IT was as though it had a mind of its own. I watched it fall. It landed without a sound, virtually, apart from the screaming.
My mobile phone, previously perched on the window sill, slid from my dry hands into the sink, not full of nothing, as would be my good fortune, but full of everything, which of course was just a little bit tragic.
I retrieved it in haste, amid my screams, and prayed it would still work.
A flashback to my brother-in-law with phone and hairdryer in hand came to mind. He had the misfortune of his falling into the WC.
Upon reflection I had been fortunate.
It was only a matter of time, I also thought. The longer the phone rested on the windowsill above the sink the more likely it would fall into “everything”.
And that’s just the thing with habits isn’t it? The more we do them the more likely they are to befall us, good or bad.
Think about the habit of prayer.
We heard recently in a Sunday Gospel to “pray continually and never lose heart” (Luke 18:1). When we do, our prayers, like my falling phone, seem to have a mind of their own. That’s because they become second nature.
I recall a simple, second nature-like prayer of my childhood.
My family always set off in the car and said, “Nome di Dio”. It means, “(In the) Name of the Lord”.
The prayer was short, yes, but habitual, and put the journey in God’s hands. My children say those same words now, often before me.
Nowadays whoever is home prays the Angelus as close to midday as we can manage, before sharing a meal.
My Dearly Beloved works two minutes from home and Miss Twelve is home-schooled so it’s become second nature. She’s the one who leads us.
This is the same child who spoke only six singular words aged three.
She’s also the one who asked us to say the Hail Mary in Italian from now on, from hearing it habitually in our Rosary.
It surprised us because she’s normally so “routine” in her behaviour and thinking (being on the autism spectrum) and had baulked a little at Italian being spoken so often in our home, frustrated she didn’t understand it.
“Ave Maria …” she began out of the blue. My Dearly Beloved and I understood the significance and the grace from which the newly-formed habit came.
Other times actions, as the saying goes, do speak louder than words.
Miss Ten refused to enter a store promoting Halloween costumes.
Miss Twelve (then younger) had an issue with being part of a play presenting the Wizard of Oz because she “doesn’t believe in witches”. She had no qualms with telling the teaching staff so.
Neither has read a page of Harry Potter – or want to. Some parents would say they are missing out. I say it’s their choice.
Of course there are some habits, spoken or not, that aren’t so “good” and our family are by no means perfect when it comes to how we live the faith.
We go forward, day-by-day, offering familiar family prayers and forming new rituals linked to the great traditions of our Catholic faith.
Hopefully all those habits will live on, long after we do. That’s my prayer and I thank God for all He’s done.
Yes, even miraculously allowing the phone to also live another day.
Selina Venier
