Where do you pray? (And a couple of prayer requests.)

Since stepping away for this sabbatical, my priority has been to take time each day to go somewhere and pray. My plan has been to pray in churches here. Churches are usually quiet places, but with all of the pilgrims walking through, sometimes they aren't so quiet.

Yesterday I decided to scout out a mountain trail I hope to hike with my family when they come next week. (Shelly and I ended up doing a few miles of it today.) It was raining yesterday, and so I found a completely dry spot underneath one of my favorite trees (Shelly and her friend Amy call them "creepy Italian trees), sat at its base, drew my knees to my chest and began to pray. Ahhh! Now that's more like it!

I don't have anything against grand Medieval churches, but that tree was the hands-down winner of all the chapels, basilicas and tombs I visited so far. God whispered through its tight branches and those of other trees nearby; and birds sang with such happy voices.

Then it dawned on me: This is where the great Saints prayed! The ones they celebrate here went to the mountains and out under sun and stars to pray. We travel around the world to step into "holy places," light candles and meet with God; and then I find a forest to be my favorite holy place.

At this point in my life, traveling around the world was a good idea. I needed to be free to seek God with all of my heart and strength for a while. But as I look to the time when I return home, it is good to know that a forest waits outside the doors and windows of our home. And God is there.

And these thoughts: Two days ago, one of my dear old (and I mean old--95!) friends came to mind. I was walking to a church, I thought of Jewell Carmichael. There was a twinge in my heart, and I wondered how she was. I prayed for her. I trusted her into God's hands.

Last night the word came that she has been sick, and passed away yesterday morning. Please pray for Jewell's wonderful family: Her two daughters and their families who loved "Gram" (as we have always called her) so very much. They may or may not build a basilica in her honor someday. But her place in Heaven is as joyous as any saint you've ever known.

Yesterday was also the sixth month anniversary of the passing of Marcus Shadrick, my nephew by marriage, but MY nephew none the less. So long as we're praying, would you remember his wife and children, mother and father, two brothers and sister and their families for the next few days. Your prayers may just lessen the pains they feel, and swell the joy that belongs in every memory of this wonderful man.

It will be dark in another hour or so. I'm going step away from the apartment for a few minutes, walk past a couple of churches, through an arch and outside of a medieval city wall. I'm going to look for a tree on the side of the mountain, and meet the MIghty One for a few.

Where do you pray?