SLEEPING IN THE LAP OF JESUS

“I used to every night be able to go to sleep in two minutes just literally…resting on Jesus’s lap. He’s seated; I’m just laying my head on his lap. And he’s addressing the multitude. He’s not even addressing me. I am there. He knows I am there. And I went to sleep like that every night. Why it happened or what had happened, I don’t know. Maybe I needed him. But it just happened and it lasted with me for five years. And now it’s gone. Maybe now I don’t need that experience of Jesus. But it really was very vivid and very there. And I’d do it every night. I didn’t have to try, like in meditation when you have to achieve a state. I’d just go automatically. Like…people have habits of tucking their pillow or folding their pillow or holding their teddy. And this is what I do. I just rest on Jesus’s lap. It was just this clear. I’m sure if I would have concentrated more I would have heard what he was talking to the multitude about. But it was really, really amazing. And sometimes I wish I could have that experience again. But five years every night. And I was a child, at one stage a few years before that, who was scared sometimes to sleep. So at one stage I was taking sleeping pills. And then suddenly…there it was…I’d go to sleep.”

Daniel’s Reflection

I met Monaesha Pinto at a beautiful little Catholic church in Mumbai and I was immediately struck by her warmth, her big heart, and the strength of her faith. The interview with Monaesha was filled with many individual testimonies of God’s work in her life. Once, her father was given last rites while in a coma and he came out of it soon thereafter. Monaesha feels a strong connection to both Mother Mary and Mary Magdalene. She asks provocative questions (which I love!) about cultural concepts of purity that society or the church deem necessary to hold someone such as either Mary up to the level of saint or apostle.

When I returned from Mumbai, I realized that her portrait evokes strongly the story she relates of falling asleep every night for five years, imagining resting her head on Jesus’s lap. I am so grateful to still be connected in friendship with Monaesha Pinto, a beautiful soul.