Do You Have a Prayer?

May 6:
National Day of Prayer


© 2010 by Joyce Mason

We live increasingly in a world that is more secular than religious. Many people—myself included—embrace a spirituality that encompasses ideas from many traditions, rather than the sole tenets of a specific faith.

This made me wonder if—and how—modern people pray. Whatever your belief in higher power (I’ll call Him/Her/It “God,” asking you to translate to your own belief system:

God doesn’t need us to pray to Him. We are the ones who need the prayers.

Or at least that’s how I see it.

While the National Day of Prayer in the US is a Christian observance, noticing it on my calendar sparked these questions. I’m very curious what prayer looks like across faiths, or lack of any one in particular, in the 21st Century.

My own relationship with God is a lot like Tevye’s in Fiddler on the Roof—personal, tangible, conversational. Or as Mick says in the movie Crocodile Dundee, “Me ‘n’ God be mates.” We’re in constant communication, and I feel a part of the Spirit in which we’re all joined. Still, I need those prayers.

Prayer in Tough Times

In the women’s circles I facilitate and/or participate in, most prayers are for people having a hard time—illness, financial struggle, unraveling relationships, to name just a few examples. It’s surprising how the prayers almost all come down to this. Do we only reach out for divine connection when we struggle? People seem to have an easier time doing this for others than themselves, although the women in my groups are getting far better over time at asking for what they need.

Then there are the prayers—more like follow-up queries—that continue after trouble. “Why did you take my baby from me?” In my case, the baby refers to a cat that was so much a part of me, two and a half years later, I still feel like someone amputated one of my limbs. You can substitute wife, mother, father … and I suspect many of us have made this divine entreaty. It’s a plea to understand loss that is so deep, it’s just not fathomable.

Prayers of Thanksgiving

This is my favorite kind of prayer. It says, “Hello, God, it’s me, (fill in your name)—and I’m grateful for all you give me for no other reason than your abundant generosity.” This is why I love Thanksgiving, the holiday. People finally thank God and offer up prayers for the right reason—gratitude.

Regular worship services often cover this ground well. But if you’re not a churchgoer, it’s easy to skip the preliminaries of thankfulness and use prayer as a gimme or help-me. It’s a bit childlike, where we are constantly asking for our needs to be met and our elders have to remind us to say please and thank you.

I don’t mean to imply we shouldn’t ask for help when we’re hurting, worried or mourning. However, on balance, I would be quite irritated as a Divine Parent if the only reason someone bothered to contact me was to hit me up for money and influence. I think it would be more appropriate to start every prayer with gratitude for what we have before we ask for more—or beg for changes in the cosmic plan. (It’s remarkable how many of us seem to think God doesn’t know what s/he’s doing.)

God the Father/Mother—Creative Fire

Maybe that’s one of the problems with the way we pray—God the Parent. This is a long-held view of the divine force, and it’s hard to undo because it’s a concept we can so easily understand as humans. Many of us had less-than-ideal parenting, so the idea that there’s some Perfect Parent in the Sky is truly appealing.

But what if God is even bigger than that? My favorite creation story comes from the channeled Michael Teachings. It rings true to me as the largest, most comprehensive, and metaphorical explanation of how life works in the earth-to-sky interface. This philosophy describes God as the Creative Fire or the Tao. The Tao decided it wanted company to share and enjoy its creations. It cast out sparks of itself (us), who are sent to earth without their knowing they are part of the One. Our mission is to use our creativity to come back to the One. (If you want to explore this more, see the Michael Teaching link or my holiday post based on this material, name Turn on the Lights!)

The Divine Escape Clause

My first spiritual teacher, the late Betty Bethards, taught me early on that we really shouldn’t tell God how to do it. We don’t have the “view from the mountain,” the big picture that comes with omniscience. She suggested we always add at the end of any prayer:

This or something better.

This speaks to the idea that there may be an even better outcome than the one we are asking for—that our idea of what’s best for us may be limited, even quite the opposite of what will bring joy. It could be full of pitfalls we haven’t thought of. (“Be careful what you pray for,” as the warning goes.) The Divine Escape Clause also reminds us not to tell God how to do it. The being or force with all the creativity in the universe in his “hands” probably can handle the situation without our suggestions! And most likely, in a way that’s more elegant than we ever imagined. One of my favorite quotes in Illusions by Richard Bach says it best:

The original sin is to limit the Is. Don’t.

