Pendosa Jadi Pendoa -- A Sinner Becomes a Pray-er

A new book. Published in 2017. It's a narrative from the point of view of seven psalmists who penned down the so-called 'seven penitential psalms': 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143. Each of the seven psalmists recounts his experience of sins and his journey towards conversion. A 'sinner' (that is, 'pendosa') becomes a 'pray-er' (that is, 'pendoa'). Honesty is the key in their psalms.

Saints and Sinners

"Saints and Sinners"

Divine Mercy Sunday, April 15, 2012

by Deshi Ramadhani, SJ

There is a saying from St. Augustine, "There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future." How true it is. A person has become saint because he or she has let God to touch their past. With God's grace, everything in the past makes more sense. Even every single sin we committed in the past can bring wonderful meanings. Our shadows are no longer pitch dark, but a comfortable shade under which we can have happy nap.

Divine Mercy Sunday reminds us that true mercy is always divine. When someone forgives me, I know deep in my heart that this person brings me back to my divine identity, because this person has also been rendered divine by God. If this has happened in Peter, Paul, Mary Magdalene, St. Augustine, St. Ignatius of Loyola, and a great number of saints, this can and will happen to each of us.

The question is: Are we ready to take off that "sinner" tag on ourselves, and put on that "saint" tag? For some reasons, we wish to linger longer with the worse tag...