Around the time of Pope John Paul II's death in April 2005, I read (or heard) that, especially as he got older, his personal prayers would consistent almost entirely of the word, "Yes." He would close his eyes and just repeat this one three-letter word. Admittedly, as I haven't researched this to any degree, this could be entirely wrong. But, for my purposes, it doesn't really matter if it is.
I am not Catholic yet I find the history and pageantry --- and especially the ritual of confession --- of that religion somewhat fascinating. They put on a pretty good show. That's not to speak of any of the scandals that have surrounded it in the past decade, and the hypocrisy of its materialism (tho, conceded, these material things are not specifically "owned" by any one person in the Church) among other things. That's not what I'm here for today. Whatever the broader church's issues, I'm not alone in admiring JP II's personal faith and courage.
But since hearing of how he prayed when alone, I often find myself doing the same, especially at times when things aren't going well. Don't know if you could call it a prayer, though, but then again that would require a definition of what prayer is --- whether a structured argument for why God should help, have mercy, etc. or a self-administered 'centering' or exercise. Sometimes, the struggles of daily life are just going against your better efforts. You've tried seven ways to Sunday and a wire just won't cooperate with your punchdown tool, a stone for your wall won't quite fit, or your various designs or hopes have somehow gone awry.
I find it helps more often than not to stop what I'm doing, close my eyes and see in my mind how things ought to be and with each visualized success, breathe and quietly say "Yes.... Yes.... Yes." (I suppose one needs to be careful with tone and loudness. Onlookers might think it weird... in a Meg Ryan in "When Harry Met Sally" kind of way.) And when I opened my eyes, the task I was doing often went easier. So many times in life, we just need to go to a slightly higher level of concentration on what we're doing, we need to see an example of success in order to achieve success. My use of "Yes" comes mostly when doing manual tasks, but I wonder what JP II would see when he was saying, "Yes."
But beyond visualization, there is a certain sense of joy in saying, over and over, this little word, "Yes." A positive assertion repeated in a world where all too often the answer to many things we want (even speaking beyond selfish wants) is a big, loud, "No." Sometimes you can whisper back, "Yes.... Yes."
No comments:
Post a Comment