copy

Participants of the ACIM TEXT Conference Call were recently asked, “What is Prayer?”

The following are some of the responses:

Aida S.
Praying is connecting with Source, bringing the desires of your heart. Source or the Holy Spirit if you will, knows your heartfelt desires before you pray, but you may not know all of them until you get quiet inside and pray. Praying is communion and communication with God, the deepest aspect of your true Self.

Steve S.
Prayer is communicating with God/my Guide.

Linda P.
A prayer releases you from negativity. Helps you to do right.

Sharon R.
I believe the one true prayer is that I ask for my mind to be healed and for God’s will to be done.

Carol H.
For me Prayer is purposely pausing, taking a deep breath and thinking about the fact that I am never separate from my Source, Holy Spirit, Higher Power.  I then proceed to ask or talk or show gratitude for whatever is happening in my mind…and then I wait!

Kathryn J.
I have heard it said that “meditation is listening to God and prayer is talking to God.” For me prayer is when I feel something that I want to personally and mindfully connect with God on. Hopefully, much of the day I have an on-going awareness of and companionship with God. But the times where there is a need to go even deeper into that connection, I think of as prayer. My favorite prayers are “help”, “thank you” and “I don’t know.” Help is when I am feeling sad or upset or any other negativity that I recognize I want to let go of. I say thank you mostly for the little things, I see a butterfly land on a flower right in front of me, my little niece reaches for my hand, anything that fills my heart. I say “I don’t know” when judgement starts in and my ego is looking for answers and details. This prayer shuts down that process and returns me to stillness.

Mindy L.
Prayer is the process of connecting with the real world. It is a request for the miracle of true reality to replace the apparent lack or “grievance.” It acknowledges Spirit  as our source. We withdraw the power we give the body and invest it in what is true…God. We pray for our “Good” which is God with nothing added(0) and nothing (0) taken away… Prayer is the power to connect with our true source. It brings us back to being in Love!!

Ananur
My definition of “Prayer”  is a responsive asserting (present moment aliveness) expression which activates TRUTH when sincerely expressed in affirmation, need, and a request to HEART LOVE in all that is spoken, breathing, loving, is prayer, is knowing that it’s all in the NOW to be manifested as we are… that I AM Jesus (Yeshua) spoke the Lord’s Prayer and said it to be an example not to be used as memorized statement over and over. We too can speak from our sincere hearts, like our elder Brother, about the steadfast abiding LOVE that is always present yet hidden by “ego’s meaningless thoughts.” My prayer is always to LOVE more.

Anna B.
Prayer to me is that moment when I turn to Our Father in recognition of, and gratitude for, Life.  I often turn to Our Father through the Holy Spirit within to heal the division in my heart/mind and restore my inner sight in certain situations or inner difficulties. I do not know life without prayer.  Sometimes, I enter into prayer just to spend time with my inner teachers or to “simply be” without words in a place where I exist with my Father and Holy Mother—a place, where all is already understood and only Love and joy remain.

Claire G.
PRAYER is one of the simplest, yet the greatest communication tool ever known. Its meanings, purposes are specific for those engaging in it, depending on cultural, religious &/or socioeconomic norms. Its forms widely vary such as pleading, begging, supplicating, or the worship of a deity.

Seeming seismic shifts can occur in my world, from a range of death, illness or a simple delay in arriving somewhere. My perception of those shifts can feel as though the tectonic plates are turbulently rumbling at high speed, changing everything all about me in a nanosecond. Prayer is the channeling, the direct link with Oneness. The net results are centering, healing, lack of separation, connection, and despite an earthquake of sorts, I can experience ultimate peace and calm.

My application of prayer and its effects are directly proportional to humility. This is wonderfully defined by Bob Smith, MD, co-founder of AA:

“…… is the perpetual quietness of heart. It is to have no trouble. It is never to be fretted or vexed, irritable or sore; to wonder at nothing that is done to me, to feel nothing done against me. It is to be at rest when nobody praises me, and when I am blamed or despised, it is to have a blessed home in myself where I can go in and shut the door and kneel to my Father in secret and be at peace, as in a deep sea of calmness, when all around and about is seeming trouble.”