me . Fullness may be the equivalent of Magnum?
o Heber - felt the presence of the word present
o Keri- heard peace & encourage
o JC - heard in becoming near me you will become stronger
o Kwesi- keeps hearing "the word of God"
o Robert- Felt the Holy Spirit very strongly, did not get any specific word
• Alex: Continue to pray - Holy Spirti
• Prayer Requests (intentionally vague-ish to protect privacy of members and their family and friends)
o Robert- Brother in law - double bypass surgery
o JC- for Julie's Father & for Julie's familiy
o JC - for High school students (especially her son) preparing for college- especially their journey with God and that they will be salt and light
o Betti - for an elderly couple that is part of her fraternity and were sick and in the hospital and are in need of prayers for continued recover/healing.
o Keri - Friend traveling to a part of Vietnam (for work) in an area of a lot of violence and especially violent towards the Catholic Church
o Robert- Sister in Law who has breast cancer and may need a transfusion
o Chuck - trying ot get back to his faith - hasn't been able to feel it- trying to reactivate the Holy Spirit
• Alex prayed after each of the prayer intentions
• Gospel- Alex read MT 22:15-21
• Gospel discussion
o JC - went to daily Mass yesterday - take away- we are living the Gospel - we do not need advice especially of non-believers. Do not let others' opinions change how we believe. Don't want to change ourselves unless it is according to God's Will/plan. Accept advice from family and friends only if it is from God's plan and God's Will.
o Alex- had something similar to JC happen. Not concerned with why people left. The Truth is the Truth. Not concerned with what people thought (God was not). Today many Christians are compromising.
o Keri - Repay to Cesar = materialistic; Give to God what belongs to God- our souls, our praise, our love - all belong to God. Give all our love and praise to God - give from our hearts to God - when giving to the church financially, it is not to check a box that we did it - but rather it should be out of love for God to give to God (and his church) what belongs to God. If we are not giving out of love -then we are not giving to God.
o Betti- reiterated - you are not concerned with anyone's opinion
o Alex- repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar- respect authority, pay taxes etc, but then we must give to God what belongs to God.
o Kwesi - they plotted on how they might entrap Jesus in speech. Call for us to pray for Wisdom on responding to questions about God. Pray continuously for wisdom and avoid being entrapped in speech. We need to remain with the Truth.
• Testimonies/Praise Reports:
o Keri- Father Stephen Schultz who had a massive stroke 2 weeks ago is out of intensive care and has experienced small miracles every day since we started praying for him. He is still in serious condition, had a minor surgery today but he has been reaching for his rosary, asking about going to the Sacristy- wanting to be in his role as priest, he can open his eyes now and has some limited speech, more consciousness than before. Still a long road - but all these small miracles are truly the fruits of our prayers.
o Kwesi- Challenges in his home over the last several years with his daughter who was not going to Mass, and other things. Recently the daughter went to church with her mother and has also been nicer to everyone and the are seeing changes - the fruits of persistent prayer
• Alex prayed for impartations of the Holy Spirit for each of us (and Kwesi prayed for Alex)
• Keri took group photo (attached)
• No Announcements
• Final comments
o JC asked about prayer for peace in Israel and Palestine - Alex lead us in a prayer for this intention
o Chuck asked for ideas on how he can go deeper/reconnect. Life in the Spirit Seminar was suggested, going to adoration was suggested, being persistent in prayer was suggested. We engaged in active conversation regarding this and will continue to pray for Chuck who is also struggling with some health issues.
• Closing prayer

Good evening, thanks to all who could join us tonight 10/3/23! Below please find my notes, please let me know if you have corrections or questions. Note that prayer requests and praise reports are intentionally vague to protect privacy.

