I would like to pray for your intentions
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The church at Mt. Angel AbbeyOne of the things that most excites me about our monastery vacation this week is that I will actually have time. We’re going to be there for a few days, and the only firm plan we have is to attend the Art & Wine Festival on Saturday. Other than that, we’re free. Visitors to the abbey are encouraged to join the monks for their daily prayers (you can see the schedule here — I think I’ll pass on Vigils), so we’ll probably spend a lot of time doing that; but there’s nothing on the calendar we absolutely have to do.
I was imagining how nice it will be to have all this time to dedicate to focused prayer, and the thought immediately came to mind: I’d like to pray for your intentions. People often send me emails with prayer requests, and I always do pray for them (even when I’m not able to reply), but it’s often a rushed-but-sincere volley of thoughts that’s all jumbled in with the chaos of the daily life. Don’t get me wrong — I know that God values those haphazard prayers of the trenches just as much as solemn chants in a silent church, but I love the idea of having enough time to settle into a chapel with a list of prayer intentions, get comfortable, take some time to relax and get really centered on God, and offer a deep, focused prayer for each one. So…
What can I pray for for you? (Feel free to comment anonymously, or email me if it’s not something you want to say publicly.) I’ll print out the comments and emails on Tuesday night and take them to Mt. Angel with me, and I promise that at least once I’ll go into the church and pray for every one of them individually.
After all the support and prayers I’ve received from you all, I’m looking forward to being able to do the same for you!
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I would be incredibly grateful if you could pray for my husband's business, a business that keeps him away from his family nearly 100 hours a week and has yet to provide us a paycheck.
What a wonderful thing to offer to your readers! We'll be praying that you have a relaxing and inspiring vacation with your husband.
How exciting! I'm from Portland and the weather is actually supposed to be nice this coming week (mid-70's and clear).
Sounds like a wonderful trip! I would be beyond thankful if you could pray for the baby boy in my womb. I'm about 28 weeks, and so far no complications, but I'm always paranoid something bad will happen.
Also, if it isn't too much trouble, please pray for my husband that he finds a job that makes him happy and fulfilled and where we can live in a good Catholic community.
That's all! THANK YOU. This is so nice for you to do for your readers!
Can you pray for my fiance and I's upcoming marriage?
Just that we can get through the stressful times and that he will find a job that he enjoys.
I am very grateful!
What a wonderful idea. Thank you for taking the time and opportunity.
Could you pray for guidance for my husband and me as we continue to discern our family size in light of our financial situation?
Please enjoy your sure-to-be-blessed vacation with your husband.
What a wonderful, thoughtful, grace"ful" thing to do!
I would love if you would pray, especially with St Gerard, for aid in conception for myself and a dear friend of mine (Missina). We've both been trying for several months and are feeling both a sense of discouragement as well as a sense of "This just shows how God is in control of our wombs". Pray for us to focus on the second until we can manage to conceive!
Please pray that my atheist dh will have a conversion back to the Faith.
Someone I care about is pregnant after a miscarriage and secondary infertility. Please pray for successful pregnancy and healthy mom and baby for S. Thank you!
Thank you for this beautiful gift!
Please pray for a job in our home town for our son in law…and for the conversion of my family. May it be an everlasting one.
Please pray concerning my heart blockage and other health concerns. Please pray that Charlie does not have Lyme disease. Please pray for the recovery of my dogs from Lyme disease.
What a generous way to spend your vacation!
Please pray for our unborn child (7 weeks!)and that my husband is able to find a job upon his graduation.
God Bless you Jen!
I have a few prayer requests:
1. the father of a friend of mine is in the hospital. I'm not quite sure on the details, but I do know he's currently not conscious, and no idea how long he'll last, maybe a day, maybe a couple of years. This friend is also getting married in January, so tough time for him right now.
2. I am a youth minister, starting this program from scratch and having trouble getting teens to come to events. I'm doing better than I was (zero attendance for a while) but it's still a long way off from where I'd like it to be. I'm also without volunteers at the moment.
