![]() ![]() Although at our worst, we tend to focus on the more selfish prayers, or the lazy prayers, or perhaps worst of all, we pray expecting no response. The truth is prayer ought to encompass all of those things. And, believe it or not, I was blessed with that gift, which in some ways prevails to this day, thanks be to God. At Confirmation, I prayed for the gift of piety, which I understood to be the ability to enjoy praying and going to Mass, which was a struggle for me at the time. I’d pray for miracles (like growing to be as tall as Michael Jordan, when my dad is as tall as Earl Boykins), or normal-enough things that might require divine intervention (like acing a test I didn’t study for).įinally, around the time I was confirmed, I learned that I should pray for spiritual things, like the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Later, I learned I should also pray for things I want, like that girl in the sixth grade to notice my nerdy sixth-grade self (she did!) or pray to avoid what I don’t want to happen (like a car accident). ![]() So, from day one, I knew it was important to pray for others. Although I tried that, too, once or twice. I could pray for anybody, except God and the devil. My dad would tuck me into bed at night and ask me who I wanted to pray for, and I would name all the people I could think of. What is prayer, anyway?Įver since I was a kid, I remember saying my prayers. My prayers for John and his family - and their result - have made me realize that I may have been underestimating the power of prayer. A get-out-of-hell-free card, if you will. ![]() I admit that sometimes I treat my prayers as an obligatory thing to do so that I can go to heaven when I die. My prayers actually worked, and I wasn’t expecting that.īut that’s the point of prayer, right? We pray to make things better, easier somehow in the face of tragedy or hard times. But I was surprised that the prayers seemed to have already had an effect. I wasn’t surprised that Joe was grateful for my prayers - that seemed fairly predictable. ![]() And it’s what’s been getting us through this difficult time.” “Yours and everybody’s - we definitely felt them. Then Joe said something I didn’t expect him to say: “We felt the prayers,” he said. I went to his funeral, and told his brother Joe that I was sorry for his loss and that I had been praying for John and the family and that I’d continue to do that. I did the only thing I could do: I prayed. It’s the kind of unthinkable tragedy that leaves you speechless and, well, actionless. Prayer is not a replacement for action but the hope that our actions will be fruitful, and in surgery as in gun control, we humans are the means by which change occurs.I received a text a while back with some terrible news: an acquaintance of mine had died in his sleep at the age of 26. Few of us expect that prayer alone is sufficient: we may offer up a prayer that a family member undergoes surgery successfully, but we would still encourage them to show up to the hospital, take all of their prescribed medications, and attend the necessary follow-up appointments. For those of us who pray, prayer is often seen as a way to request the intervention of God, so in some small way, it could be seen as an attempt at action, albeit asking for someone else to act rather than taking up the mantle oneself. We all agree, of course, that it is right and proper to remember those who have died. A frequent complaint about those who offer "thoughts and prayers" after a tragedy is the fact that it doesn't require any action on the part of the person offering them. Something more than that is at play here, though. Thoughts and prayers has become a little bit like saying "bless you" after someone sneezes: it's something that a lot of people do without reflection, and the content of the phrase itself is often lost. The phrase "thoughts and prayers" is grating in part because it has become a victim of semantic satiation, a phenomenon that occurs when a word or words is repeated so often that it loses its meaning. ![]()
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