Gift of Prayer
By Carolyn Hughes
Correspondent
HIGHLAND PARK — A woman stops by to pick up a prayer card for her mother’s 75th birthday. She flips through several books of a vast choice of styles, and then chooses to wait for her personalized card in a peaceful, darkened prayer room bathed in gentle music. Her card, custom lettered in gold ink by a calligrapher, will be ready in about 20 minutes.
This kind of scenario repeats itself throughout the day at the office of the Cenacle Prayer Enrollment ministry. The Cenacle Retreat House on River Road, established in 1950 by the Congregation of Our Lady of the Cenacle (the Cenacle sisters), closed in 2004. But the prayer enrollment portion of that ministry has continued to grow and thrive just up the road on Raritan Avenue.
Since becoming office manager in November, Laura Craig, a member of St. Joseph Parish, Hillsborough, has made it her mission to get the word out about the Cenacle prayer cards, expanding on a solid ministry that produced about 10,000 cards last year at the Highland Park location alone, including 1,000 each during the Christmas and Easter seasons.
Certainly cards are available elsewhere for the standard occasions like birthdays, recovery from illness and various holidays, but one would be hard pressed to find cards that specifically mark an anniversary of a loved one’s death, special celebrations in priesthood or religious life, prayers for courage or even a deceased loved one’s birthday. These and more are all available through the Cenacle.
Prayer enrollments are perpetual and enrollees are remembered in a monthly Mass and in the daily prayer of the 700 Cenacle sisters and auxiliaries in 16 countries. Craig noted that there are about 45 different categories, with approximately 240 different styles designed by the Cenacle sisters from which to choose. In addition, the contributions for cards support the apostolic works of the Cenacle sisters, and every card donor also becomes a Cenacle benefactor for whom a Mass of gratitude is offered each month. Everyone is covered by prayer.
The spiritual mission and charism of the Cenacle sisters — to awaken deep faith in the people — has drawn a small but very satisfied group of artists to work for the ministry. On weekends, Cenacle Sister Helen Beairsto provides spiritual direction and retreats, Craig said. Sister Helen also coordinates the Cenacle Companions, the order’s lay associates, of which Craig herself is a member.
“The Cenacle Prayer Enrollment is more than just enrolling people with the cards. The sense of prayer here is pervasive,” she said.
The ministry also accepts orders by phone, fax, mail and e-mail. “People call crying, telling us that ‘so and so’ is sick, or that they themselves are sick. I am in a unique position . . . I can pray with people. I can share Cenacle spirituality.”
Cenacle Prayer Enrollment cards come in two sizes for $5 or $10. Folders — larger cards that can include personal touches such as pictures and hand painting by a Cenacle artist — start at a $15 donation up to $50. A new 8.5- by-11-inch leatherette folder for an offering of $100 is now available, with Our Lady of the Cenacle embossed in gold on the cover to commemorate special occasions.
For more information, visit the Cenacle Prayer Enrollment office, 1164 Raritan Ave., Highland Park, NJ 08904; (732) 572-3350; fax (732) 572-3380; e-mail cenaclehp@optonline.net; www.cenaclesisters.org/hpenroll.htm. Most orders take only two days and are sent directly to recipients if requested.
*The attached/referenced article was originally published in The Catholic Spirit, the official newspaper of the Diocese of Metuchen, and is protected under U.S. and international copyright law