Intercession Is Easy

During the weekend I realized part of my vocation--to be an intercessor. It's so obvious now that I think about it. Praying for someone is not a matter of work or particular effort, it is as simple is calling them to mind and holding them before God. It's not a time consumer, it's not a way day dreaming, it is a purposeful moment in time where you hold another person, or an entire group of people, in your prayer. They are present with you when you pray for them. Bringing others before God in your prayers is somehow participating in the mystery of redemption. At least it seems that way to me.

The wind was blowing when I walked out the door for mass. I'd had sinus misery all weekend, living on medications, which I was able to stop taking today, so I couldn't tell you with any accuracy what, if any, memorial or feast today is/was. Fr. Elias was celebrant, and at the sermon time he talked about the new translations. How in the revised missal it was be "Lord, I am not worthy... you to come under my roof..."

Change threatens. The English speaking church is less than thrilled that Rome has decided to take a dominate position about a translation that is not native to them. My position is...who cares. The church can be just as much of a distraction as the media. The moment we get involved with church politics is the moment we stop guarding our thoughts. What will be, will be, when it comes to humans and history. Sweating a translation is not something worth fighting to the bitter end. At least it's not to me.

Intercession is worth doing to the end. As silence grows in my life and I become more attuned to the inner abyss, the more the more obvious it becomes that devoting energies to prayer, and not to getting into heated subjects, is the way to go. Energy dissipates, but isn't destroyed. Putting energy into prayer is every bit as powerful, and effective, as those whom fight on the frontlines in every struggle.

People who lead the way in social justice, global issues and rights, etc., they are the soldiers of Christ, without doubt. The work they do is holy. But they will not have the energy to stay faithful unless they are supported by the energetic prayer of others. It is a vocation to pray.

This is where my instinct for imagery comes in, again. Right after visiting Gethsemani for the first time, I had an image of the prayers of the contemplative monks and nuns of the world, are the energy that keep the world going. Lay people must do this too.