8.000.000 on Facebook: prayer or oração or oracíon

He cannot be well known can he? Or he is not popular. – Waterstone’s Guildford

eight million

August of last year I asked in Waterstone’s in Guildford why Aleph by Paulo Coelho was not chalked up on their board of new releases.

The reply was unbelievable:

He cannot be well known can he? Or he is not popular.

I walked out in disgust.

Aleph was published September 2011. It was not on display in Waterstone’s.

– Paulo Coelho in Waterstone’s and the author the publisher forgot

The paperback edition of Aleph came out last month. Again not on display in Waterstone’s.

– Aleph now out in paperback!

Aleph is currently published in 74 countries, Paulo Coelho the most translated living writer.

Bookshops in Bassano del Grappa were a breath of fresh air, especially Libreria Palazzo Roberti, a former palace where Napoleon once slept the night.

– Bookshops in Bassano del Grappa

On Sunday Paulo Coelho passed 8 million friends on facebook. Not bad for a writer not well known or not popular!

By common consensus Paulo Coelho has proposed the following for 6pm local time today (Wednesday 4 April 2012):

This past Sunday, when I asked for your suggestions on how we should celebrate reaching 8.000.000 friends on Facebook, the vast majority of you suggested we should say a prayer at a particular time.

Therefore, on Wednesday, April 4, at 6:00 PM (always your local time) I encourage you to say a prayer.

In my prayer, I will ask:

A] For myself. May God guide me and inspire me for the years to come.
B] For my family and friends on Facebook. May God allow all of them to follow their call, their Personal Legend.
C] For my work. May I always be an instrument of the Light.

As we are in different time zones, I strongly believe that the Planet will be filled with light and prayers during 24 hr.

If you don’t feel comfortable with praying, a random act of kindness during the day will certainly be very helpful to humankind.

I will attend an evening service at St Mark’s. It will not be 6pm but a little later. I will light a candle (maybe more) for Canon Andrew White (for his work in Iraq), for Paulo Coelho (thanks for his writing and the wonderful St Joseph’s Day party at which I was his guest last month), Mio Baba (for a wonderful three days together in Bassano del Grappa). I will donate a book to the church library.

Please join us. Tell your friends. A 24 hour wave of prayer and kindness will roll around the world.

Tags: facebook, kindness, Paulo Coelho, prayer