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Faith Today • Page 3
Ml
Prayer's chain
of energy
By Cindy Liebhart
News Service
When Americans were held
hostage in Lebanon for 17 days
after terrorists hijacked their
Athens-to-Rome flight, the evening
newscasts were filled with scenes
of people back home praying for
their captive family members,
friends or fellow parishioners.
Throughout the ordeal, the
■me prayer was echoed at Masses
and vigils everywhere: “For the
safe release of the hostages, we
pray to the Lord.”
Later many former hostages
repeated the same sentiment Father
William McDonnell of Algonquin,
III., voiced in his first Sunday
homily after being released: “I
honestly believe it was through the
power of your prayer that so
any of us were liberated.”
The situation frames some in
teresting questions about the ways
God acts in our world today:
•When we pray for specific
needs or desires, what do we ex
pect of God?
•Do our prayers of petition lead
God to intervene in human
affairs?
God acts “very much through
e human situation,” said School
Sister of Notre Dame Rose Mary
Dougherty. Human beings “are in
partnership with God.”
Sister Dougherty is associate
director for spiritual guidance at
the Washington-based Shalem In
stitute for Spiritual Formation.
Prayer of intercession should
not be viewed as an attempt “to
ange God’s mind,” she suggests.
It’s not that God had it in mind
world
verb, “Fathers have eaten green
grapes but their children’s teeth
are on edge” (Ezekiel 18:2).
Ezechiel rejected that
explanation.
The Israelites even blamed God
in Ezekiel 18:29-30: “The Lord’s
way is not fair.”
And the Lord responded: “Is it
my way that is not fair, house of
Israel? Or rather, is it not that
your ways are not fair? Therefore I
will judge you, house of Israel,
each one according to his ways.”
So while it is true that God, in
respect for human freedom, allows
bad things to happen, people re
main responsible for their actions.
We work hand in hand with
God in responsible freedom.
(Father Castelot teaches at St.
John’s Seminary, Plymouth, Mich.)
for the people to be taken hostage
on the plane and then we prayed
and then God said ‘OK, I’ll release
them.’”
Father James Mongelluzzo, direc
tor of the Office for Worship in
the Diocese of Worcester, Mass.,
said it is important to realize that
God never wills evil. Evil in its
many forms — greed, oppression,
violence — comes about when
people divorce themselves from
God’s will. He cautioned against
looking upon prayer as a form of
“bargaining with God.”
Intercessory prayer, he con
tinued, is an acknowledgement of
God’s goodness and an expression
of our longing to “turn back to
God” a situation not in accord
with God’s goodness or harmony.
But does prayer of intercession
influence the course of human
events?
Both Sister Dougherty and
Father Mongelluzzo suggested
some ways that it does.
When we pray for others, we
acknowledge our dependence on
God and our trust in God’s love
for each individual, Sister
Dougherty said. But we also ex
press our desire to bring God’s
power and love to bear in some
concrete way in a particular situa
tion. We somehow enter into the
desires of God for human beings
— peace, justice, wholeness.
•“I don’t know what my prayer
does to God,” she said.
•However, “I do know that in
tercessory prayer moves me to a
deeper compassion, a deeper love
for others.”
When we pray for others, that
prayer has the power to transform
us, she said. Perhaps it makes us
more aware of the needs of other
people or more willing to offer
ourselves in service. Perhaps it
helps us to show greater compas
sion, patience, sensitivity or chari
ty to others.
Sister Dougherty also believes
that intercessory prayer releases a
“chain of energy” or a “ripple ef
fect.” This creates an environment
in which people are moved to just
and loving actions that manifest
God’s presence in the world.
Father Mongelluzzo said prayer
always leads us to action. “What
we pray for, we become.”
“If I’m very concerned about a
family in my parish that is having
problems, I’d be inclined to visit
them, to help them,” he said.
Prayer helps us to open ourselves
to God and to allow ourselves to
become instruments of healing,
reconciliation, hope.
(Ms. Liebhart is media reporter
for NC News Service.)
FOOD..
When several people work
together on a project, who
deserves credit for the outcome?
Is it the key organizer, the per
son who had a vision of how the
project might be carried out,
who should stand up and take
the bow? Or is it the person who
spent endless dull hours on the
phone making contacts necessary
to the project’s success? What
about others who fulfilled in
dispensable roles in the project?
Shades of the Academy Award
presentations! Is everyone to be
mentioned? Is everyone to share
the credit?
What about a home? When
things go well at home, it often
is because a key person — a
mother or father, perhaps — is
able to communicate a positive
vision of home life to the others.
But what about the others? Each
person’s personality, talents,
needs and love play a vital role
in shaping the kind of home life
that prevails.
It is difficult to assess all that
happens — all that each person
contributes to the outcome —
when people work together to
accomplish some goal. Similarly,
it is difficult to pinpoint exactly
how each person helps to pro
duce a happy home. (If it
weren’t difficult to pinpoint this,
we’d have best-selling books
containing recipes for a happy
home life!)
Human interaction is complex
...for discussion
1. Are your decisions and your
actions important in shaping the
course of your life? Is God’s ac
tion important in shaping your
life?
2. Father John Castelot sug
gests that from ancient biblical
times, people have struggled to
balance their belief that God is
responsible for the world with
their belief that they too must be
hard at work in the world. Why
would this balance preoccupy
believers down through the ages?
3. School Sister of Notre Dame
Rose Mary Dougherty tells
reporter Cindy Liebhart that God
acts in our world “very much
through the human situation.”
What do you think she means?
4. Where do you think God is
at work in today’s world?
...for thought
and difficult to fully
comprehend.
Is it any wonder, then, that
God’s interaction with members
of the human family is difficult
to fully comprehend?
How is God at work in the
world? Does God work
“through” or “with” people?
Does God work “around”
people?
And if God is at work in the
world, does it make much dif
ference what people themselves
do, what they contribute
through their decisions and their
actions and their hard work?
There is a balance here that
still entices and challenges
human understanding. Isn’t it
part of the mystery of Christiani
ty — and part of its fascination
— to say that God is at work in
the human events of our lives,
while at the same time holding
that human freedom, human
decisions and responsible human
action make a real difference in
this world?
Maybe things would be simpler
if it were said that God alone is
at work in this world, or, on the
other hand, that God has left
everything in human hands.
Coming to terms with divine and
human interaction can befuddle a
person at times.
Where is God active in your
world? Does God’s activity
enhance or demean your own
responsibility here and now?
SECOND HELPINGS
“Behind Closed Doors: A
Handbook on How to Pray,” by
Father Joseph Champlin.
“Whenever we are tested by
trials, tempted to doubt or
discouraged by sinfulness,”
that may be just when we need
to pray to God to remain faithful
or grow in faith, writes Father
Champlin. He tells of the deeply
spiritual mother of noted author
and lecturer Father Henri
Nouwen. On her deathbed she
became paralyzed with fear
about meeting God. Father
Champlin quotes what Father
Nouwen wrote of the incident:
“It was fear of the great abyss
which separates God from us,
a distance which can only be
bridged by faith.” Jo help his
mother past her fear, Father
Nouwen says he and his sibl
ings prayed together the
prayers she was trying to say.
(Paulist Press, 997 Macarthur
Blvd., Mahway, N.J. 07430.
$7.95.)