A monk of New Clairvaux shares on his experience of Intercessory Prayer:
“About two or three times a week the brothers receive 2 typed pages of prayer request sent to us by our website contact form, e-mail or telephone. I always like to receive this packet and take it back to my cell to pray over. I’m grateful that people share with us their needs, troubles and aspirations; it makes me feel close to them. I feel that it is not just me praying for them, but that we are praying together WITH them for their intentions. I often ask some of my favorite saints to pray with us, so that we are all praying together for their intentions before the throne of Heaven.
Intercessory prayer is a part of our life as monks. Great confidence in the power of intercessory prayer is easy for those of us who know the secret of the Sacred Heart of Jesus: that it is so tender, so effusive, merciful and compassionate that it is incapable of refusing any request made in love. Some people will dispute that, saying that they have prayed hard for things that never materialized. With gentleness, I would reply that we on earth see things according to human limitations, not according to Divine sight or the providence of Divine Wisdom. I assure that every time we cry out we are heard, and that there is ALWAYS GRACE given to even the littlest prayer, even if it does not take the form we expect. Sometimes these graces will only be known in the next life. It is a great honor to be part of calling down these graces from Heaven for our brothers and sisters.”
Those who would like to share their intentions with the monks of New Clairvaux Abbey may visit their prayer request page at: https://www.newclairvaux.org/prayer-request