Prayer

Pray this prayer slowly, meditatively. Be careful not to just read it---pray it. Contemplate the meaning of the words.

O Holy Father and Mother,

The Conscious Core of the universe, beyond all concepts, beyond all labels, beyond all religions; the Giver of all that is. Help us to know You as You are. May we feel Your Love inwardly, and therefore know, beyond all doubt, that we can Trust You in life and in death.

Fill our hearts with Love and Peace and Gratitude. We are thankful to You, O God, for life. You have given us Life. Our consciousness is a product of Your consciousness. And we are alienated from Your consciousness only as we are in darkness—the darkness that You allow, in order for us to be free and for our lives to have meaning. We recognize that there are many in this world who do not believe that You exist or who have different ideas about You. We have come to know You through Christ, Who has revealed You as a loving parent, patient, merciful and kind; but also Who commands, and Who has the rightful authority to command us to love each other. We understand that You, O God, are Love—the love that you have put within us for our children! You are constrained, in Your infinite freedom, only by this Love. And we are also only constrained by it. This is a joyful restraint! It is the constraint of freedom. And You, O God, have always demanded that Your people be free. We receive, in this moment, the gift of knowing that we are free, and allow ourselves, with Your permission, to feel this freedom and the peace it brings into our souls.

The Peace that we find in You O God is also constrained by this Love. We recognize the unnecessary suffering that we inflict upon ourselves because we have not known, understood and submitted to this Love. We are appalled that men still brutally kill men, women, children---that there is hatred in our hearts toward each other, and that, even in our most mature relationships there are lapses of selfishness and abuse. We recognize that we have work to do. We pray for the Peace of Christ as we do this work. Help us to be neither lazy nor compulsive in this work of Love. Help us to be diligent---and peaceful. Help us to overcome our fear of man, what he thinks about us or what he can do to us. But, please Lord, help us to never stop loving him and working for his freedom from all oppression; as we allow Your Spirit in us to keep us free from oppression—even the frustrations of our own and our peoples' failures and ignorance. Help us to take to heart Your prayer from the Cross: “Father forgive them, for they don't know what they are doing.”

Thank You for Grace—Amazing Grace—that enables us to live free from both denial and guilt. It is only in Your Love that we can look at some of the ugliness in ourselves; and it is only by Your Grace that we can be “cleansed from all unrighteousness.” Thank You for giving us the Righteousness of Christ—unspeakable gift! We receive Your Grace, forgiveness, and cleansing, with deep gratitude and the humility that recognizes that we did not earn it, nor are we entitled to it; any more than we were entitled to life on this planet. You give deliverance as freely as You have given life---deliverance from all oppression. In this moment, we allow ourselves, with Your permission, to feel free from all fear, or to embrace our fears in Faith. We allow ourselves to feel forgiven and healed of all the ways our souls have been twisted by the darkness that is in our world. Free from all oppression.

We seek only to be motivated by Your Universal, Divine Love---Love for all sentient beings, for life and goodness and truth---for all the love that has been and is being expressed in the human family---for kindness and generosity of heart---for the innocence of childhood, and for the opportunity to return to it ourselves---for the delivering power of forgiveness. And for the confidence of Your promises: to be with us always, even to the end of the world; to complete the work that You have begun in us---to give us eternal life---to empower us to love effectively with eternal results.

We renew our devotion to be obedient to You by loving others as we love ourselves; and by doing what we can to facilitate the expansion of Your Love in the hearts of humans---to work for Your Kingdom.

In Christ's Holy Name,

Amen---Let it be so---Amen.