“Let Us Pray”

Someone once asked me why I pray. They didn’t believe in prayer, said it doesn’t work and just wanted to prove their point. When they heard my answer, they realized there was no point to make. Prayer to me meant something different than it did to them. That’s the beauty of prayer. Each person has their own unique meaning, form, and purpose to prayer. Let’s look at some these.

Luis M. Martinez, the late Archbishop of Mexico, explains in the book titled “The Sanctifier”, that prayer is “the key that opens divine treasures, both in the natural and in the supernatural order.” He continues with, “Every right prayer has its own singular efficacy.” He believes that prayer should be used to keep our love alive with God foremost and not set our heart on His gifts.

The most common way of praying can be to ask for something we believe we need in our lives. Many Traditions have prayers to recite or memorize. Some people pray in churches, others on their knees. There are also tools to pray with such as the rosary, Bible, mala beads, prayer wheels, you name it, all available in the market place to enhance the effect of your prayer. These tools also provide guidance in helping you to stay focused and not get distracted during prayer.

We also pray to different names of God, none the matter, for the Universal Intelligence probably doesn’t concern Itself with this anyway, we humans do! The Glory of God is a fabulous subject to use for prayer for I found it quite generic and all powerful. It’s why I pray in the first place. I love to commune with The Holy Spirit because it automatically brings me a sense of relief to acknowledge the Presence of the ‘One Love Within.’ I do this because without the awareness of that connection, I notice that my thoughts can take me to dark places and my heart aches. My mind has the courage to think things on its own and I know when I pray in silence (acknowledging the stillness of Spirit), those thoughts dissipate into the Glory of God’s joy. I feel safe, peaceful, loved with tender compassion, and am free in that moment to experience the rapture of His joy. I can feel every good thing flowing through me.

Many times, this is how I pray, just sitting, no language in my head, I consider my meditation time prayer time, as I do the same thing in both. The asking for things turns out to be the thanking for things in most cases. I use prayer as a practice in witnessing the present moment and it activates a peace deep within me. Invoking this peace is invoking communion with Spirit. No words are necessary, just a willing consent to sit and be.

This is why I consider myself a prayer activist, I’m all for it and want to help educate those who still question prayer. It’s not always about asking for things and expecting them to show up. But, if that’s the case for you, you might add at the end of your prayer, “In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”