Insights

IHET ushers in the Easter season for many Christians and Eid al-Fitr for our Muslim brothers and sisters with an award-winning and reflective poem about prayer and praying. The poem written mindfully and thoughtfully in phrases of six lines or sextet amplifies my personal and subjective experience of living a life of prayer. My view about praying is simple and uncomplicated. I believe that we can pray anywhere, anytime, anyway. 

Here is the piece of poetry for your own reading pleasure and insightful introspection.

Pray

…

…

Pray

…

…

Pray

Hail and praise

The Lord who saves

Pray

For God’s ways

Move through the waves.

Pray

When you’re lost

And uncertain

Pray

At all cost

Where there’s burden.

Pray

When you’re down

And forgotten

Pray

Souls in town

They’re forsaken.

Pray

Hope is gone

Fires are burning

Pray

Nothing’s done

Land is flooding.

Pray

Here I stand

On trembling ground

Pray

I command

Death’s all around.

Pray

Action’s dead

Words are empty

Pray

When misled

False prophecy.

Pray

Let us heal

Seek forgiveness

Pray

Thank the meal

And happiness.

Pray

And bring hope

To us who fear

Pray

Spare the rope

For help is near.

Pray

…

…

Pray

…

…

A prayerful life is not a daily exercise set in stone but is to me, a natural and spontaneous act of being human. Praying is breathing, living ... and nourishing my body, mind and soul with spiritual food. In almost everything I do and aspire for, I discern and make conscious and informed decisions that come from the core of my soul or what many may refer to as “coming from the gut”. I pray everyday for enlightenment, guidance, nourishment, protection and sustenance. 

Praying for me is not always about asking for something or begging a divine providence for a miracle to happen. We do not necessarily have to be religious to pray. All we need is a good sense of spirituality. An inner spirituality strengthened by prayer has the power to balance the vulnerabilities of the human mind and the limitations of the human body (De Loyola ed. Ganss, 1991).

Praying therefore comes in many forms. When I pray, I praise the god I identify with - for me it is the God with many names. This type of prayer is described in the second stanza. When I pray, I acknowledge my human frailties and imperfections. This type of prayer is characterised in the third to the seventh stanzas. When I pray, I seek forgiveness and show gratitude. This type of prayer is shown in the eighth stanza. When I pray, I share a message of hope with the people I pray with and with God from whom I find clarity and light. The ninth stanza is a reflection of this type of prayer.

Prayers can be communicated in many ways. We can recite our prayers, sing them, chant them, write them. We can meditate on our prayers, contemplate with them, reflect through them. But more importantly, I use prayers to simply talk and have a conversation with my personal God who is within me regardless of my spiritual journey and my religion. Whilst for some it helps facilitate the prayerful moment, it is not necessary for me to pray to a diety, a god, an icon, or a symbolic image. All I need is the right moment and the sacred space to put myself in God’s holy presence. More often, I pray in silence even when there are no words to be said. Pausing for a moment of silence to examine our conscience is prayer. This spiritual exercise has been exemplified by St Ignatius of Loyola (De Loyola ed. Ganss, 1991). The first and final stanzas represent this form of prayer in a literal format.

Prayer is a gateway to the soul (Chodron, 1991; Gibran, 2019). I get in touch with my spiritual self through my prayers. Praying helps me to acknowledge and appreciate the wholeness of my human being. Praying enables me to become a holistic person because it helps connect my body, mind and feelings with my soul. Praying can help me move on and get on with life in the midst of all the adversities and tribulations I face everyday. If there is no wholeness in my prayer journey, I may experience a moment of pseudo-prayer or ‘praying in pretence’. But I keep praying because prayer without persistence and patience is only an empty, meaningless and routine lip service (Green, 2007).

I encourage everyone to take one minute each day to be in touch with the dormant spirit within and find meaning in prayer. As we usher in the new year and begin a new journey, I am hoping that prayer can help neutralise the futility of our ‘new year’s resolutions’. Pray, simply pray for a better version of you. I therefore pray for an Easter full of hope for all my family and friends, subscribers and guests, and for all victims and survivors of natural calamities, as well as the covid pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip, and world events where there is one less god in our midst.

References:

Chodron, T. (1991). Open Heart, Clear Mind: An Introduction to the Buddha's Teachings. Snow Lion Publications.

Ganss, G. E. (ed) & De Loyola, St, Ignatius (1991). Spiritual Exercises. Classics of Western Spirituality USA Press.

Gibran, K. (2019). The Prophet. Penguin Classics.

Green, T. H. (2007). When the Well Runs Dry: Prayer Beyond the Beginnings. Ave Maria Press.