Intervention through the Lord's Prayer

I'd like to share this story from the summer of 1985. At that time I was a student at the University of Nice in France. After spending about four weeks immersed in the French language and culture, and then two weeks traveling around Europe on a Eurorail pass, I was ready to head back home to NL, Canada. My departure date was around mid-August. Of course, that's the height of summer holidays in France and all the hotels in and around the city of Nice were filled to capacity. The situation I was in was that I had moved out of my residence room on campus and had just enjoyed visiting several countries in Europe - from Italy to Ireland.  After descending from the TGV train in Nice (I had taken that speedy train from Paris), I proceeeded to look for a hotel room for my last two nights in France. After spending several exhausting hours walking around the city in search of a room, I had almost resigned myself to the fact I might have to sleep on a park bench for the next two days.

Speaking of a park bench, I decided to sit on one for a while, just so I could collect my thoughts and explore my options. Well, the more I thought about it the more I realised my options were few and far between. So at that point I simply closed my eyes and recited the Lord's Prayer. Feeling a new sense of confidence, I crossed the street from the park and walked into a small hotel. I approached the counter and requested a room for the night. But, unfortunately, the response was the same - they had no rooms. I turned around and was about to leave when I was suddenly stopped by this lady. She introduced herself and kindly said she would be glad to offer me a room in her family's home for two nights. Of course, I jumped at the opportunity and accepted her generous offer.

All these years later that pleasant memory is in the forefront of my mind. So is the confidence I have in the power of the Lord's Prayer as a way of creating special "coincidences" in my life.

One key ingredient in the recipe for peace

I've started this blog with the hope that people who follow it will share their stories of how the Lord's Prayer, the Golden Rule, or the Beatitudes had some significant impact on their life. Maybe there was a time when you prayed the Lord's Prayer and it resulted in some "coincidence" that can only be explained by attributing it to divine intervention. Or maybe you or someone you know used the dictate of the Golden Rule to positively influence a situation in your life or that of another. How about the Beatitudes?Maybe you took heed to one of these eight blessed virtues that Jesus taught us in his Sermon on the Mount and used it to make a difference in the world around you.

By providing a forum to create these postings, it is my fervent desire that the people who read them will gain some inspiration for their own life. Not only that, hopefully a ripple effect will be created whereby many people around the world will both contribute to and learn from this blog. By doing so, it is my prayer that the sharing of these powerful stories will have the added benefit of bringing the world community together around the notion that prayer with purpose is powerful; and purposeful prayer is one sure ingredient in the recipe for peace on the planet.