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August 3, 2020When Jackie Weigel, parishioner of St. Philip Neri Church in Napoleon, first heard about the Seven Sisters Apostolate on a bus trip to a healing conference in Minneapolis, she held off from starting a chapter in Napoleon at first.
The mission of the Seven Sisters Apostolate is “a call to strengthen the Church by ensuring that a Holy Hour is prayed each day of the week for the sole intention of a specific priest or bishop—a ‘holy wasting’ (Matt. 26:10) or lavishing of prayer for his deeper conformity to Christ.”
“With our priest being so busy taking on the parishes in Ashley, Wishek, and Zeeland for a time, I felt he could use some extra prayers,” said Weigel. “I brought it to the parish council even though I was still holding off. Father Pfeifer liked the idea. Then Denise Weigel came to me, saying she heard I was interested in this. She gave me the encouragement. I spoke in front of the church and invited seven women to each take a day of the week to pray for our priest. I said that it scared me to commit, but I trusted that God was asking me to do this.”
According to the Seven Sisters Apostolate website, a “Seven Sisters group begins when at least seven women respond to a call to the mission of the apostolate. If more than seven women desire to pray in this manner, a core group of seven should be designated while others may substitute or provide additional hours of prayer.”
The mission specifies that the initial recipient of a Seven Sisters group should be their parish pastor and after that, more groups can be formed to pray for parochial vicars, retired priests, missionary priests, and bishops. The purpose of these prayers is about the parish as well as the individual priest, so if a priest is reassigned, his successor is to become the recipient of the group’s prayers.
The group who prays for Father Pfeifer at St. Philip Neri in Napoleon began in December 2019. Each of the seven sisters commits to praying a Holy Hour at any time on their designated day in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament or in front of a tabernacle.
Jackie says she frequently sees the fruits of their prayers.
“My day is Saturday, and sometimes I pray for a certain thing, and the next day Father Pfeifer’s homily is about that. I know the graces are flowing. Father said that he feels it too. I know our prayers are being heard. If you want your parish to be more revitalized—to have more energy—I feel that these prayers help. My hope is that more parishes would start this apostolate as a way to support their priests and parishes.”
According to the Seven Sisters Apostolate website, several parishes in the Diocese of Fargo already have groups in place.- Cathedral of St. Mary, Fargo
- Holy Family, Grand Forks
- Holy Spirit, Fargo
- St. Benedict, Wild Rice
- St. Catherine, Valley City
- St. Cecilia, Velva/Sts. Peter and Paul, Karlsruhe
- St. Helena, Ellendale/St. Patrick, Fullerton
- St. Mary’s, Grand Forks
- St. Michael's, Grand Forks
- St. Philip Neri, Napoleon
- St. Therese, Rugby/Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Balta/St. Mary, Knox
