Intercessory Prayer for Christians

I recently went to visit an old friend I had not seen for a good while. He now in his wheelchair most of the time in an assisted living facility. A professor at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, he has degrees from Northwestern, General Seminary, Oxford, and a doctorate from the Gregorian University in Rome. He also served for years as the pastor of one of the oldest and most active Roman Catholic parishes in New Orleans, St. Patrick’s. Full of energy, enthusiasm, and erudition, and a very good preacher, Fr. Stan Klores was a beloved dynamo who rarely rested from his labors.

Now in his 80s, but still of sound mind and faithful heart, he questioned just what his vocation could be. When Fr. Stan retired and Archbishop Alfred Hughes came to see him, he asked, “What is a Christian priest with his calling to do all day in his circumstances?” The archbishop replied, “Intercessory prayer.” He accepted without hesitation, even joy. I asked him exactly what that means to him day by day and how he does it without growing weary in well-doing. He didn’t think it was difficult, but rather, that it was a privilege.

My thinking: “But that is your new vocation, with all your learning and experience?” Many of us have prayer lists for our daily devotions like the prayer lists of our parish for the Prayers of the People. But that is often the extent of it: mentioning the names and perhaps the plight of those who need our prayers and those we love. A vocation to intercessory prayers includes offering payers for other people, whose names have been given to us, even those who are unknown to us.

Names on a list represent individuals whom God loves, so it is important to know the name of the person, not just “my mother” or “my friend.” It reminds me of baptism, when the minister instructs the parents, ”Name this child,” before baptizing the child byname. The Lord knows what we need before we ask and our ignorance in asking, of course, but also knows us all by name.

When we consider the prayer Jesus taught us, intercessory prayer is implied. It’s a communal prayer — the prayer of the church — whether just two or three gathered together or a full cathedral. The first-person plural is used throughout in addressing our petitions to our Father.

Give us this day our daily bread, forgive us as we forgive others, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. But, as we say this prayer in our private daily devotions, we are actually praying for others too. We can intentionally populate the prayer with our families, friends, those who have asked us for our prayers, and all the church throughout all the world.

Jesus certainly set an example of retreating to prayer often in his ministry, but he also specifically prayed for his disciples. When he foretells Simon Peter’s denial, he says first, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and when you have turned again, strengthen your brethren” (Luke 22:31-32). Chapter 17 of John’s Gospel is called the “High Priestly Prayer.” He is praying for his disciples before the end of his earthly life, and not for them only but for “those who believe in me through their word.” That includes the rest of us down through the centuries who have learned to believe through the continuation of their witness, generation after generation. Jesus also prayed for his executioners: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” He didn’t actually say “I forgive you” to them — it was intercession on their behalf.

In the apostolic age, the passage in the epistle of James 5:16 about the prayer of a righteous man being very efficacious comes to mind. Evidently one does not have to be an elder but “only” righteous to offer effective prayer for someone else.

Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects.

This passage is linked to anointing the sick and says that the sins of the suffering one will be forgiven by the Lord because of this intervention of prayers and anointing, for “the prayer of faith will save the sick man.” That is following the example of Jesus, of course, who said, “Your sins are forgiven” to the crippled man before healing him as a sign of his authority for those who questioned his ability to do the former.

St. Paul often begins his epistles by assuring his recipients of his prayers for them. He writes to the Roman Christians he has never met “that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers.” To the Philippians he writes, “I thank my God in all remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making my prayer with joy,” and to the Thessalonians, “We give thanks to God always for you all, constantly mentioning you in our prayers.”

In the Revelation to John, the “golden bowls full of incense are prayers of the saints” are in front of the throne of God and the Lamb that was slain. That image reminds us of the 141st Psalm that we quote in Evening Prayer:

Let my prayer be counted as incense before thee, and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice!

That incense can be for others who have asked for our prayers, as well as for ourselves.

And considering the Psalms, the one book of the Bible in which we speak to God instead of God speaking to us, some of them bear little relationship to the circumstances of our lives, being concerned as they are with enemies, imprisonment, false accusation, and danger. But as a nun who taught me spiritual theology advised, we can pray those psalms of David on behalf of those in prison, whether justly or unjustly, those chained by addiction, and those suffering guilt, estrangement, and ridicule, whoever they may be.

Another practice in intercessory prayer is the discipline of praying for another person on the spot, regardless of where we are. I had a dear friend, a layman, who said he always prayed with the person right away when asked for prayers. That is not just so one will remember to do it, but perhaps because, at the moment of asking, the person is most ready to receive the Lord’s blessing we ask for them or for the one who is suffering. The last time I did that was when a person I did not know very well, whose grown son had just been diagnosed with cancer, saw me at the hardware store and told me. She was distraught. Recalling my old friend’s advice, I said, “Let’s pray right now” — in the plumbing aisle — and we did.

Intercessory prayer can be an intentional calling for all of us, one that we can continue as we grow older and more frail. Thank God for those Christians who have already taken this task upon them. It really helps in a time of trial to know that, in the Communion of Saints, there are those who intercede for us very day!

The practice of intercessory prayer is often thought of as part of the liturgy only, and not as the calling of each Christian every day. But Scripture teaches us how valuable it can be to incorporate and expand this form of prayer into our daily devotions. And those who have undertaken this practice as their vocation are a blessing to the whole Communion of Saints.