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Prayers

NOTE: Though creating this thread has come after much deliberation, and though I expect it to be met with a level of derision - this is DL, after all - I have decided to go through with it anyway. Weeks ago, I created another thread (“O Ye of Little Faith…”) to spur discourse on prayer, meditation, and contemplation and though it received 19 likes (not many by DL standards, I know), it was stricken.

In either case, I have decided to create this thread to post excerpts from my prayer journal because 1) I firmly believe in the power of prayer and believe more of us need to practice it along with meditation and contemplation; 2) I believe there are several DL members who are receptive to prayer and the discussion of it; and 3) I just want to share my prayers with you all.

As much as I find certain aspects of DL loathsome, I cannot deny that, for the most part, I simply love you cunts and bitches. Your wit, humor, intelligence, and ability to add levity to almost any situation is both admirable and addictive. Though I have periodically had to undergo a “DL purge,” during which I abstain from visiting this forum for prolonged periods of time, I often and inevitably return. I just can’t help being away from you all for so long.

Prayer is a practice we are both called and fall into. It must become for us a daily act as essential and necessary as breathing, consuming a meal, or bathing; as rest or sleep; for it does provide all of those things - and much more - in overflowing abundance. Prayer is an act of withdrawal just as much as it is an act of ultimate liberation.

And with that said, I hope and pray that you receive my prayers with some measure of willingness to understand and accept what I am attempting to do. I also hope it encourages some of you to pick up your own prayer, meditation, and/or contemplation practice. ::sending you all much love and prayers::)

🙏🏼

by Anonymousreply 65November 26, 2020 5:19 PM

November 12, 2020

Praying for Strangers

I prayed for strangers today, Creator; strangers I neither saw nor heard but whom I communicated with over a message board. I was suddenly struck in the heart by what felt like an arrow of burning grace and the tears gently flowed. I felt as if I had simultaneously been kissed by You and made a prayerful connection with someone – or a few people – hundreds or thousands of miles away. It was poignant and bittersweet.

It has been five days since I last wrote a prayer – I have been studying for an upcoming test and wallowing in my own worries and sorrows – but I have prayed to You intermittently throughout those days, and I have felt Your Presence, like a gentle breeze or like softly trickling water, quietly guiding, guarding, and giving me all that I need to feel sustained.

Why do we withdraw from You so easily even after becoming aware of and experiencing Your power, light, love, peace, and grace? I struggle with living or even imagining the ascetic and abstemious life You call me to live, though I know it is the “narrow path” the Lord spoke of. The narrow path both excites and frightens me.

You excite and frighten me, Creator; the amorphous vastness that is You. I imagine that we are supposed to allow ourselves to melt and dissolve into You, and that seems both scary and liberating. Faith in You has begun to erode the curiosity about and need to know why things happen as they do; why we suffer so much pain, loss, and darkness in this world. Perhaps we are meant to alternately feel such pain and dryness down here so that our ability to feel and give love will be all the greater for it.

Creator, hover over me; hover over all of us – those who are alone, abused, abandoned, addicted, anguished… Hover over and fill us with Your peace, grace, and love, and with the awareness of Your Presence in our lives always. Connect my prayer, like a thread of light, to all of the other prayers being uttered and whispered and felt throughout the world as I write this. Connect my prayer with all the rest so that they may form a net of prayer, like a luminescent web, encasing this world and all of the souls hovering throughout it, in peace, grace, and love.

Remind all of us daily, in every which way You can, of Your power and of Your peace, grace, and love. Peace, grace, and love… They fill me as I write this and I know that You are here. You are always here, but I am more aware of that now than I have ever been. Thank you. Amen.

by Anonymousreply 1November 23, 2020 10:41 PM

November 17, 2020

The Pendulum of Your Mystery and Perfection

Creator, I have recently been plagued by existential pain and despair, and also reassured by moments of subtle and tranquil transcendence. You simultaneously quicken and still me. It is as if You remind me – all at once – that You dwell in the rapid changes and movements of exterior life just as much as You reside in the quiet and stillness of my inner life. These swings on the pendulum of Your mystery and perfection cause me moments of both deep sorrow and peace. Nothing feels certain, that is, until I remind myself that You are as constant and certain as anything can be.

