서강대학교

초록 (요약문)

The Filipino migrants’ prayer is a unique syncretic blend of animism and Catholicism. This Study analyses Filipino Migrants’ prayer through the lens of Freidrich Heiler’s psychology of religion is based on religious feeling as the basis of faith. The data was taken from the systematic review of literature on prayer as well as the participant observation method where the researcher developed a rapport with the Filipinos in South Korea by participating in their prayer gatherings; visiting individual houses, listening to the testimonies of God's experience, and answered prayers as well as collecting written prayers in the field. The research tells the story of how the prayers of the West become the prayers of the Filipinos, who are undergoing colonial and global displacements. Furthermore, it demonstrates how Filipinos assert their own cultural twist in dealing with religious dichotomies and religious oxymorons in their prayer practices. According to the findings, the Filipino migrants' prayer demonstrates their complete reliance or absolute dependence on God during their migration journey. They pray for petition and intercession for material blessings, as well as healing filled prayers with prophetic overtones. Their prayer shows no distinction between the human experience and the religious experience as they experience God in their poverty and daily struggles to have a better life, making prayer and migration both driven by life’s survival instinct. It discovers that the most common devotional prayers of Filipino migrants that represent their religio-cultural identity are the devotion to Santo Niño or child Jesus. It is a ritual prayer dance that originated in the Philippines and spread globally through the Filipino diaspora. Thanksgiving and petitionary prayers take the cycle of prayers amongst Filipino migrants. The most dominant is the thanksgiving prayer which is fueled by the feeling of gratitude and elicits other feelings of altruism and piety. Prayer as a social impulse is a "relational interiority". Prayer is a special treatment for God but it can be applied to human beings to treat each other and creation as a whole with love, reverence, praise, thanksgiving, and forgiveness to make the prayer effective in the building of the desired dwelling.