When a new calendar year dawns in the month of January, we look ahead with new hope, new aspirations, new resolutions, perhaps we dream of a rosy life, happy days ahead.
Come June, and we have a new year ahead – no, not the Calendar year, it’s the school Academic year! As in the new Calendar year, we all know how challenging a new year in school is – new books, new teachers, new uniforms, new stationery, fear of higher studies, of exams, and a whole lot of other related issues. And it’s not just the students who have to face the challenges of a new year but it is the parents as well. We as parents, know it means.
As children progress to a higher grade, the parents’ responsibilities increase, their fears increase. How will my child cope up with the higher studies? Will he be able to manage? Will he get good teachers in class? If a new principal takes over, will he or she be kind and understanding?
It is natural to worry whether the children would be in a position to cope with the pressures? While some may be in a position to do so, there could be others who could be facing a whole lot of issues, some real, some imaginary, driving the students as well as the parents, schizophrenic. So, where do we go from here?
Is there no way to cope up with the pressure of the new academic year? Yes, of course, there is. It is said, ‘when everything else fails, try prayer’. But what is its understanding, that we can take recourse to prayer? Is prayer some sort of a magic formula by which all problems disappear, all difficulties sorted out? We need to understand what prayer is all about. Does prayer mean just mumbling of words, asking God for solutions? Prayer is a dialogue, a relationship with God. When we talk to God, God listens. Similarly, When God talks to us, we need to listen. We cannot just put forward our demands to God and leave it at that. We cannot just expect him to provide solutions. It does not work that way!
We also have the Holy Spirit, with the power of wisdom, understanding, strength, knowledge, to guide us in our path of life.
So, here we are, we have prayer and the Light of the Holy Spirit to see us through all the difficulties we face in life, to overcome the struggle we go through. In fact, the Holy Spirit is shining all around us, upon each and every one of us. We need to discern the power of the Holy Spirit, in fact the Holy Spirit also gives us the power of discernment. It is more, up to us!
While it is new academic year for school students in the month of June, there could be others who face a new year in the corporate world, by way of a new job or a new project perhaps. Here too, it is through prayer and the Holy Spirit that we would be in a position to face up to the challenges ahead of us. But of course, it is important that we have faith in prayer, without which we would be on shaky ground. ‘Faith is the fountain of prayer, and prayer should be nothing else but faith exercised’, says Thomas Manton, an English clergyman.
