A Prayer for You: It Really Works!

    The Christ Prayer is a powerful tool for spiritual advancement for 
those desiring a true union with God. Unlike the rote prayers that 
people have become accustomed to rattling off with little thought, or 
specially contrived supplications aimed at bringing about  specific 
results, this prayer truly works. Unlike conventional "prayer" which 
is generally of three kinds; Help!, Gimme!, and Let's Make a Deal, 
the Christ Prayer is based on sound spiritual principle and practice; 
and it is guaranteed to work if the spirit is right. Where onventional  
"prayer" may be likened to a roll of the dice or the spin of a wheel, 
hit or miss, this prayer is more like a marksman firing at a target. 
As with any new habit the Christ Prayer requires some adaptation; the 
novice must assimilate the information in order to obtain the best 
results. You cannot see through another's eyes, hear through another's 
ears, feel with another's hands, or experience anything that is not your 
own. Therefore you must make the Christ Prayer your own; it must become 
a working part of your mind.

    There are three, and only three, kinds of true prayer. The Christ 
Prayer includes all of these: it is a prayer of Invocation, Dedication 
and Communion.
    
    Invocation. This is the first part of the prayer; it's purpose is 
to align the spirit with the Spirit of God, the Father in you "which 
doeth the works." "Our Father" becomes my Father.
    The word is a concatenation of three words and derivatives: "in", 
"voc", and "ation." The first is the common preposition meaning to be 
enclosed, within. The second, voc, is a derivative of the Latin "vox", 
or voice. And finally, "ation" is actually a linguistic aberration of 
the word action: a[c]tion. Therefore the Prayer of Invocation is used 
to make contact with the Father, your own personal Cause who dwells in 
your Secret Place of the Most High. Literally, it is the action of 
intuning with the Inner Voice. It is the key to Meditation, which is 
not a practice, as many believe, but a spiritual state, a destination. 
The invocative prayer is the means of getting there.

    Dedication. This is also a three-part word. The first, "de", is 
the common Romance language preposition meaning "of." The second part, 
"dic", is a derivative of the Latin "dix", to tell. Thus, the Prayer 
of Dedication is the Action of the Telling. You intune with the Father 
and act on the Inspired Thought you receive - in the moment! This is a 
very important point. The Christ Prayer need only be offered up twice 
a day, upon awakening, and when going out into the world; if practiced 
properly its effect is like turning on a spiritual "autopilot" that 
will guide you through the rest of the day. You will gradually come to 
see things as you've never seen them before, hear things that escaped 
your notice in the past, and you will naturally perform acts, little 
ones that others may not notice, that will quicken your spirit and 
light up your soul. That is a promise.

    Communion. This is a fusion of the two words "common" and "union", 
and it describes the sense of being which the prayer brings to the surface 
of your being. You are a part of Universal God, the World in which you 
live, and are truly connected to the Life Presence, akin to all creatures 
great and small.

    Finally, it is important that the Christ Prayer be recited word 
for word. Perfectly. Of course the words themselves have no magical power,
but saying them precisely helps to focus the mind and ward off any 
distractions that might compromise the prayer's effectiveness. It is also 
important to learn the prayer so you can say it, word for word without 
reading it. A prayer that is read is like a glove: you slip it on when 
needed but it can also slip off, whereas a prayer that you "know" becomes 
as your hand: a part of you that serves you with little or no thought at 
all. Do not memorize it! This is like giving a quick charge to a battery, 
it dissipates under a load. Just learn it as you go, a line at a time 
perhaps, until it has been fully assimilated. It will then serve you 
every day for the rest of your life. Another way of thinking about it: 
This prayer helps you "boot up" your software each morning.

