‘Hi, we are creating a chain … “ And have you already received such a ‘happiness letter’?
Seemingly a very good initiative uniting a great many of people in a prayer for those who need God’s care the most — cancer patients. Were it not for some minor details: ‘Pray, and send the prayer to nine friends’… And why (only) to nine?
Читай українською: Молитва. Як добрими намірами не нашкодити
‘Hi, we are creating a chain of 1,000 prayers for those suffering from cancer. Pray, and send this message to nine friends. Let me know if you cannot do this, so that we do not break the chain of prayer. Heavenly Father, we are giving all those suffering from cancer to your care. Touch them, and they will be healed in Your will in the name of Jesus. Amen’.
In Facebook the response to such so-called flash mob was different. Some resent letters because they truly believe that it is a thousand of prayers that will convince God to help those in need, some did it just not to be punished or not to be guilty in case the prayer chain breaks.
‘A test for inadequacy: ‘Hi, we are creating a chain …’. Such messages come from people with whom I had had no correspondence before and will most probably never have any. Religiosity cannot be the reason for sending spam resembling the style of 5th-grade girls like ‘send others’, — that was the reaction to such letters of the editor-in-chief of the Ukrainian Catholic Internet-magazine Credo father Mykola Myshovskyy.
And for better understanding of how a good case can be spoiled by applying a wrong approach to it, he has also prepared a special video blog ‘How to spoil prayers. Brief guidance’, where there are really a lot of interesting things to read. Have a look, and that will clarify a lot.
Quite recently there has been a whole article dedicated to different beliefs in our lives, in particular, religious ones on our site, by the Head of the Centre for Student Chaplaincy of the LD of the UGCC father Yuriy Ostapyuk, where he talked over a similar situation. One can read more here: Faith and beliefs, Church and magic.
— I remember an ‘interesting’ card with the prayer going around in Peter and Paul’s Church, with the indication that if someone pronounces this prayer 25 times and gives it over to somebody else, he will be happy and will make somebody happy. The intention seems to be nice at the first glance, since you pray and you encourage someone else to pray, but if we think it over, people seem to be looking for some magic in this way. And if I pray 26 times, what happens? Unfortunately, many of us don’t get to the essence of Christianity and think that God acts like a machine — you give 5 kopecks and it gives you a bottle of water, and if you don’t — it doesn’t.
One may do without candles or prayer pronounced automatically several times, but communicate with God as with a person — that is important. Asking oneself why some problems have arisen and asking God for wisdom to settle them in the right way, and He will lead you’, — stresses father Yuriy.
Nataliya PAVLYSHYN
