"I'll Pray for You"

But do you? I know I said that for years with the best of intentions. But I inevitably fell prey to forgetfulness. To remember, I have to write it down. [This is something I learned from my wife also!] And so for a while now I've kept a running prayer list. Yes, I've lost it a time or two, and had to reconstruct it. But I try to keep it right in my LSB and tend to use it primarily at Matins, just praying for those at Vespers who come to the mind spontaneously. But if we don't write down the special intentions, chances are we'll just never remember to pray for them all. My suggestion then is to make and keep your prayer list handy in your hymnal. What prayer do I pray for them? It's always the same. I ask God to remember the people who have asked my intercessions or whom other have asked me to remember, then I pray: "grant that they may have mercy, life, health, peace, salvation, and visitation, pardon and remission of all their sins, that they may ever praise and glorify Your holy name." [See the Daily Intercessions in the Treasury of Prayers on St. Paul's Website -This is a daily prayer used by some Orthodox Christians and I find it to simply cover all the bases!]

Another thing that is helpful for prayer, I find, is the use of the Jesus Prayer. "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me [literally!] THE sinner." I use this prayer often, especially when driving. But as I pray it over and over again, I see the faces of the different people I am praying for and I pray that prayer as one with them. Of course, I pray it plenty for myself too - heaven knows I need to! But it's a great way of intercession. It reminds me of the passage in Job that my friend Jeff reminded me of the other day: "someone who could lay a hand on us both." That's the very essence of our intercession: to lay a hand on the person and to lay a hand on God. I know that in its fullness the Job passage speaks of the cry for our Redeemer, our Lord Jesus. But in our prayer life, we literally enter HIS prayer life, and so we touch these people we pray for and we touch our God. Mediators in the ONE Mediator, not in the sense of redemption, but in the sense of prayer.