.:|Home :|:Bibliography:|:.
.:|:Animals :|:Colors :|:Crafts :|:Elements :|:Stones and Crystals :|:Herbs:|:.
.:|:God/dess Glossary :|:Magical Alphabets :|:Meditation :|:The Moon :|:Prayer :|:Ritual :|:Runes :|:Sample Rituals:|:.

Prayer

"Through prayer we speak to God. In meditation, God speaks to us."
~Edgar Cayce~

Prayer is a "Sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the soul to God."
~John Bunyan, 17th century English preacher and writer~

Below is the prayer my mother came up with, that I recited nightly, for most of my childhood. Simple, concise and something that, as a child I loved to say. I still recite it occassionally, and it always evokes an intense feeling of warmth and protectiveness around me.

Dear God,
thank you for the blessings of this day,
thank you for a healthy body and healthy mind
thank you for loving friends and family
thank you for guardian angels to guide and protect me
all through the day
and all through the night
Amen

Prayerful living recognizes each person's role as a co-creator and expresses that awareness in word and deed.

Seven Steps to Effective Prayer:

1. Meditate on your faith and find ways to sharpen it. Without faith, prayer is pointless. Faith is very much like a muscle, it requires exercise to get stronger!
2. Consider the purpose of your prayer in detail. Purpose drives will.
3. Adjust the words of your prayer to mirror your purpose and have personal meaning. You are the co-creator of your present and of your fate.
4. Make daily, purposeful efforts to help that prayer manifest in your life. After all, God helps those who help themselves.
5. Make prayer a part of your daily life, repeating any prayers for which you feel the need. Repeating a prayer does not equate to a lack of faith, it simply reiterates your sincerity.
6. Trust yourself and the Divine, and keep your eyes open for possible answers. Trusting yourself, trusting your connection with Spirit, and trusting the Divine to answer is difficult, so this step is probably the hardest.
7. When a prayer is answered, rejoice and be thankful. Happiness and gratitude are powerful.

She acts within every moment
And creates the world with each breath.
She speaks from the center of the universe,
In the silence beyond all thought.
Mightier than the crash of a thunderstorm,
Mightier than the roar of the sea,
Is Her voice silently speaking
In the depths of the listening Heart.
~My Version of Psalm 93~

© 2005 Bernita Balekian