For Whom Should I Pray? Part One

Do you know where to begin in prayer?

For some, not knowing for whom or what to pray is an obstacle to ever getting started. While most people are comfortable offering supplicative prayer for immediate personal and familial needs, their conversations with God may not go much further. They may be missing out on a deep friendship with God and a sense of connectedness to the world at large by going no further than praying for their own needs.

In part one of this article, we will focus on praying for the world outside of our daily personal lives, because the world and the Church need our prayers. As I have written before,

How to begin

First, thank God. Let this be where you begin every time you pray. You may also find an “act of presence” helpful, which is stating your belief that God is with you in prayer. The act traditionally goes something like this: “Oh my God, I do believe you are present in this prayer time and that you can see and hear me.” Call upon the Holy Spirit or beloved saints to accompany you in prayer.

Pray for the Church

All Catholics are called to pray for our Church, and there are many ways to do this.

Pray for your parish, your priest, your diocese, and your Bishop. Pray for the lay people working in the church and for its overall administration.

Pray for religious communities near and far, for an increase in vocations, and for the fruit and safety of their missions.

Pray that our Church leaders lead with transparency and accountability and that those who have been wronged by the church and its leaders will find healing and comfort. 

Pray for generous donors to step up to enliven the mission of the Church.

Pray for the growth of the Church and the return of fallen-away Catholics.

Pray for the souls in purgatory. 

Pray for those persecuted for the faith.

On a related note, the National Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help in Champion, Wisconsin has launched a “Shepherd Project” to pray for each individual US bishop! From the beginning of May until October this year, those participating in the Shepherd Project will pray for a different US bishop each day. Learn more and add your prayers here.

Pray for the World

The human world beyond our own front door and even outside our country is full of suffering in need of your prayers.

Pray for an end to abortion and human trafficking, here and abroad.

Pray for the end to Communism and other destructive, totalitarian, and anti-human ideologies. 

Pray for the stewardship and protection of the environment.

Pray for those who have suffered losses – miscarriage, divorce, cancer, illness, and so on.

Pray for those struggling with addiction or mental illness.

Pray for the lonely and homebound and for all who are alone in the world.

Organizing your prayer

As you can see, there is no end to the causes that need our prayers, and you have probably already thought of your own needs to add to these lists. 

If praying for all of these causes at once is too much for your daily prayer time, find a way to spread your prayers throughout your day or week. Perhaps each Monday you pray for causes related to human suffering, on Tuesday for souls in purgatory, on Wednesday for your diocese, and so on.

As you pray, you may find yourself surprised and cheered by the fact that you, too, have a role in praying for all these distant needs. Each specific intention may call to mind someone closer to home enduring something for which you are praying, a person you can remember particularly in your prayers. You may also find yourself grateful for all you do have. 

If any “cause” pulls particularly at your heart, you can opt to spiritually adopt it. Prayer intentions usually apply to a person, so a bishop, a grieving mother, a group of religious sisters, and so on, can all be “spiritually adopted.”

Ending prayer time

You began with thanking God, and you can end there, as well. As Blessed Solanus Casey said, “Thank God ahead of time.” There will come a time when some of your prayers will be answered – look at the decades’ worth of prayer answered with the overturning of the unconstitutional Roe vs. Wade. God actually works outside of time. So your prayers are reaching into the past, the present, and the future. A thank-you to God means thanking Him for hearing us, as He always does.

In Part Two, we will dive more deeply into what it means to pray for ourselves, our loved ones, and our personal mission in this life, always with the goal of growing in friendship with and knowledge of God.