• Opening Prayers - Kwesi
• Alex led Praise and Worship Music
• We moved to praying in tongues
• We then moved to a time of silence
• Word Gifts/visions
o Alex- Someone's knee, resonated with Connie
o Alex - Message of Unity and Compassion, and also Sonship - Sons and Daughters of God
o Robert - Love - he kept seeing the word love flashing
o Kwesi - also got Love
o Connie- Also heard Love & I love them all so much
o Keri- saw brighty heavenly light
• Discussion around the word gifts:
o Kwesi: God is a God of love & unity. We are sons and daughters of God. God so loved the world he died for us. We need to ask God to help us share love. We need to engage ourselves to accept that God loves us. Soak in the love - feel it to your bones. Really knowing God has our backs!
o Alex- We have to pray people see the love of God and see the light of God.
• Took Group Photo (attached)
• Intercessory Prayers
o Alex - someone has kee problem - Connie - we prayed
o Robert - son-in-law (cancer) - we prayed
o Alex- brother (cancer) - we prayed
o Alex - for JC
o Keri - for Fr. Stephen Schultz (massive stroke) - we prayed
o Tracy- Friend's wife's mom (in hospital) - we prayed
• Moved to the Gospel (Matthew 21:33-43)- Kwesi asked Robert to read it (thank you Robert!)
• Discussion around the Gospel:
o Keri brought up the difficulties with the grammar and the terminology - Connie and Tracy looked up some words, we discussed so we could understand better what the Gospel was saying
o Alex - Talked about the line about bearing fruit is compelling
o Tracy- read from the mediation on the Sunday Gospel, which helped us understand better that the Land owner (householder) is God. Vineyard is Jerusalem, etc. and how to apply to our daily lives.
o Kwesi - Fruits- remembering God expects us to bear fruit - the output is expected; we need to share fruites
o Tracy- we need to be like God Servants we have to pray for courage to go out - people may persecute us - but we still need to be obedient
o Kwesi posed a question: Can we lose the Kingdom of God? Alex- parable of the Talens, whoever doesn't bear fruit will have it taken away; Keri - our choices can lead us away from the Kingdom - we could lose salvation if we are not in the state of Grace, but God will never take it away from us - he will wait for us - we can redeem ourselves (confession) and get back what our choices took from us
o Tracy- verse 42 - stone builders rejected - much conversation about what this means- Cornerstone is Jesus
o Robert- correlations with Jesus - this goes back to that as well.
o Connie- fascinating so many insights come out of the Gospel when we go over it together
o Keri - it is so helpful to have these discussion prior to the Sunday Mass to help focus on the Gospel and the homily
o Robert- listens to Mass on youtube and compares to Homily on Sunday ( Daily TV Mass - Toronto is what he recommends)
o Tracy- last meeting- forgiveness - tracy ministry fair - 3 homilies - all compelling
o Last Sunday's homily a priest talked about how it wasn't just 2 sons, but that there was a 3rd son who was Jesus and said yes when asked to come down
o Tracy- talked about 2 minutes of Virtue which highlights the Gospel
• Moved to Testimony and Praise reports
o Tracy- Husband - Dr. appt went well- good/stable
o Kwesi - praise and thank God
o Keri- healed from sinus infection, thankful for today and her daughter's 22nd birthday
o Robert- Shared about St. Francis whose Feast Day is tomorrow - a quote: " Remember that when you leave this earth you can take with you nothing that you have received, only what you have given" - this is a quote from St. Francis Assisi
o Alex & Kwesi both said this resonated regarding talking about the afterlife.
o Tracy talked about the Dominican Pilgrimage at the Basilica on Saturday (Keri was also there); Tracy talked about the Rosary and also the beautiful singing by the Dominicans
• Kwesi- His church has started after Communion to sing 10,000 reasons
• Kwesi praised that he did not need a biopsy after we prayed last time, they did an MRI instead because it was not complicated as they thought
• Tracy asked that we pray for Julie Bisgrove's dad and for Kathy's parents - we prayed; Tracy then asked we pray for her dad, we did, then Connie asked us to pray for her dad, we did :) Lots of great prayer!!!!
• Kwesi - Closing prayer
God bless you all.

Many blessings,
Alex, Keri, Kwesi & Tracy

Dear all, Below please find the prayers from tonight 7/18/23. I have been very vague regarding the prayer requests so as not to share anything people would prefer to keep just within the group that participated tonight. I pray you are all well!
Notes:
• Alex opened us with prayer
• Keri lead the praise and worship music
• We Spoke in tongues
• Alex then introduced silent time where we allow ourselves to hear or feel or see or experience what God has for us - Listening to what the Holy Spirit has to give us - ( a word or phrase, an image, or something else)
• Alex asked folks to share if they received anything. Responses below:
o Alex- Spur (To stir up people)
o Alex- to bless others
o Bettie: I am the Lord our God - felt like it was interpretation of Heber's prayer in tongues - discussion around this
o Marianne- discussed how she doesn't speak tongues but how it affects her physically
• Intercessory Prayer;
o Alex started with Fresh annointing of the Holy Spirit
o Heber - prayer request for her family in Texas (peace, wisdom, unity)
o Laura- Her house situation/tree/association
o Betti- Orientee in her fraternity- that she and family find a new home at price affordable
o Tracy - for her dads health
• Alex read the gospel for Sunday: Mt 13:24-43
o Gospel discussion - very rich discussion - highlights below
o Alex- Mustard seed is favorite
o Marianne- mustard seed plant is source of a bunch of vegetables, smallest plant but most diverse
o Keri - pulling the weeds with the harvest is also patience - not to be hasty might get rid of good with bad
o Heber - our lives are full of weeds and good plants we are bombarded and impatient - we need to put in God's hands
o Alex - questioned more on this
o Tracy - pulling up weeds related to her growing vegetables and saying that God is considerate of every person
o Marianne - not pulling weeds for sake of the wheat- people who do evil often have things that benefit the good
o Laura - about the yeast
o Discussion around the parable of the yeast - a very, very rich conversation - but too much for me to write tonight due to pain in my hands. We went much deeper on this topic up to and including about Eucharist.
o Alex - Summary: Lord calls us to sow seeds and stir up people - like his word Spur
• Marianne- discussed about Encounter ministries and inviting us to join in Gaithersburg (she discussed at length); it'll be recorded too if cannot make the drive.
• Tracy- will forward something to the group about something else
• Alex asked Marianne to send flier and link to register
• Alex closed in prayer
• Group photo attached
See you in September!

Many blessings,
Keri