An alcoholic found himself in a hospital, a case of psychopathics. He was placed in a room with three other patients who did nothing but scream. When night came he prayed to be able to sleep, but the screams continued.
Then suddenly he began to pray for his three room-mates. 'May God give you peace,' he said quietly over and over.
The screams stopped.
'Not only that,' the alcoholic reported later, 'it was as if something broke in me. Praying for them released my own tension. I was free.'
As it happened, at the next examination the doctor smiled and pronounced him well enough to go home. He was truly a free man.
Prayer is like a symphony and in it none of the instruments plays the whole composition. Each has its part, each being part of the whole.
'The prayer of each individual is prayer by one who is only part of a great whole. It can, therefore, be understood and seen in its true perspective only when linked with other prayers,' says Gaston Courtois.
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