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Franciscan Sisters take a byte out of prayer ministry with e-mail

For those of us who didn’t grow up with computers, the spaghetti-like mixture of wires and the foreboding, glowing box can seem like little more than ever-present, invasive technology. But FSPA involved in the e-mail prayer ministry know that a personal computer or laptop can be so much more, transcending mere keys and cursors to become a helping hand capable of reaching across oceans and comforting people in need.

Sister Ronalda Hophan, left, recently passed the duties of the e-mail prayer ministry to Sister Constance Walton.

Since 2001, Sister Ronalda Hophan has responded to the many e-mails requesting prayers of the FSPA. On a typical mid-week morning, Sister Ronalda says there would be 30-50 e-mails in her inbox. Come Monday, that number would shoot up to 75-100. Consider the telephone call requests, letters and drop-in visitors to St. Rose Convent with prayer requests, and the job could be challenging at times. But in the wake of big-market media coverage of the 125th Anniversary of Perpetual Adoration numbers skyrocketed to 1,000 to 1,200 per week. Now, Sister Ronalda is hanging up her computer mouse. This fall, she trained Sister Constance Walton to take on the role of responding to prayer requests.

“The Assembly Committee recommended that an Office of Perpetual Adoration be set up,” explains Sister Ronalda. “It will pull together all of the pieces that have to do with prayer.” That includes phone call requests, e-mails, letters, drop-in visitors and the Eucharistic Prayer Circle (see below).

Sister Ronalda says in her time in the prayer ministry, she fielded requests for prayers from people in pain, those suffering illness and those facing unemployment and poverty. “I think the thing that touched me most was being in touch with the outside world,” she says. For each e-mailed or handwritten request, Sister Ronalda would craft a personalized response. The saddest prayer request over the years, she says, came from a woman who had lost her 4-year-old son, and was subsequently hospitalized for depression. While in the hospital, the rest of her family died in a car crash. For Sister Ronalda, hearing the stories gave her perspective. “What I have had to face in my life is nothing,” she says. “It puts you in touch with suffering. A bright note is the hope the knowledge of being prayed for gives to people when they know they are being prayed for ‘round the clock for a week or more.”

Sister Constance is enthusiastic about her new ministry. “It’s awesome—I feel like you get personal with these people. It becomes a personal relationship and I’m connecting with these people in a unique way,” she says. She explains that the opportunity allows her to utilize skills she’s learned over the years in counseling and as a spiritual caregiver. While Sister Constance describes herself as an intermediate computer user before she took on the new ministry, she says now that she’s using e-mail regularly, she’s becoming much more proficient. “I didn’t realize that box (the computer) could do so much. It’s an international connection.”

Prayer requests pour in from around the world: Indonesia, India, Hungary, Croatia, England, Canada, Australia, the Philippines and beyond. The tremendous amount of effort that goes into answering so many requests, then funneling donations that come in with those requests to the development office, has all been worth it to Sister Ronalda. “I suspect that there have been more than a few miracles. Many people would write and say that something changed, or something happened on the very last day of prayer that answered their prayers,” she explains. “Or, they would say ‘I didn’t get what I asked for, but I have such a feeling of peace and hope in my heart.’”

Sister Constance says the future of the prayer ministry is bright. In the future, she hopes to reach new audiences with the message of hope through prayer, possibly by exploring media coverage opportunities and speaking in local churches. “It’s an outreach ministry that can grow tremendously,” she says.

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