learning to pray from st. therese
May isa anay ka lalaki nga ginahapohapo nga nagdalagan pasulod sa iya opisina kag nagsiling, “terible ang naagyan ko bag-o gid lang!" Ang tanan nagtulok sa iya nga may kakibot sa nagapalamuti nila nga kaupod. Kag sia nagpadayon sa pagsugid, “sang didto ako sa tienda, sang nagabakal ako sang palamahawon ko nga bichokoy kada adlaw, gulpi lang may mga nagadalagan nga mga tawo nga may dala nga armas. Bumalikid sila kag nagpaarak sang ila mga pusil sa mga nagalagas sa ila. Lumumpat ako sa kilid kag nagkober. Abi ko mapatay na gid ako kay daw ginaagyan-agyan lang ako sang mga bala sa ila pagtirohay. Hay, maayo lang buhi pa ako!”
Naghipos ang lalaki kag ang tanan natulala sa iya istorya. Sa hinali may kaupod sila nga nagbayaw sang iya kamot kag nagpamangkot,”Pare, tuod ka, bichokoy gali ang pamahaw mo kada aga?”
Daw pareho man sang natabo kay Fr. Medyphil sang upod kami sa parokya. Isa ka gab-i sang yara ako sa balkonahe tinawag ko sia, ”Medz, Medz, dali, kanami sang fireworks.” Kumayampad man sia sing dalagan, wala sia kahibalo may kristal gali, kag sa dakung dimalas binunguan niya ang kristal kag lumagabong.
Sang aga, sinugid ko sa mga kaupod ko ang natabo kag ang una gid nga ila ginpamangkot, ”ay ti, na ano ang kristal?”
Hay kailinit, wala gid sila abi namangkot kon ano ang natabo sa ilong ni Fr. Medyphil!Sometimes, we can be so concerned about our own narrow interests that we often miss the obvious, and this is what the gospel is pointing out to us today. A man who was blind from birth was given his eyesight back after so many years, and all they were concerned of was the law, all that they’ve ever discussed was the law which prohibits anyone from healing on a Sabbath.
A man who was blind from birth was given his eyesight back after so many years and all they were concerned of was how he got to be blind: Was it caused by the sins of his parents or was it caused by his own personal sins while he was still in the womb of his mother?
A man almost lost his life in a shoot out and all they were concerned of was the bichokoy he ate every day for merienda. A man was hurt when he ran through a glass door and all they were ever concerned of was the status of the door.
Today, the Lord gives us a study in contrast. As he slowly opened the eyes of the blind man, as he slowly gave sight to the man born blind, the eyesight of the Pharisees grew dimmer and dimmer.
As the blind reveled in his new found sight, the Pharisees where reveling in their vision that has grown dimmer still. When the blind man recovered his sight, his eyes, his vision became more and more acute to what was happening in his life and recognized that Jesus is indeed the Messiah, the Son of God. But the Pharisees in their desire to do away with Jesus became ever more obstinate in opening their eyes to see what was becoming more and more obvious, even the blind can see.
Some people can only see what they want to see, in the same way that they believe what they only want to believe despite the obvious. That is why we have a problem with the truth, a problem with what is true and what is a lie.
My task before you today is to prepare you for our conference this evening on prayer. We will reflect on prayer as experienced by St. Therese with the hope that her experience of prayer will help us grow in our prayer life.
In prayer it is important that our eyes are opened to the truth, to the obvious truth. It is important that we see things in the light of God’s light.
“The truth about what,” you ask. For St. Therese the two foundational truths in prayer are the following: the truth about ourselves and the truth about God. These are the basics of prayer.
Go ahead pray the rosary as much as you like; pray your breviary as much as you want; go ahead, make mortifications, do fasting and abstinence, grow calluses on your knees. But if there is no knowledge and acknowledgement of the truth about yourself and there is not knowledge regarding the truth about yourself who stand before the truth about God, there can be no real prayer and with that there can be no real effect of prayer in our life.
We may have come here to ask St. Therese to heal us of our diseases, to solve for us our problems and difficulties. But for one who really prays, for one who has knowledge of the truth about himself or herself before God, a cancer, an arthritis can very well be the way we can draw closer to him, and these problems we wanted solve, can very well be the help we need to keep us in perspective on what is really important in our life.
There is a very big difference between real prayer and one who makes so many pretensions in his prayer. We can be so ardent in our prayer for the conversion of another and feel like we are doing an heroic and saintly endeavor. But in reality we are the ones who need conversion, sometimes even as much as the other person we judge. Why – because in our prayer we fail to see first the truth about ourselves.
We are like that seemingly godly neighbor who looking out of her glass window see nothing but dirty laundry hanging on the clothesline of her neighbor. “Look what a bad mother my neighbor is,” she exclaimed. “She does not even know how to wash the clothes of her children.”
But one day while she was pointing this out to a friend, the friend took a closer look, and lo and behold, it was the window that was dirty. She was looking at her neighbor’s laundry through a dirty window, her window. And that is the truth – the truth about herself. The truth that we can very well be the cause of other people’s evil, the truth that we are the one’s in need of conversion and not them, at least directly.
Therese realized that she was little, that she was incapable of doing anything great and even anything good at all; the truth that the only things that she can truly own were her imperfections, her self-will, her contempt for those she considers buki and provinciano. For this she realized how big and bloated her ego was, as bloated as a frog puffing air on its body to make herself look big and gigantic. There she realized the truth about herself. And there began the story of a soul, a soul who realized she was too little in the greatness of God who is nothing else but Merciful Love.
