Sending prayers back in time

[PrayRosary]

So, today I was thinking about something. I was watching a documentary about this man who grew up in a juvenile detention facility in like the 1930’s. While there, he and other children were physically abused by the staff. I felt the urge to say a quick Hail Mary for them, but I hesitated since the abuse happened so long ago and he has since died. So here is my topic…

Since God is outside of time and space, He knows and takes into consideration all of the prayers offered to someone even after they have passed on (like praying for someone who might be in Purgatory).

If this is true, then I want to pray for the alleviation of the suffering and an increase in grace for the children who were in that facility so long ago. But I want my prayers to help them while they were still alive. In a sense,I want to send prayers back into time. And if this is allowed, it boggles my mind how my prayers today could have helped provide spiritual strength for a suffering child so long ago. Please bear in mind that I am not talking about praying for the soul of someone who has died, but, rather, praying to alleviate the suffering of a person while they were still alive. (I keep reiterating this because I am going to have ten people tell me to pray for his eternal soul, but that is not what I am talking about).

Anybody else thought about this? That means the prayers of my grandchildren who are hopefully a long way off can help me with my problems today. Crazy huh…

 

[Evania]

I personally believe God can and does do that. He exists outside of time so I don’t see why not.

 

[Daizies]

Intriguing thought.

 

[JoelEatMilo]

If I am not mistaken, there is a theory like ‘sending prayers back in time’… The staff that had died 70 years ago might enter heaven 50 years ago because of your Hail Mary TODAY… So do not hesitate to pray…! Please correct me if I am wrong…

 

[waterbrook]

I do this at times for the very same reason. There can’t be anything harmful about this that I can see. Who knows what difference future prayers may be making to us now. However, we are definitely grounded in a specific time and place, so it would be good to extend those prayers to those in similar situations in the present. Just my opinion as it stands today.

 

[ZRaffles]

I am sorry, but how can your talking/thinking help suffering children decades ago?

i do not understand… can you elaborate on how this works please?

 

[Auntie_A]

There may never be a way of KNOWING or PROVING that your prayers sent backwards made a difference, but I still believe it and do this. I like your thinking: if we can pray forward why not backward?

I always believe that my great great aunties’ prayers and sacrifices in the 19th and 20th century have upheld my siblings and their children in the 21st. I should remember more to pray for them in reverse. It is important not to play God in our praying but someone like Padre Pio would surely understand what you are describing.

 

[kentcara2003]

So, today I was thinking about something. I was watching a documentary about this man who grew up in a juvenile detention facility in like the 1930’s. While there, he and other children were physically abused by the staff. I felt the urge to say a quick Hail Mary for them, but I hesitated since the abuse happened so long ago and he has since died. So here is my topic…

Since God is outside of time and space, He knows and takes into consideration all of the prayers offered to someone even after they have passed on (like praying for someone who might be in Purgatory).

If this is true, then I want to pray for the alleviation of the suffering and an increase in grace for the children who were in that facility so long ago. But I want my prayers to help them while they were still alive. In a sense,I want to send prayers back into time. And if this is allowed, it boggles my mind how my prayers today could have helped provide spiritual strength for a suffering child so long ago. Please bear in mind that I am not talking about praying for the soul of someone who has died, but, rather, praying to alleviate the suffering of a person while they were still alive. (I keep reiterating this because I am going to have ten people tell me to pray for his eternal soul, but that is not what I am talking about).

Anybody else thought about this? That means the prayers of my grandchildren who are hopefully a long way off can help me with my problems today. Crazy huh…

Dear PrayRosary

This intriguing principle is THE EXPLANATION OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION!!

The future merits of Christ’s Passion is granted to Our Blessed Mother in preserving her from original sin! A future event like the Passion aka the graces you are praying for is applied to the past ie to our Blessed Mother and aka to the children who have suffered abused. Following the principle, your prayers will and can have a wonderful effect in obtaining someone in the past the grace to overcome their subsequent hurdles in life and to grow in the love of God!! The link being, our God, who is outside time, is able to do so in his Infinite Mercy and Power.!!

