Lent Day 38: The immorality in seeking whatever we want

Prayers these days are becoming a want based asking to God. There are many who claim that they can bring God down, can get whatever someone wants and God is at their beck and call. The decency of prayer has been lost and aggressive prayers are being marketed as normal. Anything goes for prayer and right from childhood, children are taught to ask whatever they want. God has been reduced to a provider who provides whatever.

During lent, as we think about morals and values and what can be seen as morality, it would be good to audit and review our prayers and ways of praying. Have we crossed all limits and have we used our freedom with Jesus to ask whatever we want? Do we instead have the understanding to spend time in silence, conversing with God and letting God know of our pains and problems instead of asking for unrealistic and immoral things? Is it possible to go back to community-based prayers whereby a negotiation and dialogue happens, in which, the community uses its maturity to put forth prayers of needs instead of wants.  

In St. Mark10, verse 35, the brothers James and John put forward an unrealistic prayer to Jesus. They say, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” In a group of twelve, which again extended to a very big group of disciples from all walks of life, these two come up with a strange request. When thought about, it is an immoral request which reeks of individualism in the midst of the community of disciples. Upon further probing by Jesus, they make clear what they really want.

In the midst of poverty, hunger, sickness and injustice, the two disciples are thinking of power and glory. They ask for a strange request in verse 37, when they say, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” This is what is happening in today’s world too. In the midst of suffering, we are interested in power and positions. In no way are our requests going to help those who are suffering but we are obsessed with such immoral thoughts.

This lent, we should identify such immoral thoughts and prayer requests. Our quest for wealth, buildings, fame, money and success are a slap on the face of the poor and the hungry. It is so very important that we relook what immorality is. Are they individual bad habits or are they prayers which negate the health of the community and seek individual growth and wealth? As we close in on passion week, may this make us think, repent and change. Amen.

Lent Day 30: See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil

Exorcism or expelling of an evil spirit is found in many religions, primal and other. There are also primal religious forms which have religious performances in which a performer becomes someone else for a while and gives oracles and opinions. Both have been misunderstand in mainline society and religion. Exorcism is done in vulgar forms leading to a life long scar for the person accused of being possessed by a spirit. Religious performances are not evil but religious expressions connected with nature and performed by tribals, adivasis and dalits. 

Despite this, mainline society is obsessed with stories and incidents of possession and evil creatures and people. So much so that all mainline religions are forced to provide religious solutions for such so called possessions. Some denominations even have prayers for it while others get creative and address the needs of the situation. Force and even threats and violence is used to tame the evil spirit. The atmosphere itself is scary and strange. Few people actually seek professional help and guidance of psychologists. 

The 1993 Malayalam movie “Manichitrathazhu” is perhaps one of the rare movies and civil society efforts to find a solution which uses the help of a psychology doctor and a religious priest at the same time. A sort of mutual respect. But the movie was successful in bringing out the serious issue of spirit possession and the ways it is dealt with in traditional societies. In St. Luke 4: 31-36, Jesus encounters a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon. But Jesus’ response is exemplary. The noise and big performance is put up by the man while Jesus is calm and assured. 

It is also interesting that the man with the unclean spirit was in the synagogue. 

Lent is a time when we can challenge many superstitions and wrong thoughts. People are not only concerned with people with evil spirits, but also houses which are possessed. Religious leaders are called in to pray and expel the evil spirits from the house and even building and land. The leaders then suggest change in position, change in main door, change in gate, and digging and putting prayed upon threads, stones and special items for the expelling of the evil spirit and for a change in fortune. 

Jesus did not do any of this. He called upon the spirit, asked it to be quiet and asked it to come out. He then asked them to not identify him and not say that he was the son of God. Lent should be seen as a time to cleanse our mind of such superstitious thoughts. Instead, we should get help for the concerned person by listening, spending time with them, assuring them and then identifying deep seated traumas and experiences which bring about these seizures and so called possessions. Lent is a time to tame, not by violence and superstition, but by touch and prayer. Amen.

Lent Day 20: Knowing God enough to not ask

How easy is it to ask something to a loved one? Even though many think it is easy, that is not the case. We will be reluctant on two counts. One, we won’t ask because we don’t want to trouble them. Two, we won’t ask because we know that they are not in a position to give. Contrary to what we think, the more we love a person, the less we would want to ask. We also care a lot about the person close to us that we always want the best for them and we also wouldn’t want them being troubled by anyone else as well.

