Whispered Prayers

I spent Halloween, a favorite day of mine, alone walking through the mountains of Galicia. How appropriate to be entering the area of Spain noted for its Celtic and Irish culture. Because of Spain's close physical proximity to Ireland, the celts settled here thousands of years ago. Note the thatched rooftops in the photos.

All our treasured Halloween traditions are rooted in Celtic culture. It was believed that the boundary between this world of ours and the spiritual world was lifted allowing the spirits to enter out world. Some of them were angry so masks were worn to hide one's identity or to scare away unfriendly spirits.

Here I was walking alone through a darkened forest being "haunted" by the memories of those who have passed this way for hundreds of years. I was haunted, not in a frightful way, but one in which I truly felt their presence. They were "whispering" prayers of encouragement during this lonely and difficult pathway. I wasn't sure I was even going in the right direction but I knew I was climbing higher and higher, slowly becoming one with the clouds.

The whispered prayers of the "souls" uplifted me and my own soul causing the beautiful "Communion of Saints" to become a lived reality. You see, there is no separation between the world we see and the world we sometimes call the "supernatural". We only need the eyes of faith to see beyond our limited vision and the ears to here the whispers.

This reflection of "whispered prayers" began when I was praying on a wayside chapel and an elderly woman walked in, who was no more than four and a half feet tall. She did not see me off in the back when she started to quietly whisper her prayers. I imagined her to be the abuela of the village of sixty people. She was whispering her prayers perhaps so God would get it right or the saints would here her. But I heard these whispered prayers that calmed my own cluttered and noisy time of prayer. Her whispered prayers rooted me in the Presence of the One who is always whispering words of love and hope.

God whispers through saints and souls...

Buen camino. Padre