Vinnies lap up Brisbane prayerfest

By Anita Parker
Catholic Youth Ministry
A fantastic opportunity was offered to a small group of WA Vinnies to be part of an inter-generational group to attend the Brisbane event of Pray 2010. This event on Catholic prayer life hosted over 2,500 registered participants, a number of international guest speakers and over 125 workshop presenters for 3 ½ days from 7-10 July 2010.

The St Vincent De Paul Society is commonly known for putting faith into action and serving those in need in our local community. The Society approved the project to gather a group of volunteers across a variety of age groups in Catholic spirituality with their involvement in Pray 2010, assisting them to grow the link between the prayer life of a volunteer and the work they do for the Society. The proposal was to send six volunteers from various age groups and two supporting staff to the Pray 2010 Conference in Brisbane.
The Pray 2010 Conference featured international speakers like Fr Stan Fortuna CFR from New York and Dr Donna Orsuto, based at the Gregorian University in Rome. The National presenters ranged from Fr Frank Brennan SJ who presented a keynote on ‘Prayer Sends us into Action’, Byron and Francine Pirola, and Fr Ken Barker MGL.
The breadth of Catholic prayer and spirituality was experienced by the group who attended sessions ranging from the Youth Rally with Fr Stan Fortuna – the rapping monk from the Bronx – through to Adoration, Prayer in married life, Prayer with music, Prayer with Scriptures and many more workshops. In his opening address, Archbishop Bathersby spoke about prayer’s  importance. “We need to know the will of God in our own lives” through listening to him in prayer, he said.
Dr Donna Orsuto offered the message that “If you don’t know how to pray well, then pray ill”.
She analysed how Jesus taught us to pray and that we pray with Jesus who invites us to pray with God as ‘Father’, which develops a recognition of intimacy and trust in God.
The overall journey throughout the conference was to see prayer as an opportunity to ‘Gather, Open, Transform, and Send’. The Vincentian group will be bringing back their experiences to share with their local conferences and groups to help to build the link of prayer and faith in action.
Other attendees from Perth included four people from Maranatha. Over 150 attended from New Zealand, and 600 registered from around Australia.
For more information and photos of the conference go to: www.pray2010.org.au. This event will be followed up in Perth with a ‘Seek’ conference on prayer and spirituality on 7-9 October 2010. For more information,go to: www.seek2010.org.au.