“Requesting prayers and joining virtual prayer circles has become commonplace on the Internet, as worshipers can e-mail an order of nuns and request a prayer or enter a chat room and ask whoever reads their message to pray on their behalf. But e-mailing a prayer for the intercession of a saint is new.” NY Times This somehow reminds me of my bemusement to find enormous water- and wind-driven prayer wheels everywhere in my wandering among the Buddhist monasteries of Nepal in years past. It is easy to understand the handheld versions which send out a prayer every time one is mindful to twirl them (I have one at home which, indeed, charms my children…). Mechanical means of spinning the prayer wheels which remove the need for human intercession, on the other hand, seemed somehow to miss the point.