Day 76: A Wing and a Prayer

“Yes, Annelle, I pray! Well, I do. There, I said it. I hope you’re satisfied.”

“I have suspected this all along.”

Those lines from Steel Magnolias make me laugh. I suspect most of us pray without others realizing it. And I suppose that is the way it’s supposed to be. But my prayer life, while comfortably casual, seems to be calling me to something more determined. Allow me to explain.

I pray in a VERY casual manner. Casual like I’m talking to my mom, casual. I don’t even start out, “Dear God…” I just bust up in there with, “Hey. You busy? What do you think about this?...” and we proceed to have a conversation. So naturally, this occurs at random several times a day. (You already know I’m odd…just go with it…) I hope I never get asked to pray in public. I assure you, it will be a fiasco of ginormous proportions. I’ll probably default to the dinner blessing and confuse the heck out of everyone present.

In keeping with a previous positive change, I have been attending daily Mass at the office. There is a sweet, elderly gentleman who sits behind me each day. Every once in a while, he brings prayer cards for us, and hands them out as we all file out of the chapel when Mass is over. Most recently, he gave me a tiny pamphlet on The Hour of Divine Mercy.

I’ll get this out of the way right now, confessing my Baptist roots, by saying that I had no idea what this was. I learned, via this brochure, that The Hour of Divine Mercy is – essentially – the 3:00 hour in which Jesus died on the cross. Now it clicks. I have tried off and on over the last few years to implement a prayer time at 3:00 in honor/commemoration/memory of that moment in history. But, let me tell ya... 3:00 in the afternoon is a hard time to put on the brakes. 3:00 in the afternoon is usually right when I’m realizing lunch just wore off and I need a snack. 3:00 in the afternoon usually finds me throwing back a handful of almonds and a strawberry milk box. (Long story on the latter – to clarify, no I’m not usually a milk-box drinkin’ kind of girl.) 3:00 in the afternoon is a busy time. 3:00 in the afternoon is the last “kick it into gear before the work day is over” moment. 3:00 in the afternoon…

Is much more sacred than I have let it be. Perhaps I need a little more formality, perhaps not. I don’t know if I’m fit for praying out of a pamphlet. I like my random, casual conversations with the Man Upstairs. He hears me, and on occasion I hear him. But I will make a point daily to reflect on his Divine Mercy, if only for a few moments. Maybe I should retreat to the chapel briefly, and with my list of prayer intentions place the needs of my family and friends at the foot of the cross…at 3:00 in the afternoon.