Prayer

Growing up, I remember the old folks saying, "Whatever it is, child, take it to the Lord in prayer. Prayer changes things." Elisabeth Withers heard the same as a church girl in Joliet, Ill. She knew early on that she wanted to sing, that there was nothing else she'd rather do. So for years she prayed as she formally studied her craft, eventually earning music degrees from Boston's Berklee College of Music and New York University. In just the past two years, Withers has experienced the manifestation of her prayers.

I have met my guru. His name is Henry. He has four legs. I met him in temple. On Rosh Hashana. Henry is a seeing-eye dog. During services, he sniffed me, stood up and pressed his head down on my knee, and sighed softly as I rubbed him firmly behind the ears, a spot irresistible to any canine. Most of the time, Henry lay on the floor in front of the seat next to me, absolutely content with his condition in the world; a bodhisattva, a Buddhist might say - an enlightened being dedicated to delivering others from their sorrows; or a lamed-vav tsaddik, a Kabbalist might say - one of the 36 righteous individuals in every generation who live anonymously and whose very existence in the world prevents its destruction.

While much of the country rings in the New Year tonight with revelry and libation, some are choosing a more reverent commemoration.Many people of faith are opting to pause for prayer tonight as midnight approaches, reflecting on their relationship with God and resolving to work for the betterment of humanity.Buddhists will greet New Year's dawn with prayers for peace. Members of Unity churches will hold burning bowl ceremonies, setting fire to slips of paper on which they have scrawled something they wish to be liberated from.

At A Taste of Heaven, owner Rod Robinson and his staff do more than cook and serve. His business is more than a restaurant, and his duties reach beyond that of an entrepreneur. In fact, customers call him "The Rev."He opened the soul-food restaurant at 25th Street and Greenmount Avenue on Friday the 13th last November. Though others might have been wary of opening on that day, God challenged him, Robinson says, and he and his staff opened with a prayer that "God would have his way in the city."

Under sunshine, blue skies and the shadows cast by City Hall, City Councilman Martin O'Malley was sworn in yesterday as Baltimore's 47th mayor, pledging to make neighborhoods such as Cherry Hill, East Baltimore and Penn North as safe as the more upscale enclaves of Guilford, Roland Park and Homeland.With his wife and three small children by his side, the 36-year-old lawyer completed the oath of office delivered by city Clerk of Courts Frank M. Conaway at 12: 42 p.m. He then stepped to the microphone to ask thousands of residents gathered around War Memorial Plaza to help restore a city shattered by poverty, drugs and violence.

As the 1999 school year begins, an organization is calling for prayer to protect the county's 27,500 students.On Saturday, two days before the area's 38 schools open, the Carroll County Heritage Foundation will hold A Rally for the Faithful, which drew nearly 1,000 people last year, in Westminster city playground."

You have to forgive Bill. He attends prayer breakfasts.There is no need for Ms. Lewinsky to testify in the well of the Senate. The old boys would rather meet her in a more sociable setting.If you are 21 or over, wine is actually good for you. Just ask it.We may now watch naked ladies on The Block, thanks to a peephole in the law that Judge Rombro found.Pub Date: 2/08/99

State's program of student service lasts a lifetimeBrian Sullam, in his Feb. 15 column, is absolutely correct that meaningful service learning projects can instill in students a lifelong habit of citizenship and civic involvement ("Community service plan needs reform, not relief").Make-work activities that fulfill the state's requirement but make little or no impact on the community do a grave disservice to students, because they fail to show them the joy that comes from participating in public life.

The line between prayer and politics continued to blur in the House of Delegates yesterday as a Baltimore minister became the second clergyman in a week to offend many listeners with references to abortion and to Jesus Christ.The Rev. Robert T. Woodworth ended his opening prayer with a reference to Jesus, despite being informed minutes before that the practice is regarded as offensive by non-Christian members."I'm a minister of the Gospel. I can't pray in the name of Moses," Woodworth said afterward.

Until the very moment that the Rev. Dr. Deborah J. Johnson stepped to the microphone last night to bless the national Christmas tree, she had never spoken her prayer aloud.She had thought about it, of course. She had to. Thirty seconds she had been told, advised, reminded, warned. Thirty seconds, no more, no less.It wasn't the blessing's time-limit that concerned her, however. She thought about it long and hard because she thinks about all her prayers long and hard. This is a woman who truly knows the meaning of epiphany.

