Faith with Heart

On Tuesday evening of this week, I was at one of my best friend’s house to be part of the ‘Enthronement of the Sacred Heart of Jesus’ in his home. This is a ceremony where the picture of Sacred Heart of Jesus is blessed by a priest and hung in a prominent place in the house.

Preceding this ceremony, the parish priest said mass in the presence about 25 family members and friends, in the hall of my friend’s lovely home. After reading from the gospel, the father encouraged those present to share their thoughts on the gospel or anything else they had in mind.

A staff member, just completing 25 years working in my friend’s office, narrated how his multiple organ failures led him into a coma last year and yet he has survived to tell his tale – only because of the power of prayer and the faith of his dear ones. In fact, doctors had given up hope on him.

My friend too, spoke about the miracles that have shaped his life and faith in God.  I have seen him many a time in church and elsewhere, deeply engrossed as he prays – unmindful of everything else around him.

His family members are as devout as him. There is genuine warmth about them. My friend is respected for his life of values, is blessed with abundance and is highly successful in his life. Spirituality gives him and his family a very special power.

I know and believe everything he says about the miracles that have happened in his life through the power of prayers. I am sure his absolute belief and trust in Jesus and Mother Mary create those miracles and abundance in his life.

Miracles however, are common to all religions. Miracles happen to  devotees of Lord Venkateswara of Tirupathi. During my visits to the hill temple with my Hindu friends, I have seen the same look of prayerfulness and surrender on the faces of people as they have the darshan of their Lord.

It is not the object of faith that causes miracles. It is faith that works these wonders. Allah, Jesus or Lord Venkateswara shower their blessings when their devotees approach them in faith. God is powerless when people go to them devoid of faith.

It is a beautiful sight to see people praying – eyes closed in concentration, lips moving whispering prayers, or in utter silence, deeply engrossed, their face radiating a rare peace…..

Only, sometimes it baffles me, how the same people can turn against their brothers and sisters from another community in the name of their God. Often enough, the beauty and the beast reside in people in good measure and I wonder why. But I am digressing….

I was saying, I envy the single minded devotion of people as they pray. I come from a family of ardent believers. But faith has eluded me. May be, I ask too many questions. St.Paul says faith is a gift from God. I have not been gifted, so.

It is a tough life, without faith. Faith gives something to hold on to. It is an assuring anchor.

I can however, find my anchor in beliefs of mine picked up along the way, like:
Life is all about energy. Energy of the mind and thoughts can be translated into anything I desire, when I learn to delve into them and channelise them.
Mind and body are part of the same system.
To reap, I need to sow first.
I have within me all the resources  I ever need.
Each person is unique and, the map is not the territory.
And, as I discover love, my world too blossoms. Loving myself is as important as loving my neighbours.
The present or the NOW is what I am blessed with, so I live in the moment, in full awareness.
And so on…..

My journey in NLP I just embarked on, has given me an inkling of possibilities. I intend to explore its depths and potential to achieve my outcomes.

It is possible to have faith in myself – and lean on that faith as my anchor. It is a journey that I have begun and it has been a bumpy ride. But I have chosen willingly walk on this path.

I have realized that within me there is a creator. If I dwell in the realm of empowering thoughts, I create a beautiful future. On the other hand, I create a bleak life if I focus on strife and negativity. Whether my life is happy or unhappy, I am responsible. I am its creator.

The faith of my friend or that of my family members give them enormous strength. It will be churlish on my part to argue with them, because my path is different. I am grateful that they are blessed with their simple, nourishing faith. I am also excited to be sustained by my own beliefs. So, we all co-exist in harmony, respecting one another despite the different paths we all travel on.

I like this quote by Carlos Castaneda:

“A path is only a path, and there is no affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you . . . Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself alone, one question . . . Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn’t it is of no use.”

Does my path have a heart? Yes, for me, it has. The important thing however, is to believe in that path with a lot of heart, in fact with all my heart.

Only then will my beliefs develop into faith.

My salvation lies in my faith which I embrace with all my heart and soul.

About 3 hours after posting this article, I see this message from Neale Donald Walsch in my in box. I am copying it below because it adds meaning to what I have just written.