If I were to say to someone "I pity you", I would be, and have been, considered condescending at best. But when someone says "I'll pray for you", in the sense that is intended here, that of addressing some perceived pitiable character flaw making that person inferior in some way, we're expected to be grateful.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'