John Paul II preached that man is Christ in many ways ... The entire day of prayer with the pagans and heretics was John Paul II’s idea. Satanic Vatican
Do I have time to say a prayer? Tony Spilotro, Chicago gangster
Gentle and merciful Lord Jesus, I want to speak to you now with an open heart, an honest heart. Tonight I ask you to take my sins and the sins of my family into your merciful heart. We have chosen this life in full awareness of the consequences of our sins. The Sopranos s2e9: From Where to Eternity starring James Gandolfini & Lorriane Bracco & Edie Falco & Michael Imperioli & Dominic Chianese & Steven van Zandt & Tony Sirico & Robert Iler et al, Carmela’s prayer, HBO 2000
It’s does help to pray. If only to take your mind off it. The Sopranos: The Fleshy Part of the Thigh s6e4, Carmela
Dear Lord, thank you for giving me the strength and the conviction to complete the task you entrusted to me. Thank you for guiding me straight and true. For the many obstacles in my path. And for keeping me resolute when all around me seemed lost. Thank you for your protection and for your many signs along the way. Thank you for any good I may have done. I’m so sorry about the bad. Thank you for the friend I made. Please watch over her as you watched over me. Thank you for finally allowing me to rest. I am so very tired. But I go down to my rest in peace knowing I have done right with my time on this Earth. I fought the good fight. I finished the race. I kept the faith. The Book of Eli 2010 starring Denzel Washington & Gary Oldman & Mila Kunis & Ray Stevenson & Jennifer Beals & Tom Waits et al, directors the Hughes brothers, Eli’s prayer
You’ve cost me a lot of prayer. Angels with Dirty Faces 1938 starring James Cagney & Pat O’Brien & Humphrey Bogart & Ann Sheridan & George Bancroft & Billy Halp & Bobby Jordan & Leo Gorcey & Gabriel Dell & Huntz Hall et al, director Michael Curtiz, priest
O Lord, without consulting with Thee, we have sent thy way some souls whose evil ways passeth all understanding. We ask Thee humbly to receive them ... whether you want them or not! Amen. How the West Was Won 1963 starring Carroll Baker & Lee J Cobb & Henry Fonda & Carolyn Jones & Karl Malden & Gregory Peck & George Peppard & Robert Preston & Debbie Reynolds et al, directors John Ford & George Marshall & Henry Hathaway & Richard Thorpe et al, Zebulon’s prayer
Dear Lord, we thank thee for life. We thank thee for food. 3:10 to Yuma 1957 starring Van Heflin & Glenn Ford & Felicia Farr & Robert Emhardt & Leora Dana & Henry Jones & Richard Jaeckel & George Mitchell & Robert Ellenstein & Ford Rainey et al, director Delmer Daves, mother’s prayer
Blessed Exchequer, whose greed is eternal, allow this humble bribe to open your ears and hear this plea from your most devout debtor. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine s7e12: The Emperor's New Cloak, Quark’s prayer
Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way. And don’t pray when it rains if you don’t pray when the sun shines. Richard Nixon
Help us understand the reason for this madness on Earth. On the Beach 1959 starring Gregory Peck & Ava Gardner & Fred Astaire & Anthony Perkins & Donna Anderson & John Tate & Harp McGuire & Lola Brooks & Ken Wayne & Grant Taylor & Guy Doleman & Joe McCormick et al, director Stanley Kramer, Salvation Army chaplain’s prayer
Bernie is going to need our prayers. Bernie 2013 starring Jack Black & Shirley MacLaine & Matthew McConaughey & Brady Coleman & Ricard Robichaux & Rick Dial & Brandon Smith & Larry Jack Dotson & Merrilee McCommas & Mathew Greer & Gabriel Luna et al, director Richard Linklater, minister
We can never know for certain where our prayers are likely to go, nor from whom the answers will come. Just when we think we are at our nearest to God, we could be assisting the Devil. Norman Mailer
Nothing fails like prayer. Annie Laurie Gaylor
I don’t pray really, because I don’t want to bore God. Orson Welles
Stay out all night, but take especial care
That Prudence bring thee back to early prayer
As one with watching and with study faint,
Reel in a drunkard, and reel out a saint. Charles Churchill, English poet, Night
Often when I pray I wonder if I am not posting letters to a non-existent address. C S Lewis, letter 24th December 1930
I wouldn’t dream of saying it is an immoral action ... It is an irrelevant one. It isn’t of itself a good thing. And it isn’t an action either. Christopher Hitchens v Mark Roberts, debate 2007
The government shouldn’t have a word to say about it. That’s why it can’t be a national day of prayer that has any government sponsorship ... The idea is to import surreptitiously, to smuggle through customs, that this is a Christian nation. Christopher Hitchens, CNN live
The theist has all their work still ahead of them: from this designer [deist] how do we get to the designer who answers prayers? Christopher Hitchens
The man who prays is the one who thinks that god has arranged matters all wrong, but who also thinks that he can instruct god how to put them right. Christopher Hitchens, Mortality
Did not God
Sometimes withhold in mercy what we ask,
We should be ruined at our own request. Hannah More, 1745-1833, Moses in the Bulrushes, 1782
That it may please thee to preserve all that travel by land or by water, all women labouring of child, all sick persons, and young children; and to shew thy pity upon all prisoners and captives; We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord. Book of Common Prayer, The Litany
Little Boy kneels at the foot of the bed,
Droops on the little hands little gold head.
