Novena for Pope Benedict XVI, Day Nine

My wife, our son and #3 daughter prayed the last set in that novena for Pope Benedict XVI after supper this evening. We probably spent a total of 45 minutes to an hour on it - spread over the nine days from Divine Mercy Sunday to the 5th anniversary of the Pope's election.

That's a small - maybe trivial - investment of time. And effort.

One of the questions I hope to get answered eventually is just how prayer works. Analogies, like thinking of prayer as a sort of telephone connection, help. But I wonder about the procedures: who does what, and how, to 'run' the 'prayer system.'

Which can lead to interesting - and pointless - speculation. The fact is, I don't need to know how prayer works. That's not my department. My job, part of it, is to pray.

Related posts:

• "Novena for Pope Benedict XVI, Day Eight"
  (April 18, 2010)
• "Novena for Pope Benedict XVI, Day Seven"
  (April 17, 2010)
• "Novena for Pope Benedict XVI, Day Six"
  (April 16, 2010)
• "Novena for Pope Benedict XVI, Day Five (on Day Six)"
  (April 16, 2010)
• "Novena for Pope Benedict XVI, Day Four"
  (April 14, 2010)
• "Novena for Pope Benedict XVI, Day Three and a Half"
  (April 14, 2010)
• "Novena for Pope Benedict XVI, Day Two"
  (April 12, 2010)
• "Novena for Pope Benedict XVI, Day One"
  (April 11, 2010)
• "Novena for Pope Benedict XVI, April 11-19"
  (April 5, 2010)