Welcome Address of Cong

Welcome Address of Cong. Narciso D. Monfort

PRAYER OF JABEZ: "Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain". 1 Chronicles 4:9-10

FELLOW PRAYER WARRIORS of the HOLY SOULS, beloved core group members of the PWHS, and dear beloved brothers and sisters in Christ.

Cong. Narciso D. Monfort of the 4th District of Iloilo and Founding President of the Monfort Foundation delivered the welcome address.

Eleven years ago this month, my wife Chita and I, after reading the booklet "Read Me or Rue It" and being touched by the contents of the book decided to arrange for the initial printing of 1,000 copies of this booklet. We were able to secure the permission to print it from the Prioress of the Monastery Pius XII in Fatima, Portugal. The booklet was made part of the hand-outs of the SPIRIT OF LOVE CATHOLIC COMMUNITY during the commissioning rites of its Life in the Spirit Seminars.

That was how the PRAYER WARRIORS of the HOLY SOULS was born.

Eleven years later, and after printing and distributing 127,000 copies of Read Me or Rue It, I understand our membership has grown to about 8,000 members both here and in 33 other countries.

The growth of our apostolate prods me to share with you the prayer of Jabez, a Biblical character mentioned in 1 Chronicles 4:9-10:

"Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain".

This prayer is one of our favorite prayers, and we are sharing this prayer with you. As we pray for the Lord to bless us, we also ask Him to "enlarge our territory" where we can further promote our apostolate in more areas of the country and of the world. We also pray that His hand would be with us as He leads us where He wants us to go, and that He will shield us from the evil one. And that as we go about doing work in our apostolate, we pray that we may not cause pain to any one. Let LOVE be the guiding principle in our apostolate.

On this very special day, we are honored and privileged to have with us the pilgrim statue of Our Lady of La Naval and a special statue of Our Lady of Fatima, lent to us by Sr. Jacinta, a Filipina nun from the Monastery Pius XII of Fatima, Portugal. And so in the presence of Our Lord, and our dear Mother Mary, we welcome you to the 2nd National Congress and 11th Foundation Day Celebration of the PWHS.

Thank you and God Bless!