Power of Prayer

By Bud Focht

Hi, my name is Bud and like Tim the Tool Man from the popular 1990s TV show Home Improvement I want ‘more power.’

The power of prayer.

I’m reminded of the aphorism:  “There are no atheists in foxholes.” (If the word aphorism has you stuck, other examples of aphorisms include “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” or my favorite, “Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish; he is out on his boat with his buddies drunk every weekend.”)

Back to atheists in foxholes. I assume the term ‘foxhole’ goes back to one of the World Wars when soldiers dug out defensive positions during combat. And speaking of World Wars, if WWI was supposed to be “The war that ends all wars”, how come they gave it a number?

I think the aphorism about foxholes, dealing with times of extreme stress or fear, is true. People in those situations believe, or hope for, some form of higher power. You know, God. Or as my wife Terry calls Him, by His ‘old school’ name, Jehovah.

When the shit hits the fan, all people pray, whether they call it prayer or not. They ask for help. From anyone. From anything. When there is nowhere else to turn, they turn to faith.

And for good reason. It works.

Not too far from where we live is the National Shrine of Saint Katharine Drexel, the second American-born person to be canonized. Katharine was a wealthy Philadelphia socialite whose family founded Drexel University. She founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, a religious order serving African American and Native American missions.

Katharine Drexel used her wealth and fame to set up a meeting with the Pope.  When she had her audience with Pope Leo she demanded he give more support to the Native Americans in the Southwest part of the United States. In response to her demands, the pontiff suggested Drexel become a missionary herself, and she said “fine,” and did.

Today the Drexel Shrine draws about 6,000 people a year, who come there to pray. Many of them have documented stories about how after their visits to the shrine they experienced “miracles” in their lives. Their mother’s cancer went into remission.  Their child’s ineffective immune system began working.  The Phillies won the World Series.

My in-laws raised 10 kids in the 1950s and ‘60s in a three-bedroom tenement, living on the first floor of a three-story house they owned that they rented the second and third floors out.  All 10 kids are now successful professionals with happy family and social lives. (Make that nine of the 10. The sixth child, Therese, married badly and developed a terminal illness) That family of 12 said the rosary, every night, together, and my Mother-in-law swears (she never really swears) that it worked.

She has told me and others that prayer definitely works, and she has proof.

Many people have proof that prayer works. And I am not talking about the people who see the face of Jesus in their grilled cheese sandwich or on a potato chip. (and speaking of that, how can those people think it is the image of Christ? If anything, it is the image of an artist rendering of Christ. I don’t think the Son of God ever had a formal sitting for his portrait, and he died about 1800 years before the first camera. Those images of Christ are really images of what sixth century artists agreed upon.)

There are many people out there who agree upon the fact that their prayers were answered. And believe it or not I might be one of them.

I truly believe that prayer works. The rub is, it doesn’t always work the way you expect. The way you want. When you ask for Devine Intervention you don’t always get the result you ask for. But that doesn’t mean your prayers weren’t answered. They just weren’t answered the way you wanted, or expected.

A lot of people I know think I drew the short straw. They think my wife Terry got the shitty end of the stick, when she was diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer’s Disease two years ago. And I would have to agree. My first reaction was “What’s up with that, God? I pay taxes. Terry never did a thing in her life that would make her deserve something like this. WTF?” I was just shy of sounding like the Olympic ice skater Nancy Kerrigan, after she was attacked back in the 1990s by rival Tanya Harding’s friend and performed that famous whine “Whhyyyy?”

But I also feel that despite what happened to Terry and me, we are blessed. Our prayers have been answered. Well, obviously not all of them, but some of them, anyway.

Sure, Terry having cognitive impairment is no blessing. For me, seeing my best friend, my soul mate, my helpmate, decline mentally on almost a daily basis is no picnic. It sucks!

A wise man once said “you can’t always get what you want but if you try sometime you find you get what you need.”

If there is one thing I have learned over the last two years, it is that God doesn’t give you more than you can handle. He sometimes gives you a shitload more than you would like to handle, but when push comes to shove you can handle it if you really have to. If you really try.

And Terry and I have really, really been trying. And so far we have been able to handle it. So far.

But despite Terry’s Alzheimer’s we feel blessed because we have three great kids, we have great friends and family, and we have each other.

This disease has brought Terry and me so close. And it was Divine Intervention almost 40 years ago that brought Terry and me together in the first place.

Looking back, if I had been told 40 years ago that I would get to spend all this time with someone like Terry but at the end it was going to get messy, I would have signed on. No questions asked.  Well, maybe a couple of questions, like for instance, Whhyyyy??

But, that really is not my style.  Most of my praying involves saying thank you for what I have and saying please can I have help with this or that.

I have always prayed throughout my life. Looking back, I am sure some of my prayers were answered.  And I am pretty sure some of them were not.  Or at least answered the way I had hoped or expected.

I will continue to pray, pray that I can keep Terry happy and safe in the years to come. Keep her with me as long as I can.

Until next time, hope your prayers are answered.

Bud