3. Lastly, I have two cousins that are both atheists. And it just really saddens me, they both grew up in the Catholic Church. It hurts, ya know.
Please pray for Matthew, a 15 yo friend who has been in a medically-induced coma since Saturday, following a near-drowning in a hotel pool. Pray that he will survive, have no brain damage, and that God will grant His perfect peace to Matthew's parents and his younger brother and sister. The family, including Matthew, have a strong faith.
Thank you for your kind and generous offer. Have a wonderful vacation!
Please pray for our daughter who has severe health issues – and us, who deal with it all, come to think of it. A full, miraculous healing would be marvelous. If that's not His will, then guidance on medical and psychological treatment, as well as resources to pay for it.
Or ask Him to send her a good friend. She's been so ill for the last years that she has no friends.
Thanks so much.
I'll be holding you and your family in prayers too.
My husband and I both love your blog, you are such an inspiration! Would you please pray for my husband and I to conceive a child?
I would be so grateful if you would please pray for me. I am newly pregnant with what we hope to be our third child. I have bleeding since Friday and have experienced two previous miscarriages so I am extremely worried. I will be having blood tests done this week since the ultrasound didn't reveal much (since its so early). Thank you so much for taking time during your vacation to pray for our needs. God bless!
Please pray for my marriage – most importantly, as it being as rocky as it is…affects everything and everyone in my life (3 kids).
God Bless, have a wonderful retreat and time with hubby!
eko
What a lovely offer. My husband and I are considering some major life changes – job, home. Please pray that we are able to understand the guidance God will provide.
Thank you for your offer and your inspiring blog. I hope you and your husband have a wonderful vacation.
I would be very grateful if you could pray for me, a student, to be able to make it to Europe for my Summer holidays as I seek to do some pilgrimages, and also to do well in my upcoming final undergraduate year. To pray for the Legion of Mary in my country (Singapore), the RCIA ministry in my parish and of course the well-being of all my loved ones. Thank you very much and may God bless you with a fruitful time in the Abbey!
Appreciate your prayers for my health and for less stress for all of us at my job. Thanks so much,
Miss New York
Prayers for this little boy and his family: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Send-Love-to-Cohen/123375361026814?ref=ts
I'd like to ask for prayers for my pregnancy (24 weeks along and anxiously preparing for 4th c-section), and for spiritual growth and bodily/mental health for all our immediate and extended family. Also for a little boy named Cooper who has been going through a lot of complications after a bowel and colon transplant. Thanks so much, Jen! Have a wonderful trip.
~Blair
Jennifer: What a wonderful trip you have planned.
For my dear friend Barb, who has breast cancer and is having surgery this Friday, 6/25. For my children that they continue to be healthy, strong, and successful. For me? That my eyesight remains "status quo" and does not deteriorate to the point that I can't work and provide for my two sons' completion of their educations.
Bless you and thanks so much,
JHS
Thank you!
First can you pray for our friend, Fr. Phil. He was a monk at Mt. Angel before he became a diocesan priest.
Second can you pray for my husband. He recently lost his job of 13 years and is having a very difficult time finding another one.
Finally please pray that my faith is strengthened. I feel overwhelmed with the crosses I am carrying and can't help but feel like I'm being punished.
I will return the favor and pray you have a safe and spiritually rejuvenating vacation!
Thank you so much for your kind and generous offer! We really appreciate it.
I have been having on & off chest pains and difficulty losing weight. Please pray for healing for me.
Also, wise guidance for my husband, who has to make an important job decision.
Lastly, for a private petition.
Prayers for a wonderful vacation for you and yours!
how generous of you!!
Would you pray we are blessed with more children, and that we can accept His Will in all things.
Would you also pray for 30 girls who are coming to a Catholic day camp I am leading next week. All such great girls– and the camp is a mix of faith and fun.
Thank you Jennifer!!
My hubby and I (and our 21-month-old son) have had a big year of changes so far… 4 months ago we moved across the country (away from ALL of our family & friends, in a city of 4 million to a town of 2500) to become missionaries (as provincial reps for our missions agency), which has meant living on support from donations (and we are at only around 60% of our target). We also just moved across town 2 weeks ago into a different house (long story)… and we're expecting our 2nd baby in 2 weeks. So… prayers for peace amidst lots of change would be wonderful.