I cried tonight while reading Andrew Murray’s Abide in Christ, and I felt Your Presence gently comforting me. I heard You say, as if you were speaking from the center of my heart, “I am here.” I was tempted to brush it off and chalk it up to my active imagination, but that is how all of the mystics and saints say You come: gently, softly, in a whisper.

There are moments when I am inexplicably overwhelmed with a sense of Your adorability. It is as if the very air around me grows bloated with Your sacredness and irresistibility, and I want to reach out and hug You, and go limp within Your embrace. You are my father and mother, my brother and sister, my lover and friend.

Continue to whisper me to me, Creator, and continue to fill me as You do with faith, hope, and love. Amen.

by Anonymousreply 2November 23, 2020 10:41 PM

November 20, 2020

Awareness

Creator, my faith in and perception of You have deepened, and I now find myself struggling to articulate how it is that I actually know that You are within and around me at all times. Earlier this evening while taking a brisk walk, I felt the air around me, along with my own body, grow charged with Your Presence again. At the risk of sounding irreverent, I must admit, when this happens it feels similar to one of the several “highs” I used to chase when I was in active addiction, but infinitely more expansive and without the darkness and heaviness that accompanied those states of inebriation.

I sometimes ask myself if I am imagining this sensation but I know with a knowing that surpasses all logic and understanding that You are, in fact, here. How could You not be? The sense of grace and gratitude that washes over me in those moments feels sacred and transcendent, and I often recall the words of various saints and mystics who articulated how you swept into their environment, into their very being, and overwhelmed them. Although I agree with their assertions about You, I am increasingly realizing that You do not “drop in” on us as much as You, as I noted above, make Yourself known, charging us and the atmosphere around us with Your Presence. Better yet, it is as if You grace us with the sight, hearing, and ability to take notice of the fact that You have been here all along.

Yours is the power that forms, moves, and governs the planets and galaxies – the entire cosmos – and Yours is also the power that forms, moves, and governs our hearts, our lungs, our very cells and every single infinitesimal structure, from the atom to the quark, thereafter. However, I do not want to claim Pantheism, for You both encompass and are beyond us. (You are more than the sum of our bodies and the cosmos and everything created, both visible and invisible. You are more than an ocean containing drops of water.) You are intelligent, generous, loving, humble yet unknowable in the traditional sense. (It is at this point that words both escape me and are not enough to contain You; nothing is.)

I have come to realize that prayer is about awareness; becoming aware of You and Your constant and consistent Presence. This is why I say that You are humble: though always here and there and everywhere, You sort of stay in the background and do not make Yourself known unless sought. You provide us with ample time and space to both search for and discover You. As I write this right now, I feel You again and suddenly, I feel the yearning one feels when around a loved one: I want to hold and cherish You and never let You go. It is a feeling beyond love, really, and more overwhelming. I can understand how several mystics described encounters with You as being “in ecstasy.”

As I pray to You tonight, I ask that You keep me aware of Your ceaseless Presence, which permeates everything and yet lies above and beyond all that there is. You are both paradoxical and simple. Realizing this, I find You once again adorable and irresistible. How could anyone live without searching for or knowing You!

Please, Creator, continue to lift the veil of my unknowing and misunderstanding, so that I may enjoy and bask in communion with You. Increasingly, I am becoming willing to forsake all for You, just as the Lord taught that we should. Thank you, thank you, thank you for the mercy You constantly bestow upon me, and for making me evermore aware of Your Presence within and around me. I love you. Amen.

by Anonymousreply 3November 23, 2020 10:42 PM

November 23, 2020

Light in Darkness

Creator, I have been struggling with maintaining myself centered and aware of You. Although I know You are here, the stresses of school, of being under self-quarantine because of the pandemic, of chronic pain, of regrets, and of getting older, can sometimes feel as if they will overwhelm me with doubt, despair, and faithlessness. Although You have recently gifted me with startling moments of clarity and awareness, I often catch myself battling pride, wrath, envy, and sloth. (It’s as if the pain, trauma, and mistakes of the past coupled with the physical pain, challenges, and anxiety of the present combine into one drone that I have to fight, or pray, to block out.) It is in contemplating the cross of our Lord, and the crosses of many others, in fact, that I find a way out; a perforation through the dejection and listlessness that can overtake me – or any soul, for that matter, that is consumed by its own comfort, survival, and importance.