St. Mark 11: 24 reveals a difficult verse for us. It says, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” The problem with this verse is the problem of expectation. Since there is a promise in the prayer, when someone prays and still does not get an answer, it can be felt and argued that the priest or person praying does not have the gift to pray, ask and receive. Since Jesus’ words are very assuring the prayer is as good as being answered.   

There are two kinds of children. The ones who will keep asking even though they know that their parents either do not want to buy them something or have other pressing concerns and the ones who understand the situation their parents are in and are therefore very empathetic and understanding in their approach. Lent is a time for developing this understanding. Being a child of God does not just mean that all our prayers will be answered. A child should have the maturity to know what and when to ask. Some children gain this maturity at a young age and take up the responsibility of the house along with this.

We can ask for something and relentless asking will also lead to God accepting. But during lent, if we consider ourselves part of God’s plan for the kingdom of God, we will become part of God’s solution for the world. We will brainstorm along with God, provide food for the hungry on behalf of God and worry about the world along side God. Lent is a time to develop a spiritual maturity which will take us to higher heights of renunciation which will mean being closer to God than we ever were. Amen.

 

 

The difference between faith and superstition in a time like this

It is important to sift through and differentiate between the grain and the husk at this critical time. More than ever we are faced with false prophets and prophecies which seek to benefit a particular speaker and is not the word of God. It is easy to get confused and misled and life can become very gloomy in the process. Without realising it, we tend to misunderstand many superstitions as faith. One has to talk of one's faith and there is no need to be ashamed by it. But there is no need to defend superstition, because it is not about faith but a corruption that has come in at some point of time. Below is a list of differences between faith and superstition.

1. Faith tells us that God’s mysterious intervention makes the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. This body and blood will offer eternal life. It cannot be totally understood. Yet it should not blind us but should show us light. Superstition makes us think that when we can’t offer or be part of Holy Communion on a particular day, it is inauspicious, unlucky and will be a curse for us. Services have been cancelled in several parts of the world. There are many who believe that this is not good and one should worship in the church at any cost, because otherwise it would not bode well for the community. 

2. Faith makes us visit the sick, pray for them and give them strength and hope. We see doctors as instruments of God. What is around us and for us is seen as good and not as a challenge to God. God is above everything and everyone is placed by God. We do not see a doctor as God but as a person used by God to reveal God's mercy. Superstition forces us to stay away from the doctor’s advice or even from the doctor himself/herself saying that God will heal us and there is no need for doctors or their prescriptions. Here doctors are placed on the same measuring balance with God and this is not fair to the doctors. We must respect them but do not need to worship them and whenever we do that, it becomes a superstition. But ignoring them and not going to them does not make us more religious. 

3. Faith makes us kneel and pray wherever we are. We are the same everywhere and don’t have different characters in different places. We all see the church building as a place which is special, holy and filled with memories. But we don't have two characters or behaviour, one inside the church and another outside it.  

Superstition gives us a special character when we are in a church and a totally different and negative character when we are outside it. This makes us different people at church and at home. The unavailability of a church is an unavailability of a chance to be good. But associating goodness with a place is a superstition. 

4. Faith does not make us test God and we will be like Christ who tells the devil that we should never test/ tempt the Lord our God. God is always there for us. God's love for us is unconditional. Faith makes us believe this one hundred percent. So there is no question of wanting God to do something to prove God's love for us. Superstition makes us test God to see if God truly cares about us. We want to be convinced time and again that God is with us. So much, that we don’t mind ‘forcing’ God to perform miracles. 

5. Faith is not trying to prove God’s prominence over anything but rather saying that God is everything for us. It does not mean that we refuse or disobey worldly authorities. Jesus’ advise is to give to God what is God’s and to Caesar what is Caesar’s. When a government says something for our good, people of faith don't feel challenged, because their faith is not wavering. Superstition questions worldly authority to the extend that it is made fun of, openly challenged, sneered at and disobeyed. Disobeying rules which are supposed to be good for people, is seen as a prerogative and something done to show off our pride of being religious.

 

6. Faith encourages hope and a better future no matter what the present condition. Even in the worst of times, those with faith will never give up and will continue turning every obstacle into an opportunity. People of faith are a blessing to society, because we see a glow on their faces, which radiates onto us as well. Superstition concentrates on “I told you so” prophesies which tries to tell people that we saw it coming and foresaw this much earlier. Instead of hope, fear is spread and is used as a way to get followers and supporters. These followers then spread the messages of hate and fear which will further divide communities instead of uniting them.