See the connection?

In my prayers too I kinda of employ this principle…see if you can relate…to this prayer…

Heavenly Father, I most humble ask through the infinite merits of Christ your Son and Our Blessed Mother, together with the merits of all the trillions of angels and saints in Heaven, the just on earth and souls in Purgatory, for the grace of conversion and holiness for all who read any holy literature (hint…the grace of conversion of St Ignatius of Loyola) in the past, the present and the future, to the greater glory of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. May all of us, the Body of Christ, share the merits of their conversion and subsequent good works. We make this prayer in great trust and confidence, not in ourselves, but in the knowledge of your Infinite Love and Generosity, so unfathomably displayed in the Passion and Death of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

That is why we can pray for the past (that grace be given to those affected in any way by any trying tribulation in the past…we dont pray that the Holocaust didnt happen or the the atomic bom didnt fall on Hiroshima, but rather for a greater good and grace for all who are affected.).

For these kind of prayers to have great unction and power before God, we need ourselves to grow in holiness and therefore I would urge you to go to Mass more often than just once a week (this insight, I believe, is a wonderful remote call of Our Lord to you personally to make that effort to grow in holiness through His sacraments!)…IF YOU ARE NOT ALREADY A FREQUENT COMMUNICANT!

Hope this helps.

God bless.
Kentcara2003(SSCC 3rd Order)

 

[ratsaj]

If you want to make the most powerful use of your prayer to the Most High-other than at Mass but also at Mass then do this.Beyond the the boundaries of time and space in the here and now yet in eternity visualize and unite yourself with the conflagrated heart of the Blessed Mother when she is most vulnerable to your most heartfelt desparate petition. The times to most access Our Lady are when she has just given birth to her son and Lord God Jesus Christ nursing him at her breast and fulfilling the first part of her diverse mission.The second time is when at the foot of the cross with her hands bloodied from his life she returns him graciously to the Eternal Father united with her own martyrdom.Our Lady can refuse you nothing when approached at these most memorable and significant time not only in her life but in creation.This is prayer in the eternal.Beyond time and space just as the Sacrifice of Holy Mass.

 

[karoleck]

So, today I was thinking about something. I was watching a documentary about this man who grew up in a juvenile detention facility in like the 1930’s. While there, he and other children were physically abused by the staff. I felt the urge to say a quick Hail Mary for them, but I hesitated since the abuse happened so long ago and he has since died. So here is my topic…

Since God is outside of time and space, He knows and takes into consideration all of the prayers offered to someone even after they have passed on (like praying for someone who might be in Purgatory).

If this is true, then I want to pray for the alleviation of the suffering and an increase in grace for the children who were in that facility so long ago. But I want my prayers to help them while they were still alive. In a sense,I want to send prayers back into time. And if this is allowed, it boggles my mind how my prayers today could have helped provide spiritual strength for a suffering child so long ago. Please bear in mind that I am not talking about praying for the soul of someone who has died, but, rather, praying to alleviate the suffering of a person while they were still alive. (I keep reiterating this because I am going to have ten people tell me to pray for his eternal soul, but that is not what I am talking about).

Anybody else thought about this? That means the prayers of my grandchildren who are hopefully a long way off can help me with my problems today. Crazy huh…

I think that what you propose ,goes against the rules of human logic and common sense.This is what can come from a generation exposed to futuristic science fiction moves.Maybe even “back to the future” type of senarios, that we are flooded with on our T.V’s and videos.

The first reason is, that even God cannot undo the past, as far as time goes.God is God but all humans live out in a specific time frame and each one of us has to work out our salvation,here and now.

It would be like proposing that The God The Son,The Word Incarnate(subject to time & space in His humanity)the greatest of intercessors before God His Father could have prevented all the sins committed(and the sufferings) by The Old Testament characters; by sending His hard won graces through the passion,death & resurrection “back into time” to use your own words.