Though the sublimity of moments, and of a life, that is generated and regenerated during faithful focus on You – Your truth, love, power, supremacy, laws, creeds, and commands – cannot be denied, and is often sought by those seeking communion with You, it comes at a hefty price. This sublimity, or sense of union with You and transcendence of the temporal, requires relinquishment of all that is base, egoic, and divisive. Without faith and prayer, our souls cling to that which is solid, visible, tactile, measurable, and predictable. However, our souls fail to realize or remember that, all things being of and having their source in the Spirit, that which is graspable in the earthly sense is also usually heavy, transient, corruptible, and subject to deterioration. The cause of a soul’s pain comes from its attempt to make eternal that which is not and can never be.

As I write this, I can feel You awakening me again. My mind becomes clear, and Your Light and Presence in my heart grow palpable; my body, also, is quietly overcome by a subtle tingling sensation, as if all of my nerve-endings were being soothed and caressed all at once. It is in these moments that I am filled with the certainty of Your existence and Presence. But often, arriving at and experiencing these moments takes work; a certain level of acceptance, excavation, and purgation. Waking up can be extremely difficult.

Creator, fill and surround me with the awareness of Your constant Presence, and remind me that the crosses that we all bare, and are meant to bare, are but one of the many ways in which we fall into communion with You and come to the realization that we are of Spirit, of that which may be invisible and seem nonexistent, but which creates, animates, and governs all things. Fill and surround me with the awareness of Your Holy Spirit which is within and around me at all times. Amen.

by Anonymousreply 4November 23, 2020 10:42 PM

Fuck off with your Jesus shit.

by Anonymousreply 5November 23, 2020 10:45 PM

R5 You must be slightly retarded.

Prayer isn’t centered on Jesus, dear.

by Anonymousreply 6November 23, 2020 10:46 PM

OP I have been praying for my nephew, a troubled soul who ended up on the streets of SF and died a few days ago. Please pray for all the lost children and their parents. And tell the mayor that the party is over and to send the kids home. 🙏🙏🙏😢😢😢

by Anonymousreply 7November 23, 2020 10:46 PM

R7 I will. I am truly sorry about the passing of your nephew. May he Rest In Peace. 🙏🏼

by Anonymousreply 8November 23, 2020 10:49 PM

Op I’m glad that you find prayer helpful for yourself. But that you believe that others need to do likewise and follow what I believe is equivalent to burning sage while trying to cast a spell to the spirits of nature reflects the annoying need to proselytize of so many who follow religions. That certainty in something that can never be established as factual.

by Anonymousreply 9November 23, 2020 10:53 PM

R9 I understand your reticence. If the words prayer, meditation, or contemplation turn you off, then consider it positive or affirmative thinking. In the end, it is about aligning yourself with something greater than yourself and recognizing that we are all united under creation’s veil.

I’m not here to proselytize or to advocate for one faith over another.

by Anonymousreply 10November 23, 2020 10:58 PM

[R7] Thank you

by Anonymousreply 11November 23, 2020 11:00 PM

Who among us doesn't enjoy getting our knees to worship?

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 12November 23, 2020 11:01 PM

R12 You are why I love DL 😂

by Anonymousreply 13November 23, 2020 11:03 PM

R13 is me, btw.

by Anonymousreply 14November 23, 2020 11:04 PM

If you want to mumble your innermost thoughts to a non-existent figment of your imagination, by all means, please proceed OP.

The problem is that when you kindly allow anyone to spout their religious bullshit (or whatever you want to call it) for all to hear, it always ends up poorly. Always.