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7. Faith walks on water without talking about it. We meet people but don’t necessarily mention what struggles we went through to reach there. Every action and word is faith for such people but faith is never marketed. Faith is a matter of fact thing. Superstition creates miracles because it thrives on them. Miracles have to be talked about, blown out of proportion and packaged well when one is superstitious. So it is not whether one can walk on water but to make others believe that we can walk on water.

 

8. Faith is not overly ritualistic. It does not matter how many times you have knelt, prostrated and prayed but with what sincerity and truthfulness one has prayed. Fasting then should be a joyful exercise where no one gets to know that we are fasting. We are all ritualistic, but rituals cannot replace faith and belief. Superstition is overly ritualistic. Number of times and when and where matters rather than sincerity and truthfulness. Prayers can be rushed and mumbled as long as it is ‘completed’. The ritual then gets more importance than the act of faith.

 

9. Faith does not crumble when a church place or land is lost or becomes unavailable. It is in the heart and soul of a person. It cannot be taken away. Jesus said that one cannot destroy another's soul. Only the body can be destroyed. Faith is inside a person and cannot be snatched away no matter what. Superstition melts easily. When a physical space which is seen as important or a person who is seen as a powerful leader is lost, the superstitious crumble to pieces. It is like they have lost their way.

10. Faith does not automatically get handed over. Not everyone can get it because it is also an individual commitment to God. Just because a parent has faith, a child cannot automatically get it. One has to work hard for one's faith and it cannot be handed on a platter. Superstition passes on to the next generation very easily. It does not matter whether it is understood or not or whether it serves a good purpose. Continuity is wrongly associated with superstition and the acceptance and embracing of superstitions.

In a time like this, we need faith and have to sift through properly to find the grains we seek. Our faith is like the grain while superstition is the husk which has to be blown away and thrown in the fire.

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Prayer to unleash the power of God inside us

Help us God to identify the power of the image of God that we are created in. May we not step back thinking that we are ordinary and simple people who can't make a difference in this world. Instead, allow us to connect with our soul so that we can see the sufferings in life and react accordingly to them. Today, make us think that we don't need the usual things of the world to succeed but only need to uncover the image of God inside us. Lord, may this understanding inspire people from ordinary backgrounds, bereft of flashy degrees and societal success to come out and do their best by believing profoundly and deeply in God. Jesus, may we not hide in the comfort of the weekend but explore the power of our mind which is fed by unending faith in God. Someone is waiting for us to speak and act, to make a difference and to change something. May we use the power Peter had to say that "Silver and gold I have none, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk." May our prayer this weekend trigger healing, fight injustice and bring happiness. Today we hold on to you Holy Spirit and believe that indeed we can change the world for the good. In your name triune God we pray. Amen.

Prayer to overcome depression

Gracious God, we pray for all those who are depressed because of various reasons. We submit those who have family problems, lack of a job, tensions at the work place, pressure in schools and colleges and are depressed because of the huge expectations that society has from them. Help us to admit that we need help and prayers and that we need to reach out to various people using our own experiences and stories of having undergone depression. Jesus, help us to help ourselves and others so that we and others don't get too desperate and take extreme measures. Instead, allow us to build communities of love and understanding like you did. As anyone could come to you and get help, may we be of help to those who approach us. Strengthen us Holy Spirit to overcome depression in its various forms so that we will live the life that God wants us to. Teach us to not ignore and push away those who are depressed or on the verge of depression and instead treat it as an emotion that all of us go through. Rescue us and those close to us dear Lord from the jaws of depression. Amen.

Prayer for best use of inventions during catastrophes

Lord God, we pray that you teach us well as to how we should use the inventions that you have inspired us to make. As we undergo a severe cyclone in several parts of the country we pray that governments and departments don't fight each other and pin the blame on one another. Instead, send the spirit of wisdom to each one to work as a team for saving lives and securing livelihoods. We pray for a responsible media that makes use of great technology with investigative and life saving reporting and not making a mockery of those affected. Help us Jesus to pray and help those who are at the receiving end of cyclones and heavy rain by sending food and clothes and helping in rehabilitation. May our prayers make us uncomfortable and push us to be in solidarity with those who suffer so that this natural catastrophe will be limited in causing damage. Be with us Holy Spirit so that every single brick of development will help people during worst crises instead of worsening them. Amen.

