“Thoughts and prayers.” We hear the phrase after every tragedy—school shootings, natural disasters, moments of national grief. It’s meant to convey empathy, but for many it has become shorthand for doing nothing. The words can feel like a dismissal of the deep, complicated work needed to heal a broken world.
In this episode, I explore what prayer really means and whether it “works.” Looking at both research and lived experience, I reflect on how prayer is often misunderstood – not a vending machine dispensing quick answers, but a practice that can lower anxiety, increase resilience, and deepen our connection to meaning and to each other. Prayer may not always change circumstances, but it often changes the pray-er.
At its best, prayer is not an escape from responsibility but a catalyst for compassion and action. We are both the prayer and the pray-er. And when our prayers take root in us – moving through us into acts of courage, presence, and love – they ripple outward, touching lives we may never see, expanding far beyond what we imagine, to grow more love.
Joni Miller, Ph.D., is a writer, researcher, spiritual coach, and speaker who uses her knowledge, education, and love of all things spiritual to help spiritual wanderers find a place they can call home, navigating by the light of Love. www.SpiritualGeography.net
(1) Cheston, S. E., & Miller, J. L. (2011). The use of prayer in counseling. In C. S. Cashwell & J. Young (Eds.) , Integrating spirituality and religion into counseling: A guide to competent practice (2nd ed.) (pp. 243-260). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association.
Photo by Lara Jameson: https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-with-wax-candles-8887173/
