Evening prayers have been recited, the candles are extinguished, and yet I know that before very long I will be back in the prayer room to do Intercession. While having my pain shot this morning, my mother commented that "there is so much pain in the world." This is a theme that has haunted me for years now: all the pain in the world requires almost constant prayer. The people to do it are those of us who have given our lives over to God's control, then it is the duty of every Christian.
The Flaget Pain Center is always a rich vein of prayer, obviously because it is a pain center. On another level you see those who accompany those in tremendous pain and you can see the pain in their faces too. A beloved spouse or child is in pain, and you are in pain, too.
The most popular question people ask when they find out you are a hermit is, what do you do? They are surprised to find out that I can still live as I do, only without all the trappings of daily life that are available to people outside. Greater seclusion allows me to feel the pain of those around me, those I encounter during the day, and even those I do not know, but their suffering calls out to me in some strange way. That can be disconcerting until you realize that it is the pain of others that you sense, and not something within yourself.
My spiritual director gave me a golden piece of advice that all of you should remember: never take others pain as your own, always offer it to God, for it is not yours, and it only plays into your vanity of thinking how very much like God you are.
Shocking words! When you or I pray for others we must realize it is not our doing that God does or does not help someone else, it is ours to pray and allow God to work, and take the credit.
The sun is low and the other posting has the evening hymn.
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