So I was delighted to find that Amalía's prayer bears had a new and improved version: "Now I lay me down to sleep/ I pray the Lord my soul to keep/ the angels watch me through the night/ and keep me safe til morning's light".
"The 'degree of school involvement' makes it clear that the pregame prayers bear 'the imprint of the state and thus put school-age children who objected in an untenable position,' " wrote Justice John Paul Stevens, quoting language the court used eight years ago in its ruling outlawing clergy-led prayer at graduation.
By the time the evening call to prayer could bear heard echoing out from the mosques of Mombasa, Festus Mwanzia was number 27 in the queue.
As with other homes in this ramshackle neighborhood, where the lives of Mexican-born immigrants have melded with their Americanized children, a slick of putrid mud caked everything: crosses, a Denver Broncos helmet, a framed inscription of the Serenity Prayer, a teddy bear from Chuck E. Cheese's.
Studies on the effects of directed prayer are beginning to bear out Inayat Khan's wisdom.
Since the day in December , 2012 when his son Adam killed his own mother, himself, and twenty-six people at Sandy Hook Elementary School, strangers from across the world have sent thousands upon thousands of letters and other keepsakes: prayer shawls, Bibles, Teddy bears, homemade toys; stories with titles such as "My First Christmas in Heaven"; crosses, including one made by prison inmates.
Church members have been operating a heated tent on a vacant lot down the road from the school where people can drop off tributes, talk to a chaplain or simply wander among the mounds of teddy bears, flowers, prayer cards and posters signed by schoolchildren and well-wishers from across the country and the world.
The Polar Bears' morning prayer and swimming sessions in the frigid waters of Inkwell Beach are a case study on how the Vineyard's historic African-American summer traditions are being carried on.
Figurines of women are among the most common types of votive figures, and some are inscribed with a prayer for a woman to bear a child.
Even in the serene prayer room, the tissue box bears an Oilers logo.
