How does offering up prayers for multiple people work?

[Walterross]

So I usually offer up a daily rosary and divine mercy chaplet, as well as my works and labors throughout the day for my family and friends who are either: catholic but don’t accept all church teachings, or are not catholic and I hope that they convert.

My question arises when I’m mentioning multiple people (I pray for my entire family and entire group of friends.) Now I’m tempted to say that God will use my one powerful rosary/ chaplet in its most powerful way for each individual that I prayed for. What I mean is that He will receive one rosary for each individual person. Or does it work more in a way of this: If I have 30 people that I’m praying for, each person gets 1/30th of a rosary or chaplet?

I like to think that God can use everything for its greatest potential, but I cannot fathom praying 30 rosaries a day, unless I was jobless or in the monastic life or something like that. Does anyone have any insight on this?

 

[MNathaniel]

I’m actually interested to hear responses on this one too, because I’m sometimes bothered by similar thinking and I’d love to hear a theologically precise (and pastorally considerate) explanation to bring me more peace.

E.g. in my case, when I’m doing an activity I plan to offer up (whether a rosary or something else), every time I name the first person I hope God will bless, my mind goes to another person, and another, and another (and this or that cause, etc). Because offering something up suddenly feels like an ‘opportunity’ to ask God to benefit others… and suddenly my brain doesn’t want to leave anybody out, and the list just keeps scrolling (and I have to consciously stop myself, because something just seems ‘off’ about it, even if I can’t explain precisely what it is. It seems like something most people wouldn’t do, though). Perhaps something compulsive there (but I believe I could stop doing it if I had a solid faith based reason to keep it to one or two intentions besides just, ‘Something seems off, here’). Anyway, it always hits me also that maybe I’m ‘diluting’ the power of my prayer, by asking for its benefits to be spread to so many people. Even though I intellectually think that seems like it’s probably fallacious and rooted in mechanistic/magical thinking, as if there’s some exact calculus associated with prayer, and it seems just as plausible that God can spread benefits around like candle flames (multiplying without diluting the first).

Anyway, I’m hoping you receive thoughtful answers to this question. Because I reckon they may help me, too.

 

[Anesti33]

The economy of grace is not subject to human mathematics. In order to understand the former, you must be willing to forget what you know about the latter.

 

[po18guy]

The parable of the mustard seed. The parable of a small bit of leaven leavening the entire loaf of bread. Saint Paul’s teaching that one plants the seeds, another waters, but God causes the growth.

It’s not so much about our prayer as it is about what God can do with our prayer. God works like that.

 

[Autumn-Smoke]

The Gospel of John beautifully records Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane where he collectively prayed for everyone who would ever come to know him. I think he knew that this prayer was powerful and effective for all time. God knows your heart, he hears your prayer, and he applies it to everyone.
Our prayers, too, are powerful.

 

[Vico]

So I usually offer up a daily rosary and divine mercy chaplet, as well as my works and labors throughout the day for my family and friends who are either: catholic but don’t accept all church teachings, or are not catholic and I hope that they convert.

My question arises when I’m mentioning multiple people (I pray for my entire family and entire group of friends.) Now I’m tempted to say that God will use my one powerful rosary/ chaplet in its most powerful way for each individual that I prayed for. What I mean is that He will receive one rosary for each individual person. Or does it work more in a way of this: If I have 30 people that I’m praying for, each person gets 1/30th of a rosary or chaplet?

I like to think that God can use everything for its greatest potential, but I cannot fathom praying 30 rosaries a day, unless I was jobless or in the monastic life or something like that. Does anyone have any insight on this?

Note that indulgences, as mentioned by @Tis_Bearself (in a later post) applies vicariously only to the dead.

