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One of my favorit scenes from the 2016 series The Young Pope is when the young pope teaches one of her closest follower, Esther to pray.
“It should be an occasion for understanding. While we pray, we reflect… in the most elevated way we can, so that someone can whisper thoughts into our ears.”
Then, kneeling alongside Esther before the statue of the Madonna of Lourdes, he adds:
“We call that someone God. Or, in the present case, the Madonna of Lourdes.”
For me, it’s a wonderful illustration of that we are the ones naming the whispering voice and this decision is up to us to call it God, the Holy Spirit, a saint, Satan, our ancestors, the Universe, our subconscious, etc.
Transcript
From s01e04:
E: Holy Father… Would you teach me to pray?
P: Start praying aloud. Let me see how you do it.
E: Blessed Virgin Mary, give me the grace of becoming pregnant.
P: Prayer shouldn’t be a list of requests, Esther. It should be an occasion for understanding. While we pray, we reflect… in the most elevated way we can, so that someone can whisper thoughts into our ears. We call that someone God. Or, in the present case, the Madonna of Lourdes.
E: All right. Then let me try again. Blessed Virgin Mary, God does not punish beauty, as a person who is very dear to You once told me. That phrase opened my eyes. And it made me understand that perhaps, by making a gift of beauty, I might perhaps receive some in return. And what if making a gift of my beauty meant receiving the beauty that I so desire? The beauty of a new life, of a little child?
P: Yes, now you’re praying.
- Source: https://transcripts.foreverdreaming.org/viewtopic.php?t=29367
- Watch the scene on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSKb5F1GuzY
Related
- Ex-mormons often point out the quirky nature of how difficult it is as an LDS person (and certainly as other Christians too) to differentiate between the voice of Satan, the Holy Ghost and one’s inner voice.
- Harari calls the two different versions of God the “cosmic mystery” and the “worldly lawmaker” - I call them (using his words) the “god of the campfire” and the “god of the burning pyres”. 4a1a-i-call-harari-s-two-gods-the-god-of-the-campfire-and-the-god-of-the-burning-pyre
- The elevated reflection with the aim of understanding can happen during journaling for secular people: 3b-keeping-a-diary-and-writing-letters-lep-to-notice-more-in-the-world
- For an easy way to pray, see Pope Francis’ Five Finger Prayer. (A technique recommended for children.) I wrote about it on my KF blog (in Hungarian): https://kincsesfuzet.wordpress.com/tag/otujjas-ima/
- Gretchen Rubin in The Happiness Project had a nice quote about how a study called prayer a solitary activity, yet, the meaning of prayer for many is that they are not talking to themselves.
- The Third man syndrome or Third man factor is a documented and studied phenomena, which for sure can be placed into a religious framework and given a name of a spirit, an angel, Jesus or other entity. 4a2-colby-j-ryan-experienced-the-third-man-syndrome-when-he-got-the-tragic-news-about-his-siblings