Hi Boomer Friends, with the passing of the Pope, I am remembering what I learned in Catholic school, including prayers. In the opening chapter of “Beyond the Tears” I am repeating the Lord’s Prayer during a suicide attempt. The irony is that I had a difficult time as a child accepting God as the Father, because “father” provoked feelings of fear in me. Yet, as I approached death, I prayed to the Father. Indeed, I was rescued. During my darkest days of depression, I would repeat the Lord’s Prayer as if I was a cloistered nun! Even if I couldn’t connect with each word, the rhythm soothed my spirit. My grandmother, who is 98, was near death with pneumonia last summer. After a stay in the hospital, she was to enter a nursing home/rehab for follow-up care. The day before she was to enter the nursing home, she was so scared I thought she would will herself to die rather than go to rehab. I was in her kitchen, and I overheard her murmuring in her bed. She was murmuring in Italian, her native language. When I got closer, I recognized the rhythm of the murmuring as The Lord’s Prayer. So, I asked, “Grandma, do you want me to pray with you?” Of course she said yes. We held hands and said The Lord’s Prayer aloud. Last week, I was with my mother, helping her to arrange her final affairs. She said that at her funeral service, she wants the Lord’s Prayer recited. I pray in less formal ways now (a simple “thank you” will do) but the ritual of official prayer still resonates with me. How about you? How has prayer affected your daily life, or crisis situations?