Fears of a child 2

I recently spoke to some parents of the fears of children as they turn 9. I wrote four short prayers for my daughter for those evenings when she felt most fearful. I had already posted one early but am now including all four:

To My Guardian Angel

As night draws near and darkness falls
To you I turn my gaze.
My hand it reaches out for yours
To hold, and feel I'm safe.
For in your warmth I travel safely
Throughout the dark of night
For in your light I always feel
The warmth of love so bright.
So together we walk, hand in hand
Across the darken skies
For with you always by my side
I feel save and warm inside

2.V.06

From My Guardian Angel

My dearest child in my care
I love you ever so
At night I carry you in arms
So safely we can go.
By day I see with happiness
The joy of sleeping well
For every night, I go with you
My love love you know so well.

2.V.06

From Christ to My Guardian Angel

Dear Angel of My light
This child you care for well
That in the darkness of the night
No fear in her shall dwell.
For with your warmth, and love, and light
You guard her day and night
To thee My love for her shall flow
For ever and some more.
I thank you for your guiding light
That safely brings her home.

*I have a daughter so I use her. For sons, obviously use him

2.v.06

From Guardian Angel to Christ

Dear Lord I hold this child
Forever in my care
That harm and fear shall always be
Away from the warmth I bear.
Your love for me I share with her
For ever more through thee
At day and night she always shall
My protected child will be.

What warms a child most at night, makes them feel secure, is a loving parent who shares their evening with them and prays with them before sleeping. You may want to light a small candle to start and end the little rite. The memory of the warmth of the candle flame will help banish the fear of darkness.

Ascension and Pentecost

Ascension and Pentecost
I went mountain climbing on Ascension Sunday. It is interesting that this happened on this particular weekend as it reminded me once again of the different experiences there is in ascending and descending. Let me set the record straight first, I am not a very good mountaineer although I joined an organization while in college and so some of my comments may not apply. But the experience, nonetheless, is quite real.
Ascending is generally easier than descending although the latter could appear quicker. Usually, when I climb, the exertion is more in getting a good rhythm going. Breath properly, keep a good pace, and swear you will never do this again. But then there is the exhilaration of reaching the summit. Unfortunately, ascending is only half the trip. The second half requires a descent and this one really tasks the thighs and the knees. Our weight is a real enemy and there is no exhilaration upon descent, just relief. During ascent, heaven is goal, during descent, the earth or ground level is the objective.
During the course of this weekend, it got me thinking about the two festivals the round out the entire Easter season. The first involves an ascent, the ascension of the resurrected Christ. If this was anything like my climbing experience, then it was truly an exhilarating experience, one that fills out the breathing of an individual, one that makes you feel alive. This is what we experience when we ascend. Our breathing is what we can really hear and experience; achieving the summit literally places us above the clouds. But it also has a secondary experience, the one of the climber who is following, who can see the climber before him climbing steadily out of sight. Then there is an incredible longing not to be left. This combination of experiences may have surrounded the apostles at the moment of Christ ascension. It is almost a conflict of experience and yet, there is something more to it than meets the eye. What do we really experience within when we are witnessing an ascent? This is what we should perhaps ask ourselves.
Ten days after the ascension, there is a descent of sorts. There is the descent of the Holy Spirit on the twelve. Here the experience is different. It impacts our lower limbs, our limbs responsible for getting us from here to there, in other words, our willing element. In fact, the Holy Spirit fills the twelve and suddenly, they can “do” things: speak in tongues, and go out and do the Lord’s work. And all this takes place on earth. And just like descending from a mountain, feeling our thigh muscles cramp, our knees weaken, we realize that sometimes to do what we know is the right thing to do becomes extremely difficult. We feel “weak in the knees” as some would say. We are overcome by something that makes it difficult for us to act. Descending to do what is right is extremely painful. And being filled with the Holy Spirit to do the will of the Lord, became an extremely painful experience for the apostles.
We cannot really imagine the experience of the apostles for these two events. We weren’t there. Although their accounts exist, the fact remains that we weren’t there. This makes it difficult to relate to our daily lives. What does the Ascension mean? What does the Pentecost (the descent of the Holy Spirit) really mean in our lives? One of these events draws our gaze heavenward, the other turns the gaze directly to us and our deeds. I have found that my experience in climbing, reawakened during the weekend of the Ascension gave me a chance to physically experience what this might have meant.
In our daily lives, these two festivals pass us by. We only remember them because of the Sunday sermon. And yet, they do have great significance to the Easter festival. Somehow, we need to awaken this experience within our beings. Pentecost, the event that impacts the twelve apostles directly, occurs 50 days after Easter. Why 50 and not 40 days which seems the standard in the Bible (40 days of rain, Lent is 40 days long, Ascension is 40 days after Easter). Clearly, the 50 has a different meaning from the 40 and as it affects the 12, then perhaps one may say that the festival of Pentecost affects man directly. Do we allow the Holy Spirit to dwell within us? Who really knows. We can say yes as an intellectual exercise but what does it really mean.
We had 40 days to prepare for Easter, 40 days to prepare for the Ascension, but 50 days to prepare ourselves for the coming of the Holy Spirit. Surely, the significance of this event cannot be lost to us. Do we have the will to rediscover the Holy Spirit within us and allow this will to descend into our very deeds? Only each of us will ever really know the answer. But if this event can transform 12 ordinary men, hiding in fear of their lives, into the greatest doers of good works since the Christ, then perhaps we too can learn more from this event. The separation of Christ’s ascent awakens in each of us the responsibility to do what He did. And may that be guided by the Holy Spirit.
The next time we try to climb a mountain, let us all listen to the experience of ascending and descending, that it may live in our lives forever.

