Parousians at Prayer

"The greater the gift of God, the more effort it requires to obtain it. What prayers and efforts, then, are required to obtain the gift of Wisdom which is the greatest of all God’s gifts! Let us read the word of Divine Wisdom Himself: ‘Seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you; ask and it shall be given to you.’ As if He said: ‘If you wish to find Me, you must seek Me; if you wish to enter into My palace, you must knock at My door. . . .’ Now, all this is done by prayer. Prayer is the usual channel by which God conveys His gifts, more particularly, His Wisdom.”


The above quote is from Louis De Montfort’s book Love of Eternal Wisdom. I happened upon this invaluable book on the occasion of my graduation from college. It was the perfect meditation for me at a time when I was about to endeavor on a deeper pursuit of wisdom in graduate school. It has come to take an even more a profound significance for me now as I become increasingly involved with the Parousians.

What does it mean to pursue Divine Wisdom? It is the love of truth, the love of what is good, pure, real, and beautiful – it is ultimately the love of Christ. We in the Parousians profess this love in our mission statement to “bring the new evangelization into the academy.” We profess to bring the fire of our love for Christ into the most noble of pursuits, the pursuit of Wisdom – the pursuit of Christ Himself.

According to de Montfort, the very pursuit of Wisdom is impossible without prayer. Prayer life is central to the Parousians’ project of bringing the faith into the academy. One of the ways in which the members of the LSU Parousians practice their active prayer life is by reciting the rosary in a different place on campus every night during the week at 9 PM. And, as de Montfort says, “[There is] no better means to establish in ourselves the kingdom of God and to draw Divine Wisdom to our soul than to pray vocally and mentally by saying the Holy Rosary. . . . The greatest means of all, and the most wonderful secrets for obtaining and keeping Divine Wisdom, is a tender and true devotion to Blessed Mary.”

With Mary as our Queen, Mother, and Guide, many members of the LSU Parousians pray the rosary in the quad, at Christ the King Church, St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, and the parade grounds. On Fridays at 3 PM, the hour of Christ’s mercy, we pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet. Parousian Michael Denton comments that our rosary is a means of strength for our community and way to show one other our support, as he states: “Nothing else tells that you aren’t alone than praying in a community.” Our prayer spiritually strengthens us and keeps us from becoming discouraged especially when our endeavors seem difficult and trying.

Our prayer on campus is also a quieter way of evangelizing. It is a means of displaying our love for our fellow students, and we are visible and audible to everyone passing through the quad. We pray for our own conversion and for the conversion of all sinners – that all may come to know and to love Christ. We ask for Mary’s patronage and protection as we endeavor to seek Wisdom in the academy and to spread that Wisdom to all we meet. Simply we ask Christ to “Shine through us, and be so in us that every soul we come in contact with may feel Your presence in our soul. Let them look up and see no longer us but only Jesus.”