The Cry, The Call, The Channel

          
I can still feel the God - energy.

It was, indeed, an experience of a lifetime. It was a dejavu of how I felt and reacted when I first met her. I witnessed how my co-postulants were moved. They were moved by the presence, charm and affection of the founder of my congregation – Sr. Eppie Brasil, OP – who was the speaker to our modular class Creative Approaches to Prayer on January 26 to 27, 2015.

In my 18 months in the congregation, I can say I am blest to witness how Sr. Eppie prays creatively and unceasingly with so much trust and faith to the Lord of divine providence. Most of her prayers and hearts desires are now tangible.

She said, “We need to pray ALL ways and ALWAYS in gratitude for the many gifts we have received in life.” Praying ALL WAYS “helps us to shake up and reinvigorate our prayer lives.” Praying ALL WAYS is praying creatively using our body and our senses. Praying creatively is adding spices to our prayers, so that we will not go weary in praying; so that our relationship with our God is deepen.

Sr. Eppie creates short sacred songs to praise God. 
When one of our members was sick and in great pain she composed, “My Lord, I offer all my pains to you. Please help me heal because I love you so.” That gave our member comfort and assurance of love from our God.

I believe that like our biological father who is delighted when he sees us dances, sings or performs the God the Father is also delighted in us when we put creativity in our prayers. And like our biological father who cannot turn down his child’s request when he is delighted, our Father of all creation will also be generous in giving us favors for all our pleads. And really, the Lord delights in us, more especially when we pray creatively.   

Our prayer is a relationship to our god. Our prayer is our communication to our God. And to strengthen the relationship, communication should be open and constant.

My every breath and heart beat are my prayers. I practiced simple and brief prayers. Most of the times it is direct and most of the times it is answered. Likewise, my every action is my prayer. My good deeds are my prayer of thanksgiving for all the favors that I have received. The not so good is my prayer for help to change as I am always confident that He understands me in all my weaknesses.

Sr. Eppie emphasizes the importance of the prayer of silence, the prayer of the heart to hear the messages of our God, to heal, to gain enlightenment. In my stay in my congregation contemplative prayer helped me gain inner strength and acknowledge the graces and the blessings of the Lord. It helped me to be open and embrace the new way of being.

We celebrated the highest form of prayer, the Holy Mass, as our culminating activity for our modular class Creative Approaches to Prayer. There, we were given the opportunity to show our creativity.

My group was tasked to do the entrance song. We were ten in the group, from three nationalities. Six are foreigners. Only four are Filipina. Limitations on time and language were a challenge. But it was amazing how we were able to perform and interpret the song Sing to the Mountain creatively. I firmly believe the Lord delighted in us in that creative way of singing our entrance song.

I can still feel the magic and the admiration experienced by my co postulants as they were enchanted by the presence, aura and wit of my Superior General. I can still feel the God – energy that moved them and me. I’m sure a piece of her has inspired and enlightened every postulant to hold on and to be brave enough to commit to our YES the first time we answered the call – because as she said, “someone out there cried” or prayed, that’s why we are called to response to that cry. Someone out there prayed creatively and the Lord delighted and touched and He called us to become His channel in this world to answer someone’s prayer.