Catholic Charities invites people to ask for prayer – and they do, from their deepest hearts.
On its website and in its digital newsletter, Catholic Charities of Oregon invites readers to send prayer requests. Almost every day in those electronic sanctuaries, someone seeks the aid of the Almighty.
On average, Catholic Charities receives six pleas for prayer per week. They come from all over the world.
Ed Langlois, communications director for the agency, receives the notes via email and reads every one, praying for the people who sent them. Langlois then prints out the requests and places them in a binder in the agency’s prayer room for others to read and take to heart.
“Rarely are human beings so starkly genuine as when praying for what they need,” said Langlois. “These are unadorned personal cries for help – spiritual and otherwise.”
On occasion, the request comes along with an ask for social services, which Catholic Charities does its best to provide, or find the best agency to do the job.
Most of the requests reflect urgent hope:
- “I’m a new graduate. Please pray for work documents to be processed quickly. Also, protection over myself and household in neighborhood that isn’t safe.”
- “Wanting to move to coast area adult residential foster care. Medicaid. Relocating from Gresham, please. I am disabled after three strokes. I have not seen the coast in 37 years.”
- “I lost my job and trying to find another job but it’s so hard. My mortgage payment is behind, and bills are piling up.”
- “Please pray for me to be healed from this anxiety disorder! Thank you so much! I really appreciate it!”
- “My son is addicted to methamphetamine and being evicted in the next couple of days.”
- “Pray that I may be able to file my state and federal income taxes, by using the 2024 Turbotax program installed in my computer now.”
- “Please pray the Lord brings the right woman into my life to marry.”
- “Please pray that my murdered daughter has found her way to God, that he welcomed her to his kingdom and that she is safe with him now.”
- “My beloved wife is facing stage 4 stomach cancer returning after a successful surgery 18 months ago… I am nothing without her.”
Government officials and agencies are frequent subjects of desired prayer:
- “For the upcoming Canadian elections.”
- “Pray for Thailand’s National Health Security Office, which is facing a budget shortage to serve its citizens.”
- “I think Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky is the best president for Russia.”
- “Praying for my asylum interview at the immigration office to be scheduled and I be granted asylum status.”
Some prayers enter deeply charged spiritual territory on the fringes of sanity:
- “Some people I used to know are involved in the occult and are using magic or sorcery on me.”
- “I want to apologize to the half-god and half-demon. May my brain heal 1000000 times.”
- “I’m hearing that a man who claims to be a leprechaun is going to murder me and try to make me serve his gang.”
Many prayers get to the point briefly:
- “For my broken heart.”
- “Save our near 25-year marriage.”
- “Please don’t let me be evicted from my apartment.”
- “I’m a single mother who feels alone 90% of the time.”
- “Please God, provide an amazing nursing job, ASAP. Amen.”
Some selfless souls seek divine help for others: “I pray for everyone to have a roof over their heads. I’m grateful for having one.”
Children send in prayers, too: “I hope the crayons I ordered arrive before my family leaves the city where we normally live. Also, I hope my scooter still works and doesn’t stop working.”
‘Please don’t let me be evicted from my apartment.’
Prayer left on the Catholic Charities website
“We at Catholic Charities ask for prayer requests because our identity obviously has a strong spiritual component,” Langlois explains. “That is one of the differences here. And often it’s an advantage. For many people, the religious identity of a helping organization prompts them to let down their guard. That helps us accompany and serve them better.”
And the benefit goes both ways, Langlois said. Getting prayer requests has a strong effect on Catholic Charities workers, making them more aware of human realities.
“This has changed my view of people’s lives,” he said. “I had no idea of the pain people deal with and no clue about the comfort they find.”
Send a prayer request here.