On October 18, 2009, John F. Nowicki, Jr Visiting at the E.F. Lassahn Funeral Home, P.A., 11750 Belair Road (Kingsville) on Wednesday 6-8 pm. A Prayer Service will be held on Thursday at 11:00 am. Interment Gardens of Faith Cemetery.

A Catholic Prayer Service will be held at the family owned Duda-Ruck Funeral Home of Dundalk, Inc., 7922 Wise Ave. on Saturday at 10 A.M. Interment Oak Lawn Cemetery. Friends may call on Friday 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M.

Fox rabid; dog's owner sought A rabid fox was found dead near where a dog was attacked by a fox in a northern Harford County park last weekend, and officials are attempting to find the dog's owner. Harford County Health Department officials said an unidentified man was walking a dog near the boardwalk in Eden Mill Park in Pylesville on Sunday when a fox attacked the dog. Officials later found a dead fox nearby that tested positive for the rabies virus. It was the first recorded case of rabies in a fox in Harford County in a year, according to Bill Wiseman, a Health Department spokesman.

The notes were written by hand on orange, blue and yellow slips of paper, jotted down after a prayer during a New Year's Day church service to honor the dead children of Baltimore. The parishioners were called on to record their commitment to help a child, to stop the killings, to heal a city that seems beyond repair. No names were signed, but the papers were placed in the offering plate, a covenant with God and the people who attended the service nine days ago at the Episcopal Cathedral of the Incarnation on North Charles Street.

The vast majority of Americans believe in God and communicate with him through prayer. Yet even at times of great crisis - the kinds of occasions that send people to the hospital, for example - people don't expect God to solve their problems for them. How do I know this? Because I've read people's prayers, hundreds of them. In times of economic distress and in times of plenty, close to 90 percent of Americans pray - more than half of us once a day or more. We pray for big things: to stay healthy, to keep our jobs and to strengthen our relationships.

Just say no Society long ago reconciled itself to a bright line between religion and academics in public school classrooms. The courts recognized that even when students aren't obliged to pray at specific times, the pressure to conform exerts a powerful coercive influence. Now nine midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis who object to the school's traditional lunchtime prayer have asked the American Civil Liberties Union for help ending the practice, which they say forces them to risk losing the respect of their peers or forgoing leadership opportunities if they follow their conscience.

WASHINGTON - Standing alongside a row of gas pumps at a Shell station, Rocky Twyman joined hands with several cohorts, prayed to God for economic and social relief then sang "We Shall Overcome" - inserting the lyrics "We'll have lower gas prices" the second time around. For nearly a month, Twyman, a Rockville resident who serves as music director for a Baltimore church, has been praying at gas pumps - and anywhere else he is welcome - asking God to lower prices. Of course, since he started his prayer campaign, or what he calls a movement, the price of gas just keep inching upwards.

Christy Bissally bent over her desk in the quiet classroom, pressing her pencil into the center of a flower made of purple construction paper. "Let angels guide him through his actions. Let love always be in his heart," she wrote in small neat letters. Christy, a sixth-grade student at St. Agnes School in Catonsville, was writing a prayer for Pope Benedict XVI, who arrived in Washington yesterday afternoon for his first visit to this country as pontiff. Elsewhere across the state, Roman Catholics have been making banners, renting buses and studying the pope's teachings to prepare for his visit.

Notebook After Broadneck knocked Severna Park out of the playoffs with a 13-0 victory Saturday, the two rival teams gathered for a prayer in the middle of the field in Cape St. Claire. "That was planned out, and that was something I will never forget," Severna Park quarterback Pat Morrison said. "That was awesome. I really enjoyed it." The postgame prayer was done as a way to ease tensions between the schools. The intensity of the rivalry between the two schools in all sports, both boys and girls, has reached a fever pitch in the past couple of years.

I have met my guru. His name is Henry. He has four legs. I met him in temple. On Rosh Hashana. Henry is a seeing-eye dog. During services, he sniffed me, stood up and pressed his head down on my knee, and sighed softly as I rubbed him firmly behind the ears, a spot irresistible to any canine. Most of the time, Henry lay on the floor in front of the seat next to me, absolutely content with his condition in the world; a bodhisattva, a Buddhist might say - an enlightened being dedicated to delivering others from their sorrows; or a lamed-vav tsaddik, a Kabbalist might say - one of the 36 righteous individuals in every generation who live anonymously and whose very existence in the world prevents its destruction.