I would appreciate it if you could pray for my brother, Clay, who is trying to rediscover his faith. He is struggling with the existence of God. He wants to believe in God and be a Christian but, he is struggling with the basics.
Also can you pray for my fiance and I, we will be married on July 10!
Thank you so much for this wonderful offer.
Please say a prayer or two for my wonderful husband, whose deliberate and genuine journey from atheism to Catholicism inspires me to try harder every day.
And you know what? I could use a few prayers myself: to try harder; for greater humility.
Many thanks again- have a wonderful trip to beautiful Oregon!
Have a wonderful time in Oregon! I love it up there.
If you could please pray for my husband, that the Holy Spirit might touch his heart and make him more receptive to Christ, I'd really appreciate it.
Need to be anonymous this once, but for my husband that he is lead to the right teaching job (although any teaching job would be helpful at this point). And one more if it isn't too much, for my brother who is a US Marine who just deployed to Afghanistan leaving a five month pregnant wife behind. He will miss his daughter's birth. We just would like him home safely at the end of his deployment, if it is God's will.
My husband could really use prayer. I worry about his drinking – I think it's too much and he doesn't.
We're also expecting our 2nd child together and it has seemed like we're at odds with each other – working against ourselves rather than together. There's been a lot of resentment and it really hurts my heart. Hubby has been childish & resentful when I spend a majority of my time caring for our kid & trying to get my work done in the time in between.
If I don't work, we don't eat or have a place to live. But caring for my child at home & trying to work has been so very tough. And rough on us & our relationship.
I have no idea how I'll still manage to get 30+ hours of work a week done with two around. I really need some help & could desperately use some divine intervention right now in helping me find better paying work (still from home) so I can earn the same amount or more, but in fewer hours.
Thanks for listening.
please for me as i struggle with the symtoms of GAD thank you and God bless
Please pray for my pregnant daughter, the child she is carrying, and for my son who has been seriously ill and is trying to study to take the Bar exam next month. Thank you for this generosity.
Hi Jen,
My wife and I will be having our first baby in December. Please pray for a healthy baby and delivery, and that we will make good parents!
-Mike
Would you please pray if God's will can still be done that my upcoming cancer screening does not find the ovarian cancer the oncologist will be looking for, that what ever is wrong with me is not serious enough to take me away from my husband and young special-needs daughter. Thank you so much for this generous offer. I pray you have a fruitful time with Our Lord.
Wow – what an offer! I'd be very thankful if you'd pray for me to be refreshed IN the Lord. I feel I've long forgotten my first love.
And would you pray for my trigeminal neuralgia (bouts of extreme pain along a set of facial nerves).
My uncle – he has lung cancer, and his oncologist is going out of business. Please pray for his continued (relative) health throughout his treatments.
Thank you for such a kind gift to your readers! Prayer is amazing.
Please join us in praying for a miraculous healing of a much-loved pastor, Graham Johnston. He has never smoked yet at 49 years old has just been diagnosed with aggressive, inoperable, advanced lung cancer.
Could you please pray for my friend, Jason. He is being ordained a transitional Deacon this Sunday. Next year the priesthood, God willing.
I would love some prayers for strength and peace in whatever God brings each day. You just never know what each day has in store, ya know.
Thanks, Jennifer, may God grant you many blessings!
If you could, please pray for my husband, that his relationship with God will continue to grow and eventually blossom in joining the Church.
Thank you for making this offer, Jen. I pray that you have a joyful, fruitful retreat.
That sounds amazing
I hope your trip goes very well.
Please pray for my friend, who is entering with the Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matara in July.
Please pray also for me, as I discern my vocation with those same sisters.
I am very grateful for this. Thank you so much, and have a beautiful vacation.
Thank you for this very kind offer. Would you please pray for the continued good health of my pregnancy and discernment regarding future job opportunities.