I remember a show once where this young boy was telling his family that he was thinking of eternity and was getting a headache!So try not to “boggle your mind” because thinking the way you do, might end up even blowing it!
I am not trying to attack you or to hurt your feelings; but I do hope that you can see that your proposed idea lacks the logic of reality.

As St.Paul suggests “forget the past”–“the future is not a certain fact” so his advise is to “live in the present situation” ,because that is all that we humans living now possess.But by all means keep up your prayers,especially to our Lady. Our Lady,Prayer for us NOW and at the **hour **of our death.Amen (these are our only certainties in life)

 

[colmywaykurtz]

I think it truly happens. God, at the time of the events in question, experiences future as well as past and present. He knows the prayers of all in past, present, and future.

 

[karoleck]

Dear PrayRosary

This intriguing principle is THE EXPLANATION OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION!!

The future merits of Christ’s Passion is granted to Our Blessed Mother in preserving her from original sin! A future event like the Passion aka the graces you are praying for is applied to the past ie to our Blessed Mother and aka to the children who have suffered abused. Following the principle, your prayers will and can have a wonderful effect in obtaining someone in the past the grace to overcome their subsequent hurdles in life and to grow in the love of God!! The link being, our God, who is outside time, is able to do so in his Infinite Mercy and Power.!!

See the connection?

In my prayers too I kinda of employ this principle…see if you can relate…to this prayer…

Heavenly Father, I most humble ask through the infinite merits of Christ your Son and Our Blessed Mother, together with the merits of all the trillions of angels and saints in Heaven, the just on earth and souls in Purgatory, for the grace of conversion and holiness for all who read any holy literature (hint…the grace of conversion of St Ignatius of Loyola) in the past, the present and the future, to the greater glory of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. May all of us, the Body of Christ, share the merits of their conversion and subsequent good works. We make this prayer in great trust and confidence, not in ourselves, but in the knowledge of your Infinite Love and Generosity, so unfathomably displayed in the Passion and Death of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

That is why we can pray for the past (that grace be given to those affected in any way by any trying tribulation in the past…we dont pray that the Holocaust didnt happen or the the atomic bom didnt fall on Hiroshima, but rather for a greater good and grace for all who are affected.).

For these kind of prayers to have great unction and power before God, we need ourselves to grow in holiness and therefore I would urge you to go to Mass more often than just once a week (this insight, I believe, is a wonderful remote call of Our Lord to you personally to make that effort to grow in holiness through His sacraments!)…IF YOU ARE NOT ALREADY A FREQUENT COMMUNICANT!

Hope this helps.

God bless.
Kentcara2003(SSCC 3rd Order)

I guess it depends on how you explain the theology of The Immaculate Conception.I was always taught that Our Lady was conceived free from original sin by Gods’ pre-vision.God saw into the future and applied the future salvation merits of Jesus His Son to Our Lady,His Blessed Mother.

God had originally had created man (Adam) free from sin.Adam & Eve sinned because of The Evil One called Satan.God then drove them out of Paradise but He then promised mankind a “way back”–hence what we know as Salvation History as written in the Bible.However our salvation history is a forward story that had a start in genesis,then God forming his chosen people,The Hebrew Race,the Word Made Flesh and now the ongoing Revelation of God’s Word through His Church.So God has shown us a logical sequence of events and The Holy Spirit acts in the same way.Our Lady,like Jesus Her Divine son also followed the same forward principle, as Jesus as a boy “grew in wisdom” in His Humanity.

I know that you know all this, but the reason I have restated our salvation history is that I believe that you cannot bend or twist the fact of The Immaculate Conception to fit the posters’ erronious thought process of preventing or the mitigation of the past generations’ sufferings .I get the kindness and generous emotional nature of “PrayRosary” but this should not be transfered to a bad theological hypothesis.

