Tag: missionaries

December 31st, 2025

“No, you can’t always get what you want
You can’t always get what you want
You can’t always get what you want
And if you try some time, you find
You get what you need” – from the Rolling Stones

I have a thin, yellowed strip of paper that I keep on top of my bedroom dresser. On it is written,

“July 2, 2019 Ernesto Martinez + Lawyer”

I was given this scrap of paper back in the fall of 2019. I was in Ciudad Juarez in Mexico, just across the border from El Paso. I was visiting two missionaries there with a Catholic group. We were in Juarez to learn more about the migrants and the situation on the border. Things were bad then, and I am sure that they are worse now. Father Peter and Sister Betty had been living in a tiny house in the Anapra neighborhood serving the local population. These two missionaries were elderly, and they experienced the same level of poverty and insecurity that their friends did. I had then, and I still have, great admiration for both of them. They were not just preaching the Gospel. They were living the Gospel.

Violence in Ciudad Juarez was endemic. The locals lived with it day in and day out. Betty and Peter had a wall in their backyard covered with names of persons who had been murdered by gangs. There were hundreds of names. It was the custom of these two missionaries to offer the names of the dead to visitors in hopes that the folks who came to their humble home would pray for the deceased. I picked out Ernesto Martinez.

I pray for him, maybe not every day, but often. It’s strange. I know almost nothing about the man other than his name, occupation, and date of death. I guess that’s enough. God knows all the rest of his story. Why do I pray for him? Honestly, I don’t know. I do it partly because of the love and respect I feel toward Father Peter and Sister Betty. I do it because maybe nobody else remembers Ernesto. I do it because it feels right.

Do my prayers actually help Ernesto Martinez? I have no idea. This is an act of faith. I believe that all prayers have an effect, but how that works is beyond me. It is my experience that I often don’t get what I pray for. I usually keep my prayers simple and vague. I ask God to give somebody what they need and then let the omniscient deity decide what that is. If the intention behind my petition is pure and based on love, then something will come of it. I just don’t know what that could be.

I am convinced that the main effect of prayer is to transform the heart of the pray-er. That has also been my experience. If I pray for the wellbeing of another sentient being, then it changes me. If I pray for Ernesto Martinez, it may not do him much good. He is a martyr and is probably already at peace. He may not need my prayer. However, I might need to send it for the sake of my own soul.

Ernesto, pray for me.