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sign of cross Good afternoon everybody, my name is Kevin. Before we start, I would like everyone to close your eyes. Now, I want you to think back on the first time you learnt how to pray. Was it With one of your parents after a bed time story? Before a family meal? Could it be during mass that you learnt how to pray. Now, open your eyes. I dont know about your experience, but when I close my eyes, all I could see were actions/movements influenced from someone else, without knowing what it really meant. What is a prayer? I cannot really explain it because it is mysterious gift. I know there are many theological study on the subject, numerous books written about prayer. But none of them seems to resonate with me. However, I can tell you of a certain someone who learnt to pray from Sunday School. He learnt to pray from his friends and priest. He would listen carefuly to the beautiful and complex words of the bible with hope to memorize them and use during communal praying. He also had a monkey see monkey do attitude. Genuflex before the holy sacrament or you need to have the sign of the cross before and after every prayer. As he grows up, he is very afraid to make a prayer in front of others, because he would be ashamed if his prayer isnt long enough, or

doesnt have the certain flow to it. He is afraid others would laugh at him. He hates praying, because he would then have to craft and think of the next sentence just like that essay in ENG 106. He becomes lazy to pray, especially before bed time because he has to sit up right, make the sign of the cross, say a few words, make the sign of the cross again and go to sleep. Might as well just skip the whole thing. This was how I felt when I was little. But 6 months ago, I had an experience that changed my prayer life completely. I was backpacking in Thailand, and riding down this gorgeous mountain on my scooter. I was doing pretty well, I thought, for a guy who just learned to ride the day before. While riding down a mountain,I was involved in a motorcycle accident. There was no one who could speak English in 50 miles radius around me. Fortunately, they understood that I was in pain, I was brought to a local hospital and confined to a mouldy bed, with a nurse tending my arm. There was a screaming kid beside me who just lost half a finger, and I was annoyed. There was also this pungent alcohol that I hated. Then, something in me suddenly swelled, and when it burst..all I could say was thank you lord. And thus far, that has been my most powerful prayer yet. No sign of the cross, no long and complex sentences, just a short sentence of thanks giving. I felt God in the beautiful nurse tending my wound. In His beautiful creation of a bed....and in that kid, I felt a need to hold him. I dont find those cries annoying anymore. And alcohol, what would doctors do without them? What would college students do without them..right? I felt God in a unique way, I felt Him everywhere, and especially near, very near me. So a prayer is not just a set of words and posture, althought that helps, and definitely not just any communication. It is being with God. It is receiving Gods hand. A prayer is not us calling out

to God, but an answer to His calling. His hands has been reaching out to us, all we need to do is to center ourself and grab his hands. And if you are the kind who loves definition, the cathechism tells us that prayer is the raising of ones mind and heart to God. Why then, do we need to pray? Didnt he already have a plan for all of us? Well, prayer is very powerful, if we are honest and unselfish in our petition. In my previous story, what are the chances that the only person who could speak English in the village is a English teacher who also works as a police officer and now handling my case. I was sent back to my family the very next day, thank God for that. God does not really change his will or his actions by our prayer, he simply puts into effect his eternal plan in view of our prayer. One phrase that I really love can be found in the gospel of matthew: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. Asking involves honest need and petition, seeking involves us taking action and knocking on someones door involve courage. Courage to let go. Prayer is truly a grace of God, an advantage for us. In prayer we learn to surrender our mind and our hearts to God. I was reading a Buddhist book last year, and there was a quote that I like. Do not be too happy when you are happy, neither too sad when you are sad. For everything will past. And I think prayer is a way that keeps us in check to that. If we truly embrace it, we can push away pride during our success, and pain in our sorrows.

