Gethsemani receives prayer requests from people around the world every day. Some are received by mail, others left as phone messages and many come from the Prayer Request form on the abbey’s website. Now the abbey also receives a weekly set of intentions from the Archdiocese of Louisville. All prayer requests are posted on a bulletin board for the community and the monks consult the board regularly.

The arrangement of receiving  weekly prayers from the Archdiocese is part of “Faithful in Prayer” – an initiative launched on the archdiocese’s website in January. It was designed as an intentional way for people of the archdiocese to leave prayer requests and to also pray for others.

The Record – the archdiocesan newspaper – recently interviewed Abbot Elias about Gethsemani’s participation. “We are glad to welcome this initiative from the archdiocese. Since we belong to a contemplative order, our way of participating in the mission of the church is simply to live the contemplative life as best we can,” Abbot Elias said in the interview. “We are privileged to join them in bringing their needs to the Lord.”