Greg Bales

The Papal Prayer Machine

@OurPrayer, the prayer request handle for Guideposts magazine, offers a description of its service that could serve as a script for heaven’s own automated telephone response system: “Your prayer concerns are important to us,” OurPrayer.org says, “and that’s why each and every prayer request we receive is prayed for by a trained volunteer by name and by need.

Manseau surveys the strange intersection of private and commercial space represented by prayers on Twitter. It’s brief, but interesting; I expect much, much more could be written about media’s intercession in religious speech.

“The Papal Prayer Machine” by Peter Manseau for Religion Dispatches