Your thoughts on prayer

Hi John:  Welcome to POE from me too.  Yes, very busy little place, but absolutely brilliant.  What you said about the faith / belief fence - so true.  But this is a great group.  There is a genuine affection and respect for one another here that I'm sure you'll soon see.

I'm glad the thread caught your eye.  God is really fascinating!!  As you've probably read on here already, I think most of us are in agreement that "religion" can dim the view of God.  I think if anyone who claims to be a believer and then cuts someone else down for their beliefs is not really putting their faith into practice.

Enjoy it here, John.  Looking forward to chatting with you.

Thanks for the welcome, Ruth. Good to meet you.

You look a lot like my sister-in-law!

God is really fascinating!! 

As I said, I'm an atheist, so I'd have to qualify that statement slightly. I certainly agree that the concept of God is fascinating.

I look forward to chatting, too.

You're welcome, John.  Seeya soon.  I'm off to work now.  8:23 AM here. 

I very much believe in the power of prayer.

You may not always get what you want but you will get what you need.!

I also find prayer soothing to my nerves-just the act of praying can be comforting ..

I have found that St.Jude ,the patron saint of lost causes will help in times of need.

I also find comfort in praying to our Lady -England was known as Mary's dowry .

this whole thing of religion has been something of an "work" for me to understand, I kind of went into "light healing" an bit after my first near-death expereince, which was at an time when books weren't written about it like they are today. Most the time I do this without anyone knowing I'm doing it.I generally don't mention to much about it, but I can see that like me you have all learned the formal "ritual" religion is far different from having "faith" although you have to have "faith" to have the rest of the package. At the time I had my near-death expereince, I came to an bright light, like everyone writes about these days, and I percieved it to be "jesus"...but I had an far more startling episode after that one time.  If it was an true "God-expereince" then I would say that the "God esscense" is pure light energy. It has thought, no gender that I could perceive, It came while I was having an problem with what to do about someone. It showed me all at once, simutaneously and yet separately and I have no way to make this understood in our wordage..the closest I could come up would be like standing in front of an wall of TV sets and seeing each and all at the same time. I realized that there was "no time" as we thnk of time. The message in the end was not to worry about such stuff...that "God" was still operating the universe. My understanding was that this "prescence" came to me of it's own, not by my beckoning. The fear I felt at the "prescene" was "soul-wise" also...as if I could feel my soul separate from my body. Only once has it ever happened to me. It is an "folly" to say that there is not an creator spirit in the universe. I can understand now how people must feel when they are called to "service" by God. An person can not be an "healer" without God's prescence in my opinion. So it is that his divine "will" is always in the lead of others...the first, the last, and passing through also. Smiles* 

Hi Vera:  Thanks for sharing your thoughts.  What you said about just the act of praying can be comforting - that's exactly my experience.  And I think that's what Joyce Rupp means about prayer growing us, changing us.  If your prayer is based in a faith tradition, the challenge presented by prayer is not to God, but to yourself.  Is it your perspective, or your thought pattern that is amiss?  If you ask for the grace to see things rightly, it will happen, but not overnight.  I believe it's a lifetime process.

As for your posting, Shirley - very profound.  Your experience has been shared by many, including St. Paul.  I believe it was in one of his letters to the Corinthians where he describes his experience.  And what you said about "how people must feel when they are called to "service" by God" - in the Catholic tradition that's referred to as "vocation," which is from the Latin root voca, which means a calling.  Everyone has a calling, a vocation, and it just isn't being called to be clergy or religious.  Being a parent is a vocation, being a spouse is a vocation.  God is often referred to as light, and the vocation we have is to share and spread a little of that light in whatever little corner of the world we live in.  I happen to believe that because we are all created in God's image, we do it without realizing it.  Faith just seems to bring it all into clearer focus, at least for me. 

Alfred Lord Tennyson on prayer:

There is a place where thou canst touch the eyes of blinded men to instant, perfect sight;

There is a place where thou canst say, "Arise," to captives, bound in chains of night;

There is a place where thou canst reach the store of hoarded gold and free it for the Lord;

There is a place - upon some distant shore - where thou canst send the worker and the Word.

"Where is that secret place?"  Dost thou ask, "Where?"

O soul, it is the secret place of prayer.

Good Morning Ruth,

I love this piece you have posted on Tennyson. did you see the previous posts regarding Mariana? 

Yes indeed. I am sorry to interrupt your bedtime routine. anyway, sleep well and catch you again soon.

Goodnight from a fairly sunny UK.