Father Melvin Doucette
1704 Palmer Road North, R.R. 2
Tignish, Prince Edward Island
C0B 2B0   Canada

Wednesday, 13 November 2002

BE  CLOSELY  UNITED  WITH  ME

Dear Paul, Rita and Friends,
Good morning on this rainy day! It rained the whole night and it is
still raining. I am happy it did not come down as snow. I finished my
preparation for the retreat this weekend in Tignish. Every retreat has a
different theme which means that I have to work out these many talks
from scratch. I will go to the prayer meeting this evening at Palmer
Road Church and tomorrow evening we will have the seminar in the Life in
the Spirit.

In prayer this morning, I was with Jesus who spoke to me saying,
"Melvin, my joy, I love you. Peace and joy are my gifts to you and all
my friends who come to me in prayer, especially contemplative prayer.
Can you possibly have a greater friend than me? Through our mutual
friendship, I change you to be like me. I am the one who inspired you,
Melvin, and gave you the grace to begin contemplation. All who ask I
will give the grace to be able to contemplate. I also inspired you to
write the book on contemplative prayer and how I wish that your Bishop's
words would be fulfilled when he said that he would like every person to
read it. The Pope, too, often speaks about contemplative prayer, which
is my favourite prayer. Through this prayer you will become my close
friends and you will grow daily in your spiritual life. Now is the time
to read about this wonderful prayer and to begin to contemplate every
day. Melvin, never get tired to speak about this prayer to any group who
asks you. It is a simple prayer but at the same time a very deep prayer.
I bless with peace and joy all those who take the time every day to come
to me in contemplative prayer. May you open your heart to me and allow
me to guide you. With the Eucharist, contemplative prayer will keep you
closely united to me. I love you."

Jesus referred today to the inspiration I received from Him both to
contemplate and to write the book about this prayer. It was in 1999 that
Jesus spoke to me one day saying that something special would happen to
me that day. Around 9:30 AM I had a vision of a book that had as title,
"The Art of Contemplative Prayer." I could see the cover and slowly
after that I could see the content and all the chapters with the title
to each. I was urged to write this book. I began that same day and I
wrote from morning till evening for 15 days till I was finished. The
words and paragraphs just flowed out as fast as I could type them. After
I had finished I ask Jesus to help me find someone who could do the
correction. I think I had put in some French words and perhaps some
African words as well. Within a week I received an e-mail addressed to
Michelle. It did not make any sense to me so, I sent an e-mail to the
sender asking her the meaning of this letter. She replied saying that
the letter was not meant for me but for a lady in Newfoundland and she
asked me how I managed to get it. I had signed my name to the letter, so
she asked me if I was a priest and where I lived as she had never heard
of me. I answered telling her that I was indeed a priest from Prince
Edward Island and I had passed the last 29 years in Africa. When she
found out that I had been in Africa, she asked if I had any stories
about Africa. I send her what I had on the computer, 14 short stories.
She was quiet for two days. Then I received another e-mail asking if I
had any more stories. It was then that I thought of the book I had
written. I told her that I had written a book and I would send it to her
if she agreed to correct it. She said she would be delighted to correct
it as she had studied creative English at the University. She worked
hard and in no time it was all done. Reading it over, I found a few more
mistakes, so, I asked her to check it over one more time. She agreed.
Now it was ready for publication. I did not know where I could have this
done. She said leave it to me I know what to do. Within a few weeks, she
delivered personally the first 100 copies to my house. With these books
in my possession, I asked myself who should be the first to receive a
copy. I thought that person should be the Bishop of the Diocese. I sent
him a copy and in about 10 days, he invited me to come and see him in
his office. I went and had a great talk with him for about an hour. He
said that he had read the book and he liked it. He would like that every
person in the diocese would read the book and pray in this way. To show
that he was in favour, he agreed to have another 100 books made and he
would pay for them. He asked me to go to all the deaneries of the
Diocese to speak to the priests and sisters about contemplative prayer.
I did what he asked me and many people on the Island and in the other
Provinces of Canada as well as in other countries especially the USA
have bought the book and are praying in this way today. I tell you all
this because of the words of Jesus today in prayer. He will bless with
peace and joy all those who contemplate every day.

May the Lord bless you and give you the gift of contemplative prayer.
 
Father Melvin

TEL: (902) 882-2004
E-MAIL: melvin.doucette@pei.sympatico.ca
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