Partial Indulgences amplify the help. See Saint Pope Paul VI, Indulgentiarum doctrina:

Since by their acts the faithful can obtain, in addition to the merit which is the principal fruit of the act, a further remission of temporal punishment in proportion to the degree to which the charity of the one performing the act is greater, and in proportion to the degree to which the act itself is performed in a more perfect way, it has been considered fitting that this remission of temporal punishment which the Christian faithful acquire through an action should serve as the measurement for the remission of punishment which the ecclesiastical authority bountifully adds by way of partial indulgence.

http://www.vatican.va/content/paul-...-vi_apc_01011967_indulgentiarum-doctrina.html

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I’m actually interested to hear responses on this one too, because I’m sometimes bothered by similar thinking and I’d love to hear a theologically precise (and pastorally considerate) explanation to bring me more peace.

This question actually seems to come up on the forums about every six months. And somebody always makes a comment just like yours.

I’m just going to repost the post I posted the last two times it came up.

Daily prayers read off paper, or one rosary for all of them? Poll Traditional Catholicism

People frequently ask how many intentions one Rosary can cover. If you search the forum you’ll see all the past threads. On the issue of “dilute intentions” generally, I posted about this a while ago and just going to link it here because it contains a Catholic Answers apologist explanation from Steve Ray that is no longer available online except on an anti-Catholic web site that of course I won’t link, so I rewrote Steve’s answer into the post instead.

 

[englands123]

When a Priest offers up his prayers for his whole parish, he doesn’t pray multiple times.

God already knows what he wants before he even asks.

The Lord knows what is etched on everyone’s heart. It’s just as important to give thanks as it is to ask from God.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Partial Indulgences amplify the help.

Partial indulgences can only help the person praying (walterross in this case) and any deceased person to whom he asks God to give the indulgence.

Partial indulgences cannot be used to “amplify the help” for a living person other than walterross. Therefore, if he’s praying for his living family and friends as he stated, they can’t get the benefit of any indulgence he earns.

It’s a moot point anyway because (as discussed in the answer I posted) God will “amplify the help” to cover all the intentions walterross is praying for on one rosary or whatever.

 

[Vico]

Vico:

Partial Indulgences amplify the help.

Partial indulgences can only help the person praying (walterross in this case) and any deceased person to whom he asks God to give the indulgence.

Partial indulgences cannot be used to “amplify the help” for a living person other than walterross. Therefore, if he’s praying for his living family and friends as he stated, they can’t get the benefit of any indulgence he earns.

It’s a moot point anyway because (as discussed in the answer I posted) God will “amplify the help” to cover all the intentions walterross is praying for on one rosary or whatever.

Thank you, I missed that because I did not read carefully. So in this case if seems to be prayer for conversions so that the Holy Trinity will give actual graces to help with that.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Yes, God has an endless supply of grace for all of our needs, especially when we’re asking for help for others. God wants us to pray for others, so it wouldn’t make sense for him to limit the number of people who could be helped by one prayer.

 

[PennyinCanada]

So I usually offer up a daily rosary and divine mercy chaplet, as well as my works and labors throughout the day for my family and friends who are either: catholic but don’t accept all church teachings, or are not catholic and I hope that they convert.

You are my hero!!
Little boy who offers his few loaves and fish and Jesus feeds the 5 thousand. That’s my story and yours.

 

[MNathaniel]

Thank you @Tis_Bearself, that is very helpful! And answers the ‘prayers diluted’? Portion of my thought process. And confirms my intellectual assessment that the probable answer was on the “prayers not diluted” side.

I apologize for imposing upon you, and feel free to decline if this is deviating from the thread too much, but do you know of a resource regarding the other half of my thought process? That is, the sense I sometimes feel that for some nebulous reason I can’t explain, I simply shouldn’t be adding so many people into a prayer request? I think I"m concerned that there might be something spiritually ‘off’ about it, in a similar vein to scrupulosity (which is something I think I have a tendency toward and therefore am extra careful to try to avoid).

I notice that other people tend to keep prayer intentions pretty focused and limited, whereas if I didn’t consciously stop myself, I almost wouldn’t stop offering intentions: petitionary prayer for all sorts of people who need it; offering up praise for all sorts of blessings God has already given; etc. Once I get started I don’t want to ‘leave anyone out’, and more and more people and causes jump to my mind and heart. I sort of have to arbitrarily stop myself, because offering for as many intentions as I’m inclined to do seems potentially unreasonable and at least out of touch with what most other Catholics do (which inclines me to be suspicious of my own tendency, and wonder if this is a known spiritual ‘tic’ to be avoided, like scrupulosity).

