Prayer is for Lovers

There is a beautiful love story in Scripture which involves a man, a woman, and prayer - it is found in the book of Tobit, estimated to have been written in the early second century B.C..  The USCCB provides some detail:

Tobit, a devout and wealthy Israelite living among the captives deported to Nineveh from the Northern Kingdom of Israel...suffers severe reverses and is finally blinded. Because of his misfortunes he begs the Lord to let him die. But recalling the large sum he had formerly deposited in far-off Media, he sends his son Tobiah there to bring back the money. In Media, at this same time, a young woman, Sarah, also prays for death, because she has lost seven husbands, each killed in turn on his wedding night by the demon Asmodeus. God hears the prayers of Tobit and Sarah and sends the angel Raphael in human form to aid them both."

Long story short: Tobiah meets Sarah, they fall in love, and get married, and God uses the archangel Raphael as the messenger to help tie up loose ends and heal the difficulties of Tobit, Tobiah, and Sarah.  The story highlights the power of prayer and God's response to prayer in love relationships.  When a man and woman bring the Lord of the Universe into their relationship, it is unifying and powerful.  

Are you in love with someone?  
Pray with them.
Are you seeking a mate?  
Pray for them.

Talk to God about what HE wants for you and the other person in your relationship.  At the top of the list, it should include that you will each help the other to know, love and serve God more, and this will include praying with and for each other.  Just imagine: your beloved, talking to the sovereign God of the Universe about YOU!

Ephesians 4:2-3 says, "Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other's faults because of your love. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace."   A couple is united in the Holy Spirit when they pray together.  

St. Joseph and the Virgin Mary were a holy power-couple of prayer.  We know this, because the fruit of a strong prayer life is hearing and trusting God, and their lives show the strong degree to which this was manifested in their lives as a couple:  The Lord through his angel messengers spoke to St. Joseph in dreams, twice, and upon waking, Joseph immediately acted on the Lord's instruction.  The Lord through his angel messenger spoke to Joseph's wife, the Virgin Mary, and she immediately acted on the instructions.  A couple seeking to help each other become saints would do well to imitate St. Mary and her husband, St. Joseph. 


               The Couple that Prays Together, 
                             Stays Together

Prayer as a heart covenant, from the Catechism of the Catholic Church 

(#2562-2564):

"Where does prayer come from? Whether prayer is expressed in words or gestures, it is the whole man who prays. But in naming the source of prayer, Scripture speaks sometimes of the soul or the spirit, but most often of the heart (more than a thousand times). According to Scripture, it is the heart that prays. If our heart is far from God, the words of prayer are in vain.

The heart is the dwelling-place where I am, where I live; according to the Semitic or Biblical expression, the heart is the place "to which I withdraw." The heart is our hidden center, beyond the grasp of our reason and of others; only the Spirit of God can fathom the human heart and know it fully. The heart is the place of decision, deeper than our psychic drives. It is the place of truth, where we choose life or death. It is the place of encounter, because as image of God we live in relation: it is the place of covenant.

Christian prayer is a covenant relationship between God and man in Christ. It is the action of God and of man, springing forth from both the Holy Spirit and ourselves, wholly directed to the Father, in union with the human will of the Son of God made man."