As I Am - A Prayer of Reflection

 As I Am - A Prayer of Reflection

Fr Jose Mari V. Manzano, SJ

Peace reigns on this landscape - tranquil, simple, free.

Let me be born as I am,
to see from the time I've begun,
I am the world's only one.

Let me grow as I am,
to discover how awesome,
the seed in me could become.

Let me see the world as I am,
to find a home and place,
I can truly call my space.

Let me love as I am,
to know who will be gone,
in the arms of someone.

Let me think as I am,
to realize there are things I cannot know,
but I can if I let those who can show.

Let me cry as I am,
to feel it cannot all be mine,
I must also allow the others to shine.

Let me accept myself as I am,
to spend what is left appreciating,
not comparing, not wasting.

Let me serve others as I am,
to learn that living means giving,
so enough with self-proving. ~

Fr. Jose Mari V. Manzano, SJ, is currently assigned at Sacred Heart Novitiate, QC, formerly assistant Parish Priest of Nuestra Sra. De Guadalupe Parish in Cabanglasan Bukidnon. According to him he wrote this poem while he was at Sacred Heart Novitiate on August 29, 2011 while preparing for his diaconate ordination. 

Fr. Jomari is the program host of TATAKalikasan radio program on 87.9 FM Radyo Katipunan, every 11 to 12 am Thursday, with the author as resource person. 

Fr, Jomari is a nephew of the author on the maternal side, Valdez. He came all the way from Mindanao to visit us at home in San Vicente, Ilocos Sur, and to spent a good two-day stay with the family, blessing our children and grand children, in fact, all of us on all sides of our married children, and other relatives as well. He also blessed our home, and indeed, there fell some kind of peace and joy we may not have given much importance in our busy lives in the city.

Earlier I included this poem as a lesson in Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid, and on Living with Nature School on Blog.

I invite the reader to read this article as prayer, and to write a similar one for his personal meditation and reflection.~