Newsletter --- August 2010

This newsletter is a publication of the Mystical Order of the White Rose, a multi-faith devotional and spiritual support organization. We support and share information about mystical, monastic, contemplative and creative ways of living. We encourage prayer, the reading of sacred scripture(s), lectio divina, meditation, journaling, solitude, fasting, silence, kindness, hospitality, worship, simplicity, creativity,active involvement in spiritual and religious communities, and loving service to others. You can view past issues here and you can subscribe to it here .

Theme: Prayer

Table of Contents

-- "Ponderings on Prayer" by Cynthia Kiteley Lee

-- Prayers and Quotations About Prayer

-- Links of Interest

-- Multi-faith Multi-Media Daily Devotionals for August

Ponderings On Prayer

by Cynthia Kiteley Lee

Prayer is more amorphous than many people realize. Yes, you can slice and dice prayer into many official forms and find it engaged in privately and publicly all over the world. And yet, it persists in defying and transcending tidy definitions. It cannot be pinned to a board like a dead butterfly.

What is prayer for you? Chanting a Hindu chant? Reading prayers from a Christian Daily Office manual? Smudging yourself with sage smoke? Invoking the four directions? Whirling in dance like the Sufi whirling dervishes? Saying the rosary? What about watching a sunset or sunrise? Are your thoughts and feelings while you watch a form of prayer?

When you hold your baby for the first time, do you say "thank you God" silently or marvel out loud about how miraculous and beautiful your child is?

What about what is called intercessory prayer, where you pray for a loved one dealing with a stressful situation? Do you believe that your intercessory prayers help?

One of the definitions of prayer that has taken root in my fertile mind is: "Prayer is talking to God; meditation is listening to God."

I talk to God--and a variety of other-dimensional spiritual beings--all day long. I am especially prone to ejaculatory prayers such as: "Thank you, God!" or "God, please help me with this!"

Prayers of petition for protection, guidance and support are also a staple of my prayer life. My usual prayer's wording goes something like this: "I call upon my guides, guardians, angels and spiritual companions who work with, through and for the energies of love and light to assist me this day with guidance, protection and support in all I undertake."

In recent years I have taken up the practice of praying prior to eating a meal; usually silently. My meal prayer is: "Thank you Mother Earth for the bounty of your body; thank you plants and animals for the sacrifice of your cells for the nourishment of my body; thank you God for your nourishment of my body, mind, heart and spirit."

Prayer can be extremely personal and passionate and also extremely tame and culturally circumscribed. My prayer for you is that prayer, in whatever ways you experience it, will connect you with and provide you with all that is most holy, beautiful and uplifting in our world and in your consciousness. Amen. Selah. So mote it be.*

* Pagan/Neo-Pagan Use of "So mote it be."

Prayers and Quotations About Prayer

May everything in this my being

be directed to Thy glory

and may I never despair.

For I am under Thy hand,

and in Thee is all power and goodness.

- Dag Hammarskjold, from his book Markings

Prayer is making a medical comeback. Given that 94% of Americans believe in God or a higher power (1994 Gallup Poll), it is not surprising that 75% of patients think that their physician should address spiritual issues as part of their medical care. Furthermore, 40% want their physicians to actively discuss religious issues with them, and nearly 50% percent want their physicians to pray not just for them but with them. In a growing trend, 43 percent of American physicians privately pray for their patients. An article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA, May 1995) entitled “Should Physicians Prescribe Prayer for Health, discusses these trends. The mere presence of this article in this highly respected bastion of the medical profession suggests that the barrier between spirituality and health care is crumbling.

Source

Prayer makes visible the right, and reveals what is hampering and false. In its radiance, we behold the worth of our efforts, the range of our hopes, and the meaning of our deeds… However, prayer is no panacea, no substitute for action. It is, rather, like a beam thrown from a flashlight before us into the darkness. It is in this light that we grope, stumble, and climb, discover where we stand, what surrounds us, and the course which we should choose."

—Abraham Joshua Heschel

True silence is a key to the immense and flaming heart of God. It is the beginning of a divine courtship that will end only in the immense, creative, fruitful, loving silence of final union with the Beloved.

