Rational Insanity
Prayer
If we go around the world and explore different cultures the prayer always exists although in different forms. Buddhists pray, Muslims pray, Hindus pray, everybody prays, even Satanists pray. I know for a fact that praying is very therapeutic. It puts you into a state where you think everything is all right. Prayer has many physiological effects, you can simply log onto the internet and find pages and pages of medical journals explaining how the rosary, or the mantra, or whatever form of prayer affects bodily functions; but I guess this is not the true essence of prayer – the real essence of prayer comes with the response to the question – Why do we pray?
For me, a very touching scene in the movie, 'The Hunchback of Notredame' is when the pagan gypsy, Esmeralda, the film's heroine walks into the Notredame Cathedral and begins to sing, 'God Help the Outcasts.' Her song is about people asking for so many things in their prayers like glory, riches, and fame, while, her prayer is all about asking for 'nothing'… Anyway, I guess the best way for you guys to see what I mean is for me to give you the lyrics, so here they are: I don't know if you can hear me, or if you're even there/I don't know if you will listen to a humble prayer./They tell me I am just an outcast, I shouldn't speak to you.../Still I see your face, and wonder, were you once an outcast too?/God help the outcasts, hungry from birth. /Show them the mercy they don't find on Earth. /The lost and forgotten, they look to you still. /God help the outcasts, or nobody will. /I ask for nothing, I can get by. /But I know so many less lucky than I. /God help the outcasts, the poor and downtrod. / thought we all were the children of God. /I don't know if there's a reason; /why some are blessed, some not. /Why the few you seem to favor -- /they fear us, flee us, try not to see us./God help the outcasts, the tattered, the torn. /Seeking an answer to why they were born. /Winds of misfortune have blown them about./You made the outcasts, don't cast them out. /The poor and unlucky, the weak and the odd. /I thought we all were the children of God
So, there, that is Esmeralda's prayer and don't you just want to be able to pray like her? I guess the best description of this prayer would be a 'selfless prayer'. Most of the time, when we pray, we pray for things that we want for ourselves, and we forget that there are other people out there who need so much more than just the petty things that we ask for. Most of the time, when we are in pain, we kneel down to pray or seek a silent place where we can compose our thoughts and send those thoughts out to an omnipotent being. I think the prayer should not be used as an escape for our weaknesses. I believe that when we settle down to pray, we have to offer ourselves, to be used as an instrument for divine goodness to spread throughout the world. Ambitious, you might say, but just imagine, everybody closing their eyes and asking silently in their hearts to be instruments of a greater power, one that is the end and the beginning of everything. Don't you think we would all be at peace? Which brings me to something I would like to share to all of you my dear readers, I believe this would be an appropriate way to end this week's rambling, Oh, but before I do, let me say hello to a good friend of mine and fellow Marian Alumni, Atty. Leobeth Deslate, keep reading dear. Now, to a wonderful prayer you can use everyday – the prayer of St. Francis, here it is:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
when there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
Grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand,
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying [to ourselves] that we are born to eternal life.
Be rational; be insane…every once in a while! TTFN! I love you all! Byers!