God Helped Anthony To Write Prayers

Anthony’s Prayers: Thank You Father for Everlasting  is a book featuring vivid, heartfelt prayers and colorful photos that would be a welcome addition to any church library, says Mark Stephenson,  director of the Christian Reformed Church’s Disabilities Concerns office.

In fact, Stephenson's office has obtained 180 copies of the book, written by Anthony Torrone, to distribute to its supporters.

“We will be giving it away to churches that receive offerings for our ministry with the encouragement that they put it in their church library for people to check out,” says Stephenson.

Torrone and a friend — Dick Ter Maat, a  Reformed Church in America pastor — visited the CRC’s office in Grand Rapids, Mich., recently to meet with Stephenson, who has used material in Anthony’s book as a way to pray in various settings.

Stephenson says he has been impressed by the depth of the prayers, and especially by how they express a heartfelt thankfulness by a man who has experienced severe difficulties in life.

Written in a stream-of-consciousness fashion,  Anthony's prayers  express the hope and comfort Anthony has found, throughout many challening times, in God.

A doctor mistakenly gave him an injection — for a flu-like illness — when he was two years old that caused his intellectual disability, says Anthony.

He has never gone to school and yet has been able to transcribe his prayers into a journal and then into the book.

“Anthony’s prayer book pours forth God’s praises like a biblical Psalm. Without paragraphs and rarely a period, it is a continuous litany of thanks for everything from his mother’s baby food to the church, businesses and neighbors who have been his guardian angels,” writes Charlie Honey in a column he wrote for the Grand Rapids Press.

Honey and another Grand Rapids Press reporter helped to edit the book and a Press photographer took many of the pictures contained in the book.

Others in Grand Rapids helped Anthony to pay for publication of the book that came out late last year.

“God helped me to do this book. My lord and savior helped,” said Anthony in an interview after his visit with Stephenson.

“I hope the book will help people know that God is special ... I hope people get God in their hearts and trust God who is a good father who always keeps his promises.”

A while after he was injured by the doctor’s injection, says Anthony, he was intituitonized for a time in an institution in which he says he was abused and neglected. The institution is now closed.

Once he left the institution in New York state, he and his mother moved to Grand Rapids.

He says he is blessed with a sharp memory, allowing him to remember the exact day and the weather on that day of birthdays and other events.

Now living in an apartment filled with creations he made out of Legos, Anthony likes to do odd jobs for people and businesses in his neighborhood, and works at a local pharmacy.

He says he began  writing prayers in the early 2000s, putting them down in longhand and capitalizing every letter. Many of his prayers are prayers of thanks for his mother, who has passed on,
and for various friends.

“God always follows us to see if we are OK,” says Anthony.

Anthony had dreamed for years that his book would be published. At this point, however, he has no plans to write another one.

He simply would like to see his book become readily available to many people, especially to those who are in prisons.

The book has a message for inmates. “God wants them to live in God’s way and to be safe and have normal lives,” he said in the interview.

One of Anthony’s prayers:

“I’m so glad my mom had brought me up good
and right
and took good care of me
and that is why living by myself has
helped me a lot
I want to continue father to life by myself
In your way”
“I want to thank you for letting me live right
live normal
live healthy without convulsions
also without seizures
and I havnt had any of it happen to me since sun oct 27 74 1030 pm”
“I want to thank you for helping me doing a good job
and doing that is my favorite hobby
and I enjoy doing it in your way
and I appreciated it
sorry my mom is not here to see it”