Not that religious lunacy started 50 years ago, but 50 years ago, religious loons brayed "live and let live." Secular folks agreed. The loons then proceeded to take that as an endorsement, and have been shoving it down our throats nonstop ever since.

40 years ago, religious loons took the bait and agreed to support anything the party of business wanted if that party supported their lunacy, rejecting their book of fairy tales admonishments to keep commerce and faith apart. I guess if it isn't an enumerated commandment, it doesn't count.

25 years ago, religious loons told us that getting a blowjob in the hallway outside the Oval Office was an impeachable offense. Don't try to tell me is was that Bubba lied. Sexual indiscretion and lies only count when the officeholder has a "D" after his name, as we've seen proven in spades.

12 years ago, religious loons told us that the world would fall apart and hell would reign on Earth if we elected a black man to the White House.

4 years ago, they set everything they've ranted about for 50 years, and proved my points.

by Anonymousreply 15November 23, 2020 11:06 PM

R10/op you’re proselytizing faith over reason, and a belief in some creation from a higher power rather than natural amd or random effects of astrophysics, biochemistry, and evolution independent of any intelligent design.

Meditating and contemplating are not synonyms for praying. Prayer, as I understand it, may often include contemplation and/or meditation. But contemplation and/or meditation does not always include prayer. I contemplate many aspects of my experiences and the world around me—observations, emotional reactions, review of externally collected and analyzed facts. I meditate to quiet my mind and relax. I never pray. I’m fine if you do. I don’t feel a need to say I hope you abandon your prayer and embrace rationality instead. That seems a key difference with persons who make the statements you did.

by Anonymousreply 16November 23, 2020 11:07 PM

My altar!

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 17November 23, 2020 11:08 PM

R15 Alrighty then. But this is a thread on PRAYER, not religion. As I wrote in another thread on religion a few weeks ago:

[quote] The kernel-truths of all religions are the same: do unto others as you would have them do unto you; love unconditionally; be charitable; practice simplicity, humility, and detachment; recognize that the Creator - God, YHVH, Allah, Source, Truth, Father, Mother - is within and surrounding all things; realize that this dense physical realm is filled with pain, suffering, and illusions that we are meant to transcend.

[quote]The crystallization of beliefs, i.e., religion, can be helpful to attain and sustain faith, but taken to the extreme, I.e., elitism and fundamentalism, can lead to more of that which we are meant to transcend.

However, I do appreciate your honesty and point of view, R15.

by Anonymousreply 18November 23, 2020 11:10 PM

[quote]aligning yourself with something greater than yourself

Yes, PLEASE!

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by Anonymousreply 19November 23, 2020 11:12 PM

R16 I did write in the op “prayer, meditation, OR contemplation,” not “instead of.”

Also, the “natural and or random effects of astrophysics, biochemistry, and evolution” are a “higher power,” are they not?

by Anonymousreply 20November 23, 2020 11:13 PM

You are terrible, R19 🤣

by Anonymousreply 21November 23, 2020 11:14 PM

R16 Furthermore, I am not as presumptuous as to assume I or anyone else, for that matter, knows with unequivocal certainty the source of creation and the extent of its expanses or limitations. I take the humble route and do admit that it is greater and higher, i.e., beyond what I can see, know, or even comprehend.

Prayer, meditation, and contemplation have also moved and changed me in ways that I would like to share with others, as I am doing in this thread.

If it - my prayers and praying in general - “works” and “clicks” for you, great! If not, no harm, no foul.

by Anonymousreply 22November 23, 2020 11:21 PM

Scrolling through DL and coming across a "prayer thread" (with its not-so-subtle innuendo about us non-"spiritual" people being somehow wrong or "less than") is a bit like having Mormon missionaries ring the doorbell during sexy time.

It's not welcome.

But this guy can ring my buzzer anytime.

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 23November 23, 2020 11:24 PM

What kind of pretentious mega spaz is the OP?

