It's late at night and I'm surfing around Facebook checking my friends' statuses and playing a couple of simple games (and, yes, procrastinating on finishing some homework). Any of us who are regular Facebookers know all about those ads on the right side of the page. Some are weird, some are offensive, and some just happen to catch your eye. This one did all three, though not at first. It said simply "Pray in the Vatican" with a secondary caption claiming that you could have your prayer read in the Vatican. I'll leave the grammatical criticism out of this for the most part. :)
I click on the link and am taken to a website that looks fairly innocuous. http://www.delivermyprayer.com/ has some beautiful photographs of the Vatican that are nearly seductive in their charm and detail. It's when you get to the real heart of the website and figure out what is really going on that "seduction" becomes a very appropriate word.
According to their "About Us" page, this organization has based themselves in a very powerful location. "As the Pope's ceremonial center and burial place of Saint Peter, the principal of the twelve apostles, Saint Peter's Basilica lies on some of the most uniquely divine ground for prayer." Wait, did I read that right? Divine ground for prayer? That doesn't quite match with what the Bible says:
Matthew 6:6 "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." (KJV) or for those of us NIV-ers, "But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."
My closet, eh? My room, even? According to Jesus, who is speaking these words, the shoe-cluttered hardwood of my closet is preferable to this "divine ground." And what makes this Basilica so divine? Oh, yeah, that's right--it's a glorified graveyard. Gotcha.
But why is praying here, on this "divine ground," so much better? Let's turn back to the website. "We want to help you get your prayers heard by those who have the power to help. After you submit your prayer to us from anywhere in the world we hand deliver it to where the world has one of the closest bonds to the heavens." I'm sorry, but where did it say that I needed help getting my prayers heard? And why is praying near the graves of a few select "holy" men so much better? Praying isn't like talking on a cell phone--we don't get better reception if we're closer to a cell tower/dead saint. Nowhere that I can find in the Bible does it say that decaying matter increases the potency of prayer after Christ died for us. As far as St. Peter's Basilica being one of the closest bonds to the heavens (note their use of the plural "heavens" here...sound fishy to you, too?), that is a direct attack on the power of God. God is omnipresent. If He's everywhere, then stating that someplace has a better connection means that God is more powerful/accessible in some areas than others, that He's limited in your closet, your car, or anyplace outside of the Vatican. If my God is limited, then He's not (a) God, then is He?
The whole process of this prayer-reading is a little fuzzy, too. Say I buy into this (and I literally mean "buy"--for members it only costs 1.5 Euro per prayer; non-members pay 3 Euro per prayer. That's about $4 for Americans). Deliver My Prayer claims that "Your prayer is highly confidential and it means very much to us to keep your private thoughts strictly between you and the church." Well, it won't be confidential once you read it out loud, now will it? Oh, but they have that covered. "You may choose to have your prayer read aloud in the church or simply kept silent as our messengers emanate your communiqué to the sacred space." Ok, maybe this is a European thing, but how do you "emanate a communique?" Is this a reference to praying silently/in your head?
If you haven't picked up on this, I'm not impressed by this website, and not just because on one of their pages they commit the grievous grammatical error of claiming, once again, that the Basilica is "one of the holiest place on earth." If I believed the message of this website, that would mean that I, being saved, being the daughter of a King, a child of God, a member of the church, have a limited ability to talk to my God. If I pay these people their "minimum suggested donation," would my prayer be answered positively? What kind of guarantee would I get with a higher donation? When it comes right down to it, I'm buying my relationship with God. God becomes a prostitute, someone I invest in for what my current desire might be. I shudder at that thought.
I know a great deal of this conflict is probably arising from my Protestant roots (thank you, Pilgrims). I haven't grown up with the pressures of believing that only righteous dead people can talk to God for me, to have a relationship with no base in grace, forgiveness, or mercy. To my understanding, Catholicism is a commercialistic religion--you get what you pay for, and if you don't pay the bills, we take your eternal life away. Who would want that? Who could live like that? Apparently millions. And I don't understand them.
I hate to pass judgment on a people without having really researched, really understood what all is going on. I do want to find out more about this aspect of Christianity, not to follow it, but to understand those who do. All of my educational background, though, that teaches me critical thinking and to go back to the source for verification, tells me that there are some serious discrepancies between the Catholic faith and the Bible. That this Deliver My Prayer is what is being advertised, could color a non-believer's view of God, troubles me. It troubles me like a lot of these popular book series being sold in Wal-Mart and other superstores claiming a lot of things in their bestselling pages that aren't fully supported by scriptures. Going into those details is an entry for another day.
My challenge is this--let's think about how we are portraying what we believe and if, in our fallible human ways, have stumbled onto something not quite in line with the Bible. We're fighting a huge battle these days with Satan rearing up as he realizes his time is nearing the end. We can't afford pitfalls that will trap our unsaved neighbors, family members, friends, co-workers, and acquaintences. As the people with the light, it's our duty to illuminate the correct path.
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