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The Power of Prayer There is an old saying: “Life is what happens while you’re making other plans.” That’s certainly the situation my family and I found ourselves in during the past two months. At the end of August, my mother had a heart attack — a mild one, but she’s 89 and is now at my home recuperating. Then, in mid-September, my brother was rushed into the hospital with internal bleeding. There was a mass in his colon, which was removed — the prognosis is good, but he has to undergo chemotherapy. He came to my home to recuperate too. As the only member of the immediate family left standing, it is both my duty and my joy to help in every way I can. And yet, such stress! That’s where the power of prayer came in — both my own and those of many others. During one special prayer/meditation session, I entered an ecstatic state in which I was infused with an intense inflow of unlimited love. That session occurred on the morning of the day my brother was diagnosed with colon cancer, and it has helped strengthen me during the days in which prayer became something done on the fly between hospital visits and doctors’ appointments. Then there were all the prayers of friends and strangers. My friend Doreen, a Buddhist/Catholic/Methodist with a special devotion to the rosary, added us to her prayers. My aunt, a Catholic Sister of Mercy in California, has nuns nationwide adding us to their prayer lists. And then there is the Spiritualist Mailing List’s healing list (www.smartgroups.com/groups/spiritualism), as well as the prayers and spirit messages at my own community of faith, the Church of the Spirit here in Chicago. Those who have read books like Healing Words: The Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine by Dr. Larry Dossey are familiar with the dozens of laboratory experiments that indicate that prayer can help with high blood pressure, asthma, heart attacks, headaches, and anxiety and that it can alter enzyme activity, blood cell growth, and the germination of seeds. The official Larry Dossey site doesn’t seem to be active at this time, but a good overview of some of the research on prayer and distant healing can be found at the RealityShifters site (http://realityshifters.com). So, if prayer, even the prayers of strangers, helps, I wondered what types of prayer groups or lists might be available on the Internet. I typed the key words “prayer list” into Google.com and noted the fact that there were 419,000 results. Many of the lists are affiliated with particular churches and/or denominations. Some seem to use your request as a springboard for contacting you about their particular faith. Here are a few of the sites: Coma and Recovery Association Inc. (www.comarecovery.org/ prayers/prayers.shtml): The purpose of this association is to help families of coma and head injury survivors by providing information and referrals, enabling them to make informed choices regarding treatment, rehabilitation, etc. One of the services offered is a prayer list section. The section allows you to add someone special and to pray for those on the list. A recent entry reads: “Andrew Ingram (requested by Carol Butler October 15, 2003): My son was in a car accident on Oct.6, 2003. He has been in a coma ever since. He is my love and life and I’m so lost without him. He is a wonderful son and so full of life and laughter and I want him back. He’s twenty years old.” Mercy4.net (www.mercy4.com/PrayerLists.htm): The site states that it brings people with needs together with people who can pray for those needs. The site was started as an information source for the people who were praying for the founder’s seriously ill daughter. It then developed into a ministry for others going through family crises. The “Prayer Lists” section of the site contains links to lists for Missing Children, Spiritual Needs, Health Needs, Financial Needs, Military Families, and Our Nation. The site asks you to take a moment and let someone on the list know you are praying for them or maybe sharing something that happened in your life that relates to their need. You can also join the Mercy4 mailing list in order to receive newsletters and/or be a part of a special prayer chain that is notified when people send in critically important prayer requests. Note: Figuring out how to enroll someone on a list is a bit tricky since you can’t do it from the lists themselves. Go to the “Contact Us” section and follow the directions there. A.R.E. Prayer Services (www.edgarcayce.org/spirituality/personal_ request_prayer.html): The web site for the Association for Research and Enlightenment, Inc. (A.R.E.), the international headquarters for the work of Edgar Cayce, includes the “A.R.E. Prayer Services” section. Participants in this prayer list are asked to join a cooperative effort, which involves keeping a prayer-meditation time daily; praying for self daily at this time; and praying for others who are seeking healing and are also on the A.R.E. prayer list. The section states that each month approximately 4,500 individuals receive A.R.E. International Prayer List. These volunteers have agreed to mediate daily and pray for those on the list. The Google prayer list results included a link to a section of the Philosophy-Religion.org web site that featured an article entitled “Lawsuits for prayer lists? The ethics of intercession” by The Very Rev. Gabe Sinisi, M.D. What? Could you really get sued just for praying for someone? It’s possible according to Rev. Sinisi who points out that a Privacy Act that took effect on December 21, 2002, in Australia restricts churches from placing names on prayer lists in bulletins unless they are given specific permission. There is no law like this in the U.S., but Rev. Sinisi points out that we are a very litigious bunch. Rev. Sinisi states: “Picture kindly Mother Victoria — moved by compassion, during the main Sunday morning Mass she announces that dear old Bill needs prayers for an uncomplicated course of healing after his hemorrhoid surgery tomorrow morning. When Bill gets over being overwhelmed by gifts from the congregation (including Tucks pads and donut pillows), will he be able to call his attorney and institute invasion of privacy proceedings against everyone he knows at church?” Rev. Sinisi suggests leaving out the medical details and asking permission before placing someone’s name on a list. I guess that’s good advice. But, as for me, I’m giving everyone permission in advance. I need all the prayers I can get — and so do the rest of us. Mary Montgomery-Clifford is a certified web author and developer. Her company, Montgomery Media Enterprises ("Freelancing with Finesse!"), specializes in public relations, events, promotions, writing project and web authoring, development and publicity. Ms. Montgomery-Clifford has a Master's Degree in religious studies from Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS) in June 2002 and is working on a Ph.D. with a focus on the new scholarship of Unlimited Love and the Other Regarding Virtues in the Fall of 2002. She is also in the process of completing the Morris Pratt Institute Course on Modern Spiritualism. Contact her via e-mail at Monty764@aol.com, by phone at 773-235-8821 or at her web site at www.montymedia.com. Next Article |
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