If I die, let me die. Let him live.
Bring him home, bring him home, bring him home.”
I think that we may at times look down on intercessory prayer, believing
that because the prayer of thanksgiving and adoration is focused on
God as God, and not on human need, it is purer, and thereby nobler,
than petitions for our needs and the needs of others. But did Jesus
not tell us to come to God in our need and to pray constantly and
perseveringly? Intercessory prayer, too, is an acknowledgment of who
God is as the author and giver of every blessing and good.
And so, in the Eucharistic Prayer at Mass as well as in moments of
personal communion and intimacy with God, we pray for others: for
the Church, for men and women of good will, for the conv ersion of
all people and their salvation, for those who govern, for justice and
compassion, for the sick, the dying, and all in need, for peace in our
hearts, our homes, and our world, and on and on! It is a good and holy
thing, then, to let our confidence in God find expression in prayers of
humble supplication for others.
In This Issue
May and June bring us much to reflect on, as does this issue of
Emmanuel. We rejoice in the power of faith at work in us as we are
transformed by the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and by the
gentle, persistent in-breaking of God into our lives as ultimate mystery.
We wrestle with understanding God’s mercy more fully and living it
ourselves. We find inspiration in the life of a prophet like Dorothy Day
and in the symphony of the Spirit which is the Eucharist.
Anthony Schueller, SSS
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