HELP!
How many times in our life have
we been too proud to ask for help?
“Help” is not in our vocabulary
when all is going right, when we’re independent, when we’re in control, when we
don’t need anyone or anything.
“Help” arrives as a word in our
throat when we are stuck, when we are sick, when all goes wrong, when we have
to depend on others.
The unknown author of the famous
English spiritual book, The Cloud of
Unknowing (c. 1370), teaches this message very clearly in
Chapter 37. The best prayers have the shortest words. When there is a fire, we
cry, “Fire!” When we need God, really need God, we cry, “Help!”
Isn’t “Help” a one word
translation of the famous Psalm 130, “Out of Depths”? A man is drowning and he
screams out, “Out of the depths I cry to you, oh God.”
Isn’t “Help” the behind the
scenes word for John 21:18? “When we are young, we can walk anywhere we want to
walk. When we are old ... someone else will put us in a wheelchair and take us
where we don’t want to go.” “Help!”: the cry that echoes down every nursing
home hall.
Isn’t “Help!” a one word
translation of St. Alphonsus’ whole message about grace and prayer of petition?
“Pray and you’ll be saved; don’t pray and you’ll be lost.”
Isn’t “Help” a one word
translation of the famous picture of “Our Lady of Perpetual Help”? Jesus has a
nightmare or a vision of the cross and he runs as fast as he can and leaps into
his mother’s arms for help?
Isn’t “Help!” a one word
translation of the scene in Luke’s gospel, when the disciples come to Jesus and
say, “Lord, teach us how to pray?”
“Help!” Want to learn how to
pray? Look at the icon of Perpetual Help. Ask Mary, ask Jesus, to teach you how
to perpetually ask for “Help!”
© Andrew Costello, CSSR
No comments:
Post a Comment