Ascension comes

Ascension is the next festival approaching. How can we prepare? Perhaps we mneditate on a few lines:

To rise and truly meet the Christ
This is my quest
In search of my most inner strength
My most inner beings lift themselves
Above the earth
To meet the Sun.

The Reason Why....

Why do we do what we do? What is the reason we do things? What moves us? These are not trick questions but very real questions that confront us on a daily basis. The company I work in, for example, is trying to find ways to improve our work in a wide range of areas. The question of “behavior” arose in the course of the discussions and it seems like there is a hidden key somewhere in this “behavior” concept. To further complicate the matter, we also agreed that we are not intent on become psychologist, even amateur ones, just to try to make a breakthrough in this area. And yet, the question remains; how do we coax our fellow employees into “desirable behavior?”
One consultant who was helping us out on this question was quite candid. In their company, effectively, they “brainwash” their employees. This was his term not mine. This triggered a host of other thoughts in my head. How does one wash a brain? I suppose those who specialize in interrogations techniques might have the answer. However, this led to an even more interesting thought. When we are born, is there already something in our brain or is it empty. Many schools are happy to receive students with the perspective that they have “blank minds” and that their task is to fill these “blank minds” with “knowledge.” Most of us probably grew up in this world where teachers were ready to accuse us of “not knowing anything” whenever we could not come up with the answer. In certain cases, like math for example, this may have even been further aggravated. I suppose that this comment of “not knowing anything” could only arise because the assumption was my brain was empty. Interesting because generally speaking, when the teacher was busy berating me, my mind was quite full of thoughts, ranging from the most un-Christian (usually involving the offending teacher) to having understood the question quite differently. So this would also appear to indicate that I did know something, just not what the teacher wanted at that time.
Could it be possible then that when we are born we actually know things, and I don’t mean instinct, I mean we actually know things. But what use would this be to most of us as babies. We did enjoy being babied so I suppose showing off to our parents how much we already knew would not be particularly helpful. On the other hand, knowing things from birth would help us greatly in achieving certain tasks on earth. Mozart, who changed the face of music, had to be a boy genius to be successful. Otherwise, he would have had to have spent most of his life learning music and not creating. So it must be in the genes we would normally say. I don’t know. How many of Mozart’s immediate relatives could be categorized as geniuses. Clearly, it had to come from somewhere and he had to have it immediately because his musical talent displayed itself at an early age. So I ask again, could it be possible that when we are born we actually know things? Then how could we be so “uneducated” so to speak? It would appear that we are born with a head full of ideas and thoughts but somehow we cannot experience it. Perhaps this is another way of looking at it.
When seen this way, a “brainwashing” approach could have very serious implications. It would mean replacing what we naturally know with something else. Sounds a bit like modern education sometimes. But perhaps the consultant who mentioned this to me meant a different kind of “brainwashing.” Perhaps he meant a cleansing of our brain, the removal of dirt and stains that actually prevent us from seeing what we know. Now there’s a thought. By washing our brains, could it be possible to see more clearly, all that we already know? By washing our brains, could we actually be removing those distractions that prevent us from seeing our thoughts clearly? Perhaps washing our brains is what schools should be doing; removing those obstacles to clear sight and real understanding of the world. We live in a world full of distractions. What we experience through sight alone is more than enough to keep us away from our deepest thoughts. Somehow, washing away these distractions, this garbage of the brain, would allow us to see what we have to really see – our truest thoughts.
If we take this point of view on how our brain works, we might find the key to the reason why we do what we do. It may not be a case of trying to “interpret” the deeds, but rather, understand what hinders the deed. Yes, it is possible we do something not because it was easy but because we were prevented from doing something else. It is not surprising that when we are confronted with a question on why we did something, it is not unusual to reply that we had no choice. And if we pay close attention to the one who makes this remark, one can almost always detect a hint of wistfulness, an irritation that somehow, the freedom to choose an act was denied. And this too is a form of obstacle to understanding the reason why.
Perhaps, in the modern world, we need to understand better how thoughts are revealed to us. That’s right, how they are revealed to us. I personally believe that we are born with everything we have to know; the problem is that I didn’t know that and up to know, there is a lot that I don’t know. Should I really know it all? Selfish and greedy me will say Yes. But what for? Perhaps I only know what I know because I choose to know only these things. Or perhaps, my brain needs a good washing, to clean up the dirt, so that I can see better what I know. Who knows? But this certainly gives me hope that somehow I will experience the world in a different way. Perhaps that’s what matters most.

Fear's of a child

Lately my daughter has had difficulty sleeping. She is eight-and-a-half and will be nine in July. When my older daughter was around the same age, she too had difficulty sleeping. They both have an undescribable fear. Perhaps it has something to do with turning nine. All they were able to express was that they were afraid. Beyond that they could say no more.

So last night, as I was putting her to sleep, I said a small prayer with her, one to strengthen her for the coming night and to deal with the coming fear. A small prayer for her guardian angel.

As night draws near, and darkness falls,
To you I turn my gaze
My hand it reaches out for yours
To hold, and feel I'm safe.
For in your warmth I travel safely
Throughout the dark of night
For in your light I always feel
The warmth of love so bright.
So together we walk, hand in hand
Across the darken skies
For with you always by my side
I feel safe and warm inside.

So for all adults struggling with eight or nine year olds, may this small verse help them all with their fears of night, their fears of losing their childhood.