Prayer or meditation?

The title may scare you. Rest assured. I did not fall under the clutches of an evil guru and I have none “smoked good”, as the saying goes. Young, I was taught to pray and in adolescence, to meditate. As I was a rather active child, my father had seen fit to try to calm me down by showing me how to meditate without even knowing the name. He placed headphones on my ears (soft or classical music), asked me to take long breaths, and simply be present to the music. So well, that I ended up taking a liking to it.

But first the prayer. As far back as I can remember, I have always hated repeating like an echo the prayers we were taught. For example, one day when I was in the confessional facing the late priest Lacourse, he asked me before giving me absolution, to recite the Act of contrition which said among other things “I am extremely sorry to have offended you” and further “I take the firm resolution not to offend you again”. First of all, I had no regrets about having argued with my little sister (it was a sin, it seems…) and I knew it would start again as soon as I got home. It fell on my spleen and vice versa. So, no question of reciting what I found to be pale repetitions and false promises.

Furious, I can still see the priest turning towards me through the gate that separated us and asking me: are you a little Legault? As he knew my father well, who was a choir director, he informed him of my refusal. Meeting suddenly presto with my parents. Explanations from my side.

Both of them speechless in front of my arguments… It was then decided that I would pretend to recite my prayer in a low voice, stammering anything because the elderly priest had become “deaf as a child”. It didn’t suit my mother, but oh well. Peace had a price…

Same thing for the ” Our father “I disagreed when these words were recited “give us this day our daily bread”. While with the education I received, I was told: you have two arms, two legs and a good head, you can always manage without asking anyone. Imagine when I heard that the Virgin Mary had become pregnant by the action of the Holy Spirit… So there!

If I pray it is to speak to Life, to some Force, but never to some sort of bearded old man such as we were drawn to. I choose my own words, sometimes to ask, but more often to thank. In any case.

Meditating remains my favorite. I’ve been doing this for years. It allows me, among other things, to open my chakras. Too long to explain, but there are books on the subject. Basically, I summarize by saying that opening chakras (by the way, to open, you don’t even need a password…) allows us to unblock knots in our heart or our thoughts, to circulate energy in all organs.

Personally, if I sometimes experience moments of insomnia, I meditate in the middle of the night. It’s as good as counting sheep. Baby yes. And then all the answers are not always found in Google, I also happen to discover some of them in the silence of meditation.

In these turbulent times, it takes the anxiety away or lessens it. It’s free! With the imagination that I have, I see myself in beautiful situations, healthy, happy, laughing. Meditating is good for the ecology: do something for the planet, reduce your emissions of stressful thoughts. One day, I meet Robert, a publisher who asks me what good I was doing at that time. I answer him: I “meditate”. You also? He understood: ” I meditate “. Notice that I would have liked to do both. Finally. Finally, this beautiful thought of St-François de Sales: “Half an hour of meditation is essential except when you are too busy. So, an hour is needed”.