Yes, such silence is holy, a prayer beyond all prayers, leading to the final prayer of constant presence of God, to the heights of contemplation, when the soul, finally at peace, lives by the will of Him whom she loves totally, utterly and completely.

This silence, then, will break forth in a charity that overflows in the service of the neighbour without counting the cost. It will witness to Christ anywhere, always.

Availability will become delightsome and easy, for in each person the soul will see the face of her Love.

Hospitality will be deep and real, for a silent heart is a loving heart, and a loving heart is a hospice to the world.

- Amund Karner, p. 798, Celtic Daily Prayer from the Northumbria Community

Buddhist Prayer

O Amida, I take refuge in you,

Ocean of Oneness, Eternal Life and Light;

Entrusting with my whole heart and mind

In your Primal Vow;

I am empowered by you to live a full, Compassionate and creative life,

I dedicate myself to the service of all beings,

Striving to help others realize,

Their human potential and Enlightenment;

May your Teachings guide me

Throughout the day, in my relationships, work and play.

Namo Amida Buddha

Source

Bahai Prayer

All praise, O my God, be to Thee Who art the Source of all glory and majesty, of greatness and honor, of sovereignty and dominion, of loftiness and grace, of awe and power. Whomsoever Thou willest Thou causest to draw nigh unto the Most Great Ocean, and on whomsoever Thou desirest Thou conferrest the honor of recognizing Thy Most Ancient Name. Of all who are in heaven and on earth, none can withstand the operation of Thy sovereign Will. From all eternity Thou didst rule the entire creation, and Thou wilt continue for evermore to exercise Thy dominion over all created things. There is none other God but Thee, the Almighty, The Most Exalted, the All-Powerful, the All-Wise.

Illumine, O Lord, the faces of Thy servants, that they may behold Thee; and cleanse their hearts that they may turn unto the court of Thy heavenly favors, and recognize Him Who is the Manifestation of Thy Self and the Dayspring of Thine Essence. Verily, Thou art the Lord of all worlds. There is no God but Thee, the Unconstrained, the All-Subduing.

Bahá’u’lláh

Source

Lord, in Your presence is fullness of joy.

You make sense of the darkness.

You understand it.

Even my darkness is no surprise to You,

and Your presence is my light.

- Amund Karner, p. 393, Celtic Daily Prayer

Links of Interest

Prayers to Sophia

The Science of Prayer and Healing

Prayers to the Blessed Virgin Mary

Video: Rising Spirit & Little Grandmother

Medieval Women Monastics

Benedictine Spirituality Resources

Adorata

Geranium Farm

Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel

Maggie's Farm

Rose Lockets

Gratefulness.org

Mystical & Visionary Jewelry

Love and serve all humanity.
Assist everyone.
Be cheerful. Be courteous.
Be a dynamo of irrepressible joy.
Recognize God and goodness in every face—
there is no saint without a past; and no sinner without a future.

—Sri Mahavatar Babaji

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Daily Multi-faith, Multi-media Devotionals for August 2010

Each day we should expose ourselves to the inspiration of others. Thousands of saints and wise men and women have left us messages of hope and encouragement. Read what is honest. Read the scriptures and the commentaries. Read great literature and poetry. Read the psalms. Read that which expresses the anguish and the exhilaration of experience, and teaches us that we are not alone.

- John McQuiston II, p. 88, Always We Begin Again--The Benedictine Way of Living

Additional resources:

Moon Phases for August 2010 Daily Celebrations Living In Season Astronomy Picture of the Day

The Gnostic Calendar--A Mandala of Wholeness

Wilson's Almanac Book of Days

The Writer's Almanac:-- Poems, prose, and literary history every morning from Garrison Keillor direct to your inbox. Delivered daily.

Orthodox Calendar from Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America Celtic Wheel of the Year Druidic Holy Days

Esoteric Christo-Pagan Calendar of Events and Observances The Liturgical Calendar of the Celtic Catholic Church

Pagan Calendar The Goddess Lunar Calendar Islamic Holy Days & Calendar

Church of England Calendar of Saints Calendar of the Church Year According to the Episcopal Church

Please note that I will be reformatting and tweaking on the links/daily devotionals in days to come. CKLee

August 2010