Pieces of Prayer
By Melodious Monk
Jesus once told us, “Truly, I say to you, ‘Everything you ask for, praying, believe that you will receive (it), and it will be done for you.’ ”
All this week during communion we sing these words from Matthew in the Communion proper for the day. As I stand waiting to receive communion, I’m aware of who’s in my immediate vicinity, a Catholic man from New Jersey, a Methodist from Texas, and several elementary and middle school aged kids, all of us singing this prayer together. I don’t know why it caught my attention, but it struck me that all of us from very different backgrounds and age groups were being united through prayer and through this song.
And I wonder what each of us was asking God this morning? Perhaps a wide variety of things.
Among many, one thing on my mind was the headline to the Boston Globe I saw on the way out the door this morning; that 5 people were killed in a synagogue in Jerusalem, four of them while praying, and the 5th man trying to protect the others. I wonder what these men were asking of God in their house of worship. I wonder how God’s “in-box” works for all the requests he must receive. Does he sort them by the ones that are sent with belief, and the ones without? I find comfort in praying. But in my pieces of prayer tossed to the heavens, do I actually believe that they can and will happen? Or do I only ask?