If you find my question relevant, could you possibly share thoughts or a known resource/link about this other side of the coin?

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Other people likely don’t mention all their prayer intentions out loud or write them all in a thread or chat box. If I wrote all my prayer intentions here it would be monopolizing the Prayer Intentions forum and also taking up a lot of my time. I try to keep it focused when it’s a group prayer just out of efficiency and courtesy - other people have prayer intentions they would like to add too.

For my private prayers I got so bogged down trying to remember to mention every intention that I finally made an Excel spreadsheet with multiple pages for “world”, “USA”, “myself”, “others”, “the Church”, and I just write the intentions in there and then when it’s time to pray I can say “for everything in my spreadsheet”. Others on here have mentioned doing that with a notebook or a piece of paper they keep in their missal, etc.

Finally, yes I think it can be scrupulous to feel you have to mention every person by name. Like what if I want to pray for a whole country? And then what about its neighbor countries that also need help? The mind boggles at some point. We would do well to remember that God knows our heart and keep it simple, like Mother Teresa, or like myself when I was a preschooler and my mom would “hear my prayers” and expect me to say things like “God bless Mommy and Daddy and Aunt Susie and my friend Sandy” etc. and instead I would say after my Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be, “God, please take care of everybody” and hop into bed. I figured that was a good way to cover all the bases.

 

[MNathaniel]

We would do well to remember that God knows our heart and keep it simple, like Mother Teresa, or like myself when I was a preschooler and my mom would “hear my prayers” and expect me to say things like “God bless Mommy and Daddy and Aunt Susie and my friend Sandy” etc. and instead I would say after my Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be, “God, please take care of everybody” and hop into bed. I figured that was a good way to cover all the bases.

Haha, I like this.

PS yes, just to clarify, I already do try keep it focused in group prayer out of courtesy, and I’ve never actually used the ‘Prayer Intentions’ thread here, nor listed intentions out in detail anywhere online, I don’t think. I was more wondering if there was anything ‘spiritually pathological’, as it were, about the number of discrete intentions I sometimes list when I’m alone, during private prayer.

For my private prayers I got so bogged down trying to remember to mention every intention that I finally made an Excel spreadsheet with multiple pages for “world”, “USA”, “myself”, “others”, “the Church”, and I just write the intentions in there and then when it’s time to pray I can say “for everything in my spreadsheet”. Others on here have mentioned doing that with a notebook or a piece of paper they keep in their missal, etc.

I really like this suggestion. I think I’ll start doing this. Because like you said, at a certain point, the mind boggles. And we’re not yet in Heaven where God can enable us to pray for everyone individually, at once. I like the idea of something concrete like a written down notebook of prayer intentions, to keep it ‘simple’, as you said, by referring back to it at the time of offering something up or praying.

Thanks again for your thoughtful replies!

 

[Irishmom2]

I don’t believe that God is some kind of bean counter somewhere keeping track of how many rosaries we pray or whether we missed a Hail Mary, or forgot to mention when praying, someone we thought about earlier in the day that needs prayers. He is not standing by with a tally of our prayers saying “Oops! Looks like Irishmom won’t get that intention she is praying for because she forgot to mention it while praying for others! Better luck next time!”

I do have a little notebook I write down people’s names or intentions in. During the prayers of the faithful at mass, I hold it between my hands , and when the priest says we pray “for those prayers in the silence of our heart” I hold it in my open palms for a few seconds as if to offer all included inmy book at that moment. It’s just my little thing, but it makes me feel better.

 

[TheLittleLady]

Lord, I pray for all of my family, for all of my godchildren, for all of my fellow parishioners, for my city, for the nation and it’s leaders, I pray for the whole world, that we may all be drawn together. Amen