Earlier this week, I wrote of the need to rise above the fears we experience because of the world’s chaos. Equally important is the need to remain awake, to avoid the tendency to sleepwalk through life. Human will is primarily an organ of choice, intentionality, and purpose. When we fail to choose our choices, the will becomes passive, and a passive will easily falls prey to the chaotic forces that presently dominate the world’s stage. The most effective way of awakening our God-given will is prayer. True prayer is the conscious choice, motivated by love, to lift our minds and hearts toward heaven. Prayer is the asking, thanking, worshipping, blessing, and loving that we direct to God and guru. Sometimes prayer will take the form of words; at other times, it will manifest as the wordless inner sighing of the soul. At the highest height, prayer will be nothing more than the experience of silent union with the Beloved — wherein the imagination, intelligence, memory, and will are held in sweet abeyance by the strength of divine love. Never doubt the power of prayer to change the chemistry of your life and the life of the world. Prayer as an expression of love keeps the world from spinning entirely out of control. Finally, when we pray, we never pray alone. Contemplate the inspired words of Valentin Tomberg: “The voices of all those who have ever prayed are evoked and join the voice of he who prays with serious intention… One should know, dear Unknown Friend, that one never prays alone, that is, that there are always others — above, or in the past on earth — who pray with you in the same sense, in the same spirit, and even in the same words. In praying, you always represent a visible or invisible community together with you.”
When I pray,
I never pray alone.
