“Help” (01/31/2025)

We were gathered for a Confirmation class: candidates, sponsors, parents, and me. We were speaking about the need for prayer in our lives, in our days. I asked them if they’d like to me to teach them one of the easiest yet simplest prayers. They said, “Yes.” And I shared the prayer I know to be one of the most powerful: “Help.”

I must admit that they reacted the way I thought they would because I’ve shared this prayer often. The immediate reaction is, “Is that all?” The answer is, “Yes, it is enough, it is more than enough.” We have to set down the notion the prayers have to be sophisticated and well crafted. We have to recognize the essentials of prayers:

1. They are heartfelt, authentic, sincere;

2. They humbly recognize one’s need of the LORD, reliance on the LORD;

3. They demonstrate belief in the power and presence of the all-loving LORD.

The simple prayer - “Help” – does that. It does more actually. It admits that we realize we need the LORD. It doesn’t script how the LORD is to address our needs or mandate what the answers will look like. It humbly sets the need in the hands of the LORD with trust.

As in all matters of life, more isn’t always better, sometimes it is just more. And sometimes the “more” is an impediment to “good.” When we humbly bring our plea, “Help,” to the LORD we do so recognizing that the LORD knows all, He knows of what we speak, He knows what has us crying out in need, and He knows what will truly help the situation far better than we do. “Help” is a prayer only possible with trust in the LORD’s power and the LORD’s love.

We are blessed in the Christian tradition with hundreds of prayers, formula prayers, prayers from scripture like the Our Father and the Magnificat. And there is a real and vital place for them within each of our lives. But our relationship with our all-present and all-loving LORD also calls for spontaneity, like all relationships, and for specificity. “Help me, LORD” is specific and it is spontaneous.

I speak from experience. "Help" was my prayer when my husband and I lost our first child, it was my prayer when I learned of my cancer at age 25, it was my prayer when my grandson was dying. "Help" is my go-to prayer when I feel helpless, rudderless, raw. "Help" is what I cry out when I have no other words. "Help" is my most frequent prayer.

As we continue on our journeys of faith, buoyed by hope in our all-loving and ever-present LORD, and fueled by the LORD’s love for us and our love for the LORD and one another, let us be people of prayer. Let us use well the prayers of our tradition, but let us also be spontaneous, humbly so, and when appropriate, just cry out, “Help,” knowing the prayer is heard and will be answered.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.