ERNIE MAIPID, JR
One of the great realizations of glorious aging is a deep, high, and wide sense of God’s presence in our lives.
God moved from a prayer corner, a recited, memorized piece, a ‘locker box’ to which we had assigned God for easy reach when needed, to an active relationship with God as it is meant to be.
My recent highs have been about discovering prayer as actively talking, listening, interacting, exchanging, and relating with God daily through the rosary.
My family started weaving prayer as a daily means of drawing members together during the uncertainties of the pandemic. At 5 pm in Manila, when it would be 7 in the evening and almost suppertime in Brisbane, I would open messenger and, after casual pleasantries with the grandchildren, checking on how the day went, lead in reciting the family rosary, complete with litany and closing prayers with all participating.
Before the global health crisis in 2020, our family consisted of fifteen members: 8 adults and 7 grandchildren. Covid gave us our youngest member, Caelan, now nearing 4.
With the daily rosary recitation now in its 5th year, the grandchildren look forward to a 4 o’clock messenger ring summoning all to prayer.
Each family designates a child to lead a decade; my wife and I complete it. Nala, our eldest ‘apo,’ then leads the litany before final prayers, which are led in turn by our children or their spouses.
I never fail to be in awe of the apos innocent babblings of thanksgiving and petition. I think the Father in heaven must be amused by their childlike pleas and stories.
Liya at 6, prays for the soul of her ‘ninang’, recently felled after a heart procedure. Then prays the same for the souls of ‘Papu and Mamu’ (us). I call her attention to the fact that we are not yet dead, like her ‘ninang.’ Liya retorts quite naturally, ‘But Papu, ‘we do not need to be dead to have a soul!’
Tristan is 7 and thanks the Lord that he scored well in his school soccer match. After that, he prays that everyone will be happy, that everyone will be good, and that no one will get sick.
Andres, also 7, thanks the Lord for making 60 basketball shots in an afternoon foul-shooting tilt with his cousins.
Aria, 9, and the twins Anya and Lexa, 10, volunteer cheerily to lead the Our Father, Hail Marys, and Glory Be for the decades assigned to Papu’s and Mamu’s thanksgiving and intentions.
I am quick to share with Nala, 13, my strong sense that she daily calls on Mama Mary to go with her and shield her from every harm when she leads the daily litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Nala rides the train alone, going home from school. Ours is always a prayer of entrustment.
At prayer end, our adult children’s supplication is for God to:
‘Give us faith to see you with us now, in this boat tossed by the waves. Give us hope to hold on to when life rolls sideways, and the lurching becomes unbearable. Give us love to give to each other when our hearts break, when we are tired from rowing against the wind, when we are hungry, lost, and alone.’
‘Please give us enough light to keep us going, enough silence so we can listen to how you ask us to take heart, to keep together and not be afraid.’
Each day of rosary prayer deepens our family’s faith that we are securely tucked in God’s warm and protective embrace and that the future will be well. Not that those who do not pray will experience otherwise, but that God is in control and that His will is good and will prevail. This faith settles us!
Two wisdom-filled realizations have come to me lately.
First, that PRAYER IS TAKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR STAYING IN ACTIVE RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD.
Second, PRAYER IS ACCEPTING ACCOUNTABILITY FOR INTRODUCING GOD TO OTHERS AND BRINGING OTHERS TO GOD.
My grand years have kept me peaceful, knowing that by seeding the Family Rosary in their young childhood, I am building the foundations of deep faith that will carry the next generations through life.
Wherever life may bring the little ones, we can rest assured in our graves that they can hurdle life because faith has been deeply seeded.
I dream of finding them one day, old and grey themselves, exchanging fond notes about how it all started when Papu & Mamu would ring all at 4 to start the Family Rosary.