Prayer Techniques

I love prayers from many traditions, and where they come from isn’t as important to me as resonating to the sentiment.

In one of my groups, we pray by lighting candles and saying the name of the person for whom the prayer is offered three times. My Catholic core adores the candles as part of my original tradition, and I know the power of three, starting with the Trinity. The metaphor that each of us is a light in the world is strengthened by a symbol of light. Our prayers and the light of the candle brighten the light of the individual in need.

This is a simple and lovely way to pray. We have a plate full of votive candles and often end of lighting them all—and occasionally going into extra innings and additional candles. After the individual prayers are complete, we begin praying in larger concentric circles of caring. For example, we might pray for California’s ailing economy or the world economy; for peace in the Middle East; for the protection of all children; or for the best outcome for all in an upcoming election.

When we feel complete with our prayers, each of us grabs a crystal to focus the healing energy we have evoked. We envision a globe in the center of the table where the candles are lit. Our other vision is a vortex of energy, carrying the prayers upward to rain their blessing on the world and all the people in it.

My Favorite Prayers

Prayers are poems to God or the love that joins us all. While I often prefer “conversations,” there are many prayers that move me so much; I will say them as long as I have lips to move. No two prayers have ever touched me as much as The Prayer of St. Francis, also known as The Peace Prayer, and the 23rd Psalm. Here are my top five of many favorites:

1. Prayer of St. Francis – “Lord make me an instrument of Thy peace …”

2. The 23rd Psalm, especially the feminine version by Bobby McFerrin, dedicated to his mother. There is something incredibly comforting about this classic prayer. It calms fear with the gentle reminder that Love is our shepherd.

3. Deep Peace, a Gaelic Blessing – My favorite is a performance is in this You Tube video by John Rutter and choir at a memorial for the victims of the Virginia Tech shooting massacre. It is so touching; it gave me chills.

4. Judy Chicago’s Prayer – “And then …

5. How wonderful, O Lord are the works of your hands! A traditional Jewish prayer.


Prayer Collections

As a person who does spiritually eclectic celebrations, prayer collections are some of my favorite books. The one that truly changed me is Prayers for Planetary Pilgrims by Fr. Edward Hay. In this book, my Catholic roots meet my cosmic perspective. Fr. Hay has prayers for every human condition, emotion, season and celebration imaginable. It’s a don’t miss!

Two of other well-worn prayer references and preferences:

Prayers for Healing: 365 Blessings, Poems & Meditations from Around the World, edited by Maggie Oman. They are presented in a prayer-a-day format.

A Grateful Heart: Daily Blessings for the Evening Meal from Buddha to the Beatles, edited by M.J. Ryan. This book is a treasure with its harvest scene cover and prayers divided into the four seasons—prayers that are wonderful not just as grace before meals but any time of the day or night.

Lastly, I have found more great prayers via Google than you can imagine, including several poetic renditions of the original Aramaic version of The Lords Prayer, another favorite.

Living Life as a Prayer

My true goal is to live life as a prayer—in integrity with my beliefs and with love and gratitude for the light in which we’re all joined.

To pray is a verb.

You can pray while singing, dancing, vacuuming or making love. Doing good works is prayer in action. Whenever Spirit is a partner in any activity, it can be offered up as a living prayer. I used to attend a local metaphysical church called the Temple of Living Prayer. That’s what I want to be—a walking, talking prayer vessel. That kind of holiness/wholeness isn’t goody two-shoes; it’s simply having “the spirit” in you and acting from it. That’s why this blog is dedicated to spirited living.

To be fully alive is prayer itself, as is being the “instrument of peace” that St. Francis modeled is the essence of living prayer. There are many forms of the verb to pray.

What are yours?

