Lent; A prime moment to pray for those we love!

Lent; A prime moment to pray for those we love!

How formidable it is to seek the Presence of Christ as our prayers encompass ourselves.  We learned from infancy to reach out to something we didn’t understand then as our needs increased so did the maturity of finding that essence which is beyond us to answer the security our humanity must have.  

Can any of us become the answer for a missing cure that causes us to search the why of life’s tragedies when we go from a healthy existence to a diagnosis of severity that we cannot understand or do anything about its quiet descent upon our tranquility? 

That unfortunately is the invisible reality that will become our moment of seeking an answer to what will encompass most of us in life.  I can remember when 31 years ago my doctor’s office called and told me I had cancer.  For me it was not a surprise as the symptoms I was experiencing told me there was something wrong.  However, revealing the news to my family was a little different.  Through the grace of God and a faith that assured me I was ready if the prognosis proved to be my time to go home, I accepted the outcome.  I’ve been cancer free for 31 years.  

Recently, the news of a close friend has a severe need for a kidney.  Last prognosis was he was down to less than 20% ability to his kidney working and the outcome may very well cause an end of his life.  In spite of searching and praying for a replacement organ the outcome has a sad chance of his beating the angel of death.  All any of us can do is pray and ask for a miracle.  In so many cases of terminal diagnosis’ too many people have nothing left but their faith which is a blessing for all of us.  

We had a female friend who was a member of our Charismatic prayer group that developed breast cancer.  In spite of our having a Healing Mass for her cancer she died but the healing graces were for her faith to be energized through Christ being with her.  Later, I had a dream that saw her down the street entering a building with other people and she looked at me, smiling and waving just before her entrance and I knew she was going through the portal of eternal peace.

Just today, March 6, I called my daughter wishing her a happy birthday and as we spoke she told me a biopsy for a mark on her breast revealed another spot behind the first spot was cancerous, but they felt  it was treatable.  It brought back the same concern that she had when I revealed my cancer to her 31 years ago.  Both my friend and daughter are now fighting for their lives, as I did with prostate cancer, and besides good medical treatment and prayer, especially in Lent, will through Christ’s grace, become part of our cross and relieve the doubt of healing; through medical abilities and a complete recovery, or an unwanted result but with an eternal outcome of blessed peace with Christ and his Passion.

This is what we all need; prayer for those who now are at the doorstep of life or death, and be with them in their moment of fasting through the insidious diseases that seem to enter human life.  When that time comes we either will be on the side of intense prayer for them, or on the side of those who are ready to accept the prayers from their loved ones.  Lent is a perfect time for these prayers of intense love.  

Ralph B. Hathaway