Mary is a devoted catholic who goes to church every weekend
and some times during the week. She is really aware of her faith and what it entails,
but many times her question has been: “how is it possible that I try to do my
best to keep my prayer life and many times I fail?’ As she was talking and trying
to make sense of it, I asked her: ‘how do you pray?’ Her answer was: ‘I say the
rosary, I pray my novena, I go to mass and confession and I say my prayers.’ After
a moment of silence, I asked again: ‘what do you pray?’ and she told me: ‘I
just told you.’ Feeling her frustration, I continued, well, what about if you
try to pray in a different way, would you be open to do so? ‘I could try,’ her answer
was. I continued, you could try to write down three things every night before
you go to sleep. a) write everything for what you are grateful and happy that
happen during the day, and give thanks to God. b) write down what was not that
good or lead you to be unhappy during the day, and ask for forgiveness to God.
Finally, c) write down what you would like to work on the next day, and ask strength
from God to accomplish it… and then we said our good byes…
This is not my personal practice, but a practice that I learned
many years ago while I was still studying in the seminary… but without a doubt,
it has been a practice that has helped me to understand what needed to be paid
attention to, and what needs to be given time in order to understand it.
Writing became a tool not only to express my happiness and frustrations, but
also a tool that could lead me in what I could do to make my life better… and
even better, how to relate to God with my own words…
No comments:
Post a Comment