Rabbi's Message

                        The True Power of Prayer

Working together with the young people in our religious school program, who are involved in team sports, I have to laugh when a student approaches me and says “Rabbi, we have a very important game coming up, please pray for our team.'' While amused by this, it does raise a deeper question: ''What really is the efficacy of prayer; how does prayer work?”

With all due respect to sports enthusiasts and others, God is not a ''cosmic bell-hop,'' simply doing our bidding when we pray. Indeed, a brief reference to a famous Biblical event and ancient Judaic commentary on it sheds some valuable light on this question. In Exodus 14:15, when the Israelites were trapped between the sea and the pursuing Egyptians, Moses launched into a long prayer. According to the Scripture, God then said to him: ''Why do you cry out to me? Tell the Israelites to go forward!'' That is to say, as the commentary explains, ''You have prayed enough, now you must take the action to have your prayer accomplished.''

Therein lies the answer. When we pray, we feel the strength that God has placed in us. And this motivates us, with His help, to strive for the objective of our supplication. Hopefully, this largely concerns our prayers and then good works in the world, on behalf of those who suffer in different ways.

One of the most difficult areas to understand are prayers for the sick, in which I often am involved. But, here again, God and human beings labor together. When a patient prays - with the help of clergy - often, feeling the fortitude God has given, the determination and mental attitude increase.  And indeed, in nearly every faith, for thousands of years, congregations have regularly gathered to pray for the sick. In fact, in the United States, prayer is the most frequently used form of alternative medicine.

Again, in the Catholic Church, for example, prayers for intercession are part of every Mass and those attending often ask the congregation to pray for the health of someone who is sick or hospitalized. In Judaism, a prayer for the sick is a regular part of services, and members of the synagogue may either call out the names of individuals who are ill or ask the rabbi to announce them. In the Muslim faith, members of the congregation may ask the imam to say a special prayer for a person who is sick, with the congregation affirming the prayer.

And what better way to conclude this thought than with a very famous prayer? What follows is The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi (1181 ~ 1226). Herein lies the true power of prayer.

"Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace,          O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;                     seek to be consoled as to console;

where there is injury, pardon;                                     to be understood as to understand

where there is doubt, faith;                                         to be loved as to love.

where there is despair, hope;                                      For it is in giving that we receive;

where there is darkness, light;                                    it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

where there is sadness, joy;                                        and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”