Prayer

Beyond putting us in touch with other people, prayer puts us in touch with God.

God, grant me the clarity to recognize when I need Advice,

The humility to seek Information when I lack understanding,

The courage to ask others to help me Do what I cannot alone,

The frankness to connect in hard times and good,

And the confidence to invite advocates to speak on my behalf.

May each request for aid be an offering of trust,

And each accept

We ask not to change God but to change ourselves. We pray to form a living relationship, not to get things done. Prayer is a symbiotic relationship with life and with God, a synergy which creates a result larger than the exchange itself.

Prayer allows God to be God. And prayer also allows our secret selves to be themselves.

What I found was that it was the prayers and practices of the church that allowed me to hold to—or rather to be held by—God when little else seemed sturdy, to hold to the Christian story even when I found no satisfying answers.

God, I pray first of all for the brothers and sisters in this jail, that you might strengthen them. I pray for the people who come to the Downtown Chapel to get something to eat and for the staff that provides for them; I pray for all the poor; I pray in thanksgiving for all the people who help me here and for Father Gary, who comes to see me. Plea