For us who are starting to pray, the truth is not out there. Most often the truth is in here, in our hearts, to be realized and can only be acknowledged when we look at ourselves as we look at the mirror who is God.
This is the foundation of prayer. Without this truth, our prayers will not be real prayers but pretenses before a God who sees what is truly in our heart.
There is only one recorded instance where God laughed – in Psalm 59. And you Lord God laughed at fools!
Naghipos ang lalaki kag ang tanan natulala sa iya istorya. Sa hinali may kaupod sila nga nagbayaw sang iya kamot kag nagpamangkot,”Pare, tuod ka, bichokoy gali ang pamahaw mo kada aga?”
Daw pareho man sang natabo kay Fr. Medyphil sang upod kami sa parokya. Isa ka gab-i sang yara ako sa balkonahe tinawag ko sia, ”Medz, Medz, dali, kanami sang fireworks.” Kumayampad man sia sing dalagan, wala sia kahibalo may kristal gali, kag sa dakung dimalas binunguan niya ang kristal kag lumagabong.
Sang aga, sinugid ko sa mga kaupod ko ang natabo kag ang una gid nga ila ginpamangkot, ”ay ti, na ano ang kristal?”
Hay kailinit, wala gid sila abi namangkot kon ano ang natabo sa ilong ni Fr. Medyphil!Sometimes, we can be so concerned about our own narrow interests that we often miss the obvious, and this is what the gospel is pointing out to us today. A man who was blind from birth was given his eyesight back after so many years, and all they were concerned of was the law, all that they’ve ever discussed was the law which prohibits anyone from healing on a Sabbath.
A man who was blind from birth was given his eyesight back after so many years and all they were concerned of was how he got to be blind: Was it caused by the sins of his parents or was it caused by his own personal sins while he was still in the womb of his mother?
A man almost lost his life in a shoot out and all they were concerned of was the bichokoy he ate every day for merienda. A man was hurt when he ran through a glass door and all they were ever concerned of was the status of the door.
Today, the Lord gives us a study in contrast. As he slowly opened the eyes of the blind man, as he slowly gave sight to the man born blind, the eyesight of the Pharisees grew dimmer and dimmer.
As the blind reveled in his new found sight, the Pharisees where reveling in their vision that has grown dimmer still. When the blind man recovered his sight, his eyes, his vision became more and more acute to what was happening in his life and recognized that Jesus is indeed the Messiah, the Son of God. But the Pharisees in their desire to do away with Jesus became ever more obstinate in opening their eyes to see what was becoming more and more obvious, even the blind can see.
Some people can only see what they want to see, in the same way that they believe what they only want to believe despite the obvious. That is why we have a problem with the truth, a problem with what is true and what is a lie.
My task before you today is to prepare you for our conference this evening on prayer. We will reflect on prayer as experienced by St. Therese with the hope that her experience of prayer will help us grow in our prayer life.
In prayer it is important that our eyes are opened to the truth, to the obvious truth. It is important that we see things in the light of God’s light.
“The truth about what,” you ask. For St. Therese the two foundational truths in prayer are the following: the truth about ourselves and the truth about God. These are the basics of prayer.
Go ahead pray the rosary as much as you like; pray your breviary as much as you want; go ahead, make mortifications, do fasting and abstinence, grow calluses on your knees. But if there is no knowledge and acknowledgement of the truth about yourself and there is not knowledge regarding the truth about yourself who stand before the truth about God, there can be no real prayer and with that there can be no real effect of prayer in our life.
We may have come here to ask St. Therese to heal us of our diseases, to solve for us our problems and difficulties. But for one who really prays, for one who has knowledge of the truth about himself or herself before God, a cancer, an arthritis can very well be the way we can draw closer to him, and these problems we wanted solve, can very well be the help we need to keep us in perspective on what is really important in our life.
There is a very big difference between real prayer and one who makes so many pretensions in his prayer. We can be so ardent in our prayer for the conversion of another and feel like we are doing an heroic and saintly endeavor. But in reality we are the ones who need conversion, sometimes even as much as the other person we judge. Why – because in our prayer we fail to see first the truth about ourselves.
We are like that seemingly godly neighbor who looking out of her glass window see nothing but dirty laundry hanging on the clothesline of her neighbor. “Look what a bad mother my neighbor is,” she exclaimed. “She does not even know how to wash the clothes of her children.”
But one day while she was pointing this out to a friend, the friend took a closer look, and lo and behold, it was the window that was dirty. She was looking at her neighbor’s laundry through a dirty window, her window. And that is the truth – the truth about herself. The truth that we can very well be the cause of other people’s evil, the truth that we are the one’s in need of conversion and not them, at least directly.
Therese realized that she was little, that she was incapable of doing anything great and even anything good at all; the truth that the only things that she can truly own were her imperfections, her self-will, her contempt for those she considers buki and provinciano. For this she realized how big and bloated her ego was, as bloated as a frog puffing air on its body to make herself look big and gigantic. There she realized the truth about herself. And there began the story of a soul, a soul who realized she was too little in the greatness of God who is nothing else but Merciful Love.
For us who are starting to pray, the truth is not out there. Most often the truth is in here, in our hearts, to be realized and can only be acknowledged when we look at ourselves as we look at the mirror who is God.
This is the foundation of prayer. Without this truth, our prayers will not be real prayers but pretenses before a God who sees what is truly in our heart.
There is only one recorded instance where God laughed – in Psalm 59. And you Lord God laughed at fools!
Comments