Praying Over

As Leonie, Val and myself embarked on the LISS journey which began sometime in feb. I personally was not sure what to expect out of the whole journey. Would I feel any different as a catholic? Would I like the whole experience of this charismatic prayer group thing-a-muh-jig? One experience which is say, a real an eye opener for me through this journey so far has been the praying over or laying of hands as some would like to call it. It hit me totally unexpected as I walked into the room for the usual talk on this weeks topic. I thought I had missed the praying over session the previous week as I couldn’t even get out of bed. But they did it this week anyways for those who had missed out previously. I was hesitant about at first.. But after hearing a few testimonials I actually felt more encouraged.

i had heard about all this speaking in tongues stuff in the last few years and thought it was unrealistic or fake and it really surprised me when martin told me a few years back that my mum actually did speak in tongues at one of the sessions like this and I was abit freaked out. But I became more accustomed to it when I started singing for YISS and attending the LISS and seeing it happen more frequently and eventually started welcoming it rather than ridiculing it.

Now, my experience of the praying over session was quite different from what you guys might expect, there was no speaking in tongues or fish out of water experiences for me or the lying on the ground kinda thing that you guys have seen many times. But it actually does feel pretty weird! The process is rather simple, the priest or in my instance Brother Emmanuel asked me what I would like to receive from God. I simply replied to always hear the call of God and to keep my bond strong with Him. And before I knew it off he went praying for me. At this point my mind was calm and open as I wanted to experience all that I could. Shortly after he began, I began to feel my head and my hands which I held open in front of me get warmer as if I had just walked into a stuffy room which no air conditioning or fan. I lost control of my hands and my thoughts were just focused on praying with brother. Next, I felt a huge weight being lifted off my body and I really felt weightless at this point and then came the part which really did kinda freak me out.. And it really did surprise me.. Because I LOST CONTROL OF MY TONGUE. Now I wasn’t speaking in tongues so don’t get me wrong. But my tongue just kept flickering in my mouth for no reason and then before I knew it, Brother was done with me and moved on to Leonie. For me, I just kept silent and was kinda shaking from what seemed like the weirdest 3 minutes of my life.

I know some of you might be thinking.. This is pure nonsense and so on and so forth.. But it really isn’t.. what comes upon you after that is the sensation of peace. The sensation that you know you opened yourself up to God and you let Him into your life and your heart and you guys know me.. I ain’t no angel myself but I opened up anyways.. After some reflection to ready you for this I realized that I wanted to take my relationship with God to a whole new level and im happy that I took this step. I really do encourage you guys to join the LISS during its next run and experience it for yourself because you will leave every week feeling rejuvenated from whatever has been bogging you down, the self reflection is great too. Most importantly if you do end up going for it. Go to it with no expectations of what’s gonna happen and yadda yadda yadda.. But go down there. Keep your mind open, have fun, praise God, reflect on the topics (which might I add are pretty damn good themselves) and listen to the talks. don’t force the spirit onto you, but rather let it fall upon you and then you will know what im talking about. So this is kinda like my challenge to you fellow choir members. Please go for one of these sessions in the future and don’t assume what this praying over session can do for you but go there with an open mind and an open heart and you will be rewarded.