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Prayer is an essential part of our religious life. In this
page we will look at three aspects of our prayer:
The philosophy of why we pray WHY
Individual intentions to pray for INTENTIONS
Results of our prayer RESULTS
THIS PAGE CONTAINS INTENTIONS WE ARE ASKED TO PRAY FOR. SEND US YOUR INTENTIONS. LIST
WILL BE REVISED OFTEN.
WHY
We do not often reflect on HOW or WHY we pray. Prayer is a dialogue which means we need to
spend some time in our prayer LISTENING. We do not pray in order to change God's mind or to help
an indecisive God decide what to do.
We pray first of all to change our own minds and hearts. We attempt to imbibe something of the will
of God so that we might ACCEPT whatever happens in our lives. We pray that we might APPRECIATE
what happens in our lives, in our families, to those we care most about.
Often we pray symbolically. Material things for which we pray often have a much deeper, and more
spiritual meaning. We can get so caught up in the physical and material things for which we pray
that we miss what these material things represent.
One day I was saying mass for a priest friend of mine who was on vacation. After mass an elderly
woman approached me and asked me to pray that she would regain her hearing. She ended by
saying "I missed your homily."
I proceeded to summarize my homily for her benefit. She told me that she had gotten all of that. It
turned out that she had missed one sentence of my homily. As she explained. "You talked fast and
with your mustache, I had trouble reading your lips." Just one sentence!
I was amazed and told her she "hears" better than anyone else in the church. I am very certain she
was the only one in the church who missed only one sentence of my homily. As much as she wanted
to hear, what she really wanted was to grasp the thought of what others were saying. I told her I
would pray for her and pray that others would hear as well as she does. She smiled and said "You
know, I never thought of that."
When you pray for something, ask yourself what it is you really want. What does this thing I pray for
represent to me? You may find that you already have it.
Think of prayer in this way. Prayer is not action or words. Prayer is a PROCESS. It is a PROCESS
which helps us say "yes" to our life as it actually is. Not, our life as we would want it to be, or hope it
to be, or even pretend it to be. Prayer is a STRUGGLE. It is a struggle to ACCEPT and APPRECIATE
our life as it actually is.
Once I was visiting a friend. While I was there her son came in. She told me: "Father, I want you to
pray that my son will stop drinking." I ignored the remark and was going to let it pass. After several
seconds she said: "I've been praying for years that he stop drinking. Why hasn't my prayer worked?"
I told her:"Maybe you are praying for the wrong thing." She was quite shocked and asked: "What
should I be praying for?" I hesitate to tell someone what (s)he should pray for. So I prefaced my
response with a "maybe".
"Maybe, instead of praying that your son stop drinking, you pray that you might understand WHY he
drinks." There was a few moments of reflective silence and then we pursued the conversation we
were having prior to the arrival of her son. Several months later I met her and she told me: "You
know, my son stopped drinking"
The same prayer (asking God to help ME understand) could be used for someone dying or any other
intention for which we pray. This type of prayer can lead us to make the changes we need to make in
our own attitude, our way of looking at ourselves and the situation of our life.
For example, how do we respond to someone we care about who is dying? We certainly hope and
pray that God will in some way cure and heal this person. Somewhere in this process we reach a
point where we need to let go. While praying for a miracle we can fail to see the good things that
are taking place in the process of this person's death.
We can overlook the tremendous strength of character, the sense of peace that comes over the
dying person. We can fail to appreciate those unique and marvelous opportunities for developing a
spiritual bond. We can fail to appreciate the presence of the person that goes beyond his or her
physical presence.
Prayer is a process of LISTENING. We LISTEN and STRUGGLE to UNDERSTAND so that we might
APPRECIATE our LIFE and the ONE who gives LIFE.
INTENTIONS
PLEASE PRAY FOR:
page we will look at three aspects of our prayer:
The philosophy of why we pray WHY
Individual intentions to pray for INTENTIONS
Results of our prayer RESULTS
THIS PAGE CONTAINS INTENTIONS WE ARE ASKED TO PRAY FOR. SEND US YOUR INTENTIONS. LIST
WILL BE REVISED OFTEN.
WHY
We do not often reflect on HOW or WHY we pray. Prayer is a dialogue which means we need to
spend some time in our prayer LISTENING. We do not pray in order to change God's mind or to help
an indecisive God decide what to do.
We pray first of all to change our own minds and hearts. We attempt to imbibe something of the will
of God so that we might ACCEPT whatever happens in our lives. We pray that we might APPRECIATE
what happens in our lives, in our families, to those we care most about.
Often we pray symbolically. Material things for which we pray often have a much deeper, and more
spiritual meaning. We can get so caught up in the physical and material things for which we pray
that we miss what these material things represent.
One day I was saying mass for a priest friend of mine who was on vacation. After mass an elderly
woman approached me and asked me to pray that she would regain her hearing. She ended by
saying "I missed your homily."
I proceeded to summarize my homily for her benefit. She told me that she had gotten all of that. It
turned out that she had missed one sentence of my homily. As she explained. "You talked fast and
with your mustache, I had trouble reading your lips." Just one sentence!
I was amazed and told her she "hears" better than anyone else in the church. I am very certain she
was the only one in the church who missed only one sentence of my homily. As much as she wanted
to hear, what she really wanted was to grasp the thought of what others were saying. I told her I
would pray for her and pray that others would hear as well as she does. She smiled and said "You
know, I never thought of that."
When you pray for something, ask yourself what it is you really want. What does this thing I pray for
represent to me? You may find that you already have it.
Think of prayer in this way. Prayer is not action or words. Prayer is a PROCESS. It is a PROCESS
which helps us say "yes" to our life as it actually is. Not, our life as we would want it to be, or hope it
to be, or even pretend it to be. Prayer is a STRUGGLE. It is a struggle to ACCEPT and APPRECIATE
our life as it actually is.
Once I was visiting a friend. While I was there her son came in. She told me: "Father, I want you to
pray that my son will stop drinking." I ignored the remark and was going to let it pass. After several
seconds she said: "I've been praying for years that he stop drinking. Why hasn't my prayer worked?"
I told her:"Maybe you are praying for the wrong thing." She was quite shocked and asked: "What
should I be praying for?" I hesitate to tell someone what (s)he should pray for. So I prefaced my
response with a "maybe".
"Maybe, instead of praying that your son stop drinking, you pray that you might understand WHY he
drinks." There was a few moments of reflective silence and then we pursued the conversation we
were having prior to the arrival of her son. Several months later I met her and she told me: "You
know, my son stopped drinking"
The same prayer (asking God to help ME understand) could be used for someone dying or any other
intention for which we pray. This type of prayer can lead us to make the changes we need to make in
our own attitude, our way of looking at ourselves and the situation of our life.
For example, how do we respond to someone we care about who is dying? We certainly hope and
pray that God will in some way cure and heal this person. Somewhere in this process we reach a
point where we need to let go. While praying for a miracle we can fail to see the good things that
are taking place in the process of this person's death.
We can overlook the tremendous strength of character, the sense of peace that comes over the
dying person. We can fail to appreciate those unique and marvelous opportunities for developing a
spiritual bond. We can fail to appreciate the presence of the person that goes beyond his or her
physical presence.
Prayer is a process of LISTENING. We LISTEN and STRUGGLE to UNDERSTAND so that we might
APPRECIATE our LIFE and the ONE who gives LIFE.
INTENTIONS
PLEASE PRAY FOR:
