My favorite prayer tool

is a little tabloid called "2006 Milwaukee Archdiocesan Directory". Twenty five-column pages of a long list of names and places. I've been caught by others with it a few times, and tried to explain how a long list of names becomes prayer. Not very effectively.

But this morning, a Desert story landed in my emailbox. I think Abba Macarius explains it much better than I. and there's not as much difference between the 300s and the 2000s than one might think:

Abba Macarius was asked, "How should one pray?" The old man said:
"There is no need at all to make long discourses. It is enough to stretch out one's hands and say, `Lord, as you will, and as you know, have mercy.' And if the conflict grows fiercer say, `Lord, help!' He knows very well what we need and He shows us His mercy."

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