Prayer Requests

A priest at my parent’s parish is a recovering alcoholic. Two days ago he was found unconcious on the floor clutching a bottle of vodka. He’s been in the hospital since then.

This priest is a very dear friend of mine and my family, and this isn’t the first time he’s relapsed. I don’t know what will happen to him.

Please pray that Our Lord free him from his chains, and ask your readers to do so too.

Many thanks.

Father, hear your son’s prayer through Jesus Christ our Lord. Grant healing to your servant, skill and compassion to his caregivers, and grace, strength and peace to all who love him. Mother Mary, pray for him.

Another reader writes:

A relative of mine has suffered a series of extraordinary blows lately – not tragic, but evil. His former employers, financial bigwigs, resentful that he is doing very well in a new job, have launched a lawsuit against him in a bid to strip him of everything.

They tried to get him fired from his new job and they very nearly did, as his new bosses did not want to get involved. Fortunately his immediate superior went to bat for him, recognising his worth as an employee.

The lawsuit is based on the claim that since my relative’s former bosses’ company is now doing badly while his new one is doing well, he must somehow have sabotaged them. The possibility that they are now doing badly because they lost their best salesman does not appear to have occurred to them, or if it has, it has only added to their wrath.

None of this is comparable, I suppose, to the struggles so many of your readers are experiencing now. My relative is enduring no material hardship. His children are healthy, and his wife, parents, and extended family are standing by him. His former bosses’ attempt to get him fired failed, and while it is too soon to know, it looks as if the lawsuit against him is not going very well, deo gratias.

But sometimes there are worse things, perhaps, than material hardship. It is terrible to know that someone – someone with the power to hurt you – truly hates you and wishes to do you an injury. And his enemies do hate him; his former bosses have said – in so many words, it’s written in lawyers’ letters, I think (though what sort of lawyers allowed such language I can’t imagine) – that they will not be satisfied in their suit until he is bankrupt, divorced, and suicidal.

My relative is a sunny-natured man. He is struggling to cope with the poison directed against him and having a very difficult time because, though a Catholic, he is of the relaxed (NOT lapsed) variety, and is not quite prepared for the sheer persistence of evil in the world. His elderly mother, who just reminded me that I had promised to write to you to ask for prayers on his behalf, is beside herself with distress. Meanwhile, he is trying to practise resignation and charity, but he is finding it hard to cope. If your readers could find it in their hearts to pray for him and for his former employers, as well, that their hard hearts should be changed and their sight cleared, I know he would be grateful, as would the rest of his family, including me.

p.s. I don’t know whether you can include this, but I wanted to say I DID get a job, after one of my most recent requests here. And better, far better, still, that little boy in B.C. found his way safely home, after I left a request at your site. No, I don’t take it personally – I know I am no more important to God than, well, anyone else

Father, thank you for hearing our previous prayers. We ask that you would protect this man and his family by your guardian angels and the sword of St. Michael from this spiteful and demonic attack. The Lord rebuke his enemies and fight on his behalf through Jesus Christ. Throw his enemies, both human and demonic, into confusion.Give him the grace to weather this assault and bring him to a place of peace. Supply his family needs and help him do well and do good in his work for you to the glory of your Name. Mother Mary, St. Michael and St. Joseph, pray for him.

Another reader writes:

Please continue praying for the friend with seven kids and stage four cancer: the doctors are “astounded” at how well his liver is functioning, and pleasantly surprised at how he’s responded to the first 2 chemo treatments (but please don’t stop praying!).

Father, thanks and praise to you for how well this person is doing through Jesus Christ. Completely heal him through Christ our Lord. Mother Mary, St. Luke and St. Peregrine, pray for this person.