Forgetting to Pray for Someone Else

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SonofJoseph

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I have wondered for a while now, when I tell people I will pray for them, I do it with genuine intentionality. That is, I mean it. Yet I sometimes forget to pray for their intention.

I adon’t believe God ignores that intention I had though, and I find it consoling to think He considers all of what I intend to pray for (because i can’t possibly list everything). Of course, I don’t forgot every intention, but this does happen occasionally, and I feel bad for forgetting.

Any thoughts? Have you had similar experiences? I like to think in God’s infinite Divine Mercy He looks at our human weakness and hears the prayers we intended to offer for another soul.
 
No, Jesus smiles every time you listen to one of His little ones and says you will pray for them.

God is outside space and time, so whether you pray right away, or much later, or even just a “and for all those I promised to pray for,” it is heard nonetheless.

And, as we all sometimes get frustrated in prayer, remember God answers all prayers:
  • Yes or
  • No or
  • Not Yet
Your screen name is a lovely tribute to one of the Church’s greatest saints - the one who cared for both Jesus and Mary.

Joseph, Son of David, pray for us.

Deacon Christopher
 
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I have had similar experiences,

You could write their names down for later and try to make a habit out of it by praying for them next time you dedicate time to prayer (never worked for me much).

Or you could do what I do and pray for them in that very moment mentally, that God’s will be done and to keep them in His mind for whatever intention it may be.

And what Diaconia said is very good advice as well and I would add that the prayers of Mary and the Saints could be invoked in your place as well.
 
It’s hard for me to remember to pray for individuals.
When a priest asked me to pray for him, he also gave me a holy card. I tucked that card into the mirror of my dresser. I asked the Lord the accept that every time I looked at the holy to accept it as a prayer for him from me.
A woman once bought me a hat at JC Penny. I asked God to consider that each time I wore the hat a prayer for the gift she had given me.
Instead of remember the individual, I simply hand the person over to God, and ask that certain acts become a remembrance of that person. That act becomes a prayer for that person’s needs.
 
This happens to me all the time…old age, you know…. 😊

So what I actually do is, when I say I will pray for someone, right then and there, I look up and just say “Lord?”…meaning this soul needs You, please do what You gotta do. 🙂 Promise completed…and if I remember again later on, he/she gets and extra prayer. 😄 If not…the Lord already knows what He has to do with whatever it is that is bothering the other person. 😊 He has got it, and will take care of it.
 
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Quis_UtDeus said:
You could write their names down for later and try to make a habit out of it by praying for them next time you dedicate time to prayer (never worked for me much).

Or you could do what I do and pray for them in that very moment mentally, that God’s will be done and to keep them in His mind for whatever intention it may be.
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I tend to say a quick one in the moment. You could maybe add a for all I’ve promised to pray for to your daily prayers too.
 
I usually ask God to please include in my prayers anyone I said I’d pray for and forgot who they were. I tell God, “I know You remember even if my puny human mind doesnt.”
 
Quis_UtDeus said:
You could write their names down for later and try to make a habit out of it by praying for them next time you dedicate time to prayer (never worked for me much).
Click to expand...
I used to do this in analog fashion, in a little notebook. Then I switched to jotting notes on my iPhone. Easier, as I can enter the text or dictate it.

Tangentially, a few years ago, someone invented an app for iOS for Penance. Before going to Confession it guides you through an examination of conscience, and you can just check, “yep, did that,” and “oh that one I did four times.”

Then we you go to Confession, you can go through the list by name and number easily. When you leave the Confessional you just click a button and it wipes away everything you entered. Pretty cool . . . as long as no one hacks it! 🙂

Thank you for being so diligent in praying for others; it is a sign of a well-developed interior life.

I remain a sinner,
Deacon Christopher
 
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That’s actually very interesting, do you have the name of the app? It’d be pretty useful.

And I suppose this kind of feature might be available for prayer intentions?
 
Apparently it’s not available in the U.S. and I think it requires a payment. But thank you anyway! It sounds very interesting
 
I heard a priest say at a talk that he gave, that so many people asked him to pray for them. He admitted that he could not possibly remember all of the requests. He mentally imagined the Immaculate Heart of Mary as a large beautiful garden in Heaven. Whenever anyone asked him for prayers he would mentally place that person in the beautiful garden of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. He set time aside each day to pray for all those that he placed in the Immaculate Heart of Mary. I stole this from him as I am sure many others did as well.

The beatiful gardens of the Immaculate Heat of Mary must be very full of people being prayed for by many people daily.
 
Why not, we sin just as much as the next country!?

According to Saint Teresa of Calcutta, during her visit to the US, we are the poorest country because we embrace abortion so comprehensively.

There might be another one, I do recall looking at it a couple of years ago, maybe do some searching in the App Store.

Deacon Christopher
 
It may help to say your prayers at the same time every day and to have a special place or spot in your prayer routine where you pray for the sick or those in need and so forth. You might even make a place in the routine to pray for the dead (just a suggestion). Someone you know needs help every day and someone you know is still dead every day, so it’s something you can do every day and that creates a routine that is hard to miss. Just a suggestion of course.

All the best!
 
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