That is why The Church does teach about The Church Suffering–those souls in the past, who’s sufferings as described by "PrayRosary"may not have been enough for them to be admitted straight into Heaven.Hence we can pray for them now,but this is NOT the discussion that the poster wants to hear apparently.

 

[karoleck]

I think it truly happens. God, at the time of the events in question, experiences future as well as past and present. He knows the prayers of all in past, present, and future.

Can you kindly describe how “IT” happens? Maybe you can share ONE story in the lives of christian saints an example where their prayers stopped a suffering in the past, as “PrayRosary” describes.I have read literally hundreds of the lives of the saints or even in approved revelations and I have never,ever come across such an event.So please share with me here how “IT” happens,please.

I am not desputing the power of prayer,of course God in His Providential Wisdom can apply His Graces,through the intercession of Jesus.Our prayers do have eternal value but that is not the point of this thread “PrayRosary” wants to turn back the passage of time–sorry not possible—even for God.

To quote original thread “if this is true, then I want to pray for the alleviation of the suffering and an increase in grace for the children who were in that facility** so long ago**. But I want my prayers to help them while they were still alive.”—too late I say!

As for the rest you are just stating the Catholic tenants of belief ,such as God is all Knowing,all Wise,All Just etc!

 

[Daizies]

The first reason is, that even God cannot undo the past, as far as time goes.God is God but all humans live out in a specific time frame and each one of us has to work out our salvation,here and now.

As far as I get what PrayRosary was suggesting, it is not that our Prayers change the past, but rather that the past has already been changed by God’s foreknowledge of our present, and applying those prayers to the past as the events are occurring.

 

[PrayRosary]

As far as I get what PrayRosary was suggesting, it is not that our Prayers change the past, but rather that the past has already been changed by God’s foreknowledge of our present, and applying those prayers to the past as the events are occurring.

This is exactly what I was trying to say! I am sorry I wasn’t clearer, thank you for clarifying it for me.

Thank you all for your responses, some of them took a lot of time to write and I they are quite beautiful. I appreciate it.

I just wanted to share my thoughts to create conversation about prayer. I am not saying I am correct, I just wanted to talk about it. That’s why we are all here right?

To the guy who has a problem with my post, I am just sharing some thoughts that I had. I am not trying to challenge theological doctrine. I respectfully disagree with you as you seem to be placing a lot of your own restraints on God. You are demanding proof when you cannot provide any either. My only proof is that God lives outside time and space and thus hears all prayers across time. If I can pray for generations of the future, then I can also pray for generations of the past.

Again, I am not trying to change the past, I just want to help spiritually ENCOURAGE them as they are going through their ordeals.

 

[Brigid34]

If I am not mistaken, there is a theory like ‘sending prayers back in time’… The staff that had died 70 years ago might enter heaven 50 years ago because of your Hail Mary TODAY… So do not hesitate to pray…! Please correct me if I am wrong…

 

[Honour]

I absolutely LOVE this thread…OP, what a wonderful and intriguing idea. It reminded me of something that I read and absolutely love that I think goes perfectly with this idea.

Peter Kreeft in “The Lord’s Prayer”

Because of the mystery of solidarity in the Body, all prayers * echo*. My prayers will have effects on my great-grandchildren, on strangers I have never met, on the most abandoned soul in Purgatory. My prayers, ascending like mist today, will descend like rain at another time and place, wherever God directs it, where thirsty soil needs it. My prayers can help feed souls far removed from me in space and time, just as truly as my work or my money can help feed bodies. Spiritual transportation systems are as real as physical ones, for the spiritual universe is as real as the physical universe, and just as unified;and its gravity is as strong as physical gravity. It is called love.

 

[PrayRosary]

I absolutely LOVE this thread…OP, what a wonderful and intriguing idea. It reminded me of something that I read and absolutely love that I think goes perfectly with this idea.

Peter Kreeft in “The Lord’s Prayer”

That is an awesome prayer! Thank you for sharing. Sounds like Peter Kreeft had this thought long before I did! I wish I could write as eloquently as he.