Pray tell.
~~~

Photo Credit: Offering Candles © Travellingtwo | Dreamstime.com

Gettin' Earthy!

Now that I’ve started talking about the four elements, I’ll confess: I’ve always been an earthy woman. In my youth, it was easy to see. I oozed sensuality like most twentysomethings in the days of free love with no strings attached. In Hot Flashbacks, I mention how boomers my vintage were lucky. The AIDS epidemic didn’t rear its ugly head until nearly a decade after we made love and not war till there was no fight left in us. I delighted in bawdy jokes back then and salty language, too. I had no idea that these tendencies were so heavily driven by hormones. I hope you’ll enjoy reading in the book about some of my more hilarious epiphanies when my hormones stopped and, finally, I could be motivated by something other than my “animal urges,” as an ex of mine once called them.

Earth is my element in more ways than one. The signs in my astrology chart are primarily Earth (Sun, Moon, and Ascendant). In Chinese medicine, which has been my ancient adjunct to the modern allopathic kind for over 20 years, Earth is my element—the one that needs constant tune-up.

It should have come as no surprise to me, then, that Earth and environmental protection became my job. For over half my long civil service career, I worked in waste reduction and recycling programs. The rest of my astrology chart is primarily Air, so, again, it was predictable that astrology would be my side job. I love making the bridge from Earth to Sky and back. You might say I’m in my element(s).

This week we celebrate our Valentine’s Day to the planet—Earth Day. My last post was a lead-up to this important day each year to take stock of where we are as individuals, and as a community, in keeping our globe vital and viable.

Earth Day started in spring of 1970 and has grown bigger and better over the years with vast varieties of local celebrations and opportunities to do your part to save your little corner of the world. I won’t argue about whether or not global warming is real and if the Earth needs saving. As a person who has worked on the inside of environmental stewardship, I am sorry to report from many trusted leaders that it might already be too late to save many species and resources that we take for granted. Late, but not impossible. We like drama; witness our choices in TV programs. Maybe that’s why we’re waiting for the 11th hour.

I belong to a church named after St. Francis of Assisi. Not only was “St. Frank” the Dr. Doolittle of his time who talked to the animals and is their patron; he is also the patron of ecology. I celebrated Earth Day at a day retreat with Sr. Linda Gibler, a contemporary and learned nun with credentials in cosmology.

One thing that came up in this breathtaking Earth Day retreat with Sr. Linda, her second in a row with us, is how the media has influenced our view of the world. In the ‘50s, television first became affordable to the public. With the acquisition of that little box came our first awareness of what was going on with people in other parts of the world. Prior to that, only a fortunate few had any direct contact with those in other countries, real or vicarious. TV planted the first seeds with everyman and everywoman that there were everypeople dotting our Earth with the same hopes and dreams with similar and sometimes unique concerns. Slowly we learned about starving children, genocide, and natural disasters, building global connection and compassion. The Internet brought the global community together in a way none of us who pre-date it could have ever imagined.

Back to David Suzuki and how we are the Earth and its four elements:

Use this Earth Day to dig dirt! Make digging it both figurative and literal. Play in the dirt, pot plants, dig in the garden, and dig up those ugly shrubs. Take a nature walk and notice what things pop out of it speak to you. Actually, listen for their psychic dialogue. We did this on our Earth Day retreat and decided it doesn’t matter where the voice comes from, even if it’s only a subconscious place in our own minds. A buttercup is often very wise—or the buttercup part of our brains—whichever.

Use less, recycle everything you can, and bring your own cloth shopping bags to the market. Minimize your use of bottled water (buy a reusable bottle ) to help keep all those plastics out of landfills and learn which ones are safe. Keep abreast of these and other green issues. Make your next car a hybrid. Discover some of the truly creative ways people are making recycling pay—literally! We are all four elements, but earth is the one that represents our home, the only place humans inhabit, as far as we know. One of the things Sr. Linda observed—as our scientific knowledge changes, so does our story. Maybe if we find life on other planets, they’ll have advice for taking better care of ours.

Most of all hone your relationships and make more of them without geographical boundaries. That’s the earthiest thing you can do. Peace and cooperation on Earth is what will save it. This we can only do one friend, colleague, councilperson, cyber buddy, or family member at a time. When we know we are the Earth and so is everyone on it, there is no other option but being an Earth Mama or Papa, protective of our family.

And speaking of the Mamas and the Papas, that groovy boomer band, maybe one of their greatest hits, with a few minor adjustments to the lyrics, can become our Planetary International Anthem: This Is Dedicated to the One I Love.

Each night before I go to bed, my baby.
I whisper a little prayer for you, my baby …