“And when you pray,
you should not babble like the pagans,
for they think that they will be heard
if they use many words.”
In view of the peculiarity of absolute freedom of will and belief, planet Earth differs fundamentally from other celestial bodies in the cosmos. While there are no boundaries here in the opposition of good and evil, love and hate, truth and falsehood, the thinking and actions of most cosmic peoples follow predetermined paths of consciousness; they live their lives within more or less fixed conditions and guidelines of God-given laws. For most of them, spiritual life is an inherent need, like breathing. That is why many of them – at this point in cosmic soul evolution – are ahead of us in their development and are able to help us.
The greater the scope of free will, the more independence from God’s will prevails on a planet or star, the more passive the spirit in the heart of the soul behaves. This circumstance poses a great danger of spiritual brutalization and blindness.
Since the principle of unconditional freedom of will and belief prevails on our Earth, God can only actively assist a person if they open the door of their soul to Him. Therefore, prayer is a necessary prerequisite for receiving adequate spiritual nourishment and enabling God’s effectiveness. Then He is no longer just the Creator and Sustainer of existence, but a caring companion and loving Father. This prayer requires a high degree of humility, in which the child admits that he needs his heavenly Father in order to pass from death into life.
* * *
How should one pray?
Depending on the stage of development a person is at, there are different forms of prayer. Basically, words addressed to God only reach their goal when the heart resonates with them. The prayer formulas that are usually recited without understanding in religious ceremonies have at best a self-hypnotic effect; they do not even touch the hem of the Father’s garment.
People usually only pray fervently in times of need. This is usually a request for relief from suffering and pain or for help in a hopeless situation. If the need causes the heart to open, the pleading words reach the Father’s heart; depending on the intensity of devotion, spiritual forces can come to the aid. Even if this is not always immediately apparent, processes are set in motion which sooner or later bear witness to God’s blessing.
A prayer that comes from a free heart, not from mental or physical suffering, already has a stronger effect. This can be a request for divine assistance for a heartfelt and sincere endeavor, but mainly it is a sincere request for guidance and protection in all situations in life. Childlike gratitude is also a prayer and gladdens the soul with closeness to God. The Father’s joy is immeasurable when a child seeks loving communion with Him and shapes its existence with Him.
Intercessory prayer for one’s neighbor and for the earth as a whole, spoken with humility of heart, also attracts light-filled spiritual forces. It brings healing and steadfastness to those in need and opens a way out of sin and death for lost souls—whether on this side or the other is irrelevant here. The trigger for such a prayer is always the Father’s merciful love, which touches the heart that belongs to him. A prayer that carries the child of God into the Father’s arms at the speed of light, so to speak, is sincere trust in all fateful circumstances, whether sweet or bitter. Here, sees that everything that happens to him first passes through the Father’s heart. In this light, he also sees how he should behave in each situation. This prayer opens the door to the awareness of divine security. This gives the heartfelt prayer a much greater dimension, because it actually comes alive. In this intimate togetherness of Father and child, true faith arises, in which the very last sparks of doubt are burned away and the most perfect of all prayers is born:
spiritual rebirth. Here, there is no longer isolated prayer. Here, the heart of the soul beats in the rhythm of God’s love; here, the separated love finds each other again in the most living way; the heart of the child and the heart of the Father become one heart.
This union of the soul bride and the God bridegroom is the eternal and true prayer of love. Man was created solely for this prayer.
* * *
If you feel a quiet attraction to the divine spirit within yourself, but do not yet feel love for the Father in prayer, there is no need to worry. Since divine love springs from the spirit of the heart, it is not necessarily tangible or experiential in the early stages of the life of faith. Here, one must take one step at a time. The first prayers born of the mind are virtually blind and seem powerless. Man does not see where his words go, nor does he know whether they arrive anywhere. But the Father hears honest and sincere prayer very well and knows exactly whether someone is serious about their request for salvation and closeness to God. Little by little, he bestows gifts of love upon the child’s words and gently draws him closer to his heart. Here, prayer is continually nourished with light and love; it grows—like the person praying—from a newborn in need of help to an independent adult, and with continued faithfulness develops as described in the previous text.