Thank you, have a wonderful vacation!
Well aren't you sweet! I can't wait to hear blogposts about your trip! Take pictures!
I would be honored if you would pray that our family will grow…soon! We've had two adoptions fall through and are so ready to just HAVE KIDS!!!
Thanks, Jen!
What a lovely offer, Jennifer. I will pray for you, as well, that you may find respite for body and soul.
Please pray for a young couple in our parish who just discovered that their 20 week old baby (in utero) has multiple heart anomolies. Pray for their strength as they continue the pregnancy. Pray for their three other young children. And please petition St. Joseph and JPII to intercede on the baby's behalf to heal the baby's heart.
Thank you so much.
please prya for my wife and children
I would really appreciate it if you could pray for my vocation in life. I am nearly 30, and truly feel called to be a wife and mother, but am still very much single.
I've got a couple – you're amazing to take this all on.
1. Please pray for my husband's safety – he's currently deployed to Afghanistan. Pray that he has no lasting effect from being gone, and that our marriage continues on the strong path we have created. Also pray for discernment when he comes home about his career path.
2. My daughter is struggling with her faith and with her path in life. Please pray that she hears God's will for her, that she finds the path He has chosen and that she returns fully to the church.
3. Please pray for our finances.
Thank you so much and God Bless you on your retreat to the monastery.
Thank you so much for this! Please pray for my friend who is an atheist. Please also pray that my husband and I will soon be financially stable enough to have a baby. God bless!
This is an incredibly kind and generous offer – I have found your blog to be inspiring and spiritually refreshing on many occasions, even though I'm not the type to comment regularly, and will pray for you and your family as well.
My husband and I are expecting our first child in January, so please pray for a healthy pregnancy for me, and that we both may be given God's grace to be the best parents we can be.
In addition, my husband is currently looking for a job that will use his skills as a Catholic church musician with expertise in Gregorian Chant – please pray that an opportunity for him arises.
Many many thanks for your kind thoughts!
Please pray for my conversion. I've been studying and attending mass for over 2 years but have not yet taken the final step of RCIA due to several factors. Please pray for those factors to be settled or for me to have peace about going ahead with the process even if they are not. Thank you so much for your prayers!
Thank you so much for offering to do this. Please pray for my Mom who has been in the hospital for over 8 weeks now. She's suffering horribly at the moment and I just want to see her at peace. I know that God will heal her whether here on earth or by taking her home. I just don't want her to suffer anymore. Thank you so much.
Jen, that's a wonderful offer! Thank you so much. I would like you to pray for my husband's safe return from deployment and that our family will grow together again quickly and smoothly.
Enjoy your time and may God bless you!
Jen, I will be praying for you and your husband.
Please pray for:
- My friends M and N who have just begun the adoption process.
- For my brothers' reversions to the Catholic faith.
- For a safe delivery of our child come September.
- For the intentions of my husband.
Thank you very much, Jen. God bless you and yours.
I just really needed to whisper, Jen…
I've been praying for you. I won't stop.
Our conversation was a joy to me — you are!
It was all only too short!
When you are praying at the Abbey, just know… we are together in His Spirit, Jen… word sisters loving The Word.
All, all my love….
Ann
Please pray for my brother, who is an atheist, and for my husband, who is Catholic but struggling with certain aspects of his faith, especially the teaching on contraception.
Thank you so much for the offer! I feel selfish just writing this down. But my husband and I have been trying for children for a while now. If you could pray for us to accept whatever God's plan is, that would be great. I would ask for you to pray for children for us, ha, but that's sort of selfish, too. Thanks.
Please pray for all the "lukewarm" Catholics in the world. May they come to understand and accept Truth. May they defend and live the teachings of the Church.
Thank you, thank you, Jen. Bless you.
Have a blessed retreat. I pray that you will be held close to the Father during your time away.
Blessings and peace to the rest of you. May your prayers be lovingly answered.
Thank you Jen! I will pray for a peaceful and rejuvenating retreat. I would be humbled (and very grateful) if you would pray for my husband and I to blessed with children. We have miscarried 2 times in the past 2 years and are yearning to hold a little one in our arms, biological or via adoption, it doesn't matter. Thank you Jen and God Bless!