Fuck off with your holy crap. There isn't a religion on earth which is welcoming to gay people. This is a frau thread.

by Anonymousreply 24November 23, 2020 11:30 PM

We love you, OP! Thank you so much for being so thoughtful. Pray when you awaken in the Middle of the night/very early morning between 3 and 5. Trust me! Have a good night, pal.

by Anonymousreply 25November 23, 2020 11:34 PM

OP, you're sweet....but if prayer worked hurricanes wouldn't make land, your granny wouldn't be dead, and Corona virus would have gone away by Easter.

Someone please post full video link for r12. The bear is hot. I'm praying someone will cum through with the link.

by Anonymousreply 26November 23, 2020 11:38 PM

I love that you suggested this, R25. I have been recommended this by others, too, in the past few weeks.

I am considering taking up the practice of keeping vigil.

Love you, too! 🙏🏼❤️🙏🏼

R26 You keep on requesting and/or posting all the dick and ass you want in this thread, babe. This is DL, after all. Just try and pray. Do it for me and/or for shits and giggles. Pweaze! 🙏🏼

R26 I

by Anonymousreply 27November 24, 2020 2:48 AM

[quote] Just try and pray. Do it for me and/or for shits and giggles. Pweaze!

Oh, fuck off.

by Anonymousreply 28November 24, 2020 2:53 AM

R28 🤣😂

Bitch, you totally gave me Sue in “Feud” teas.

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 29November 24, 2020 2:58 AM

R22 You don’t seem “humble” in the slightest.

by Anonymousreply 30November 24, 2020 9:57 AM

[quote]I have decided to create this thread to post excerpts from my prayer journal because...

...I'm a troll" is how this sentence should have ended.

There is no legitimate explanation for your behavior beyond trolling, especially since your "O Ye, of Little Faith" thread wasn't "stricken," it's still active.

by Anonymousreply 31November 24, 2020 10:03 AM

I love cocks and mystics, so I like this tread, OP.

IMO it's wrong to think prayer must change the objective or outer world. As one great mystic wrote, 'Prayer doesn't change God; it changes us.'

by Anonymousreply 32November 24, 2020 10:23 AM

Wait. So the last thread was tossed out by the mods to the ash heap and you think it’s a good idea to start another?

by Anonymousreply 33November 24, 2020 10:33 AM

[quote] the annoying need to proselytize

Hey, lemme tell you something, without these people I wouldn’t have a sex life. Don’t say it’s annoying. Expensive, maybe, but annoying, no.

by Anonymousreply 34November 24, 2020 10:34 AM

[quote] Pweaze!

WTF is wrong with you? I mean, besides the obvious.

by Anonymousreply 35November 24, 2020 10:54 AM

I totally believe in the power of prayer and practice meditation on a regular basis but I think you should have left any religious stuff out of it OP as many here have been hurt and ostracized by it. We can have a divine connection with the universe, a God of our understanding, or with one another.

by Anonymousreply 36November 24, 2020 11:11 AM

R32 lol, love you. Truly.

R36 I reread some of the prayers I shared and realized I should’ve done a better job at filtering out some of my beliefs. However, the instances in which I mentioned anything that could be considered religious are few and far in between.

Also, I agree with your assertion that we can have “a connection with the universe, a God” of our understanding, or with one another” without religion.

by Anonymousreply 37November 24, 2020 1:42 PM

You think your humblebragging is gonna get you into the priority line at Heaven's Gate, hunny? Frotting out with this puerile, treacly patina over manure based reasoning isn't going to impress anybody with an IQ over twenty five.

We all could put a big ol' spotlight on all the good we do, but anybody above the mental age of 13 realizes that it's done privately. Go brush your Princess Diana doll's hair again. I can hear her calling your name...

by Anonymousreply 38November 24, 2020 3:35 PM

[quote] You think your humblebragging is gonna get you into the priority line at Heaven's Gate, hunny?

Oh, dear, the fact that you actually believe in a “priority line at Heaven’s Gate” tells me all I need to know about you.

I’m sure your religion is also “the true and only one,” too, right?

