Prayers for You in Progress

     What inspires you to pray for people during the day? For what or whom does God regularly put on your heart to pray? How can social networking be used as a tool for evangelization?
     Yesterday I went to daily Mass at the Pastoral Center as I often like to do during the week, and I saw a man enter the Chapel who looked familiar, but whose name I couldn’t recall. Afterwards this man came up to me to introduce himself and asked if I am Trisha. As soon as he said his name, I knew he was one of the men who had made his Cursillo weekend when Kevin was on team March 2009.
     I told him I remembered praying for him. He told me he’d seen a prayer request go out for Kevin and me, and that he was keeping us in prayer. I was really touched. I always love being reminded that many people are praying for me and my family. Some I see on a weekly basis. Others I may run into once a month, once a year, or only correspond with online or over the phone.
     For many years, I’ve been in the habit of praying for people throughout the day.
 I always have special intentions God’s placed on my heart for certain people, but as family, friends, a stranger on a street corner… come into view or just into mind, I’ll offer up a prayer for them. Sometimes I’ve felt bad for not being better about letting family and friends know they’re in my prayers through a phone call, card, or e-mail, but the most important thing is that I remember them in prayer.
     God still regularly puts it on my heart to pray for the friend who lost his beloved wife several months ago, the mother who’s mourning the tragic death of her son, the children I was nanny for, my former classmates, the family whose daughter was found dead outside of our apartment last summer…
     It encourages me to think that if God puts it on my heart to pray for people who have long been out of sight and out of mind, then I can be certain He does the same for others.
     I’ve actually found Facebook status messages to be a great place to look for prayer requests and intentions, whether explicitly stated as such or not. If someone is struggling or specifically asks for prayer, then I pray for them right away. If I don’t know the situation well, it’s usually a brief prayer.
     Lord, thank You for the gift of prayer, the grace to bring all our cares and concerns, praise and glory to You. Help us become better about praying without ceasing. Amen.