Howton Grove Priory | Mobile WebsiteSharing a Vocation with the World . . .

Prayerline

Our email "prayerline" (see our home page) often brings requests for prayer that are heart-rending. We try to respond to each one, so that whoever makes the request knows that his or her email has been read and will be prayed for by real people. So often the email begins "I'm not religious but . . ." and charts a long, sad history of defeated hopes. It is good that people know instinctively that we, at least, don't "do despair" and that the heart of the monastery, its life of prayer, is open to all, no matter how estranged they feel from organized religion or how hostile they may be to the God they feel has inflicted so much suffering on those they love. Just occasionally, we hear of prayer being answered in ways that surpass anything anyone could have foreseen. More often we hear nothing further. It doesn't matter. Our contract with the world, so to say, is to go on praying.