After 9.5 years of sharing people’s prayer intentions through this blog, the time has arrived to close this project, the monthly prayer list. Since the new year, I noticed waning support for the list. I loathe to give up on things, but my yearly retreat opened my heart to surrender this to God and be open for something new.

In November 2015, early in my second year of postulancy, I started the monthly prayer list so that people can request prayers and pray for others around the world. It forced me to look beyond the walls of the seminary. My prayers shouldn’t be only about passing a test and finishing a paper. (Funny how some intentions come around again.)

There were interruptions. From August 2016 to August 2017, I suspended the list as I entered fully into my novitiate toward my temporary vows. From October 2022 to July 2023, my busy schedule at St. Peter Chanel in Hawaiian Gardens, Calif., prevented me 8 times from posting prayer requests. But there wasn’t a backlog of intentions waiting for me when I restarted. 

Thank you for praying with me for everyone’s intentions.

Obviously, as an religious (Oblate) and a priest, I will always be praying. But any prayer requests I receive after May 2025 will be prayed in my daily Rosary and in the private intentions of my Mass. But I recommend people to submit their intentions to the Venerable Bruno Guild, a group formed to promote the cause of Venerable Pio Bruno Lanteri, founder of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary. I always pray for those intentions through the intercession of Venerable Bruno, who needs two miracles, one for beatification and another for canonization. In this time of anxiety, frustration and discouragement, we need the example of this 18th-century priest, whose words lifted hearts and minds.

Pray for one another. When the resurrection of the body happens, we will all know how our prayers helped others.