I was just flipping through some of my old pictures today when I came across the photo taken on the day I received the Sacrament of Confirmation.
I received it when I was 16. As I was taking catechism classes in school, I took the sacraments with my mates. When it came to register with the church, we were required to submit the name of our godparents. The in thing then was to get a senior in school to be your godparent and that was what I did.
I enlisted a senior who is about 5 years my senior whom I was acquainted through the church's altar server's guild. He was pleasantly surprised when I asked him and he readily accepted.
When the day came, he was accompanied by his girlfriend, whose name unfortunately slipped my mind. It didn't work out between them anyway. So, after Mass, we took some photos together. Before leaving, he gave me a gift. He was to leave to further his studies that very weekend. Thanking him, I promised to keep in touch.
Reaching home, I opened the gift and saw myself staring at a framed Serenity Prayer. The frame was dark brown in colour and the background had a the faint painting of a pair of ducks just floating in the pond with a few lilies around them.
The Serenity Prayer reads;
God, Grant me the Serenity to accept things
I cannot change, courage to change the things I can
and the wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time, Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as the pathway to peace.
Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is,
not as I would have it.
Trusting that He will make all things right if I
surrender to His will.
That I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with Him forever in the next.
Amen.
It was a beautiful prayer which I had on my study table for over a decade. A few years back, someone accidentally knocked it off my table and the glass broke. I recalled sweeping up the pieces and placed the frame and prayer into a brown envelope saying that I'll get it reframed soon.
I never got about to doing it. And when we shifted to a new house a few years prior, it got lost in all the hullabaloo. And I deeply regret my procrastination now. We have not kept touch over the years. I guess I'll have to try to find him and see where that leads me.
I guess I'm writing this out of my memories of my godfather as well as due to the fact that I underwent my darkest days when the prayer sat on my table. I know I looked at the prayer and wished it was what I could do countless times when all hope seemed lost then.
I received it when I was 16. As I was taking catechism classes in school, I took the sacraments with my mates. When it came to register with the church, we were required to submit the name of our godparents. The in thing then was to get a senior in school to be your godparent and that was what I did.
I enlisted a senior who is about 5 years my senior whom I was acquainted through the church's altar server's guild. He was pleasantly surprised when I asked him and he readily accepted.
When the day came, he was accompanied by his girlfriend, whose name unfortunately slipped my mind. It didn't work out between them anyway. So, after Mass, we took some photos together. Before leaving, he gave me a gift. He was to leave to further his studies that very weekend. Thanking him, I promised to keep in touch.
Reaching home, I opened the gift and saw myself staring at a framed Serenity Prayer. The frame was dark brown in colour and the background had a the faint painting of a pair of ducks just floating in the pond with a few lilies around them.
The Serenity Prayer reads;
God, Grant me the Serenity to accept things
I cannot change, courage to change the things I can
and the wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time, Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as the pathway to peace.
Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is,
not as I would have it.
Trusting that He will make all things right if I
surrender to His will.
That I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with Him forever in the next.
Amen.
It was a beautiful prayer which I had on my study table for over a decade. A few years back, someone accidentally knocked it off my table and the glass broke. I recalled sweeping up the pieces and placed the frame and prayer into a brown envelope saying that I'll get it reframed soon.
I never got about to doing it. And when we shifted to a new house a few years prior, it got lost in all the hullabaloo. And I deeply regret my procrastination now. We have not kept touch over the years. I guess I'll have to try to find him and see where that leads me.
I guess I'm writing this out of my memories of my godfather as well as due to the fact that I underwent my darkest days when the prayer sat on my table. I know I looked at the prayer and wished it was what I could do countless times when all hope seemed lost then.
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