According to a most recent Gallop Poll, three out of four Americans pray regularly. At special times, the numbers rise to nine out of ten. Fifty percent of patients want their doctors to pray, not just for them, but with them. Interest in prayer is back, if in fact it ever went away. To pray or not to pray is not the question.

The question you asked me to answer at the crossroads of faith is “Does Prayer Make Any Difference?” Is prayer power or placebo? Is prayer wishful thinking or divine intervention? Does prayer change things or change us? When Palm Sunday fades into Passion Week we find our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane and there he falls on his face in prayer and this is what he says:

“O my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.”

Deep prayer, agonizing prayer, li…