In her writing, “The Listening God,” Sr. Miriam Pollard says that praying for the world is like slipping into its bloodstream and knowing that the blood is Christ’s. “It’s letting go and believing that these moments of presence to its hurts and disabilities, to its beauty and accomplishments, are healing moments. They give life because he does, and his prayer is what I’m bringing into bruised and infected places. Prayer for the world means not letting your vision be cramped by what you determine is there to be seen. Prayer for the world means hope. We must let go of our refusal to believe in what we cannot see. Prayer is an act of confidence, a cutting free from our anger at a world that does not re-style itself to our satisfaction. This great thing I can do; this is my privilege and joy. I lean into the prayer of Christ, into his offering. I run into it after the fashion of young children into the sea. It carries me. It carries the world.” Fr. Billy Swan notes that Jesus has gone before us on this path of intercessory prayer by offering himself as priest, victim, and sacrifice. Sharing His priesthood means opening up our personal lives, social lives, and indeed the life of the world to the transforming power of his divine love. We offer our prayers for humanity, with Jesus, to the Father, but we receive back from God the purifying and renewing power of the Spirit that restores a sick world to health.