Starting our Padre Pio, Charismatic, Prayer Group Meanwhile, we had been finding it difficult to travel to the Wednesday prayer group in Soho. I went there on my own occasionally, but we realized we needed something more permanent.
I had a dream one night that Ursula and I were in a huge crowd of people, and I felt that we were being called somewhere else. I took hold of Ursula’s hand and ran with her. We then seemed to rise in the air like two eagles and it felt as though it was the beginning of a new time for us.
We both thought that it would be a good idea to start a prayer group in our home and dedicate it to Padre Pio, so we wrote to Father Allessio in San Giovanni asking him what he thought of this idea and whether we had permission to dedicate it to Padre Pio. He wrote back and encouraged us to go ahead, and we started planning immediately by choosing a day for the group.
We chose Sunday evening and then the two of us spent an hour or two, just by ourselves, praying together using both charismatic type prayers and traditional Catholic prayers, like the Rosary.
It was amazing how people just started coming and soon we were a group of about eight or nine people.
Initially people would drop in during the day before the Sunday evening prayer group. This led to us having ’Open House’ all day on Sunday which was a lovely experience and worked well towards a community feeling. People would come and eat with us, bringing their own food sometimes or a small contribution to the general fare. In the evening, when the children had gone to sleep, we would spend time in prayer which would go on for hours. Amazingly, at least while the boys were very young, we never woke the children even though at times, the praise was enough to take the roof off.
Although the Sunday ‘Open House’ continued through the years, the ‘official’ prayer group was eventually held on a Friday which suited more people. We found that our group became more and more non-denominational since many non-Catholics joined us in prayer.
I wrote again to Fr. Allessio in San Giovanni and asked him if this was in order since the group was a Padre Pio prayer Group. he told me to keep going on as I was doing but to make sure to remain as the leader. He then assured me that Padre Pio would have been delighted with the ecumenical aspect of our group.