Father in those moments of utter exasperation help me to want You as much as I need You

Since both the departed saints and we ourselves are in Christ we share with them in the communion of saints. They are still our brothers and sisters in Christ. When we celebrate the Eucharist they are there with us along with the angels and archangels. Why then should we not pray for and with them The reason the Reformers and their successors did their best to outlaw praying for the dead was because that had been so bound up with the notion of purgatory and the need to get people out of it as soon as possible. Once we rule out purgatory I see no reason why we should not pray for and with the dead and every reason why we should - not that they will get out of purgatory but that they will be refreshed and filled with Gods joy and peace. Love passes into prayer we still love them why not hold them in that love before God

But the Esquire passage I found most poignant and revealing was this one Mister Rogers visit to a teenage boy severely afflicted with cerebral palsy and terrible anger. One of the boys few consolations in life Junod wrote was watching Mister Rogers Neighborhood. At first the boy was made very nervous by the thought that Mister Rogers was visiting him. He was so nervous in fact that when Mister Rogers did visit he got mad at himself and began hating himself and hitting himself and his mother had to take him to another room and talk to him. Mister Rogers didnt leave though. He wanted something from the boy and Mister Rogers never leaves when he wants something from somebody. He just waited patiently and when the boy came back Mister Rogers talked to him and then he made his request. He said I would like you to do something for me. Would you do something for me On his computer the boy answered yes of course he would do anything for Mister Rogers so then Mister Rogers said I would like you to pray for me. Will you pray for me And now the boy didnt know how to respond. He was thunderstruck... because nobody had ever asked him for something like that ever. The boy had always been prayed for. The boy had always been the object of prayer and now he was being asked to pray for Mister Rogers and although at first he didnt know how to do it he said he would he said hed try and ever since then he keeps Mister Rogers in his prayers and doesnt talk about wanting to die anymore because he figures if Mister Rogers likes him that must mean that God likes him too.As for Mister Rogers himself... he doesnt look at the story the same way the boy did or I did. In fact when Mister Rogers first told me the story I complimented him on being smart - for knowing that asking the boy for his prayers would make the boy feel better about himself - and Mister Rogers responded by looking at me first with puzzlement and then with surprise. Oh heavens no Tom I didnt ask him for his prayers for him I asked for me. I asked him because I think that anyone who has gone through challenges like that must be very close to God. I asked him because I wanted his intercession.

Every morning I was renewed though. Air and light healed me over and over. I got to where I depended on it. When I was feeling my worst I would step out into the yard and put my hands on the branches of the little redbud. It made me feel like I was saying a prayer to do this. I know that sounds like foolishness but that little tree was like an altar for me. I stood there in the cold of early winter wishing for the redbud to bear leaves so that I might put my face against them.

I had no tears to shed nor a prayer for the deceased... There is no hope for the hopeless.

Some of the most challenging work a suicide survivor can do is to pray. To pray fully survivors must bring all of themselves to the prayer their anger disappointment fears insecurities and whys. I bring all of me into an encounter with God aware that nothing in the human experience or the human response to the ambushes of life is alien to God.

Little did the old man know how much God liked to talk to His children how He longed to listen to them.

Pray when you feel like praying somebody has said. Pray when you dont feel like praying. Pray until you do feel like praying.

Our failure to hear His voice when we want to is due to the fact that we do not in general want to hear it that we want it only when we think we need it.

Cold prayers like cold suitors are seldom effective in their aims.