do prayers work?

 

 

Our daughter Kelly and hubby Chris live in Bayfield. Colorado, a small town about 15 miles east of Durango.

On Thursday of last week, their 16-year-old cat Capone was lounging on the enclosed patio on the back of the house. Even though the area is enclosed, three rattle snakes managed to slither through, and two of them bit Capone.

Fortunately, Chris was home at the time, and quickly rushed Capone to the local vet, where he got two shots of anti-venom medicine, and he also got hooked up to some I.V. tubes.

The bite temporarily caused some partial paralysis, but he did not get worse. The vet advised that further treatment would have to be done in Denver if things did not improve. Since Denver is a 5-hour drive, it would not be practical for a 16-year-old cat.

Because the vet is closed on weekends, they brought the cat home and set up a mattress on the living room floor, and both of them slept next to him on the floor.

On Saturday morning, they woke to find that Capone was missing. He apparently decided that he was cured, and he managed to climb the stairs to the second floor all by himself.

When Kelly’s mom heard the initial news about the bits, she quickly requested prayers on the Next Door website, and she got over 200 responses.

So, here’s a question for you.

Do prayers work?

According to Psychology Today, they don’t, but the closing paragraph of the article below provides a good summary:

“Despite all of the evidence showing that prayers don’t work in the way they're intended, prayer is still what most humans do when there’s nothing left for them to do in dire, scary, or painful situations. And if it does provide them with even a modicum of comfort and hope during such times, so be it.”      

 https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-secular-life/201909/does-prayer-work

Not everyone believes in prayer – and that’s fine. For those folks who don’t, though, I would recommend listening to the song below:

ANDY WILLIAMS The village of ST BERNADETTE 1959 ( Lourdes ) - YouTube

 We’re all familiar with the story of the French peasant girl who was visited by the Virgin Mary in 1858. The town of Lourdes gets 3,000,000 visitors each year, and at least 70 medical miracles have been documented near the grotto. One of the people who was cured is Sister Bernadette Moriau, whose story is posted below:

 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sanctuary-of-our-lady-of-lourdes-miracles-cures-2022-12-18/

Closely related to the topic of prayer is the power of positive thinking.

Norman Vincent Peale released the book “The Power of Positive Thinking” in 1952.

 The Power of Positive Thinking: A Practical Guide to Mastering the Problems of Everyday Living is a 1952 self-help book by American minister Norman Vincent Peale. It provides anecdotal "case histories" of positive thinking using a biblical approach, and practical instructions which were designed to help the reader achieve a permanent and optimistic attitude. These techniques usually involved affirmations and visualizations. Peale claimed that such techniques would give the reader a higher satisfaction and quality of life. The book was negatively reviewed by scholars and health experts, but was popular among the general public and has sold well.

Again, though, the “experts” are wrong. Virtually every athlete you can think of, as well as almost all the politicians you can think of achieved what they did because they believe in the power of positive thinking.

This morning’s Washington Post contained a story about an individual who accomplished a lot from positive thinking. His name is Evelio Menjivar-Ayala, and his story can be found at the link below:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/07/24/bishop-menjivar-undocumented-el-salvador-catholic/

Here’s the short version of this story:

 Three times in the space of a year, the undocumented teen fleeing war-torn Central America tried and failed to make it over the southern border of the United States.

 On his first attempt, he was deported from Mexico.

 

On the second, his guide turned back in Guatemala.

 

On his third, he once again was apprehended in Mexico and landed in jail.

 

Evelio Menjivar-Ayala’s next option, maybe his only one, was to risk a more desperate gambit.

 

After two days in detention, Menjivar, his brother and two cousins paid a mordida — a bribe — to get released. Then, by arrangement with a trafficker, they stuffed themselves into the trunk of a car driven by an elderly American.

 

When they felt the car stop and heard the man crank up the music on the radio, it would be their signal to remain still and silent.

 

That is how they got past the teeming port of entry at San Ysidro, Calif., between Tijuana and San Diego. The four young men spent hours in that trunk before reaching Los Angeles, where Menjivar’s sister and a new life were waiting.

 

In a mountainous village in El Salvador, his mother, who had been lighting prayer candles for their safety, offered up a Mass of thanksgiving.

 

Undocumented, knowing no English and with only a spotty ninth-grade education, Menjivar grew into adulthood doing pretty much any job he could get — construction, janitorial work, painting — sometimes at the mercy of bosses who knew his dicey legal status meant he would not dare to complain about dangerous working conditions and wages that weren’t paid.

 

But he moved forward with a conviction that God had a path in mind for him, though he had yet to discern what it was to be.

 

As Menjivar told me his story one day, I suggested that, surely, there must have been times when he doubted Heaven’s hand. “No, I never put my faith in question,” he insisted. “I mean, faith was what sustained me.”

 Eventually, Menjivar learned to speak English, and he later was ordained a priest.

On Dec. 19, Pope Francis named Menjivar one of two new auxiliary bishops for the Archdiocese of Washington, which is home to nearly 700,000 Catholics and encompasses the District and parts of Maryland.

 Menjivar’s mother, who, at 88, still cultivates a little farm in El Salvador, traveled more than 3,000 miles to witness his Feb. 21 ordination at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in downtown D.C.

“Since my son chose to be a priest, every day I raised my prayers to ask the Lord to enlighten him, but I never dreamed that He would choose him as his bishop,” Catalina Ayala told the Catholic Standard. “God heard the prayers of a humble mother.”

Do prayers work?

I know what Emilio Menjivar-Ayala would say.