A prayer for child like innocence

Allow us God to revisit our childhood and experience the innocence that made us children. May this weekend offer wonderful memories of how carefree and tension less we were as children. Dear God, may we for a little time forget deadlines, EMI's and work pressures and lie down on your inviting lap to close our eyes and feel comforted with your warmth and love. Help us Lord to truly unwind and release the pressures which have made us inhuman and angry. Speak to us Jesus and remind us of the virtue of being child like instead of always being adult, cold and ruthless. Join us and play with us Holy Spirit with the light, pleasing breeze that you are so that in the midst of all our problems we will trust your wisdom. May we dilute our problems with child modelled plans of relaxation and recharge ourselves with adventure and excitement from you God. Amen.

Prayer for the birthday of St. Mary

Dear God, as we celebrate the birthday of Mother Mary help us understand why you choose people for doing your work. Help us to accept your choice instead of always desiring what someone else has. Mother Mary was young, inexperienced, had no backing of the prevalent power structure and yet was chosen by God to bear his son. We understand now that she feared God but was fearless when it came to engaging with the injustice in society, her wisdom was much beyond her year's and she had love and compassion for people in the world. Help us today God to be fearless, to act beyond  our age when the need arises and to have love and compassion for the poor and needy. We pray for individuals in society who have been Mary like through their actions. Some of them have been attacked and done away with but never the less they live on like Mary. Help us Jesus to accept that we must be fearless in our life and not be scared of death. It is better to die with courage than to live with fear. May we intercede to Mary and become Mary in our life so that God selects us to be God's workers to bring about justice and peace in this world. Intercede for us Mother Mary, the fearless one selected by God. Amen.

Prayer to overcome wrongdoing

We commit ourselves God before you and offer ourselves for contemplation and correction. We look back at our life and seek your wisdom to understand and accept acts of hurt, misunderstanding, anger, hatred and high handedness that have come out of us. We seek forgiveness from you for every short coming and every insensitive remark or attitude that has slipped out from us. What has come out cannot be taken back but we can seek your forgiveness God to correct ourselves and learn to become better people. Help us to understand Jesus how we can look at the needs of people and give importance to them rather than to ourselves. Give us strength Holy Spirit to overcome our ego which is continuously tempting us to do evil and bad things. As we fold our hands God and pray, may it be a folding of our ego and our soul in commitment towards good and nice things. Amen.

Prayer for strength during grief

Give us we pray God the grace and understanding to grieve with those families who have lost a near and dear one. Show us the way to be with them, say words of comfort, be anything but judgemental, and offer our own stories of pain and grief as a means of empathetic friendship. Help us Jesus to offer hope like you did to Martha and Mary. We believe in you like they did and know that you are the resurrection and life. Those who believe in you will live even though they die. Lead us well Holy Spirit to pray for the departed that they rest in peace in paradise in the assuring presence of our fore fathers and fore mothers waiting with anticipation for the second coming of our Lord. May this hope lead us God to go to grieving homes with courage and strength to thank God for the life of those who move on to a better place while still being dear and valuable to their loved ones. Amen.

Prayer for Teacher's day

We thank you God for those who taught us and continue to teach us in schools and colleges and through conversations and messages. Our teachers inspired us, looked us in the eye and said we can do it, when people much closer had given up. We pray today for our teachers as they also need our prayers and good wishes. We take this day as all days to be thankful and respectful to what our teachers have done for us. We are guided by your life on earth Jesus to acknowledge the teachers who have taught us many things outside the class room and who stood for us when the world was against us. You made heroes out of ordinary disciples Jesus, and today we have become special because of your guidance and because of those who you chose to guide us. Thank you Holy Spirit for the spirit of commitment you have given to our teachers so that they taught us with very little and for even less but did it during sunshine and rain never for once giving up. Thank you Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Prayer during a festival

We thank you God for the opportunities to celebrate festivals with our brothers and sisters from different faiths. We hope that people live in harmony and use such opportunities to learn about one another and about our common histories. May the celebrations be a sharing of what we have and to make sure that no one lives in poverty and no one cries due to the lack of basic facilities.
As is said in Micah 4:3-5"...they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken it. For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever." Thereby God, may we use the opportunities that we get to celebrate, as times to feed the poor, visit the sick and elderly, meet friends and family and love everyone we know and come across. Amen.

