that prayer thingy

people are quite fond of prayer, they do it a lot and for all sorts of reasons and if they're not praying they're meditating or something.
As I may have mentioned before (but probably not because I'm just making this up) this church doesn't have a policy on prayer or meditation, this is mainly due to the fact that we don't understand much and we do rather like to go to the pub instead of making out heads hurt with too much thinking.
What we do understand is that prayer and meditation are a way of focusing thought, some people believe that these thoughts,words, positive vibes etc can be sent to a deity and I'm not arguing BUT even if you don't believe in deities focused thought is beneficial. If I say to you I'm sorry that you're having a bad time, I'm going to pray for you and you don't believe in 'prayer' you are still left knowing that I'm thinking about you or your issue and that is positive, a bit like a verbal hug.

I do talk bull don't I?