My simple prayer

I have had a strong desire to play an instrument for quite a long time. I’m a soccer player and salsa dancer by trade, but this winter I finally picked up a guitar and have since been awkwardly plucking away at my guitar strings, trying to learn a few chords and figure out a few strumming patterns. Right now, my repertoire consists of a whopping two songs! One of them is a song that my mother would often sing to me when I was a little boy. It is called, “Abba, Father.”

And so as I have been familiarizing my fingers with the D chord and the G chord, I also have been mouthing over and over again these two words.

Jesus once invoked his Father in the same way in the garden of Gethsemane when he’s “overwhelmed with sorrow,” and “deeply distressed.” He begins his passion with a desperate gasp for help:  Abba, Father.

I’ve realized recently that all the burdens and moments of sorrow of my four years at SLU have been God’s invitation for me to gasp this same prayer that Jesus gasped.

And so now, as I come to a close in my time at SLU, I have found out what a great gift it is to rise each morning with this whisper of a prayer, to sweetly call upon the One who loves me. It focuses me; it centers my heart. I can rest in Him. So when I don't know what to say or how to say it, I simply call in his direction.  

Abba, Father.

Sito Sasieta is the Campus Ministry GROW Intern.