Long time ago, when I prayed to Guan Yin, I used to place vows. It is like making a deal with her. If you give me what I am hoping for, I will come back and pay homage. It is a very common thing with a lot of worshippers of other faith too. Then, you may have seen how people throw coins into fountains and make wishes.

Now, I no longer have that need to make deals. Yes, now I see it as making deals with God. I do not like to expect anything. If we prayed too hard, asking too much, it is like putting our God to test and it is said that we must never do that. “Do not put the Lord your God to test.” This is what Jesus said to rebuke the devil who asked Him to throw Himself from the highest point on the holy city.

In fact, sometimes, I totally do not know what to pray for. During one of the Life in the Spirit Seminar, the facilitator told me it is not necessary to express in words what we are praying for. During the LSS, some of us (including me) was given the gift to pray in tongues. I used to do that when I have the privacy when my baby was a newborn. But now, I hardly have any time for myself and probably had lost the ability to just immerse myself into ‘nothingness’.

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The above photos were taken from St. Anne’s church Bukit Mertajam. I have been there a few times during the feast of St. Anne, more to take photos than to ask St. Anne to pray for me. Many unbelievers make a pilgrimage to the church to ‘pray to St. Anne and place vows’. My late mother-in-law too used to ‘pray to St. Anne’.

Therefore, I never feel ‘connected’ when people tell me that I should do a 9-day novena or something so that my wishes can be fulfilled. What wishes? I have none. LOL. Que sera sera.