However, every person can practice the prayer of charity anytime and anywhere. Doing good to those in need and the destitute, serving them to the best of one’s knowledge and belief, forgiving sinners—these are prayers that are pleasing to God. They gradually fill the soul with divine love and open the gate to the kingdom of heaven.
* * *
The heavenly Father takes great pleasure when His children entrust everything to Him, discuss their deepest secrets with Him, openly confess their fears, mistakes, and weaknesses, and sincerely ask for advice and support. It is His joy to show them His love and care in response to their trusting requests and to be with them at all times in all situations.
The Father’s greatest joy is when his child recognizes how loving he is in these encounters; indeed, here it is revealed that God is not only gentle and infinitely patient, but also humble in his self-giving love. This secret of his innermost heart was revealed to the whole world in his capture and crucifixion, but this sacrifice was often interpreted as weakness.
A person who finds God in his immeasurable fatherly love does not feel worldly, transitory joy, but eternal, divine joy. One cannot imagine the bliss contained in the reception of a found child into the divine Father’s heart. Here, man finds the fulfillment of all his longings; he enters into eternal life, into the land of peace and love—his final and true home.
* * *
Grace before meals
Nowadays, the food industry is practically serving us poison on a plate. The food in supermarkets contains ingredients that are harmful to our health and, in this form, are actually legalized euthanasia. Refined sugar is a slow-acting poison and responsible for all kinds of diseases. The catering industry mostly uses readymade products containing all kinds of chemicals, which have a destructive effect on the body in the long term. The same applies to food contaminated with pesticides and genetically modified food, as well as to the routine feeding of antibiotics to animals; this interferes with the divine order and sets destructive processes in motion that soon spiral out of control.
Relatively few people eat an organic diet, and with imports, it is not always clear what certification standards have been applied. Furthermore, even organic food is not free from contamination by chemical fallout.
For this reason, saying grace before meals has become a necessity. If we ask the Father in faith to bless our food and drink before we eat, then this will happen. Eating will then not harm us, but strengthen us. Sincere thanksgiving from the heart after a meal deepens the soul’s humility and gives it a heartfelt connection with the Giver of all gifts.
This does not mean that one prays and then indulges in gluttony, for that would be tempting God. One should eat sensibly, for excessive eating strengthens the bond between the soul and the body and hinders its development. “Food and drink hold body and soul together!” is quite correct in the sense that food and drink sustain the life of the soul in the body – but unfortunately this wisdom has become a motto for unrestrained gluttony. What is important is a healthy synthesis of soul and body, whereby the soul can detach itself from the body at any time and turn freely inward.
Once a person has united with the spirit of God through their righteous way of life, all their actions become prayer. The presence of the Father purifies and blesses everything his child takes in, everything they say and do, and everything they encounter.
* * *
Prayers recited by heart are only of value if the soul resonates with childlike love. A short prayer or a heart that struggles for words but is sincere is a thousand times more pleasing to the Father than preconceived words and confessions without the power of faith:
* * *
Dear Father, please give me a heart filled with love for You,
free me from my earthly inadequacy and darkness. Take my life into Your hands, so that I may find You within me and recognize myself as a child in You.
*
My time is in your hands,
now I can be calm,
be calm in you.
You give security, You can turn everything around.
Give me a steadfast heart, make it steadfast in You.
*
Dear Jesus, I want to encounter You in all people. In my loving neighbor, you show me your affection and kindness;
in sinners you show me my faults and weaknesses.
Please strengthen my trust in You. Help me to overcome my shortcomings,
overcome them in and with me, for without You I can do nothing. Please take me by the hand and show me Your love,
so that I may always act in it and from it.
That I may say with all my heart:
Thy will be done.
*
Dear Father, grant that I may walk with Your feet,
give with Your hands, hear with Your ears, See with your eyes, speak with your mouth
and love all life with your heart. Only you, dear Father, can give this.
*
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation, (which we have brought upon ourselves through our sinfulness,
but cannot resist in our weakness),
but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.
* * *