    There must inevitably be a comparison of the Christ Prayer to the 
well-known Lord's Prayer. They are two parts of the same whole. Where 
the Lord's Prayer begins with the words "Our Father" the Christ Prayer 
begins simply with Father. My Father. The connection with "Thy Kingdom 
come, Thy Will be done," will become self-evident in the Christ Prayer 
itself once you begin using it. But there is an universally misquoted 
part of the older prayer that obscures its true meaning. The phrase is 
that which immediately follows the above: "Thy Will be done ON Earth as 
it is in Heaven." This is wrong. The correct statement is: Thy Will be 
done IN earth, as it is in Heaven," your "earth" being the sum total 
of your external experiences in the world: everything you see or have 
ever seen; hear, have ever heard; think, or ever thought. It is, in a 
word, Everything. It's your total experience on this material plane 
which, if you haven't already guessed, is Purgatory.
    Then there's the part "as it is in Heaven." This is not a place; 
it's a spiritual state. Heaven is where God dwells, and since God is 
All Things, Everywhere, Heaven must therefore be everywhere. Have you 
never been in such a state of pure bliss that you've said to yourself, 
"I'm in heaven?" Well, that's the truth: you are in heaven at those 
times. The Christ Prayer just helps you get there and stay there. In 
sum; the Father in you is your Cause, the circumstances of your life 
are Effect. Get the right with the Cause and the Effect, the quality 
of your life, will be astounding. But easy does it.

    Finally, we come to the matter of true Faith. Too often faith is 
seen as a foregone conclusion: that a particular, preconceived, state 
of affairs will be brought about. When the plan doesn't work out the 
supplicant sighs, dons the hair-shirt of self-pity, and says, "It must 
not be (have been) God's Will." Nonsense. This kind of faith is like the 
gambler at a Blackjack table who plays his cards shrewdly, in his own 
estimation, and either wins or "busts." Heaven is not a casino, the 
Father is not a croupier, faith is not a gamble, and prayer is not a 
guessing game.
    Faith, we believe, is the absolute conviction that what we want 
for ourselves is exactly what the Father wants for us. Since we are 
sure that the Father doesn't wish us to be thieves, serial killers, or 
in any way antisocial, we must come to an accord in this matter. It is 
aligning our will with God's Will. The Christ Prayer begins with the one 
statement about which we may be absolutely certain is God's will for us: 
it is Speaking the Word, and will be noted in the margin by the letter, 
S. Invocation will be labelled, I, and Dedication by the letter, D. 
Communion will be labelled C.




                         The Christ Prayer

    S     Father, help me to make this, the happiest, most successful 
          day of my entire life.

    I     Focus my vision that I may only see the Goodness, Truth, 
          Beauty, Peace, Order, and Harmony,
          That Your Loving Hand works in the world about me every 
          instant.
          Tune my hearing that only sweet sounds of Love, and Warmth, 
          And Caring may come through to me,
          And above all, Father, help me to ensure that these Visions 
          and these Sounds, which I would perceive in the world about,
          Begin with me, in my heart of Hearts, wherein You dwell and 
          Shall abide Forevermore.
    
    D     Father, I dedicate this day to Your service, to the service 
          of my fellow beings,
          And not least, to my own spiritual advancement and material 
          well-being,
          And I thank You - now - for the many gift and wonders with 
          which You will fill the coming day for me,
          As I set out once more, upon its brief course,
          With a new strength and a new confidence,
          To master any challenge that may be in store for me, and
          To watch as, one by one, all obstacles vanish forever from
          My path.

    C     Thank You, Father; Thank You, Mother; Thank You God.

    This last part, the Prayer of Communion, describes the True Holy 
Trinity. When you Meditate you place yourself at the Center of your 
being (medi), in contact with the Father which is your Cause, and only 
cause. The Prayer of Invocation connects you with the Mind of God, and 
the Dedication, the "action of the telling", brings to your Earth a new 
set of Effects. Your Earth is your experience of the material plane. 
It's your Mother Earth, the Material Existence. The root of the word, 
material, is the Latin word for mother: Mater. The word itself is 
actually a derivative of the ancient saying, "Mater [i]bidem [al]."  
Mother Earth is the nurturing place where we are furnished with the 
air we breath, the food that nourishes us, the gravity that keeps our 
feet on the ground, and the whole panorama of pleasing sights, sounds, 
and feelings that ease the way of the Truly Enlightened on the Journey 
to Fulfillment.
    The symbol of the Christ, the fish, furnishes the perfect analogy 
with which to end this essay. We are as fish who live in the ocean, 
guided by our instinct (inner voice), we find our sustenance (the 
action of the telling) in the sea (mother) in which we live. If we are 
in tune with our True Inner Being then all our supply is provided us, 
and we are safe from all harm. Universal God is the water itself - the 
Water of Life, as the saying goes. But unlike the ocean, Universal God 
has no shore, is unlimited in span, and infinite in depth.

                         AMEN.