The Creator has something in store for you.

by Anonymousreply 39November 24, 2020 3:40 PM

Love you, DL. ALL of you.

by Anonymousreply 40November 25, 2020 6:39 AM

Praying? I love praying! It gets me out of actually physically having to help anyone who happens to ask.

by Anonymousreply 41November 25, 2020 6:47 AM

R41 Remember, it’s the thought that counts!

by Anonymousreply 42November 25, 2020 6:49 AM

Funny, these lovely cock shots remind me that there was a sex club I used to visit in the ‘80s. It had no official name as I recall, but we all referred to it as Church. This was in SF, south of Market. Maybe someone here remembers it. It wasn’t a proper business, just a dark, unfurnished flat jammed with men mostly sucking but often enough fucking. OP, many attendees prayed.

by Anonymousreply 43November 25, 2020 7:14 AM

LOL, I remember it R43. I was there in the late 80s and had a roommate who loved the place. I never went to it, but I heard plenty of stories about it. He usually came back from 'church' looking like he'd had some kind of religious experience.

by Anonymousreply 44November 25, 2020 10:23 AM

Religion is a mental illness OP.

Man invented god. End of story.

by Anonymousreply 45November 25, 2020 10:29 AM

I would like to think that "prayer" is when people genuinely stop and think/reflect on behalf of a friend or loved one. That's beautiful.

It's the vapid, insincere "I'm praying for you" shit that drives me crazy. No, dear, you are not really praying for me. You feel obligated to say that, or perhaps it makes you feel good to throw out "thoughts and prayers" so you can walk away and go back to your real life.

by Anonymousreply 46November 25, 2020 10:32 AM

Absolutely nobody who says "thoughts & prayers" means it R46. They are just automated meaningless words for dullards to use.

by Anonymousreply 47November 25, 2020 10:36 AM

On DL we say 'thoughts and prayers' when we really don't give a shit or we actively wish someone ill.

by Anonymousreply 48November 25, 2020 10:41 AM

This will end in tears.

by Anonymousreply 49November 25, 2020 10:47 AM

Is DL on the fritz again? I've put OP on ignore three times and it won't take.

by Anonymousreply 50November 25, 2020 11:08 AM

That’s god stepping in, r50!

by Anonymousreply 51November 25, 2020 12:28 PM

Thank you, OP. And fuck you for your disgusting presumption.

You exhibit the pride of the lunatic and may God cure you of your exhibitionism.

I say that as a living saint.

by Anonymousreply 52November 25, 2020 12:32 PM

Anytime I hear anyone say anything remotely religious I can hear Piper Laurie’s voice in my head saying “I can see your dirty pillows”

by Anonymousreply 53November 25, 2020 1:55 PM

R51 😂

by Anonymousreply 54November 25, 2020 2:02 PM

Prayer is nothing more than the power of positive thinking.

by Anonymousreply 55November 25, 2020 2:36 PM

November 25, 2020

Saṃsāra

Creator, the disbelief of others can be so contagious, especially when one feels weakened and blighted by one’s own frustration with You. The trials and tribulations of life can wear a soul down, taking a heavy toll, and we are often left in pain, fearful and confused, and with overwhelming feelings of abandonment. However, You have swept in to rescue me so many times – through the subtlest shifts in thought and feeling, through the “charge” I have taken to writing about, in which You seem to charge my very being along with the environment around me with the awareness and sensation Your both soothing and overwhelming Presence; through chance encounters, through grace-filled happenstance, and through the biggest and smallest of miracles – and I long ago learned to stop questioning Your existence. Still, I must admit, You frustrate me so sometimes, even though I know that Your seeming inactivity and passivity is really Your greatest gift to us: the space and time to exhibit our free will and to learn what we must learn. We are allowed to do what we want, but with that gift we must also be willing to reap what we sow.

I believe, though still with a healthy amount of skepticism, that reaping what we sow can require many lifetimes; lifetimes filled with both abundance and destitution, depending on what karmic debts we have incurred or what karmic advances we have made. The Buddhists call this Saṃsāra – the beginningless and endless cycle of repeated births, mundane existences, and deaths – and consider it to be dukkha, painful and unsatisfactory, and perpetuated by desire and avidya, or ignorance of the Truth and of Ultimate Reality, which, in my opinion, is You. Coming to seek and know You for the Christian leads to heaven and for the Buddhist leads to Nirvana. Tomayto, tomahto, as far as I am concerned. We are all struggling to and adamant about finding just the right words, or word, to name and describe You. Impossible!

