Since the beginning of time, people of all civilizations have prayed. From prayer beads to prayer wheels, from solemn Gregorian chants to foot-stomping gospel music, from the fervent worshippers flogging their backs with ropes to the seeker quietly sitting cross-legged atop a mountain, there are as many ways of praying as there are people who pray.

When human circumstances seem overwhelming, we instinctively turn to prayer. There is something comforting about taking time out to commune with a Higher Power—to savor the sweet luxury of special moments of conscious awareness of God. The soul seeks the experience of raising itself to a spiritual level, where it can think and feel from its innate divinity. It is these heightened moments which satisfy—which give us the strength to go forward, the joy to warm our hearts, the comfort to ease our sorrows.

What Is Prayer?
Prayer in its simplest form is any conscious attempt to experience the presence of God. Prayer is a deliberate activity—one of seeking to recognize our oneness with God, of opening ourselves to the power of God as it moves through us in new and wonderful ways. Once this happens, however, prayer becomes something even more. As our awareness of the presence of God expands, prayer becomes the experience of being part of God, of centering ourselves directly in the creative flow of the universe, of perceiving things not with human eyes or human ears or human minds but from the divinity within us. We pray not to God or for God, as something separate from us, but from that sacred presence which is our very essence. …

A Holy Time
Prayer is a holy time within our hearts—a time of worship, joy and thanksgiving deep inside ourselves. It is a time of lying down in green pastures, being led beside the still waters and having our souls restored. We come away from prayer renewed in body and mind and at peace with ourselves and our world.

Let us take time to pray, for it is the highest blessing we can give ourselves and others.

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