The members of the Sacred Space Community form a global network of prayer. None of us can know how much our prayer helps others in their need, nor do we know how much someone else may be helping us.

Jesus teaches us to pray for what we need. He says: ‘Ask and it will be given you’ (Luke 11:9). He prayed for himself before his Passion. He prayed also for others. At the Last Supper he tells Peter, ‘Simon, I have prayed for you’ (Luke 22:31-32). On the Cross he prays for his torturers: ‘Father, forgive them’ (Luke 23:34). He now intercedes for us all at the right hand of the Father (Hebrews 7:25). We can join him there as ‘standing delegates’ for prayer: perhaps no one else is praying for a person or a situation, but let me do so!

Guidelines

When writing an Intention, use only your initials. Refer to others only by their initials or as ‘friend’ or ‘neighbour’ etc., to preserve privacy. Use single line spacing.
You can choose for your prayer to be published at our discretion on the Sacred Space Chapel of Intentions or kept solely for the Prayer List that is not put on the web. (Check the box, ‘Please do not publish my prayer.’) Please avoid mentioning identifiable people in your prayer submission if you would like it to be published.

• Some prayers will be posted online unless they are marked “Please do not publish my prayer.”
• No prayers that are marked “Please do not publish my prayer” will appear online.
• All prayers will be included in the Prayer List that will be printed out and sent to our praying communities.

No correspondence is ordinarily entered into with people who use the Chapel of Intentions.

Publication

We review all intentions. We edit whatever might make a person identifiable. If you ask that your intention not be published, your privacy will be respected. We cannot publish all intentions, and we are restricted to the English language. All intentions are prayed for, including those which cannot be published.

A printable compilation of prayers is periodically sent to three contemplative communities of nuns who include them in their prayers for the world:

• the Cistercian Sisters at Saint Mary’s Abbey, a convent in County Waterford, Ireland,
• the Carmelite Sisters at Carmelite Monastery of St. Joseph, Kilmacud, Dublin, Ireland,
• the Carmelite Sisters in the Discalced Carmelites Monastery, St Thomas, Auckland, New Zealand.

The Sacred Space Team also includes your intentions in their prayer. So too do those who pray in the Chapel of the Sacred Heart Messenger, here in central Dublin.

Prayers are subject to moderation. Our Information Policy applies to information submitted to the Chapel of Intentions.

The Chapel of Intentions

Adding a prayer to the Chapel of Intentions is one way of participating in the Sacred Space community of prayer.

Only a selection of prayers is published. Some prayers will be posted online, but none that are marked ‘Not for publication’ will appear on the website. All prayers will be included in the Prayer List that is printed out weekly and sent to our praying communities.

When writing a prayer please observe the following guidelines. Failure to do so may lead to the blocking of future attempts to submit requests.

• Please do not publish multiple copies of a prayer.
• Please do not use names of people in prayers. Instead you may refer to phrases like ‘my friend’, ‘a neighbour’. Prayers containing names of people will be rejected. This is important to respect the privacy of others. Instead of writing ‘Pray for John Ryan who is sick in Saint Michael’s Hospital’ you should write, ‘Pray for my friend, J., who is sick in hospital.’
• Offer only your initials or first name. Please do not use your full name.
• When you wish to add several prayers, it is better to use one form and make one submission.
• Please avoid using spaces between lines in prayers.
• For now, only prayers in English will be published in the Chapel of Intentions. Prayers in other languages will be deleted to prevent misuse of this facility.

To enable the better administration of the Chapel of Intentions for those who wish to use it, prayers that ignore the above guidelines may be deleted immediately and the address submitting them may be consequently blocked. A message will indicate the reason for the rejection of a message.