My reflection on the prayer workshop

What a wonderful session it was today!

I felt I was brought back to my childhood when Vincent led us in the opening song, "Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning.."

And as Maya and Maggy led us into prayer, there were moments when my mind wandered away during the time of silence as we reflect on our sins. Thankfully, Maggy pray in the silence and reminded us to remain focus on God. I too felt thankful for one of the thanksgiving offered by Maya, to see new faces and a dear sister back in the community. We meditated on the Saturday reading, Matthew 8:5-13, and I tried to put into practice what I learned about reading scripture, to saturate my mind with the Gospel passage, to re-read and re-read, with the hope that a phase or word will call out to me, and indeed the hope prevail! The prayer workshop ended with an invitation by Maya to share what we felt during the silent moment, or about the bible passage. I felt the various perspectives shared were really beautiful and I thank the Lord for giving me the courage to share my reflection with the rest as well. And so I would like to share my short reflection with the people who were not present in today’s session.

The bible passage on Jesus healing a Roman officer’s servant can be said to be quite a familiar one. Most of the time (well, at least from what I hear), it speaks about the great faith of the Roman Officer. And I too pray for that faith! As mentioned earlier, as I read the passage, I hope that a word or phase will cry out to me. I had a preconceived expectation that if indeed a verse calls out to me, it will probably be one which reflected the great faith of the Roman Officer. Surprisingly, the verse that calls out to me was at the beginning of the passage, verse 5 and 6, something that bypass me all these years when I read this passage.

When Jesus entered Capernaum, a Roman officer met him and begged for help: “Sir, my servant is sick in bed at home, unable to move and suffering terribly.”

To be more specific, the two words bolded caught my attention. Here we have a Roman officer, who is definitely of high rank begging for help for his servant. Wow. If it was someone dear to him like his family members etc, I would understand why he would beg but the person he is interceding for is only a servant. Well, he could have been considered a caring boss to have kept his servant in mind even if he had sent someone else in his place to ask Jesus heal his servant but instead he went the extra mile. He went in person to meet Jesus and begged him. This reveal to me how compassionate and humble this Roman officer was and it led me to draw parallel in our present society. Do we keep in mind and reach out to those who are of lower social status? Even in our prayer, do we pause for a moment and include these people in our list of intercession for our family and friends?

Fr. Ambrose said, to understand the message is not enough, we have to pray for the grace to have the willingness to live it out in our life. I hope and pray to be like the Roman office, not only a man of great faith but one who is compassionate and humble as well. Another thing that I learnt from today is not to let complacency set in, to read the bible with an open mind and heart so as to be refreshed each time I read the scripture. This is because sometimes I tend to get too familiar with certain bible stories and the central theme that I missed out on the other messages that God may be trying to tell me.