Prayer at the beginning of the week

Loving God, there are many things to feel sorry for and get angry about. But there are several other things to feel happy and hopeful about. Help us at the beginning of the week to feel strong in hope and be fearless in our pursuit of happiness and peace. In our relationship with you God we understand that we should always be hopeful and any set back is only a learning to become stronger. Jesus, help us to identify our strengths and stick to them instead of plotting how to hide our weaknesses. We have been inspired by you to think that we need not be ashamed of our weaknesses because our strengths are far greater and stronger. Holy Spirit, we thank you for giving us the courage to believe in ourselves and survive in the midst of adversities and various forms of evil. Bless us Lord for a strong and happy week where the feeling of accomplishment will out shine everything else. Amen.

Prayer with intercession to St. Mary

Help us God to submit ourselves before you for great things. We are talented because we have been created by you but we haven't peaked yet and realised our dream because we haven't come under your shadow of grace. Mother Mary was a pious woman who was already spiritual and yet when she submitted herself to you God instead of society, she became inspirational and fearless to bear your son and became the leader of the early church. We intercede with our Mother Mary and seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit which will make us fearless to fight any and every injustice and realise every dream we have because it has God's blessings. May we also we pray be born of the Holy Spirit and become Jesus like to do the impossible. With deep and loving intercession of Mother Mary we pray. Amen.

Prayer of hope

We give thanks to you gracious God for small, big and unending mercies that you so graciously shower upon us. Help us to understand that you will never allow anything bad to happen to us because you love us unconditionally. May we look to you in prayer and love one another unconditionally because that is who we are and what we should do. We pray for tenderness, care, sacrifice and love to be part of our reportoire so that people may experience God when they talk to us and relate with us. Show us Jesus how you naturally slipped into the role of the son of God and served those on earth without expecting anything in return. Accompany us Holy Spirit because then we can only reflect you in all circumstances. We seek you God in all that we do. Amen.

Prayer of suffering

Help us Lord to become you and to sacrifice ourselves at the altar for you. We are so concerned about our status and our future that we have forgotten the gospel and the suffering which accompanies it. In Matthew 16 our Lord Jesus, when Peter said that you are the Messiah, you declared that you would build your church on Peter the rock. But when he took you aside and said that you will never suffer, you declared to him “Get behind me Satan”, for he became a stumbling block for you. May we God, never be a stumbling block before you and prevent the poor from being fed and the needy from getting help. Instead let us declare that you are the living God who takes care of all who come to you. May we never see and experience the gospel as comfortable but as suffering which will bring victory and the foretaste of the kingdom of God. Bless us and strengthen us Lord to carry our cross cheerfully. Amen.

Prayer for true friendship

What a friend we have in Jesus and how wonderful it is to know that. Loving God, you have loved us like a friend through Jesus Christ your son. He told us to do the same and love each other and lay down our life for our friends. Today we thank you for the gift of friendship and for the spirit to make new friends so that we may sacrifice for them. We know that unless we accept others into our circle of friendship, we will never love them completely. They will always remain strangers and we will never help strangers. Help us to build circles of friendship instead of one circle which is limiting and small. You have accepted us Jesus in so much that we are not just your servants but your friends. May we accept each other unconditionally and know that we have been created by God for each other and to be in each others caring arms. In the name of Christ Jesus we pray. Amen.

Prayer of assurance

Gracious Lord, we start today knowing that there will be problems at every juncture without you. And yet we are assured in the belief that every time we think of you and fold our hands in thanks and prayer, no mountain will be big to climb.
Many are already planning their weekend and thinking of where to go. But we are blessed knowing that with you God we are relaxed and at peace. May we pray for those who are having parties and fun for the weekend. May they relax knowing that we are praying for them and thinking about them. Help us God to feel blessed knowing that others are covered by our prayers and good thoughts.
May those travelling be protected by your shadow of mercy. May those working find strength to continue. May those in hospitals recuperate and get healthy. May children enjoy their childhood. May the young explore new things and may the elderly savour their memories. May those praying find themselves time and again. We pray to you God without boundaries and divisions. Amen.

Prayer for gender equality

Today Lord we thank you again for deep and resounding mercies that you have knowingly granted us. Help us to realize the importance of equality in our lives and in the world we live. May we learn to respect women and share with them what is genuinely and rightfully theirs. As men, may we pray and do away with masculine tendencies which hurt women. As women, may we pray and stop copying patriarchal power concepts and instead be good human beings to other women who are not comfortably placed as us. May Jesus be our model. He adored his mother for her courage and strength, he loved Martha and Mary for their eagerness to do ministry and he respected the Canaanite woman for her unshakeable faith. Fill us with the power of the Holy Spirit we pray God that we may be good to and do good for the women around us in whichever and whatever way we can. Amen.