Last month I wrote about not underestimating your good intentions and it seems that the universe wanted to let me know I was on the right track with that statement. In that post I mentioned a boy at my church who has been sick for a long time, a boy I had never met. Two weeks ago at the very end of mass our new priest stood up and asked everyone to turn their attention to a specific pew. The boy who we have all been praying for this past year made it to mass. As far as I know he is not out of the woods yet but he made it to mass with his family. I hadn’t even heard that he was out of the hospital and there he was smiling from the front pew.

As the priest talked about him I could feel myself welling up with tears. The energy in my church was palpable, I think everyone had almost the same reaction….it worked! All our praying and hoping for this boy, it worked. Obviously, the situation is more complex and I am sure he has a large team of doctors, but I believe that months and months of hundreds of prayers being sent his way worked their magic….or at least helped things along.

This message is especially poignant to me this month since it is breast cancer awareness month. I am lucky enough to know some breast cancer survivors but I have also lost loved ones to the disease. As I write this I know 2 people who are at the home stretch of their cancer treatment and 3 others who are at the early stages of being treated. I wish I could say I didn’t know a soul who has been affected by this disease but unfortunately I do. All 5 of these people are on my prayer list every week at mass, my own mental list of people I mention to God and ask him to look out for. It might not seem like a big thing but praying for someone, well I think it is a pretty terrific gift to give them.

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