ERIN ANDERSEN/Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Friday, April 15, 2005 7:00 pm
Please pray for Daddy and all the other sick people in the hospital.
A child's scrawl fills a yellow card folded and tucked into a crevice between wood panels lining the sitting area outside of the critical care wing at Saint Elizabeth Medical Center.
Up and down the wall, other cards yellow or blue poke out:
Please pray for Ken's health.
Please pray for a turnaround in my mother's condition.
Please pray for my family to set aside its differences and find peace at this difficult time.
Prayer requests from families, friends, nurses, doctors and orderlies find their way to cards dotting the wall.
Each Friday afternoon, a teen volunteer walks through the hallway sitting areas to collect cards. Some weeks it's 30 or 40 prayer requests. Others less. Others more.
The prayers are brought to the chapel, where they are included in daily mass:
Please pray for Helen Mary Tom my baby
The prayers also are given to members of the hospital's Intercessory Prayer Program in which over 100 employees participate. Each day, the prayer will be said by a nun, priest or layman.
These are the prayers people hope will be answered.
These are the prayers they believe hold the power to heal and help.
Prayer is powerful. Independent studies have found that when sick people are prayed for whether they know it or not they tend to do better. People who pray and have faith have more optimism and hope.
"You can't separate the spiritual from the physical," explained Sister Elaine Herold, pastoral care director at Saint Elizabeth. That's why prayer plays such a vital role in its health-care program.
It's not uncommon for doctors, nurses and therapists to pray with patients. It's not unheard of for staff to sit with families and friends of patients.
Nearly all hospitals have chapels with prayer boxes in which people anonymously tuck their requests.
But the prayer walls or prayer galleries are unique to Saint Elizabeth, said John Dumonceaux, vice president of human relations, mission and integration for the hospital.
The prayer walls were part of the architectural design for the hospital's new east tower and will be among the additions when the west tower is renovated, he said.
The hospital has prayer galleries on three floors in its east tower: third floor, Critical and Progressive Care; fourth floor, Family Birth Center and NICU; and fifth floor, Orthopedics, Neurosurgery and Joint Center.
"Our CEO drove it," Dumonceaux said of the galleries. "He felt it (the new tower) had to have people's spiritual needs represented."
To the unknowing, the galleries look like aesthetically pleasing paneled walls in a quiet, small commons area.
A small end table cradled by two arm chairs sits in the middle of the wall. On the table is a small framed explanation:
"The prayer galleries are a unique concept that depicts our sense of spirituality and faith here at Saint Elizabeth.
"Patients, visitors and staff are encouraged to write their prayer request on the paper provided. Fold the card and place it in the wall."
Cards and pens are in a small cubbyhole on the side.
The response from patients and families was quick and tremendous, Sister Elaine said.
"A lot of it must have been word of mouth," she said. Especially among the families on the critical care floor, where so many lives hang in the balance and families are searching for answers and help.
"I find there is a lot of asking for healing of a loved one," Sister Elaine said. "Sometimes people ask God to be with them in whatever happens."
In December, U.S. News & World Report published a poll on prayer and what people pray for.
As expected, people pray for help, guidance and healing.
But not everyone expects their prayers to always be answered. The poll, conducted online by Beliefnet, found only 41.2 percent of those responding said their prayers are answered often; 1.5 percent said their prayers are never answered.
And 73.9 percent said that when their prayers are not answered, they believe it was because it "did not fit into God's plan." Thus, many people firmly believe that "God does things for a reason" and "When one door closes another door opens."
Prayer helps ease the opening and closing of those doors, according to Sister Elaine.
"The important thing about prayer is that we put ourselves at God's doorstep and God has the power. When you accept what happens in your life, it gives you the strength and peace."
A study by Carmelite Nuns, who previously managed the intercessory prayer programs at Saint Elizabeth, found people who had prayers said for them had a higher sense of well-being than those who did not. And, like the national studies, participants in Carmelite Nuns' research did not know if they were among those being prayed for or were in the "control group" which did not receive prayers, said Jo Miller, head of the hospital's public relations department.
Prayer be it through requests tucked in the prayer galleries, dropped in a box in the chapel or directly asked for plays an integral role in everyone's well-being at Saint Elizabeth, Sister Elaine said.
"Prayer helps our associates connect with patients on another level. It keeps in focus their total care not just the care of the body, but the care of the whole person."
And it makes a difference, Sister Elaine said whether it's a doctor praying with a patient or a nurse praying with a family member.
"People will say, I really did good because you all were praying for me,'" Sister Elaine said.
Sitting in the prayer gallery, Sister Elaine looks around at the cards peeking out in the soft light.
"This area gives people a place to pause," she said.
A place for peace.
* * *
Tell us how you pray
Regardless of religion, beliefs and even degree of faith, many of us will pray or voice our needs to a higher power or being, depending upon our personal ideas.
For some it's a conversation with God. For others it's instigated by need, fear or a frantic cry for help.
But what do we pray for?
The Lincoln Journal Star is asking readers to share their stories about prayer with us for an article to be published in May.
What do you pray for? Health? Wealth? Happiness? Guidance? Winning the lottery?
When do you pray? Where do you pray? How do you pray?
We encourage you to share stories of prayers that were answered or prayers that were not answered. Talk about how that affected you.
And if prayer is an integral part of your life, tell us why.
Please send your responses to Erin Andersen, c/o Lincoln Journal Star, 926 P St., Lincoln, NE 68508, or send them by e-mail to eandersen@journalstar.com or by fax to 473-7291.
Please include your name, address and telephone number so we may contact you with any questions. The deadline for responses is May 2.
Reach Erin Andersen at 473-7217 or eandersen@journalstar.com.