Pray Like a Child

 

 

“Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” - Matthew 18:3 NIV

 

Today, on the Memorial of the Guardian Angels, allow me to share the reflection I wrote for Didache. I am including my Angel Orchids painting which I made as another tribute to our family’s Guardian Angels. This was inspired by Radyo Katipunan’s Keeping the Faith flower arrangement for the mass on September 21, 2023. The arrangement was of white orchids with barbed wire to commemorate the declaration of Martial Law. I incorporated Angel Orchids to remind me that no matter what barbed wires are looped around our lives, our Guardian Angels are always around to guide us through these difficult times.

 

Below is my unedited Didache reflection:

 

Praying is part of my daily habit but sometimes I’d fall into formulaic prayers. Once, I asked, “How can I deepen it?” God answered this through my writing assignment for Secret Shares.

 

In her youth, our interviewee asked her newfound community friends, “How do I pray?” Through their guidance and her own openness to God, she developed a way of praying that was child-like and candid. Her prayer attitude towards God reminded me of a photo I saw of the child Jesus looking up at St. Joseph with so much love and trust for a parent and St. Joseph looking down at Him with loving indulgence.

 

This was what I pictured when our interviewee described the way she prays. It was with this father-child dynamics that God talked her through the break-up of her month-old marriage, led her to migrate abroad, and assured her of her healing from a dreaded disease.

 

Still needing more insight for myself, I kept asking, “How do I pray?”. I was led to read what Jesus said to St. Faustina in their Divine Mercy conversations: “Talk to me simply, as a friend to a friend.”