What is prayer? Living one's ordinary life "in tune with" God and attuned to God.
Anyone can do it.
Written Prayers passed down to us like the psalms, the Our Father, the Hail Mary, came from deep in the hearts of individual pray-ers who had discovered the greatest discovery of their lives: there is an eternal Being, - and all peoples have their own Names for God - Who created the Universe and Who also lives in each human's heart/soul.
This God calls us to make our lives an everlasting Gift to God and thus to the life of the world by living our ordinary lives immersed in dedicated, sacrificial love. Because God is Love.
The Jewish psalmist and Jesus talked to God with their own words, from the depths of their hearts which were concentrating on God's Presence. It's wonderful to repeat their words. But Jesus, for example, was teaching us HOW to pray, how to relate to God in the singularity of our own unique beings, our own unique lives.
Sometimes we discover prayer, discover that we are born for eternal life, through a heightened consciousness in a single moment of great love or great crisis or great pain. We are overtaken by a wordless awe. We suddenly realize that there is more to life than a series of events. There is an ongoing deep level of Reality, a spiritual level, an eternal "soul" level that gives each act and event in our lives a deeper meaning, a greater significance. And, by continuing to pay calm, mindful attention to everyone and everything we can become more and aware of this deep significance of everyone and everything.
If we pay daily attention to God, Reality, our lives become an ongoing prayer of paying attention to this God's presence outside us in our daily lives and within us where God lives in unity with us.
St. Paul called this ongoing attitude "putting on the mind and heart of Christ."
"Our" Father - the longer we live, consciously mindful of the reality around us, the more we can see the basic unity of everyone and everything - for Christians, through, with, and in, Christ. But all seekers can eventually realize that every human being, every tree, every animal, every endangered species, bears the mark of the Creator, can give praise to God, and deserves our respect and care.
"Who art in Heaven" - Heaven begins NOW in the soul mindful of God's inner Presence and outer Presence. Because Heaven is simply a word for the dimension of being united with God. Heaven begins here. Hell - willful separation from God - begins here.
"Give us this day our daily bread" - we ask for what we need to live, not what we want - and we let God make the choice of what we need.
"Forgive us our sins as we forgive others": - we can only forgive others when we admit that beneath the veneer of the personal face we present to society, we are also sinners.
"Lead us not into temptation" - this line is difficult because we - and Jesus - are tempted every day of our lives. It's how we become gold refined in the furnace. Only suffering by denying ourselves makes us purer, more disciplined. I believe that here we ask for the grace to resist temptation, and not to be tempted beyond our strength.
"Deliver us from evil" - What is evil? Often we ask for deliverance from suffering - from separation from loved ones, from illness, from heavy responsibilities. But true evil is sin. Our greatest enemy is sin, is the Evil One or evil act that can cause us to lose our souls.
When we "put on the mind and heart" of Jesus, we are allowing Him to act through us, with us, in us - to praise God, to heal, to rejoice. To become dazzling light and love.
The Sufi poet Hafiz (Hafez) considered Christ a great prophet, as the Sufi mystics did, and he wrote this poem prayer which moves me:
"I am a hole in a flute that the Christ's breath moves through - listen to this music.
"I am the concert from the mouth of every creature, singing with all the myriad chorus.
"I am a hole in a flute that the Christ's breath moves through - listen to this music.
Anyone can do it.
Written Prayers passed down to us like the psalms, the Our Father, the Hail Mary, came from deep in the hearts of individual pray-ers who had discovered the greatest discovery of their lives: there is an eternal Being, - and all peoples have their own Names for God - Who created the Universe and Who also lives in each human's heart/soul.
This God calls us to make our lives an everlasting Gift to God and thus to the life of the world by living our ordinary lives immersed in dedicated, sacrificial love. Because God is Love.
The Jewish psalmist and Jesus talked to God with their own words, from the depths of their hearts which were concentrating on God's Presence. It's wonderful to repeat their words. But Jesus, for example, was teaching us HOW to pray, how to relate to God in the singularity of our own unique beings, our own unique lives.
Sometimes we discover prayer, discover that we are born for eternal life, through a heightened consciousness in a single moment of great love or great crisis or great pain. We are overtaken by a wordless awe. We suddenly realize that there is more to life than a series of events. There is an ongoing deep level of Reality, a spiritual level, an eternal "soul" level that gives each act and event in our lives a deeper meaning, a greater significance. And, by continuing to pay calm, mindful attention to everyone and everything we can become more and aware of this deep significance of everyone and everything.
If we pay daily attention to God, Reality, our lives become an ongoing prayer of paying attention to this God's presence outside us in our daily lives and within us where God lives in unity with us.
St. Paul called this ongoing attitude "putting on the mind and heart of Christ."
"Our" Father - the longer we live, consciously mindful of the reality around us, the more we can see the basic unity of everyone and everything - for Christians, through, with, and in, Christ. But all seekers can eventually realize that every human being, every tree, every animal, every endangered species, bears the mark of the Creator, can give praise to God, and deserves our respect and care.
"Who art in Heaven" - Heaven begins NOW in the soul mindful of God's inner Presence and outer Presence. Because Heaven is simply a word for the dimension of being united with God. Heaven begins here. Hell - willful separation from God - begins here.
"Give us this day our daily bread" - we ask for what we need to live, not what we want - and we let God make the choice of what we need.
"Forgive us our sins as we forgive others": - we can only forgive others when we admit that beneath the veneer of the personal face we present to society, we are also sinners.
"Lead us not into temptation" - this line is difficult because we - and Jesus - are tempted every day of our lives. It's how we become gold refined in the furnace. Only suffering by denying ourselves makes us purer, more disciplined. I believe that here we ask for the grace to resist temptation, and not to be tempted beyond our strength.
"Deliver us from evil" - What is evil? Often we ask for deliverance from suffering - from separation from loved ones, from illness, from heavy responsibilities. But true evil is sin. Our greatest enemy is sin, is the Evil One or evil act that can cause us to lose our souls.
When we "put on the mind and heart" of Jesus, we are allowing Him to act through us, with us, in us - to praise God, to heal, to rejoice. To become dazzling light and love.
The Sufi poet Hafiz (Hafez) considered Christ a great prophet, as the Sufi mystics did, and he wrote this poem prayer which moves me:
"I am a hole in a flute that the Christ's breath moves through - listen to this music.
"I am the concert from the mouth of every creature, singing with all the myriad chorus.
"I am a hole in a flute that the Christ's breath moves through - listen to this music.
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