In my studies this week I glimpsed the way prayer can be a means of sustenance. Rather than something I need to schedule among the other things vying for my waking hours, it can be the thing that gives me strength and regeneration. For prayer is not about asking God to help with my life. Prayer is about God being my life — that is to say, that elemental goodness is the Principle on which I am formed, the Principle of how I’m put together — my movement, my interaction, my growth, my purpose, my fulfillment.
So in church today, I opened my heart up to that sustenance, that sense of having my whole being created, in that moment, by the ever-present Love that was embracing me. And I embraced the rest of the congregation, as best I could, in that perception. That was during the silent prayer. Then we began to say the Lord’s Prayer, “Our father, which art in heaven; Our Father Mother God, all harmonious . . . “ It was a great affirmation of where I had been flying in silent prayer.
When we got to the part, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and Love is reflected in love,” I had an interesting insight. In order to be forgiving a debt, I first had to give a loan. Had to enter into relationship with someone, had to trust them and act on that trust. So in order to be forgiven for all that I don’t understand about who I am, I need to enter into a relationship of trust with others, and forgive them for all they don’t understand about who I am, or about who they are. A lovely practice that involves no passing of judgment, no miserly withholding, no cautious prudence. I agree to trust others to be the divine children that Life, Love, creates them to be. And then forgive them, and me, when I see something different. That’s how I am forgiven for seeing something different, and that’s how I rise to a truer perception of both them and myself. Thus, my relationship to God requires an active relationship with others. A thing I have been doing and loving to do, and was glad to see is part of the prescription for being Christian.
