Part 2: The Prayers of the Saints, Chapter 2: Gabriel's Prayer Summary

The chapter Gabriel's Prayer is told from Gabriel's point of view. Like Florence's prayer, it is the musings of Gabriel's mind during the Tarry Service. The story line weaves in and out of the present service and past events in his life. In this chapter, we learn that Gabriel's own nature and spotted past cause him to see sin in everyone around him. As a young man, he spent many nights out getting drunk and ending up in the beds of strange women. He would then quietly slink back home, nursing a hangover, to listen to his mother's preachy admonitions. His mother wanted him to follow a righteous path and while he felt that he should, when night came he was always too weak to follow through...