The Bride

Is awaited and attended to by all with loving complete attention. Is willing to be free of ego so much as to surrender its individual identity Is open, extending the capacity it has to love as much as it can Is free of blemish by giving and opening into the present moment Commits freely and enthusiastically to the union before it

Prayer

In the midst of the times in which we live, many topics seem ever so important. One though, which is perennial and powerful, is the topic of prayer.

To consider prayer as a topic though, perhaps it would be best to understand what prayer is.

According to the dictionary, prayer is a request for help or an offer of thanks to an object of Worship.

I personally was raised in the Catholic church, and during my childhood, I did something radical. I read the Gospels. I learned from those books things which I did not learn in church or in church groups as an adolescent. I can recall at a group of my ‘peers’ a discussion about prayer and how different people were sharing different prayers for specific things.

I took a harder line to the topic. In the Gospels, Jesus, when asked how to pray gives us one prayer, which we know as the ‘Our Father’

Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.

Give us each day our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.'

And that’s it. An acknowledgment of the ineffible and awesome power of the Divine, and a recognition of our part in manifesting that divine truth into life as we know it. An acknowledgment that we are provided for, and recognition that we must take part in the cleansing of sins through our own capacity to forgive.

Not wish fulfillment. Not the secret. Not manifesting our reality. But surrender.

As commonly known the prayer acknowledges, ‘Thy will be done’

The release of our individual, perhaps petty, desires for certain things and acknowledgment that a greater will, can and will guide the course of our lives if we can be the conduit for it’s awesome power and allow a more perfect reality to present itself.

Years ago, I was inspired with the following ‘poem’ on the topic of prayer itself. It is not something I consciously wrote, it just fell onto the page one day as I finished a nap.

‘Prayer is for desire

Sincere prayer is not concerned with the self or things of the world

A more perfect prayer is to the Lord, so that we may learn love and truth

In this, and every way, God seeks our enrichment.’

But, let’s take a moment and consider prayer as a topic away from such lofty heights of idealism. What is prayer simply? It’s mental activity, it may be spoken as well, but it doesn’t need to be. As a mental action it is an expression of a being to share a wish or express a thought, be it for healing, for peace, for love, for clarity, for insight, for answers. Or for thanksgiving.

To take the time in one’s day to harness our mental energy to spread a pattern of concern, giving thought towards others, wishing for their wellness, towards the divine or ideal or perfect and connecting to and collecting from the deep pool of infinite wisdom. This is an activity worthy of the time engaged.

Certainly compared to many of the pursuits of the modern age. The vapid monster that is medium; video, or video game especially. Taking the time to acknowledge a powerful center, within or without of our general sphere of awareness. Transmitting wishes or intentions into it, or simply allowing for, successfully or unsuccessfully the peace to receive information or sensations is a powerful use of one’s time.

Given the general fruitless nature of most endeavours on the human time scale given the frame of geologic shifts in time and the reconstruction of matter in this realm. It could be one of the greatest uses of time available.

Entering into a still place of love and wisdom, transmitting and receiving with it.

Watching and praying. Stepping into eternity, the realm in which time is a meaningless concept.

The place in which truth transcends words. No report can accurately encapsulate the feeling that we must forget to live here, while we live here, scrambling to reconnect to that which empowers our every breath.