Adding a prayer to the Chapel of Intentions is one way of participating in the Sacred Space community of prayer. Praying for those who add prayers is another important way of joining spiritually with those in need.
You can choose for your prayer to be published here in the Chapel of Intentions or kept solely for the Prayer List that is not put on the web but is printed and made available to our praying communities.
To indicate that you do not wish your prayer to appear on the web, please check the box, ‘Please do not publish my prayer.’
Please avoid mentioning people by identifiable names in your prayer submission – use initials instead.
Only a selection of prayers is published. Some prayers will be posted online, but none that are marked ‘Not for publication’ will appear on the website. All prayers will be included in the Prayer List that is printed out weekly and sent to our praying communities.
When writing a prayer please observe the following guidelines. Failure to do so may lead to the blocking of future attempts to submit requests.
- Please do not publish multiple copies of a prayer.
- Please do not use names of people in prayers. Instead you may refer to phrases like ‘my friend’, ‘a neighbour’. Prayers containing names of people will be rejected. This is important to respect the privacy of others. Instead of writing ‘Pray for John Ryan who is sick in Saint Michael’s Hospital’ you should write, ‘Pray for my friend, J., who is sick in hospital.’
- Offer only your initials or first name. Please do not use your full name.
- When you wish to add several prayers, it is better to use one form and make one submission.
- Please avoid using spaces between lines in prayers.
- For now, only prayers in English will be published in the Chapel of Intentions. Prayers in other languages will be deleted to prevent misuse of this facility.
- Prayers that abuse these guidelines will be deleted and their contributor may be blocked.
- It is necessary from time to time to restrict the number of prayers that can be added. It may be necessary to wait up to twelve hours between addition of prayers.
To enable the better administration of the Chapel of Intentions for those who wish to use it, prayers that ignore the above guidelines may be deleted immediately and the address submitting them may be consequently blocked. A message will indicate the reason for the rejection of a message.
Prayers are subject to moderation. Our Information Policy applies to information submitted to the Chapel of Intentions.
We will ensure that all prayers sent to the Chapel of Intentions are given attention. This means that prayers added here are not posted automatically but are read, collected and are added to our Prayer List. This list includes both prayers marked as ‘private’ and those which the writer allows to be published here. Prayers on the Prayer List are placed in the Chapel of the Sacred Heart Messenger, a Jesuit Publication with a 120-year tradition of remembering readers’ intentions at a weekly Friday Eucharist, and sent to contemplatives who include these intentions in their daily prayer.
Contemplative communities also undertake to intercede for all who ask for prayers. A compilation of prayers will be sent this week to:
- the Cistercian Sisters at Saint Mary’s Abbey, a convent in County Waterford, Ireland.
- the Sisters in the Discalced Carmelites Monastery, St Thomas, Auckland, New Zealand.
