A Boomer’s Journal:
Sometimes it All Comes Down to Prayer

Remember the song by Jackie De Shannon from 1965, “What the World Needs Now?” The answer to that was “love, sweet love.” Here is a slight alternative, which is every bit in line with that sentiment.
I’d say that, today, now, in the face of a world health crisis and a presidential election with world-wide consequences the likes of which this country has never seen: ‘What the World Needs Now, Is Prayer… Sweet Prayer.” It’s the only thing that, sadly, that there’s just too little of.
Prayer for our nation, for the people of this planet. Prayer for the leaders of all of our governments. For the winners, and the losers. For those who are sick, and the healthy. For the living and the dying. The hungry and the well-fed, your friends and your enemies, those who have no hope and those who are full of promise.
Pray for your boss, the guy you can’t stand to be around at work, the person in the car next to you at the stoplight, and yeah, even that jackwagon who just cut you off on the highway.
And just how does one pray, with such a voluminous menu facing them?
Christians have all types and manner of prayer. Standing, kneeling, silent. Choral, musical, chant, revivalist. Retreatant, oral and written. Muslims, very strict and choreographed, bowing, with prayer rugs and always facing the East. Hindu, kneeling, bowing. Buddhists, sitting, chant. Jewish, in temple, with scripture. All cultures, all faiths, all religions, with their own sacred methods All of it, serving as entreaties to a higher power, one who we hope is in control of all of this ‘day-to-day’. (Heck, I bet even good old Ogg and Tragg looked to the skies in thanksgiving for the rains, and especially the lightning that hit that tree outside the family cave that gave them fire. Just sayin’.)
This activity in which we find ourselves when we pray, it benefits all parties. Those for whom it is offered, and those who are doing the offering. Some ask, does it really do any good? I mean, we pray for someone to get well, and they die anyway. We pray for ‘safe journeys’, but accidents claim victims. We may wonder, sometimes… is anyone listening? Does anyone hear me? Does anyone really care?
Well, I have come to believe that all prayers are answered. But not always with the answer that we are hoping for. It is said that the answer is what we need, and if we believe enough to actually ask, then we should believe enough to accept the ultimate answer. Like I said, still working on that one.
However, I gotta say, being married to The Lovely Jill, an Olympic Gold Medalist in this event, I have gotten a lot better at the practice. I am a skeptic at times When we attend Mass and the part comes for Prayers and Petitions, and the lector drones on and on, I turn to her and say ‘Pray for Everyone and Everything,’ to which she just rolls her eyes. But really, is that so bad? The Big Listener in the Sky already knows my needs. Still,
I am learning to offer the short, more specific prayer.
For the kid for whom everything comes easy, and for the one for whom nothing does. For the parent who goes to work every day, sometimes in the face of great pressure or danger, but goes anyway. For those in emotional turmoil, and those for whom everything seem to be ‘all together.’ For the relationship that is struggling, and the one that keeps finding a way to grow. Those in need of a quick prayer, ya know… the list never runs dry.
As a Catholic Christian, I’m banking on the words of The Tall Guy from Nazareth. He is purported to have said, when talking about prayer… “Ask and you shall receive. Seek and you shall find. Knock and the door shall be opened unto you.” Words to the wise, and not so wise.
And so, prayer.Is it the only thing that there’s just too little of?

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