MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. By Tobe Eze

In my JSS3, I had wonderful classmates who were (and I believe are) very spiritual and religious. Each afternoon after dismissal from school, while going home, we must branch to the chapel at our parish then (St. Mary’s Parish Eha-Alumona) to pray. I may not be certain of our individual intentions then but I had no particular intention of doing that. Whenever I entered the chapel, any intention that came, formed my prayer point. If any did not come, I would only tell God, you know my needs. As we formed that as a habit, I began to notice everything in the chapel including those that would always be there whenever we were there to pray.

There was this particular woman that normally lay down in front of the Altar to pray. Every day she must be there and at that particular hour. I was praying for God to give me the strength and time to be like this particular woman. One thing I did not know then was her time of going there and time of leaving. I was only sure of that hour that we normally go there for prayers. One day, one of us (of course a girl) said that the said woman was sleeping in the chapel and not praying and she had noticed that for weeks. I immediately objected because I was already praying for God to make me to pray like her. We argued for a very long time. Of course I do not need to tell you my distractions from my prayers from that day on because, you already know that I would make effort to know if she was really sleeping or praying. Surprisingly for me, I also noticed that the woman was actually sleeping every day at that hour in the chapel. This instead of reducing my intention of being like her, it increased it, that I would want to be like this woman who sleeps before the Lord. No attack from the devil, no bad dreams etc. Continue Reading..........

During one of our holidays, I tried to notice actually her time of going and leaving the chapel. I went to chapel that particular day around 11am and she wan kneeling down praying fervently in the chapel. (You can see how distracted innocent me was). We continued staying till I got tired of staying and I left the chapel around 03:47pm. I could not get the answer I wanted. After a while, I came back to my senses and started again going to the chapel to pray and not to monitor the woman. One thing happened.

Because we were not as constant to the chapel during break and we were during school section, we stopped going to the chapel till resumption. When we resumed school and our chapel visitation, we noticed that the woman was no longer coming to the chapel. After four days of not seeing her, we started asking each other what must have happened. I suggested that maybe God had answered her intention and she had stopped coming. One of us said, if that is the case, it is a bad way of worshipping God, another suggested, maybe she was sick. After one month, one of us came with the story that she was sent home by her husband and her father’s house is not in our Parish. We asked why her husband should do such a thing to a spiritual woman like her. The boy told us that the husband said that she left her primary duties which invole taking care of the family to praying everytime and living in the church. For me then, that man was possessed by the devil and needed urgent help. How could he be so wicked to do such a thing. Sending his wife home because of prayer, onwere ka odi.

Still struggling to come out of the shock of hearing that a husband sent his wife home because of prayer, my Parish Priest then, came for mass in my own station then, St. Michael’s Station Agbamere (now parish) and said during the announcement that anyone who stays in the chapel every day from 3 hours and above should watch himself or herself very well for that is already becoming sinful. Then I was seeing Priests as gods that came down from heaven, angels living among us that should not say such a thing. How could a priest of God say such a thing? Does it mean he was also possessed by the devil? As a child, I could not understand any of those things and they kept on confusing me till after some years. My understanding started changing after a Block Rosary retreat in my Station then, where those invited taught us how to share our times with our responsibilities which prayer is one of them. I started understanding those incidents that happened which I could not understand when they happened.

From my experience over the years, I can now under the reason why the man sent his wife home. She would go for morning mass in the morning and go home by 4pm every day. I can now understand why my Parish Priest then said such, he tried to judge the case and tried to make the woman see that she was not getting it right but she insisted on that part and tagged the Priest a canal priest and a worldly priest, who hates prayers.

I can as well now tell you that if you are living in prayer houses or chapels and be visiting your home, you are not spiritual and you would go to hell (though it is left for God to decide who will go to hell). Any man or woman who leaves his or her other responsibilities to praying, is very wrong. There is time for everything says the Bible. There is time for prayer, work, business, rest, eating, chatting, etc. If you want your religious life to be effective, live a balanced spirituality and do not be one sided. Thanks.