Student Choice I

This past sunday, I did a lesson for United Campus ministries on prayer. We spoke for quite some time on a few subjects we’ve talked about in class, but something came up that slightly altered my perspective on prayer. One girl in the group is not religious; she does not go to church, she does not have firm convictions about God or Jesus, but she does pray. In her life, she had a grandfather she cared for greatly who passed away a number of years ago. Since, she’s considered that in the afterlife, he has a degree of providence over her life. Just as she did in his lifetime, the girl maintains this relationship after his death.
Although it may sound as if the girl participates in ancestor worship, but I look at it differently. In Christian theologies, we have what’s called the communion of saints, which is a union of spirits, living and dead. I have often also attempted to maintain a relationship with my loved ones who have gone on. It is not something I see as unusual, but instead as a means for us to connect with the divine more closely. By encountering (Buber) our loved ones, there is, in essence, a decentering effect. It allows us to be accountable to an other, thus authentic to our identity and our world