The prayers of the righteous

“The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects.” James 5:16

I am a very firm believer in the power of prayer. I have seen God do many miraculous things in my life as a result of prayer.

I believe that prayer can have even more effect when many people pray together for a common cause. Last year, when our country was about to attack Syria, the pope called all the faithful to pray and fast on a particular day for the situation in that country. Shortly after that day of prayer, the crisis passed and no attack came.

I believe that God always answers our prayers, but not always in the way that we expect or according to our timetable. I have been praying for many years for several friends and family members who suffer from depression. The more I pray, the more God seems to bring people into my life who need prayer.

(The kind of depression I’m referring to is clinical depression. Most of us get down at some time in our lives, when a loved one dies or when we are out of work, etc., but that is brought on by a difficult situation. Clinical depression, though, is not a result of circumstances. It just is. A chemical imbalance in the brain causes this kind of depression.)

A few months ago, a young priest from our parish passed away suddenly. It was a shock to everyone, and many people grieved his loss. A few days after his death, our pastor explained that Father had suffered from depression for most of his life and that his death had been self-inflicted.

I was devastated and felt a real burden to pray for people, like Father, who are in such pain and who often suffer in silence. I was frustrated and felt like my prayers weren’t being answered.

As I prayed, I felt like God was telling me that this kind of problem required prayer and fasting. I also felt like he was calling me to gather a group of people who would commit to praying and fasting for this intention.

In our Bible study at this time we were focusing on putting our faith into action, so I knew I had to do something. I got up the nerve to talk to the women in my Bible study, and a number of them agreed to join me in praying and fasting (or making some other sacrifice). We also began meeting once a week to pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy together for all those who suffer from any kind of mental illness.

We’ve been meeting for over two months now, and there is a group of ten to twenty of us that have been coming regularly. We meet at church every Thursday morning, for about 15 minutes, after daily Mass. I am very hopeful that our prayers are having an effect.

If this blog post has touched your heart, I’d ask you to consider joining me in praying for people with mental illness, either on your own, in your family, or in your faith community. Maybe offer up a small sacrifice for them. If you find yourself caught in traffic or having to shovel yet another batch of snow, rather than complaining perhaps offer up a prayer for all those who struggle just to get through the day.