So Much To Pray For

I have a deep love for The Devotion of Divine Mercy in no small part because of the role it played in my conversion. In the "Prayer to Be Transformed into Mercy" the closing paragraph reads

You Yourself command me to exercise the three degrees of mercy. The first: the act of mercy, of whatever kind. The second: the word of mercy — if I cannot carry out a work of mercy, I will assist by my words. The third: prayer — if I cannot show mercy by deeds or words, I can always do so by prayer. My prayer reaches out even there where I cannot reach out physically.

That we serve others in our actions is almost so common sense as to not need to be said, that we can serve others in our words is something we may not have considered, but that we can serve others by our prayer is something that I think we all need to be reminded of. How many times do we hear (or say) "All I can do is pray" in some fatalistic tone, as though it's really nothing at all? "All" I can do? St. Therese the Little Flower is Patroness of Missionaries because of her prayer for them! Prayer is an act of service that we have no excuses and no reasons, not to fulfill.

And there are so many who need us to serve them in prayer.

If you are reading this the weekend I post it, I am sure you are thinking of the thousands who have been affected by the Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan. My friend's Sister-in-Law is in Japan right now; thankfully, her family lives in the mountains, and were not injured or killed, but they are still affected in other ways. The strife in the Middle East, the slow recovery from 2010's earthquake in Haiti, all of the news that flashes across our monitors, TVs, and media everyday are like signposts of those in need of our prayer. We pray for their health and well-being, we pray for rescue and medical care and an end to war and violence... And I hope we pray for their souls.

Garden of Holiness posted this prayer request today. When I first saw the title of the post I thought perhaps there was a specific need or person for which she would be asking for prayer... But should we wait for a "specific" need or person? In her post she says "You who know God have a duty to those of us who do not." Everyone who does not know God is a specific person!

At the blog Acts of the Apostasy, after rejoicing in the conversion of a Catholic woman "priestess", the blogger hosted Adopt A Priestess so that instead of speaking and ranting against those who have decided they know better than the Church, we can pray for them. I signed up, and am praying for the conversion of all those who do not trust that God really did give the Church wisdom and authority in these matters, but also specifically for one woman. And it's not too late to visit the blog and sign up - Larry D will assign you a priestess by name for whom you can pray, and the more people praying the better.

I mentioned earlier in this post, and perhaps have mentioned it before too, that I am a convert. One of the things I love about being Catholic is Chaplets. The Chaplet of Divine Mercy was the first Chaplet I ever learned, even before I learned to pray the rosary, and with its prayer of intercession asking for God's Mercy, it is an ideal chaplet to pray for disaster relief, conversion, penance, etc... But I also love Our Lady of Fatima, and my love for chaplets and my love for Our Lady of Fatima resulted in this Chaplet of Fatima Prayers for the Conversion of Souls. I'm not pushing it on anyone, but it is, for me, the way I pray for conversion of souls, and I wanted to share it in case you, like me, have a hard time praying extemporaneously. (Right, wrong, or indifferent, I just feel like "God, please change so-and-so's heart and give them the gift of faith" just doesn't quite cut it long term; I feel like that's a great aspiration or ejaculative prayer, but it's more like a snack than a meal.) Or perhaps you love Our Lady of Fatima, or love Chaplets... In any case, it's there for you if you want it.

So - there it is. So much to pray for, so many ways to pray... Who will you pray for today?