 

[Honour]

Sounds like Peter Kreeft had this thought long before I did! I wish I could write as eloquently as he.

Well, he never mentioned “backwards” specifically and I never would have thought about it unless I read your post. Thanks again.

 

[karoleck]

This is exactly what I was trying to say! I am sorry I wasn’t clearer, thank you for clarifying it for me.

Thank you all for your responses, some of them took a lot of time to write and I they are quite beautiful. I appreciate it.

I just wanted to share my thoughts to create conversation about prayer. I am not saying I am correct, I just wanted to talk about it. That’s why we are all here right?

To the guy who has a problem with my post, I am just sharing some thoughts that I had. I am not trying to challenge theological doctrine. I respectfully disagree with you as you seem to be placing a lot of your own restraints on God. You are demanding proof when you cannot provide any either. My only proof is that God lives outside time and space and thus hears all prayers across time. If I can pray for generations of the future, then I can also pray for generations of the past.

Again, I am not trying to change the past, I just want to help spiritually ENCOURAGE them as they are going through their ordeals.

“I just want to help spiritually ENCOURAGE them as they are going through their ordeals”(your last line)

How? Encourage is in the present tense,they are in the past!

I do not have a problem at all with your posts,just with your concept.I can only repond to what you wrote; but not on what I thought that you meant to write! Believe it or not,I did understand your introductory thread.May I remind you,you first proposed the setting and then were quite specific in your example(which I quoted)Even your title of “Sending prayers back in time” gives a clear description of your proposal,even without your example.

You did say in your first post, that you were going to say a prayer for the abused persons who were already long deceased,but you hesitated.Perhaps you were correct in that at least? (my own catholic automatic respose would be to pray for their souls should they be in Purgatory–I know you do not like my response within the context of your thread wishes)

I read The Word Among Us and this morning I came across this quote in The Meditations and it said.

"This story tells us how important it is that we take our thought captive and make sure they line up with the truths of faith as we know them.Sometimes it takes a serious amount of effort to do that,but we will be blessed if we persevere.If we can get into the habit of measuring our thoughts,ideas,and emotions against what we know to be true about God,we will find ourselves more peaceful,more trusting,and more confident in his love and power"Feb 14th…Tuesday 2012 Page 34 The Word Among Us (a great publication I believe)

The above quotation applies here very well, to the question of “Is sending prayers back in time” in keeping with the sound christian spiritality"?I believe it is not and I specifically asked to be provided evidence from all the saints writings and or the church teachings, to back up your claims that it is a desirable exercise-- to “Sending prayers back in time.”

With due respect, I did not ask the question which you have put on me.I neither have put forward a proposition of a restricting concept of The All Powerful,All Wise,All Knowing,All Judging God.

Now, if through invincible ignorance, let us say that after watching that documentary,you did say a Rosary and offered it up to those abused people (that are long dead and past) Will your prayers have been wasted?Of course not,no prayers said with a right disposition are ever lost.God can apply those praises & prayers as He Wills.Maybe, he might apply them to some person who is being abused at this very minute!

Which brings me to this point,after you watch such a documentary or a history book,when your heart is moved to pray for these people ,long gone from the cares & sufferings of the world; why not then say that rosary, for the thousands of abuse victims who are suffering at the present moment?Have you,I wonder, run out of present needs and intentions to focus on “Sending prayers back in time”?

Of course you do not necessarily want to be right, but to know the truth of a matter.The way St Thomas came to his conclusions, was to way up both sides of an arguement,for or against.He then came to a logical conclusion that was in keeping with The Churches’ Teachings on any matter.I know you are probably not used to person opposing your ideas,so I do hope that you do not take my opinions (which oppose your ideas) personally or to heart.I think that you have a very generous spiritual largeness that perhaps needs to be channelled in the right direction.

I normally do not enter into a Thread such as yours, as it belongs to Speculative Theology; but when I read some of the posts ,it seemed like a pooling of ignorance,pious thoughts —but lacking a sound spiritual basis.