Oh thank you, Jennifer! Please pray for my oldest brother, Bernard, and his family (he and his wife have two small children). Bernard has not spoken to me in 8 years. He has not introduced his children to us. Despite my and my husband's efforts, he shows no interest in reconciling with us at all. I think he's suffering from his isolation, as we do too. Prayers would be most appreciated. Have a blessed retreat.
Jennifer…you have no idea how grateful I am for your offer of intercessory prayer for my intentions.
My husband and I are at a crossroad right now about what to do for school for our kids next year. We can't afford Catholic school anymore. I desperately want to homeschool…but my husband is resistant. Please ask God for HIS will do be done in this situation and for peace for my husband and I with that decision.
Thank you so mcuh!
I would love it if you would pray for me to obtain a job. The perfect one for myself and my family might be available this week and I have been praying nonstop.
Enjoy your vacation!
I have a friend who had a little boy about 2 weeks ago. This past week he's gone through 2 open heart surgeries. He's doing well, but still has a ways to go. Please pray for him and his healing!
Jennifer, this is so generous of you to offer your time! Would you please pray that I would receive discernment regarding my vocation? Also, I have a cousin who is in the hospital in serious condition following a routine surgery. Please pray for her quick recovery.
And, thank you!
Jen G
I would ask that you join me in my regular prayer requests – I pray for pregnant mothers, those who are laboring, new mothers (especially those who are struggling), and women who are mothers but their arms are empty because of infertility, miscarriage, and/or stillbirth. Also for children who long for parents, those who are in foster care, neglected, abandoned, etc.
I also pray for spiritual unity, especially within my family (my hubs is protestant).
Thanks!
Jen, what a very generous offer.
Please pray for me, and all women in my situation, to be better wives and mothers.
God bless you.
Please pray for my husband, who is an alcoholic, and for our marriage, which is slowly being poisoned.
Thanks Jen- I never turn down an offer for prayer. My husband has been out of work for nearly 2 years and needless to say our financial situation is dire. Please pray we will make the wisest decisions we can. Also I have a deep desire to change jobs but since I am the only stable source of income it is not feasible at the moment. Please pray for emotional and spiritual strength as I attempt to survive in a job that is clearly not a match for me and pray that my vocation will be clear so when the opportunity arrives I can move with confidence. I would love it also if you would pray for my friend G. who recently called off her engagement, cancelled the wedding that was in about 2 months and ended the relationship. She is very aware it was the healthy and correct thing to do but it is still painful and she needs as much heavenly support as she can get.
For a healthy labor, delivery and baby.
Thanks Jen!
Please pray for my sister, Joanie, and her husband, Jeremy, who are staunch atheists.
Please pray for my sister, Martha, who is under their influence and is starting to identify with their beliefs.
Thank you!
Would you pray for my son and my son's friend? (Both are 15 years old.) His friend's parents are going through a bitter custody battle and my son has gotten caught up in it.
Thank you so much. May God bless you in everything. Sue
Thanks, Jen. I will pray that you have a wonderful, peaceful trip. Please pray for a friend's daughter whose baby is due soon. He potentially has many health issues and they are praying for a miracle. The baby's name is Caleb. Also please pray for my four daughters who are on a trip that they have a safe, healthy and holy time while they are away. Thanks and God Bless.
Jen, this is a beautiful offer. I hope you'll have a beautiful and fruitful retreat.
If you could pray for me and the baby we are expecting in early January. We experienced infertility and this baby is the answer to many prayers. Your prayers for his/her safety and a healthy pregnancy would be so appreciated!
God bless, Sarah
I would be so grateful if you could pray for my grandparents. My grandmother has Alzheimer's and my grandfather is crippled and struggling to care for her. The both need professional nursing assistance, but he is reluctant to admit this, and it is putting such a strain on them and the rest of the family. Please pray that the situation would be resolved in the way God wants it to be.
Thank you so much! You are a treasure.