After her second miscarriage, Lily Allen's requests for prayer causes a big stir

My condolences and Rosary decades are with Lily Allen at this time. She has just suffered her second miscarriage. Lily had been six months pregnant before losing her little baby yesterday. The 25 year old singer told her 2 million followers on Twitter to “say a little prayer.” Singer from the US, Justin Bieber wrote: "Just heard the news. My prayers go out to Lily Allen and her family."

It must be time of immense grief for Lily, who after her three month scan was given the ‘all clear’. The memory of that scan must seem surreal for Lily, as she comes to terms with the dire anguish of such a late miscarriage. Many babies who are born prematurely at six months (and younger) do live healthy and happy lives. This is an ultrasound image of one six month old baby.

So far, the news reports on Lily’s miscarriage have overly focused on her unusual Twitter message, asking her readership for prayers. It’s like there’s a media obsession with her appeal for prayer. Is it so extraordinary and atypical when a pop idol/high profile tweeter invites people to pray for her? 

Well, I suppose it is. And that’s what’s so curious, and odd if you will. Not that Lily has asked for prayers, but that a simple request for prayers is understood to be so strange. Has the normal, ‘everyday’ custom/way of asking for prayers fallen so out of regard, that when a celeb asks for prayers, we are positively mystified and stunned?

There’s also the tiny matter that our society raises celebrities to the status of deities. When the famous fall upon hard times, and weep in this valley of tears, (and maybe even ask for prayers) we ‘see the light’, and realise that, ah yes, Lily Allen et al are mere mortals after all. Even if they don’t ask for prayers, they need them just the same.