The prayers of the saints

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Priesthood Session of the October 1978 Conference.

I was listening to President Monson's funeral last week and I was impressed by something his daughter, Sister Dibb, said in her talk. It was a very quick statement before the real substance of her talk, as she thanked some of the people who had cared for President Monson over the years. Then she said:

Finally I would like to thank you, the membership of the church. Your fifty-four years of daily prayers, offered as my father served as an apostle and then as the president of the church, have made a difference.

 That was it. She didn't elaborate on how those prayers made a difference, or how she knew that they did. She just said they did. Fifty-four years of prayers for President Monson! I was imagining those prayers piling up over the years until they made a huge mountain of blessings for President Monson and his wife to lean on whenever they needed help.

And I guess I liked that because it felt personal to me. I never met President Monson. I didn't get to serve with him. Over the years I grew to love him so much, but he never knew anything about ME! Still, when Sister Dibb thanked the members for their prayers, I suddenly felt like I was part of his life—because I DID pray for President Monson. Not every day, but on hundreds of days. Mostly it was a routine part of my prayer, but I often felt more intensity in my love for him right before and after General Conference. There was one morning a few years ago I felt a strong and specific impression to pray for President Monson right then. It was unexpected, but I did it, and then I spent the next few days wondering what was going on with him. I kept thinking I'd hear that he was in the hospital or something, but I never did hear anything, so I still don't know why. Anyway—the point is, of those "fifty-four years of daily prayers," some of them—lots of them—were mine. I was one of the people who (I hope) added to his mountain of blessings! And according to Sister Dibb, those prayers, my prayers, "made a difference" in the life of a prophet.

That made me wonder again about the collective power of prayer. I know it's not as simple as "the more people praying, the more power a prayer has!"—because surely many powerful prayers are prayed alone. And individual faith obviously plays an important role. But there is something important about praying for each other, and joining together in prayer. And I wish I knew more about what it was!

President Kimball, in his talk in the October 1978 Priesthood Session, reinforced this idea. I was struck by the plain appeal in his words as he asked the church to pray that the chance for missionary work would spread into every country:

If we are to fulfill the responsibility given to us by the Lord on the Mount of Olives to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, then we will need to open the doors to these nations. 

I'm hoping that every [person] listening to me this night will make it a solemn practice in regular life to pray constantly for this great blessing to bless the brethren who are making a special effort to reach the leaders of these nations and to convince them that we have only good for their people. We will make them good citizens, we will make them good souls, and we will make them happy and joyous.… 

I hope that…the father and the mother and the children in their turns will offer prayers which will be centered around this very important element—that the doors of the nations might be opened to us…

In China we have nine-hundred million people. Yesterday about fifty Chinese Saints came in to see me.…I asked all of those Chinese people who were here at conference, “Will you guarantee that in all your home evenings and in all your family prayers and in all your public prayers you will mention this to the Lord? Now, I know he can do it without our help; but I think he would want to know that we were interested in it and that we would appreciate it greatly.” 

So I’m hoping that, beginning now, the prayers of the Saints will be greatly increased from what they have been in the past, that we will never think of praying except we pray for the Lord to establish his program and make it possible that we can carry the gospel to his people as he has commanded. It is my deep interest and great prayer to you that this will be accomplished.

President Kimball sounds so humble and hopeful as he as makes this request for help. It almost feels to me like he was struggling under a great burden related to missionary work—wondering how he could fulfill his responsibility for such a huge task. And then he realized that his fellowservants in the church could share the responsibility, so he asked them to pray with him to that end.

And I think it worked! Though this talk was given before I was born, I remember my parents praying for this blessing, in almost these very words. I remember it being prayed in church, and I remember praying it myself, not knowing it had been specifically asked for by a prophet. It seems so powerful to me, now looking back, to think of the church being united in praying that faithful prayer, and doing it at the prophet's specific request. The prophet was "interested" in missionary work, deeply so! And once he shared his request with the members of the church, they became interested too! Spreading the gospel through the world became their common goal. And they showed the Lord what mattered to them through their prayers.

As I've been thinking of how happy I felt to think that my prayers had been part, even the tiniest of parts, of blessing President Monson and his family over the years, it makes me want to look for more chances to pray with other people in a common cause. Even knowing that one other person is joining with me in prayer for something makes me feel happy inside, adding kind of a quiet assurance or a feeling of fellowship as I pray. I feel grateful for both that other person and for our common goal. It's slightly different than the feeling of just praying for something on my own, and I like it.

I still don't know exactly what purpose prayer serves. I don't know if or how it changes what God would have willed anyway. But I do know that the more earnest my prayers become, the more they bring a feeling of comfort to me. And I know that when I join myself to other people in prayer—whether by praying for someone by name and with specific thoughts of that person in mind—or by asking a friend to pray with me about something for which we have a common hope—or by praying for something or someone I know that many other Latter-day Saints will be praying for too—I feel closer both to God and to the rest of His children. And that is a feeling I love to have.

P.S. Speaking of prayer—at President Monson's funeral, Elder Holland gave the closing prayer, and it was amazing! It wasn't long, but it was like one of his talks—powerful and motivating. It is a perfect example of how spiritual and uniting a collective prayer can feel. I almost wanted to shout my "amen" afterwards. You should listen to it (and the rest of the funeral too)!


Other posts in this series:

• To Fully Live the Gospel by Jan Tolman