A prayer for every Filipino

These are difficult times. The cost of living is high, gasoline prices are up, matriculation fees are staggering, and your weekly budget can no longer buy the same groceries you used to get. The Philippine peso is continuously declining and losing its purchasing power that seeing happier economic days seems like a remote possibility. To top it all, Christmas – that much dreaded wild shopping fête – is just around the corner.

There are endless political power struggles, escalating national debt, plummeting morality, negative news, increasing discontent among the masses.

What we need is a little quiet, a little stillness from the deafening cacophony, to be able to pause, reflect, and understand the situation we are in, and come up with solutions for the problems that confront us.

The Serenity Prayer

One of the most beautiful, simple, and powerful prayers is the Serenity Prayer. If only every Fili-pino recited it often, we would get enlightened and inspired to create a better world. If every politician, society headliner, and industry leader prayed it, in no time, we would see the magical changes in our everyday life.

Let us include this powerful prayer in our daily reflections:

"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference."

Serenity is a wonderful quality. It is a physical, mental, and spiritual state sought after by sages, monks, holy men, saints, and by Buddha himself.

Serene people are calm, quiet, peaceful, and tranquil. They maintain their composure under pressure, and stay in absolute control of themselves and their relation to their environment. They possess self-confidence and an enviable inner strength that is seen and felt by those around them.

Serene people don’t get upset when things go awry; they remain above the turmoil and confusion. They would rather promote peace than conflict. But being serene is not being a wimp; on the contrary, immense inner power is needed to maintain serenity.

The first thing the Serenity Prayer asks is for God to give us serenity. We need it today to be able to rise above our daily tribulations. Our unsettled, restless attitudes cause us to react to issues prematurely without much analysis and understanding. With serenity, we would level any stress that comes our way, especially because stress is the killer plague of the century.

Acceptance

The things in life come in two basic categories: those which we have no power to change, and those that we can fix and improve. In this life, there are things that we have to accept like gravity, time, and the irreversibility of past events. Being aware of uncontrollable and irreversible things is paramount. Acceptance of our powerlessness to change them will then direct us to focus on things that we can create, mold, and control.

Courage

got into a heated discussion recently with a foreigner who said that it frustrates him that Filipinos don’t really make a move to help themselves. He claims that we have blinders pretending everything is okay, especially in government. He says Filipinos are sissies; they don’t attack problems head-on. They whine and bicker, beat around the bush, and usually end up with their problems unsolved.

The topic got too intense that I walked out. But mulling over the foreigner’s statements, I found some truth in his accusations. The trouble with Filipinos is that they accept things easily. It’s not really so much the acceptance as the resignation and feeling of powerlessness to effect the change they want, coupled with fear and the feeling of littleness.

The Serenity Prayer asks God for courage – the fire that empowers. Filipinos need courage to emancipate from poverty, fight lawlessness, and eliminate the ills in government. With courage, we empower ourselves to act and change the country, and then the world.

Wisdom

A balikbayan friend once commented that Filipinos are too wa-is (Filipinized form of wise) for their own good. He observed that we are too streetwise when it comes to selfish benefit and gain ("Ano ang sa atin? Ang lagay ba ay…"). We tend to shortcut things ("Pwede na yan!" and lulusot kung makakalusot) and knock others in our way.

Filipinos know the difference between what’s right and what’s wrong; we know what’s good for us. But we lack the "wisdom to know the difference" as the prayer states. Hopefully, the Serenity Prayer would help us gain the serenity, courage, and wisdom needed to finally uplift our lives.

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