http://www.spiritofmedjugorje.org/feb2010.htm
St. Padre Pio, Divine Mercy and the Earthquake in Haiti
By June Klins
I have a fire in my heart for the salvation of souls. So, years ago, when a friend told me that a priest had shared with her a type of prayer he called "anticipatory prayer,” my interest was piqued. My friend told me that anticipatory prayer means that you can pray for good results for something after it has already happened, because for God there is no time, and He knew you were going to pray! Fr. John Corapi spoke about this at a conference I attended a few years ago, when someone asked a question about praying for a person who had committed suicide. Since Fr. Corapi was given, by Pope John Paul II, the title "apostolic teacher" -- meaning he speaks with the authority of the apostles -- this confirmed for me what I had heard earlier about anticipatory prayer.
Recently I was reading the book, The Holy Souls," by Fr. Alessio Parente, OFM, Cap. Father Parente chronicles St. Padre Pio's relationship with the dead. In Chapter 46. St. Padre Pio spoke about praying for the happy death of a young girl who had already died. St. Pio said, "For the Lord, the past does not exist; the future does not exist. Everything is an eternal present. Those prayers had already been taken into account. And so I repeat that even now I can pray for the happy death of my great grandfather!"
Fr. Parente commented at the end of this chapter, "There is a very important moral to be learned here, and it is that we should always pray for the deceased, even those who have died many years ago, because for God there is neither a past nor a future, but all is the eternal present."
After I read this, I began praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet (a powerful prayer that Jesus told St. Faustina to pray for the dying) for all of my great grandparents, and then began working on my great-great grandparents. I have a list and check it off after I pray for each person. (I had already had Gregorian Masses said for all my grandparents years ago.)
One morning two weeks after the earthquake in Haiti, I felt very driven to share this, so we can all pray for the salvation of those who died in Haiti. I have been doing that every day since the earthquake. If we all do that every day for a month, and pass this along to others, we should be able to cover everyone. And then maybe we can do the same for the victims of the tsunami and other natural disasters….
“This is good, and pleases God our Savior, Who wants all men to be saved …” (1 Timothy 2:3-4)
