I have started to do something different in my prayers with my children recently.
I have felt the need to open my hands out as I pray instead of holding them together which is how I was always taught.
We had an extraordinary priest come to visit our church a few months ago. His name was Father David. He was visiting from Zimbabwe where he helps run and orphange for children whose parents have died, usually from Aids related illnesses and a house for lepers. His place is called Mother of Peace and there is a link to it on my sidebar.
Father David spoke about a little baby who had been brought to the orphanage in a terribly dehydrated condition. The little baby had no one left to care for him. He didn't even have a name. Father David cared for this child as he died. Loved him as he passed from this world to the next.
And when his tiny, malnourished body was laid to rest in his little coffin Father David laid his own rosary between his little, limp hands.
On the child's little wooden cross they had carved. "God knows" And Father gave the child his own name "David."
Everytime Father David prayed during mass he invited the congregation to lift their open palms as we prayed with him.
This felt very special.
As I raised my hands I was aware of the emptiness I found between them. Yet there was presence also.
I guess the emptiness was mine and the presence was God's.
I was also aware of how the the action of opening out my arms left me disarmed. I was vulnerable.
I was offering something of myself. From my heart.
Yet I was embracing something also. As far as I was giving, as I was opening my arms, disarming myself, surrendering, I was also recieving. My hands were cupped to drink life and at the same time except the nails of the cross. My heart was exposed to except God's loving embrace, his strength and warmth yet also the wounding of love, the sorrow of love.
This must be a daily disarmement for Father David and other's like him. As he bathes lepers and feeds malnourished, abandoned infants. The wound of love in his heart can only be healed by trying to heal others.
By the emptiying of open hands, cupped to give in the same way they recieve.
http://www.motherofpeace.co.uk
Most religious I know pray in this fashion, with their palms up to receive.
ReplyDeleteI think of the Buddhist monks who stand with their begging bowls and chant sutras. The bowls are alternately filled and emptied, as are we. It is a gesture both of receiving and offering, vulnerability, and waiting upon the Lord.
This was so beautiful; I never thought that open hands/arms in prayer as being surrender, acceptance, giving, embracing. Something to definitely share with my family.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
I love this description of Father David and prayer.
ReplyDeleteWe learn so much from each other...when we let ourselves.
I was raised pentacostal, so we're supposed to pray flinging our hands in the air or passed out on the floor. Haha kidding. Sort of. No I'm not kidding.
ReplyDeletenet..thanks for sharing....I agree..I have prayed that way before, and know a lot of people who do..when I do it that way..I feel like I can recieve what He has to give me, and that I am offering everything I have, and laying down before Him.....yesterday...at church we were worshipping, and I don't usually do this..I feel vulnerable,and I don't allow myself to feel that way, well....i found myself opening my arms, and my hands wide..lifting them up to heaven, in the back of my mind im like wow..ok..this is good....to me..i am making myself vulnerable before the Lord, opening myself to Him, recieving all that He has to offer me..accepting it, and giving all of myself to Him..It's like here I am Lord..I am yours. :) oh...and what a feeling!!! God Bless!!!!!
ReplyDeleteYou write in such a tender way, Suzy.
ReplyDeleteThis is very moving and very beautiful too.
God bless Fr David and others like him who minister to the abandoned and the dying - the named and unnamed, all of them children of God and our brothers and sisters.
I, too, like the idea of open hands especially the way you have described it here, Suzy.
There's a letting go and at the same time there's the readying to receive.
I always thought praying with open hands meant that I am will to accept what is offered me. Open hands mean yes and closed hands mean rejection. I want to accept the gifts, whatever they may be, not reject them. Thank you!! This really lifted me up today!!! Cathy
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful reflection! I've known religious who extended their palms like this, too, and it seemed very holy and "ethereal." I love your meditation on the symbolism that can be behind open palms, but I think after praying with my hands clasped my whole life, I would feel very self conscious (at least at first) praying this way. But, then, that would be good, wouldn't it? Anything that perks up focus is a good thing!
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