Since D (my wife) started working at a nursing home, it happens often that only Hajime and I go to Sunday morning worship because D has a shift or has to rest from a shift. One of my favourite moments of this unique daughter and dad bonding is during the Eucharistic prayer when H. is seated beside me and she leans her head on my shoulders as we both follow the prayers on a shared prayer book. My heart is just filled with joy as I savour this special moment when both of us join the liturgy to worship God. Ahhh... such a sweet, precious experience. There is something so sacred and profound when you pray with an innocent little angel who worships God with such a pure, unsullied heart like this my little girl.
It will not always be like this. Life will become more complicated and challenging. Prayer will also become more grown up as she herself grows up. It may even become a "wrestling with God." But today, I pause and savour this pure moment when I can blissfully worship God and be thankful that this little girl is somehow imbibing the sense of the sacred and the profound which, I hope, she'll carry all her life.
I cherish and relish this experience!
