I pray so much that the idea of scheduling a special time to pray doesn’t even make sense to me.
I pray all day long. To me, saying a prayer in my mind is like taking a drink to refresh myself.
I pray before meals, before bed, before meditating, before my healing work.
Most nobody realizes this as most of my prayers are silent.
My favorite prayer is the Lord’s Prayer – not original, I know – but that is what rolls through my mind when I am not invoking my Reiki prayer or a prayer that I compose on the spot for a specific situation.
A friend of mine told me about the book Invocations by Jacob Glass. I got it just because she recommended it, but now this book is something I turn to every night before I go to bed.
Jacob Glass is the founding minister of the 1st Church of Miracles. He lives in San Diego and Santa Barbara.
Reading his prayers bring me a great sense of peace and perspective.
I grew up with the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, but you won’t find prayers in that book like “Preparation Prayer for Sexual Intimacy” or “Prayer for Healing Loneliness and Isolation” or “Prayer for Healing Negativity” or “Prayer for Career/Work.”
Most of us live in what I call “the real world.”
Even though I go to the Zen Center and meditate on Monday nights, I have to work, I clean my house, I take care of my dog, I spend time with my friends, I teach yoga and qi gong and see my clients during the day. It is not practical to me to join a monastery – I can only hope to infuse my regular life with the depth of my own spirituality.
I like the way Jacob Glass thinks of mysticism. “Daily life is itself our spiritual practice when properly understood,” he writes.
“From this point of view everything becomes a sacred act – you need not change any of your normal daily activities.”
Although I like to pray from my heart directly, I have really come to appreciate the thoughtfulness of Jacob Glass’s prayers. They possess the simplicity of true soul longing along with the breadth of someone who understands the challenges that most of us face these days.
“I now turn inward to the Center of my Being where God abides,” begins the “Centering Prayer.”
“I go to the well of Infinite Goodness and Wisdom.
“There is a perfect Presence within me that now radiates love throughout my entire being – I am at home here.”
