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The Prayer Line Ministry: Faithfully Offering Intentions for Healing
When Shirley Harder or Midge Tatro receive a request for a prayer intention, they immediately put the St. John Prayer Line into action with 30 parishioners answering the call.
“We call it ‘the Prayer Line’ at St. John,” Shirley says. “Since Fr. Charlie started it in January 2010, he didn’t like the term ‘chain.’ He said it was more like a prayer line, talking to God.” Both women entered into the Prayer Line Ministry after being involved in other ministries.
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“I belonged to a different group and when we got together we were always praying for each other when we asked about intentions,” Midge says. “When Shirley and I got together, we knew other denominations have prayer chains. We talked about it and approached Fr. Charlie and asked him if we could start it at St. John. We started it 11 years ago, and we’ve been going pretty steadily.”
New members have been added to the prayer lines, thanks to the Stewardship Renewal commitment cards turned in each year.
Shirley and Midge coordinate two prayer lines, with each having 15 members, including themselves. When either one receives a request for prayer, one calls the other to begin contacting the members in her line. The women set up the two prayer lines for the sake of time. Having one person call all 30 members in succession would take too long to put all the prayers into action quickly.
“We try to get as many as we can,” Shirley says.
Allie Brehm and Mary Anne Crawford manage the prayer line for Ss. Mary & Hyacinth and St. Wenceslaus. It started spontaneously when one person asked a few friends to pray for an intention. Eventually, they organized themselves into a chain and created a little booklet with the names and phone numbers of all the members. Mary Anne still has all those booklets; she estimates over 150 people have been part of the ministry at one time or another. Many of them have since passed away, leaving about nine members at this time.
The requests for intentions vary, but most are for surgeries — particularly for cancer — medical test outcomes, or any kind of stressful situation. Midge and Shirley also ask those calling how much detail they would like to have included as their intentions are passed along.
“We have people who call who aren’t Catholic, and they ask if they can request prayers,” Midge says. “We accept all who call.”
“We are truly talking to God,” Shirley says. “If I call Midge and we get both lines going, everyone says whatever prayer they want. There is no exact prayer. It’s just prayer and asking God to help that person. We tell our members as soon as you get a request to immediately pray,” Shirley says. “What we’re doing is thinking about prayer as we’re sending out the request, and we’re already starting to pray, just not directly. When we call the members, they are asked to write down the request.”
“When a person asks me for a prayer, I write a note down,” Midge says. “We get the prayer request out to all and I’m then personally talking to the Lord. At the time I say, ‘this person needs healing,’ and I’m just talking to the Lord — ‘Please send Your healing angels.’”
“It’s totally confidential,” says Mary Anne. “If someone comes up and says, ‘Did you hear about so-and-so’s situation?’, I don’t tell them anything. Whatever is told to us, you know it’s in God’s hands, and nobody else’s.” She herself has been facing health issues these past three months but it has only made her pray all the more. “As soon as I get up in the morning, I always run in, wash my face, brush my teeth, and then I say the Rosary. In the afternoon I have about two hours of prayer and I love to sit and just talk to God.”
The prayer ministers say they have heard from parishioners who have come back and told them, “Your prayers were answered.” One case, in particular, involved a parishioner facing a cancer diagnosis. Prayers were offered for the parishioner facing surgery, and as there were subsequent tests. “The person’s tests have all been great,” Shirley says. “This parishioner is doing good.”
