Many years ago, when I was a more or less (usually less) practicing Catholic teenager, I received some sort of a solicitation from a Benedictine monastery somewhere. If I would send them $5, they would remember me in their prayers. Naturally, I tossed it out. I had better things to do with my hard-earned money, like buying the new Black Sabbath album or something similar. But as various troubles multiplied in my life, I remember thinking to myself (still some Catholic vestiges in there): if only I had sent those darn monks the five bucks, all this wouldn’t be happening to me now!
Today, being a darn monk myself, I know all the more the value of prayer—though the grace of it is not 
rationed out in proportion to the donations received. But we do have a little program here at Mt Tabor that you may wish to benefit from. Those who receive our newsletter are already aware of it, but perhaps cyberspace is still unenlightened.
We call it “A Week of Monastic Prayer.” You should first know that we pray for many needs of the Church and the world, and individuals who ask, all the time. We have an entire wall and two whiteboards covered with prayer intentions. But we thought (rightly, as it turned out) that some people would appreciate it very much if we took some time to focus on their particular intentions for a period of time (without, however, dropping all the others!). So we offer this service for a week at a time. We have a little flyer that we send to those who request it, with some information and some space to write in their intentions and to specify the week which they’d like these intentions to be specially remembered. We post this information our “Week of Monastic Prayer” board here at the monastery, so the monks can see it and pray for the specific intentions. Then we pray specially during that week, light candles (if you so specify), remember your intentions at the Divine Liturgy, and place the little flyer with your intentions on the altar for that week.
If you would like, then, drop us a line or e-mail us with your mailing address and we’ll send you a copy (or more, if you wish, for your family members or friends) of the flyer, which you can send back to us, and we’ll begin your week on the day you specify (though give it a few days to get here!). We began this little service in August of 2006, and there has rarely been a week since then without some intentions on the week-of-prayer board. So we know it is meeting a spiritual need.
The darn Monks of Mt Tabor will be glad to pray for your intentions. That is why we’re here, and we trust that God will make use of our humble prayers and sacrifices to fulfill his holy will in your life. God bless you!
The Monks of Mt Tabor P.O. Box 217 Redwood Valley, CA 95470
