Texted God today?

By EVELYN AUGUSTO- | Comments: 0 | Leave a comment

My blog, www.LetItAllStartHere.com, has given me some unexpected notoriety in the prayer circuit. I have become the go-to-girl, acting as a representative for those who feel that they may be less favored by the Divine.

In just the past few days, requests have come in for me to pray hard for a man living on borrowed time, whom I have never met. He needs a new heart.

Then, someone I did know -- someone whom I've heard openly curse God -- asked that I pray for a homeless man with developmental disabilities, so that his family would claim him as their own. By some strange twist of fate, they had managed to "misplace" him, and he had slept in cardboard boxes and had been eating gifts of Chinese takeout for the past three years!

Then there was a young man who was haunted by a past that he could not face: I was asked to pray that he receive courage and peace.

Certainly, it is not unusual for a Catholic community to pray for one another. It's like a trust fund of which we are benefactors: I will pray for you; you will pray for me. We will collect the prayers we've banked.

What I do find unusual is that non-practicing Catholics as well as non-believers are requesting these prayers. They are suddenly aware that prayer is needed -- that God is needed -- and they are not exactly shy to tell me they need assistance. But why won't they do the asking themselves?

I find it odd that they seem to have a problem with Catholicism, yet they have no trouble asking a Catholic to intercede on their behalf. What is going on? I wonder what the Holy Spirit is up to.

But, I want to make this perfectly clear: I am happy to do it! If I can pray a man well, if I can comfort the lost by ensuring that God cares what is happening to them -- well, then, I am doing the work Christ asks that we do.

However, I would be even more delighted if I could get these folks to take the reins themselves. I would just like to point out one thing: God prefers your prayers to mine. Jesus Himself declared: "In the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance." That is your invitation to talk to God. Call Him or text Him yourself! You don't need a surrogate to do the work.

A few years ago, I felt like a failure in my prayer life. I didn't think I was doing it right. I wasn't being heard. I felt that I was just not good at it. I wasn't getting anywhere. I went to a priest and asked him to intercede for me.

He told me, "There are no gold stars when you pray. There is no right way to do it."

He advised me to practice - told me to sit in front of the tabernacle, emphasized that I needed to keep working at it and not give up.

At the time, I felt as if my life depended on getting it right. So, I prayed as often as I could -- never imagining that, one day, I would become a "messenger" for so many people who needed to send a dispatch to God.

(Ms. Augusto attends Sacred Heart parish in Stamford.)[[In-content Ad]]