We pray, because we seek truth and happiness, we Thirst for God. And through prayer, we can quench this thirst. Through prayer, we allow ourself to be in the presence of God, and in Communion with him. True prayer can bring us peace and joy. And here comes the big question: How do we pray? Truly, we do not know how to pray, the holy spirit does. What we can do, is to ask the holy spirit to teach us how to pray before every prayer. If there is any rule on how we should pray, the first would be to be present, to be really really present. In a prayer, it is crucial that we take time to center ourself, no matter how long that might be. Then and only then can we offer our thanksgiving, plead for forgiveness and ask for His intercession, for if our heart is far from God, the words of prayer are in vain. This brings me to our favourite prayer, The Lords Prayer. It is the one perfect prayer, because it is a prayer taught to us by the Son of God for God. And yet, many of us take it from granted. I remember my friends saying, if you have nothing else to say, just say Our father. Or, if you think that your prayer is too short, throw in Our Father. Does that sound familiar? That should not be the case at all. The cathechism has 25 pages worth of information on that prayer alone. As a Catholic, we should dissect The Lords Prayer, and meditate on it every time we pray. And even better, live in it! It is a huge challenge to live in the Lords Prayer. Something that I struggle with? Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass againts us. Even if someone did something horrible, I should be able to look them in the eyes and say I forgive you. Wow! Such a difficult task that God is calling us to do.

All of us, are called to pray, and many of us have specific time or place where we pray to God. However, we are also called to pray at all times, and this can take in many forms. My favourite prayer is meditation. I love to sit in an empty chapel and try to listen to his words, to try and understand why and how and what God is asking of me today. There is vocal prayer that we say out loud such as our father. Contemplation is also another kind of prayer where we gaze at the lord. My friend Cahya on the other hand prays when reading books, as he finds God in literature. Austin prays through dancing in an empty chapel. I know of others who pray when they tend to the wounded. There is no right or wrong in prayer, no certain posture or place or time that we have to strictly adopt. And so, ask yourself,how do you pray? I was a..what Juan would call a CEO catholic for 7 years. CEO meaning Christmas and easter only . Prayer was an obligation, otherwise I would feel guilty before I sleep. My prayer life truly evolved last year when I started coming more often to st toms. I wanted to experience that wonderful holy feeling which many have described. But I did not know how to start. I found myself walk across the adoration room, on my way to class, its a shortcut. Soon enough, I would spend maybe 1-2 minutes praying in there. It then snowballed into 5 minutes, 10..and soon enough I was doing hour long adoration. If we want to embrace a good prayer life, we have to start small. Maybe even with a sign of the cross when we leave our house. Or sitting by in the chapel before we go to class. Just be still, and be there. For those who would like to dive into something different, go to Liturgy of the Hours with an open mind, or read a book on the Eucharist before mass. All this will enrich our prayer life.

 I believe all of us are here to seek the light. The light could be anything, God, answers or even friends. We have been told that life is a journey, there is a start and an endand a wavy curvy path in between. But spiritual or prayer life is like a maze. We are seeking the light in dark maze, and prayer is like a torchlight to help us find our way. There are times when we feel stuck, spiritually dry, when we dont want to pray anymore. What should we do? Well, pray even more. What would you do if you are stuck in a dark maze, and your torchlight isnt bright enough? Get more torchlights right? The amazing thing about prayer life is that we cant go back, we cant back out once we entered the maze. We can only continue moving towards the light, be it a mile per hour, or an inch per hour. To be honest, I was in a spiritual dryness this semester. I found it tough to pray because I dont necessarily have any problems, nor anything awesome that I should really pour out my thanks for. I started attending the Liturgy of the Hour, and this has helped put me back into the right place. I realize that during times of spiritual dryness, we are not really sliding away from God, we just move a tad slower. Spiritual dryness might not be a bad thing. We can use this time, to find out the things that are holding us down. Might be we are too attached to worldly things, to our future. It can be that we need to go to confession to let go some of the things in our heart. During times of dryness, discipline is the key to bring us back, doing prayer at certain time and certain place or maybe with a special someone works wonders. I now find just so many things to thank God for, and of them is you.

So my brothers and sisters, I challenge you to lead a prayerful life. Take a look at prayer, as if this is your first time praying. Prayer Prayer really changed my life, I hope it can change yours.