Lent is a good season to pray for others. Here are a few ideas for this season and for all year round. It’s not a complete list by any means, but it might spark some ideas.

Pray with your family tree. Start by praying for your siblings and all the children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and any great-greats. Then go back in time, praying for your parents, grandparents, for any who are living or who might still be in purgatory. Aunts, uncles and cousins too. Remember old stories and ask God to forgive old wrongs and to bless those who were a blessing to you. Wind it up by thanking God for all your ancestors — known and unknown — especially those that passed the faith along all the way down to you.

Pray for old friends and acquaintances. Always there are people we’ve known along the way that we’ve lost track of over the years. Think back to your childhood and pray for classmates, teachers and others you recall from that time. Do the same kind of reflection of your teen and young adult years, including people from the various jobs you’ve had and places where you’ve lived. Be sure to include a prayer for at least one person who was a thorn in your side — and ask the Holy Spirit to give you insight into his/her life at that time.

Pray for priests, for the priests you have known in your life — pastors, associates, retreat leaders, counselors, teachers and any who have visited you or your family members in the hospital. Pray for the “priest of the day” from The Observer monthly calendar in the last issue of each month. Pray for the priests you see on TV, or online, or in our pages. Pray for Bishop Malloy and for our retired Bishops Doran and O’Neill. Pray also for any priests — known or not known to you — who are struggling with ill health, with loneliness, with temptations or with parishioners-who-have-their-own-agendas. And pray for Pope Benedict XVI.

Pray for members of religious orders, including any religious sisters who taught you or helped you out in any way. Pray for their communities and for their personal growth in holiness.

Pray with sirens. Whenever you hear a siren, you can bet there’s a problem somewhere and that people are hurting or in danger. Even without knowing the situation, we can pray for “all who are involved,” and ask God to have mercy on anyone who is injured or ill, to assist and protect the fire or police or ambulance personnel who are responding and to help family members who are probably frantic. Even if the siren is that of a police officer stopping a speeding car, the officer and the speeder both need our prayers.

Speaking of speeding cars … let’s pray for the bad drivers we notice. These prayers are good for those bad drivers, and they are good for our own growth in holiness. Impatient drivers may be facing an emergency situation, struggling with barely-controlled anger, not coping well with crushing disappointment or with some huge fear. We don’t know their inner workings — but we can be certain that they need our prayers. Bad drivers of the slower variety could be struggling with physical limitations or they may be desperately preoccupied and worried about something. Again, we can pray for them without knowing specifics, and we can ask God to protect others from them and to help our own driving missteps.

Pray for pedestrians, shoppers, bicyclists and others you happen to see, especially for the kids and adults who are waiting for a bus. And especially for people who look really tired, in pain, or just down-and-out. And especially for those who are waiting in lines.

Pray for celebrities. It seems that a good many people who find success in entertainment or sports have new or old burdens that are larger than average. From the comedians who turned to laughter to deal with a difficult young life to the athletes whose upbringing was filled with strife and loss, we can help them all with prayer. Pick a favorite celebrity and hold him or her up to God in your daily prayer. If you hear of one who struggles with addiction or divorce, hold him or her up as well.

Pray for the safety of those whose work may place them in harm’s way, such as our service men and women, first responders, construction workers, farmers, and others needing extra prayers for safety. Pray for semi drivers, taxi drivers and pizza delivery people. Pray for the safety of all college students and for anyone who is working late tonight.

And finally, pray for yourself, for eternal things — like holiness and the various virtues ­— more often than for earthly things.

Let’s wrap the world in prayer this Lent.