Prayer is a Universal Spiritual Connection Between Souls
“Life is a mystery, everyone must stand alone, I hear you call my name and it feels like home. When you call my name it's like a little prayer…”
Madonna, Like A Prayer
What is prayer? Prayer is conscious contact with Mystery. Prayer is a heartbeat, a spoken word, a thought that transcends from you into the greater Mystery of the Universe; into the Eternal Power that is beyond human control. Prayer is the universal spiritual connection between your soul and mine. As a prayer, I can speak or call your name from many miles away, allow it to arise through the air and gently float away with the wind, across time and space, on the breath of Eternal Mystery, from my heart to yours. And when I mix your name with other beautiful words like “love,” “blessings,” “peace” and “healing,” my prayer becomes a spiritual bouquet that lights up your heart and brings you warmth from within your soul.
Prayer can be a single spoken name of a loved one or it can be a litany of names: Richard, Jean, Mae, Brent, Dennis, Bette, Victor, Alan, Irene, Mary Jane, Rex, Ralph, Tanya, Diana, Rocky, John… Each name can be said slowly, lovingly and released with blessings as gentle as kisses on the forehead. And every name uttered as prayer becomes an instant blessing to the Universe, like a burst of fresh air arising from raindrops.
Take a few moments to speak the names aloud of those you love. Allow those names to arise from within you, gently release them into the universe with loving warmth from deep inside your soul, and feel those prayers unite your hearts in the Eternal embrace of Divine Mystery.
Eloquently put! Franciscan Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation this week is centered on "Discovering your true self through prayer." I was quite taken by Monday's meditation in which Father Rohr wrote, "The word “prayer” has often been trivialized by making it into a way of getting what we want. But I use “prayer” as the umbrella word for any interior journeys or practices that allow you to experience faith, hope, and love within yourself. It is not a technique for getting things, a pious exercise that somehow makes God happy, or a requirement for entry into heaven. It is much more like practicing heaven now.
ReplyDelete"Such prayer, such seeing, takes away your anxiety for figuring it all out fully for yourself, or needing to be right about your formulations. At this point, God becomes more a verb than a noun, more a process than a conclusion, more an experience than a dogma, more a personal relationship than an idea. There is Someone dancing with you, and you are not afraid of making mistakes."
I believe you and Father Rohr share a similar outlook. Your call to "release them into the universe... and feel those prayers unite your hearts in the Eternal embrace of Divine Mystery" is akin to -- from my perspective -- to Father Rohr's contention that prayer is "much more like practicing heaven now."
Bravo