My friend's email that gave me an insight on prayer

Hi friends,

Today, I wanted to share a bit about something that happened to me recently, that got me thinking differently about what it means to pray for people.

An old friend of mine sent out an email sharing how things have been going for him. I read his email and I was really happy to see the interesting stuff that he's involved with, and to learn about the new things he's been working on.

At the end of his email, he asked me to pray for him, and he also asked me to let him know if there is anything we would like him to pray for. Being in Catholic circles for a long time, I am accustomed to hearing people casually asking to be prayed for, and also asking others if there is anything that they can pray for for them. Maybe someone is sick in your family, or maybe you are experiencing some problem and you would like others to pray for it too. This custom of praying for each other is a relatively normal thing for me.

So on a normal day, if he had asked me for any prayer requests, it wouldn't have made me think too deeply about it. I would pray for him and his ministry, and then maybe let him know if there was something that I was going through that he could pray for.

But something about this message really moved me when I read it, and I'm still not exactly sure why. It's such a simple gesture, but I realized that asking for any prayer requests is similar to saying "let me know if there is anything difficult you or someone close to you is going through". It shows their openness to listen to anything that you are going through. If you were going through really tough stuff at that time, their asking you for any prayer requests is sort of giving you permission to let them know what you're going through.

Maybe it was the simple vulnerability and offer of compassion that kind of surprised me. At the time I received my friend's email, there was a lot going on in my mind, and hearing him ask for any prayer requests unexpectedly took me out of myself. It somehow reminded me that God is watching over me. This made me really think what it means when we say to someone "I'll pray for you". It's literally saying I'll listen to whatever you're going through, and I'll ask God to help you with it.

When we pray for someone, it can be easy to think you're just mechanically saying a prayer for them, but the truth is when you are saying a prayer for somebody, you are also being aware of what that person is going through. I think this is why praying for others can be so powerful. It is one way in which you can show that you care for them, and it can also be a way in which you remind the person that God sees them and that He knows what they are going through.