I decided that this communication to you, had to be on a personal level, because prayer is very personal!
Now you might say that I am stating the obvious.
But we know that prayer is something about communication between us as individuals experiencing all of life’s ups and downs, and those elevated and loving beings on the other side of life, in the spirit realms of light, who hear our prayer requests and hurry them to those who do the healing and succouring work of the Most High, the Great Spirit, God.
The saints and ministering hosts of angels as they are called by most religious belief systems.
Outside of Spiritualism, prayer is often an ordered and pre-set format – even prescribed to be said, or made, at set times.
Agreed, Spiritualists do have some prayers in the form of hymns and spiritual songs, that are written down and used at various times in services etc.
But we do not have a set rote of things we should say to God at any one particular, prescribed time.
When we pray, we know that we can formulate our own thoughts and have sweet communion, without anyone else having to tell us what to pray and how.
Of course, there are prayers that were given to our forebears in ancient days, that are so magnificent – and simple in their expression, that they were obviously received after being given them by inspiration from On High.
And these special prayers have been in daily use ever since. Those who recorded these words that have been learned off by heart, may not have known themselves that they would be so important for literally thousands of years, to millions of people from all over the world.
These learned prayers are the bedrock of so many people’s daily lives that the original mediums would have been perhaps overwhelmed had they been apprised of the consequences of delivering the words of prayer that they heard.
Moses delivered the prayer repeated ever since by individuals, and groups of individuals, in times of trouble, times of joy and celebration, and just as a daily prayer regardless of situation or condition, in mundane everyday life mode.
Jesus relayed a prayer that he told his followers to use in much the same way, as he and they, had been used to reciting the former.
Both prayers have had good use as what I call, emergency prayers. Prayers you can use in an emergency when you need help and can’t get your own thoughts together.
I have a prayer that I say when I wake up, and when I lay me down to sleep. The same words, that I would say, are like an affirmation for me about what my conscious life rests on.
In fact, I shared this prayer, the first lines of the prayer Moses relayed, on my website www.lynguestdeswarte.com on a page called unsurprisingly, ‘Prayer and Meditation.’
It says, ‘blessed are you Lord, Lord, our Spirit (God) you are One. Blessed are you Lord, King for eternity.’ Jesus would have said in Aramaic (common Hebrew dialect) Baruch atoy adonoy, adonoy elohenu echod. Baruch atoy adanoy, melech le’olam ve’ad (ch sound as in the Scottish ‘loch’).
Going back to all those people around this globe on which we presently reside, and the myriad languages in use, it’s good to know that as Spiritualists, we understand that the language used in prayer is, in actuality, irrelevant, for the language of Spirit is universal.
All thought is a series of symbols, images that are translated into the different languages that our nationality causes us to learn and divides us country by country; not so on the Other Side.
Take that word ‘blessed’ translated from Hebrew. If we are speaking English, In the ‘Lord’s Prayer’ it translates as ‘hallowed’ – (as in ‘Hallowed be Thy Name’ when Jesus must have said ‘Blessed is The Name’ – as there was no actual name given to God back then. Nevertheless, the Lord and all the angels, and those in Spirit, hear and understand us anyway!
Our Spiritualist understanding abhors the fact that people have been killed over the centuries, for using the ‘wrong’ language in which to pray – or read the Bible.
But I digress. Prayer is so important to me because I know it connects me with the infinite – the world unseen that surrounds us even as we live our lives here. As I send my thoughts out, I know too that my prayers for healing and easement are heard and have been acted upon. I have been helped so many, many times, it would take a book to log all the instances. And this is not just for me. It works for everyone.
Inspirational prayer, conversation between you and the Spirit of Love and Light and all the saintly intercessors, will help you as it helps me.