“Its like bees and honey. Each bee makes only a tiny, tiny drop of honey. It takes thousands of them, millions perhaps, all working together to make the pot of honey you have on your breakfast table. Now imagine that you could eat nothing but honey. That’s what it’s like for my kind of people…we feed on belief, on prayers, on love. It takes a lot of people believing just the tiniest bit to sustain us.”
“On no other occasion has it ever been my lot to listen to so fervent a supplication for mercy and protection. It thrilled through my heart, and inspired me with trust in God.”
“They have made Virtue also a goddess, which, indeed, if it could be a goddess, had been preferable to many. And now, because it is not a goddess, but a gift of God, let it be obtained by prayer from Him, by whom alone it can be given.”
“And then of course it dawned on him that he knew plenty of Americans—he was one himself—who held apparently contradictory beliefs, such as faith in both medicine and prayer.”
“We cannot merely pray to You, O God, to end war; For we know that You have made the world in a way That man must find his own path to peace Within himself and with his neighbor.”
“We cannot merely pray to You, O God, to end starvation; For you have already given us the resources With which to feed the entire world If we would only use them wisely.”
“We cannot merely pray to You, O God, To root out prejudice, For You have already given us eyes With which to see the good in all men If we would only use them rightly.”
“God, give water in the wilderness, and release streams in the desert. I sprinkle America with the blood of Jesus and pray that the leaders of the nation will be under that covering.”
“Lord, let the spirit of wisdom rest on the White House and Capitol. Protect our president and his family from sabotage, lies, conspiracies, terrorist attacks, enemy infiltrations, and assassination. Put Your angels around the first lady and the children. Let their personal affairs be covered by the blood of Jesus.”
“As the deception is removed, allow laws to be passed where our children will be taught of the Lord and our nation be filled with the glory of the Lord.”
“We repent for the sins of our forefathers and those of our present generation. Forgive us for every law that would build Babylonian strongholds in our midst through perversion and the bloodshed of the innocent. I bind the resurrection of ancient spirits”
“I pray that the leaders of this nation will submit their rule to the reign of Jesus Christ according to Daniel 7:14. I pray that the government and peace of Jesus Christ bring continual increase to our nation.”
“Let every president, magistrate, Senate member, member of Congress, council member, and all other governmental representatives be subject to that authority. Jesus is Lord over America!”
“Let everything under the covering of the blood be judged by it. I pray that Jesus will rule over my nation in righteousness and judgment and that the wicked will be rooted out of our land.”
“Let me tell you, True Believers: in the annals of Dominican piety there has never been prayer like this. The rosaries cabling through La Inca’s fingers like line flying through a doomed fisherman’s hands. And before you could say Holy! Holy! Holy! she was joined by a flock of women, young and old [...].”
“Then the screaming began. It came from the direction of the shrine, around which most of the houses clustered. It was like the sound of a dog howling in pain, except the dog could speak human words, scream them in agony. I though I recognized the prayers of the Hidden, and all the hair stood up on my neck and arms. Slipping like a ghost between the burning houses, I went towards the sound.”
“Her own future was close-folded still; but she leaned her head against the sun-warmed door, and closing her eyes, whispered, just as if she had been a child saying her prayers: ‘God bless aunt Miranda; God bless the brick house that was; God bless the brick house that is to be!‘”
“As the priest chanted the Latin prayers, whose meaning I barely understood, I knelt by his side and knew that God had taken away the one person I could claim as my own. But His will be done.”
“It’s true, I tell you. Your Mam will have to pray about this new one same as she prayed about you. ‘Please Lord,’ she’ll say, ‘have mercy, don’t make us live with this gruesome sight forever...‘”
″‘Jesus,’ I whisper finally, ‘which do you want me to do? Be one hundred percent honest and carry that dog back to Judd so that one of your creatures can be kicked and starved all over again, or keep him here and fatten him up to glorify your creation?‘”
“There’s some stuff I don’t understand about this accident—like why it happened and why Robbie had to die and why I didn’t die. Mama keeps huggin’ me, sayin’, ‘Praise the Lord’ and stuff like that. But what about Robbie’s mama? What is she saying?”
“I knew no one could help me. Not my teachers, my so-called brothers or even Father. I was on my own, and every night I prayed to God that I could be strong both in body and soul. In the darkness of the garage, I laid on the wooden cot and shivered until I fell into a restless sleep.”
“Just think of the number of prayers flying up to heaven, right at this very instant. Thousands. Hundreds of thousands. Hundreds of thousands from the Holy Sepulcher alone. And most of them for money, of course. It’s enough to make you despair.”
“But Inman thought all words had some issue, so he walked and said the spell, aiming it out against the world at large, all his enemies. He repeated it over and over to himself as some people, in fear or hope, will say a single prayer endlessly until it burns itself in their thoughts so that they can work or even carry on a conversation with it still running unimpeded...”
“Charlotte and Emily wore gloves and carried prayerbooks, as did everyone. They were meant to keep silence on their way.
‘It’s so that we can think holy thoughts for church, you see,’ Bunty explained. ‘Not that I ever seem to have any.‘”
“The household prayed for the duke, who so wanted an heir, and a few remembered to pray for the duchess, who had grown thin and frail even as her belly had grown round and wide.”
“Oh! Thank you, God, for a lovely day.
And what was the other I had to say?
I said “Bless Daddy,” so what can it be?
Oh! Now I remember. God bless Me.”
“Bernard always had a few prayers in the hall and some whiskey afterwards as he was rarther pious but Mr. Salteena was not very adicted to prayers so he marched up to bed.”
“I pray that our end may be in as good cause when it comes. For with the best of us the hour of death is an awful hour, and we may well pray, as every Sunday, to be delivered in it.”
“The being who is supremely good, hath vouchsafed to stretch out a father’s hand over you. You should lift up your hearts to him, and thank him without delay for the unexpected preservation of your lives.”
The prayer of your pride has been answered. The prayer of your repentance will be answered also. I worshipped you too much. I am punished for it. You worshipped yourself too much. We are both punished.”
Remember, dear boy, how in your childhood, when your father was living, you used to lisp your prayers at my knee, and how happy we all were in those days.