Intercessory Prayer

Every so often, I spend some time checking up on people for whom we are praying. Today, we received good news about a husband and wife who were both diagnosed with cancer but have since received a clean bill of health. Blessed be God.

Reading prayer requests and making intercession for others has some things in common with being a confessor: you spend a lot of time with people's weaknesses and sufferings. This is a great grace in so many ways, not because we are happy that there is suffering, but that in the midst of suffering is a merciful God who wills to share it with us, to carry it with us and finally to free us from our sin and suffering.

Were I to venture a guess, the most common prayer requests are for health (especially for those with cancer), for a return to the faith of a loved one, for the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan (often accompanied by a prayer for the civilian populations there), and for couples who are struggling to have children.

Please pray for me and for the Monastery! I will remember each of the readers in my own prayers. God's blessings to you.