One Thought About Methods of Individual and Corporate Prayer

On Saturday, I went to Planned Parenthood, like I do on many weekends. I line up by other faithful abortion-fighters on the sidewalk and gently and respectful pray silently, sing quietly, and add to the prayerful presence outside of that cold, hard, dead, building. I just want to cover the people that walk in and out again in prayer. Everywhere we go, as children of God, we bring Him and His authority to reign there. So I like to bring God to a place that He is otherwise not welcomed.

But this week, I realize that I recognize and know the other familiar faces that pray there.I have prayed "near" them for weeks and months now. We have never shared more than acquaintance pleasantries and conversations that engage the religious faculty without reaching the heart or soul. And this day, while the other people nodded their greeting, they (and I!! I am not excluding myself from blame here) continued to pray silently, for at least 30 minutes, never acknowledging each other until I made a comment to one prayer when I was sure he had finished praying the Rosary. I didn’t feel welcome to talk to him otherwise, and would have felt terribly invasive if I offered myself as a prayer partner.

It is not the rosary’s fault; that is not what I am saying. But the manner in which it is prayed, especially in public, can divide hearts and souls from one another. I could not engage with any of the people praying the rosary individually beside me. They were not engaged with each other, I was not engaged with them. We didn’t edify and build each other up in the faith. It was lone saint-soldiers asking Mary to plead with Jesus for the lives of the lost infants. It made me even more sad. I just wanted someone to pray with, to join hands and motives and hearts’ cries for God’s mercy on the people there.

Yet we were all divided and silently and individually petitioning our God, who by the way is the SAME God. Yet we stood in isolation. No fellowship, camaraderie, or unity. It was really sad.

People are free to pray however they feel led, but I feel as if we all missed each other as we stood there and prayed last Saturday with the same aim in mind, and to the Glory of the very same God.