The cover photo is from the St. Peter’s Basilica Dome overlooking St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City. It sums up the point of this post, which is to trust that great things will happen when we get out of our own ways.

As social media has become a bigger part of my life these days, one of the most amusing comments I read every now and then is “I’ll keep you in my thoughts and prayers *prayer emoji*”

While it is not appropriate for me to judge, I’ll judge anyways and say, “Like that person even prays at all! How could they keep them in their thoughts and prayers if they’re soooo focused on themselves?”

About 4 years ago, I began serving as an intercessor, praying for members of the community. We were assigned to pray for the community on certain days of the month, and to write reflections for certain weeks of the month based on the gospel readings.

When I started serving as an intercessor, I thought “Why am I praying for this person? This person hardly serves in the community and needs prayers? That’s kinda selfish.” I also thought, “This person had wronged me in the past. They could pray for themselves!”

(I’ll pause to laugh at the smart-ass thoughts from that time. HAHAHA!)

A book that I recently read is “The War of Art” by writer Steven Pressfield. Pressfield talks about “Invoking the Muse”, which is saying a prayer to call on his Muses before he writes. The Muses are beings who exist outside of this world, or as he calls, angels on a higher plane, to give him what he needs to write his scripts and books.

Before we write our reflections and pray for those in our community as intercessors, we said a prayer called the “Invocation of the Spirit” which calls on our own Muses to provide us with what we need – inner peace and a reliance that goes beyond our own selves. Essentially, we get out of our own way and humble ourselves before working. Often times, we let our egos get in the way, allowing it to play with our insecurities and to paralyze us from taking action.

As the months serving as an intercessor went on, I learned that praying for the community and for others was not about spending time praying as a form of indebtedness to God for all my blessings, but rather, serving as an instrument of peace that was never about me in the first place. When I rely on a higher being to do the work, shifting attention away from my own insecurities and negative thoughts, the work itself becomes fun and the end result turns out better than what I had expected. Our fears dissolve into a sense of fulfillment we can’t easily describe with words.

What I enjoyed most about being an intercessor was not only being part of “the powerhouse of the community”, but also knowing that this work is low-profile and non-validation-seeking. The validation we get is getting out of our own ways to not only bring inner peace for ourselves, but also for others at that moment in time. Our attentions shift away from overthinking our own circumstances and what’s stressing us out to allowing our instincts help us take action.

During that time I had served as an intercessor, I had difficulty looking for work. My mother and I prayed the Miraculous 54-Day Rosary Novena three separate times in hopes that I will land the job I desired: pays well (if not better than my previous jobs), is work from home, and has co-workers whom I get along with and can crack corny jokes with. While my intention did not immediately come true, doing so gave me a peace of mind to not give up in the job search and to keep working on my own personal development. My intention eventually came true with my current job, which is a testament to not only the power of prayers, but also trusting our Muses that something great will happen when we get out of our own ways to improve ourselves and not settle.

Saying that this year has been rough for us has been an understatement. A pandemic that crashed economies and severely affected the lives of people around the world. Civil unrest that was triggered by politicizing a man’s death. Political correctness taken too far that we can’t try to be funny without being called a racist, sexist, or any other word that ends with “-ist”.

When my mother got sick about five months ago due to a coronavirus scare, it was time to recall those experiences serving as an intercessor and continue what I’ve done since: pray. Pray to humble myself, relying on a higher being above this world to get the job done. Pray to get out of my own way and accept the outcomes, good and bad. Fill out disability paperwork. Do grocery shopping or order take-out. Clean up the place. Do the laundry. Exercise patience. And in typical Noy Sauce fashion, crack a corny joke.

A month later following that scare, my mother returned to work. We silently celebrated by going on a two-day trip to the beach.

Life will constantly test us. We trust ourselves that we are enough to serve people by relying on higher beings above this world. Like an eagle that pushes down the air with its wings while flying, trust that our angels and instincts will carry us to great heights by taking action while having fun in the process. No virtue signaling on social media required. If we really need to say so, we can send a private message. It means a lot more to that person than words in a post other people can see.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for our lives and for our sufferings. Despite what we had experienced this year, you blessed us with an opportunity to rise and take responsibility of our circumstances, transforming us from victims to victors. We’re sorry for allowing our selfishness to distract us from being instruments of your peace. In these trying times, there are things you want us to see, so that we can be the people whom you called us to be. We pray for compassion and patience, so rather than treat our brothers and sisters with hostility, we treat them with empathy and bridge the gap of understanding that brings unity instead of division. All of this we humbly lift up to you, Amen.