Additional Columns by Sherry Antonetti: My Son Peter Meets the Pope Being Spiritually Awake for the Feast Why We Don't Always Get What We Want...And Shouldn't "Cheer, Cheer for Old Notre Dame!" Becoming a Great Story Learning to be Unafraid to Ask The Gift of Courage Coming Home to the Wide Open Door of the Father Loaves and Fishes To Do List for the Day, Every Day Delighting in the Unexpected Immediate Intimacy of Answered Prayers Celebrating the Song of Songs on Saint Valentine's Day Forty Lenten Resolutions

Prayer Spam

Everyone who has email has at some point received prayer spam. It can be Saint Francis or the Blessed Mother or the most popular in my inbox, Mother Theresa. It usually includes a tranquil picture or a beautiful story and begs you not to delete the email, as though touching the delete button were some form of heresy. It asks if you are afraid of God. It demands you prove that you are not ashamed of your faith life, by emailing six, ten or 12 friends. Resisting the urge to respond back, "I triple dog dare you to forward this email,"the letter loses me completely by asking if I've made a wish. Giving me one last chance to make a wish! Did I make a wish? Yes. I've made a wish.

I wish this email would come without the silly superstitions and subtle chain mail threats and that the person who sent this to me really just wanted me to pray with him or her this prayer. The prayer itself has far greater power than those who add the parts about making a wish or sending it on to twelve people to receive a gift from St. Theresa might be willing to admit or accept. By tacking on these two prerequisites to the prayer itself, the originator of this email has attempted to turn a lovely and profound Saint's words into the equivalent of "When you Wish Upon a Star" and God into the Blue Fairy in Pinnochio via spam.

Most of the time I read the prayer and hit delete and go on with all that life requires and I have yet to be cursed by the email fairy for failing to forward my daily allotment of spam. However, I conceed the emails make me stop to consider what St. Theresa's Prayer asks of us:

"May today there be peace within. May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith. May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content knowing you are a child of God. Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of us."

If we manage to do what this prayer asks of us with all our capacity for distraction, that is miracle enough. Personally, I can't read the words without slowing down. I can't read the words without trying to obey, even if only for a few minutes.

Sending back an email indicating I have read the prayer, I asked the prior sender to please pray for my family and hit delete. Today, and the next time you read this prayer in an email, I firmly ask you simply to pray it and forward it as you see fit to those who you think would love or need it. No promises of anything other than the graces that come from praying with a sincere open heart.

Amen.

 

Sherry Antonetti is a mother of eight children and a freelance writer of humor and family life columns with prior publications in Absolutewrite, the Catholic Standard, Beaumont Enterprise and the Washington Post. She can be reached at Smwbmpfjm@netzero.com. You can read additional pieces from her blog, http://sherryantonettiwrites.blogspot.com.