The other day, I had some time in between dropping off a kid and picking up a used refrigerator. I bought some lunch and ate it, and I still had time. So, with great reluctance, I slogged into the chapel.
I appreciate chapel time, but I don’t enjoy it. It doesn’t feel spiritually magnificent when I’m actually there, but I believe it keeps me going through the rest of the week. It’s a discipline, not a delight, and I’m okay with that. But it’s pretty rare that I go unless I “have” to – unless it’s my assigned hour.
I did go, and I made a prayer that may be familiar to you. Something like: “Hello. I know you know what’s going on. I don’t know what to do. I’m sure you do. So, I’m asking. Please do something, I don’t know what. To refresh your memory: Here is the thing, which SUCKS. Here you go. I am helpless. Amen.”
The specifics don’t matter. It’s a prayer that so many of us can and should pray as often as we need to.
Technically, it’s called “offering it up,” and it’s what Catholics do when. . .well, when anything. When they’re suffering, when they’re in pain, when they’re stuck. We should also offer things up when we’re rejoicing, or when we’re grateful.
We’re supposed to invite God into our lives at every moment we realise we’re alive, starting with the moment we wake up. It doesn’t have to be a fancy, memorised prayer.
Sometimes I will be outside and see something nice, like a graceful tree or an especially good cloud, and I will just mentally raise my glass to God. Cheers! Nice one! Just acknowledging I’m not alone; I’m with him. He’s with me.
Or, of course, we offer up the opposite of “cheers.” I went to the chapel with a heavy load that I indisputably did not want, did not need, did not know what to do with.
He promised he would help us carry our burdens. So I went in to hand this one over to him, because I could not carry it, but I knew he could.
I went in, kneeled down, bowed my head, said my piece, and then looked up.
Guess what? He was helpless, too.
Maybe you’ve seen a crucifix. That’s kind of a central feature: The hands don’t work. They are stuck. They are nailed into place. He is helpless.
A fine how-do-you-do, isn’t it? I, a professional Catholic, will be the first to admit to you that this is a system I do not understand. …
Read the rest of my latest for The Catholic Weekly.
Image: Crucifixion, School of Rembrandt, 1657, public domain via Picryl
