Power of Prayer

A few comments on the article “Prayer From Strangers Good For Heart Patients” (Nov. 14-20):

Four years ago I almost died from a sudden, severe illness. During one of my lowest points I was nearly deluged with cards and calls from family, friends and acquaintances, some of whom I hadn't seen in years. Nearly all of them said they were praying for me (not just thinking of me).

While I wanted to recover, my primary prayer during that time was for the strength to face what was to happen.

I got well and, with daily thanks to God, have remained healthy. Since then I've often told people that the prayers of others played a big part in my recovery.

But after reading that article it dawned [on me] how we often equate successful prayer only with recovery. Had I died, the prayers of those concerned about me wouldn't have been wasted. God's answer to them would have been to give me the courage to face the end, I'm convinced.

We all need prayers daily, just as we need to pray daily for others, regardless of our situation. It seems diabolical that some medical professionals did an experiment with the lives of their patients to seek proof for prayer. We should never forget that prayer works, always, even if the answer we get isn't what we wanted.

Jim Rygelski St. Louis

Championing Humanae Vitae

I always enjoy the interviews which appear on the front page of the Register. But the interview with Steve Wood (Nov. 14-20) was especially interesting. Your interviewer did a great job of capturing the spirit that Steve brings to his newfound mission as a convert to the Catholic faith.

The Promise Keepers movement, which appeared in 1993, certainly helped to jump-start men's movements among Christians in this country. In my parish, we found the PK book helpful when a men's group started. But once we finished the book, the problem was: What should we read next? Steve Wood's book on Christian fatherhood was the answer. Here we found ideas which were specifically Catholic in tone. The book contains a wealth of references to papal teaching on family life, and would be profitable for any young man preparing for marriage.

A particularly striking aspect of Steve's book is the frank and open admission that a Catholic father needs to be pro-life according to the teachings of Pope Paul VI's encyclical Humanae Vitae. This is a remarkable turn of events. In the 31 years since Humanae Vitae was issued, I have attended about 2,000 Masses in many different dioceses, but I have never once heard a public proclamation of the teachings in that encyclical. It's not as if the topic was an obscure one, of interest only to theologians. On the contrary, the teaching has an impact on every family in every parish. It is totally inexplicable to me that such an important teaching of the Church has never been the subject of even a single homily [I have heard].

But with Steve Wood's arrival, the winds of change have started to blow. Since many priests and deacons are apparently reluctant to proclaim Church teaching in public, it seems that God is using a former Presbyterian minister to do the proclaiming. Steve Wood promulgates the teaching of Humanae Vitae, including encouragement to use the sacraments of penance and Eucharist, in exactly the way that Pope Paul VI recommended in 1968.

In our men's group, when the teaching on Humanae Vitae came up, the reaction was amazing. Some of the men confessed with regret that they had taken action in past years which had cut off the possibility of having further children. Their reaction to Steve Wood's words was pointed: Why were we never told about this teaching before?

Why indeed?

Dermott J. Mullan Elkton, Maryland