INCLUSIVE PRAYER
Wonder Program WW309
To Pray: A
stance, a feeling, an atmosphere wherein one feels they are directly in
communication with God. It is a mode in
which there is a belief that one is intentionally offering to communicate with
God. It is a belief that God is
listening to the one who is intentionally directing conscious efforts at
communicating with God. And, at times,
if this belief is strong enough and the introspection deep enough; a conscious
realization is vitalized and one experiences what can be call a mystical
experience (sometimes referred as a miracle. Praying is a universal concept with different meanings to different
people, who would be prophets, situated in different environments.
Prayer: Is
that state of awareness where every thought, word and action is in a conscious
realized state of communication with God. And, more than with God but one in God and God in us where we are in
realization as being one. Prayer is
universal in that when a prophet prays there is a recognition and acceptance of
a higher power, or energy; many call this beyond-ness God.
What Jesus said --- He told us how to
pray.
What Jesus did --- He showed us how to
pray.
Chapter One
Prophetic Prayer
Characteristics
of Prophet
As
we develop our prayer life a way of SEEing will be discovered which will reveal
a path into the Light of God. As the
prophet moves into this Light, SEEing reveals that the church Faith Community
is God's entire creation.
The
prophet is in a life-long journey to SEE. SEEing discerns prayer not as a dualism between mind and heart but as
one's singular path to the Light. This
is the path of ONEness. It is a mystical
as well as a physical journey in which one is submerged within the Mystical
Body. A prayer of ONEness is like taking
a square the equal size of a circle and inserting that square into the circle
without breaking the boundaries of the circle. In and through prayer a square peg can fit in a round hole. SEEing not only involves discovering God's
presence but it is the process of undressing the soul. Who is a prophet? The prophet is each one of us. A prayer of Oneness is nothing less than The
Human Adventure. The Human Adventure is
the quest, the milieu, of challenges in which sacrifice offers an opportunity
for the prophet to grow in ONEness. The
prophet strives for ONEness through SEEing. Thus, SEEing becomes The Human Adventure. ONEness in the end, for Teilhard it is Point
Omega, is our destiny to be with God in heaven.
Chapter Two
The Without
- Prayer's Form
What
Prayer Can Do
Types
& Kinds
It
is the Quest of each person to find meaning in one's own life. Prayer is that response to a quest which, for
the soul, never ends. The "Why?" does
have an answer; it is to come to a diafiny, a desire only to adore the God of
and in all.
The
task that God gave humanity is to come to see ego and soul as part of the same
whole. The material to accomplish this
task is Space and Time and the tool used in accomplishing this task is prayer. The Without
of prayer can offer a deep hope that will allow one's soul the freedom to
undress itself before God.
Two
focal points in the journey of any prophet is the relationship between family
and the church Faith Community. It is to
and from these principle communities that prayer gains it greatest meaning and
offers its greatest benefits. It is in
the Faith Communities of family and church that the journey into God's Light is
honed and focused into the majesty and glory of the path that every prophet
must follow.
This
form of prayer is a rigid set of techniques and structure designed to help one
come to closer union with God; through prayer which is to pray.
Chapter Three
The
Within - Prayer's Formlessness
Prophet
is one who is in a life-long Quest to not only realize existence as a
revelation of the Divine; but that this journey is prayer.
The
real danger in accepting the Form of prayer as an end in itself is that the ego
interjects itself into elements of the form and then standardizes in the mind
the qualities which are considered prayer and praying. The ego then can give "adoration" to the
person for performing the prayer and give the illusion that one is praying as
Jesus "would" want. The prayer or
praying becomes the end and means of itself, leading to the wrong understanding
that if I pray, and really follow all the stages and steps my prayer will be
the best of all. Much like the man in
temple who went to the front to pray feeling that his prayer was more
acceptable to God than the poor man in the back who was also praying.
One
can choose to either praise Jesus or adore God. To adore God is the Within of
Prayer which is the subject of the second program in this series. The ideal is to move from a prayer of praise
to one of adoration. When one can come
not so much to thank God for His help but to be able to again ask the question
"Who Are You?" and "Who Am I?" removes all ego from the witness we have given
in the name of God and allows one to stand humble before Him in the full
nakedness of our soul.
Chapter Four
Prophet
& Presence
The
prophet is in constant prayer so as to assimilate one's self into a Faith
Community and in so doing work toward ONEness? How does the prophet become present to a Faith Community? Presence can be realized by using the support
structure that makes up a Faith Community. The Human Adventure was spiritualized when the Holy Spirit, at Pentecost
not only filled the Disciples of the now become realized Christ, but all of humanity
throughout the world symbolized in the speaking of languages. Prayer now became universalized to every
human living now, or who has lived or who will live.
The
Human Adventure is made up of four part process, each leading to a greater
awareness of the first part:
Part One:
Human Destiny: To Come Back Into The Light
Part Two:
The Promise: God, the ultimate consciousness, said: "I will
give you a Way."
Part Three:
The Promise Fulfilled: The Historical Jesus is the WAY to a knowledge
of the Cosmic Christ revealed.
Part Four:
The Promise Accepted: To seek the path, exampled by Jesus, by being
able to accept Christ as the Light in
the knowledge of the mind,
witnessed to by a faith of the
heart. The mind is the consciousness of
knowledge gained; the heart is the
longing of consciousness to know
ever more: this is Wisdom.
Prayer
advances SEEING of God by what is known of Him and what one desires to know of
Him: this is Wisdom. And, Wisdom leads
to ONEness. And so we can again ask who
is a prophet? This prophet is each one
of us and the prophet is becoming prayer.