Still, how do I translate this knowing of Your existence to others? How do I articulate to others how it is that I have begun to see, hear, feel, and perceive You in everything, and that it has almost nothing to do with religion or pantheism, for that matter? How do I chart the trajectory my soul has gone on – for myself more than anyone else – mapping out the ways in which I see and perceive You running through quarks and the cosmos, through our cells and magnetic fields, through the laws of nature and through quantum physics, through our minds, bodies, hearts, and souls? You are both impersonal and extremely personal; at times You are seemingly cold, distant, pitiless, and remote, and at other times You are palpably close, warm, all-encompassing, and sacredly loving.

The devout seek You in scripture, in the sacred practices of prayer, meditation, and contemplation, and through acts of self-sacrifice, service and compassion toward others. The scientists seek You, though they may not say or admit so, in Your creations and through Your natural laws and mysteries, struggling to dissect, quantify, categorize, and pin You down. Funny enough, I sometimes feel atheists and pantheists are closest to knowing You because they have no preconceived notions of You; they only view and focus on “reality” – on what is – and You are, after all, Ultimate Reality; You are all there is.

On this Thanksgiving eve, I pray that You fill and surround loved ones and strangers alike with the awareness of Your Presence within and around them and within and around all things. I pray that You hover over those who are alone, abandoned, anguished, angry, and addicted, and that You fill them with faith, hope, and love, and with Your sacred peace and light. Most of all, I pray that You fill others with the knowledge profoundly intimate You can be, if sought, with each and every one of us. Amen.

by Anonymousreply 56November 25, 2020 4:37 PM

* I pray that You fill others with the knowledge of how profoundly intimate You can be, if sought, with each and every one of us.

by Anonymousreply 57November 25, 2020 4:46 PM

When I hear or see the word “creator” I hear Persis Khambatta’s “V’ger” voice from Star Trek The Motion Picture.

by Anonymousreply 58November 26, 2020 1:02 AM

And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

Matthew 6 : 5-6

by Anonymousreply 59November 26, 2020 1:02 AM

Amen!

by Anonymousreply 60November 26, 2020 1:28 AM

It's basically well-written, though it's wordy and doesn't offer any particularly startling insight. I think 'hover' is the wrong word in the last paragraph. Have you read Thomas Traherne or Tagore? IMO there's much to admire in their style and compression.

by Anonymousreply 61November 26, 2020 10:47 AM

R59 Love that quote.

R61 Thank you and no, I have not read either. Will definitely check them out.

These excerpts from my prayer journal I have shared are just that - excerpts from my prayer journal; nothing more, nothing less. I’m not trying to to write great prose nor am I trying to proselytize or “pray standing in the synagogues or in corners of the streets.” I have my private prayer practice, which is based on what Christ teaches in the quoted scripture above, and I have my written prayer practice, which include some of the prayers I’ve posted in this thread.

I am sharing with others how I pray to reveal to the curious what one aspect of my practice is like and to provide those seeking a closer relationship with the Divine examples on how they may try going about doing it.

I respect and how a profound regard for all religions, and don’t necessarily believe any of them are “wrong”,” nor do I uphold a single one as “right.” As long as the religion in question promotes and encourages love, compassion, charity, and universal wisdom, I am all for it. Even Christ declared, “For he who is not against us is for us.”

I view prayer as a way of connecting with God, but also as a way of cleansing oneself, one’s environment and the environment at large - the global community - of “psychic free radicals” which are extreme and proliferate these days.

I only hope some of you can find some measure of comfort and encouragement. If not, as I stated above, no harm, no foul.

by Anonymousreply 62November 26, 2020 5:00 PM

*I respect and have a profound regard for all religions

by Anonymousreply 63November 26, 2020 5:01 PM

This is a troll thread, right?

by Anonymousreply 64November 26, 2020 5:16 PM

This thread need more penes.

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by Anonymousreply 65November 26, 2020 5:19 PM
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