girlfriends
Ali
Jayme
Jenna
Suzanne
theirspace
Chad
Jayme
Michelle
previous posts
Ridiculousness.
Silly String.
Connecticut.
Depression.
Notes.
Happy Halloween.
Begging v. Raising
Reciprocation.
More Paint.
Green Paint.
|
Saturday, November 12, 2005
Prayer. Here's part of a recent post from a message board I lurk: "...BEST NEWS is that the tumor has not grown since June, he's feeling better and eating well. PRAYER WORKS! Thank you."Here's my thing... "prayer works!"? I don't exactly get the concept. Does this mean that someone who has more prayerful friends has a better "in" with God and won't suffer a tumor as much as some poor shmoe with no friends to pray for his malignancy? I'm not being snarky, honestly. I'm genuinely curious about why people pray, specifically for other people's ailments. What's the mindset? Is it like a petition? "Dear God, I'd like to sign my name to the Cure-Tommy's-Cancer list, please." If there are enough names on the petition, viola! Tommy lives. Fail to sign up enough believers? Start planning a funeral. Sorry Tommy. The whole thing is rather illogical, including my conclusion that to be thankful to prayer for remission seems simultaneously to be suggesting that those who were unlucky have prayer - or the lackthereof - to blame. posted by hilary at 8:27 AM |  
4 Comments:Links to this post: |
Hi Hilary! Thatt is hilarious - I haven't laughed this hard since...well, too long. I hope you are having a great year. Say hi to your beautiful daughers for me!
~Leila
To be honest, I feel the same way. I'm pretty darn Catholic, but it seems to me that there's not really much use in asking God for things. If you have cancer, God isn't sitting around counting the number of people praying for you to see if there are enough to merit a cure.
Then again, at the moment my thoughts on prayer are a little cooky, since I haven't really done it in a while.
HIlary, that is a hellova good point. Perhaps it's because they see life as a popularity contest between them and non-believers?
Something to ponder..
Interesting. I have often prayed passionately for help in trouble. I don't think I have specified what the solution would be. And generally, even if help does not arrive, I still feel comforted. But the desperation seems to override what usually happens when I set out to pray: As I come into a sense of awareness of the presence of God I find my individual self dissolving and I can't think that there is anything in particular that should be different than what is. I feel awe and that's about it. Stunned by the beauty, hugeness, complexity and infinity.
Religions grow from the following concept: when I am desperate enough to pray for something and some surprising help appears, it makes me grateful even for the trouble that made me need to pray.