Hush! Hush! Whisper who dares!
Christopher Robin is saying his prayers. A A Milne, When We Were Young, 1924
Whatever a man prays for, he prays for a miracle. Every prayer reduces itself to this: Great God, grant that twice two be not four. Ivan Turgenev, Poems in Prose, 1881
O, here I lift this one hand up to heaven
And bow this feeble ruin to the earth. [he kneels]
If any power pities wretched tears. William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus III i 205-207, Titus to Aaron
Pray to the devils; the gods have given us over. ibid. IV i 48, Aaron to Demetrius
O heavens, can you hear a good man groan
And not relent, or not compassion him? ibid. IV i 122-123, Marcus
And since there’s no justice in earth nor hell,
We will solicit heaven and more the gods
To send down justice for to wreak our wrongs. ibid. IV iii 50-53
He prays but faintly and would be denied. William Shakespeare, Richard II V iii 103
Some god direct my judgment! ...
A golden mind stoops not to shows of dross ...
And yet to be afeared of my deserving
Were but a weak dissembling of myself. William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice II vii 13 & 20 & 29-30, Morocco to Portia
You may as well go stand upon the beach
And bid the main flood bate his usual height;
You may as well use question with the wolf
Why he hath made the ewe bleat for the lamb;
You may as well forbid the mountain pines
To wag their high tops and to make no noise
When they are fretten with the gusts of heaven. ibid. IV i 70-76, Antonio to Shylock
Now I, to comfort him, bid him a should not think of God; I hoped there was no need to trouble himself with any such thoughts yet. William Shakespeare, Henry V II i 19-21, Hostess to Bardolf et al
But, O, what form of prayer
Can serve my turn? William Shakespeare, Hamlet III iii 51-52, King
Now might I do it pat, now he is praying. ibid. III iii 73
We, ignorant of ourselves,
Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers
Deny us for our good; so find we profit
By losing of our prayers. William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra II i 5, Menecrates
And my ending is despaire unless I be reliev’d by prayer. Which pierces so that it assaults mercy itself and frees all thoughts, as you from crimes would pardon’d be, let your indulgence set me free. William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Prospero’s epilogue
From ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggety beasties
And things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord, deliver us! The Cornish or West Country Litany
Now I lay me down to sleep;
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take. New England Primer, 1781
Over the years I realized the god I prayed to was the god I invented. When I was talking to him, I was talking to myself. He had no understanding or qualities that I did not have. When I realized god was an extension of my imagination, I stopped praying to him. Howard Kreisner, host The American Atheist Hour
Conscious of my own weakness, I can only seek fervently the guidance of the Ruler of the Universe, and, relying on His all-powerful aid, do my best to restore Union and peace to a suffering people, and to establish and guard their liberties and rights. George B McClellan
I am not wasting one more minute on prayer. Not one more minute. Signs 2002 starring Mel Gibson & Joaquin Phoenix & Rory Culkin & Abigail Breslin & Cherry Jones & M Night Shyamalan & Patricia Kalember et al, director M Night Shyamalan
The family that prays together stays together. Al Scalpone, motto devised for Roman Catholic Family Rosary Crusade, 1947
You know I said a prayer for you while you were inside – that harm would come to him who harmed you. Carlitto’s Way 1993 staring Al Pacino & Sean Penn & Penelope Ann Miller & John Leguizamo & Luis Guzman & Jorge Porcel & Ingrid Rogers & Ara Gelici & James Rebhorn & Joseph Siravo et al, director Brian de Palma
The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays. Søren Kierkegaard
I talk to God but the sky is empty. Sylvia Plath