Prayer and Spirituality and Religion
Does it Work?
Prayer and Spirituality
Prayer involves a relationship with God, or however you define a Higher Power: the Absolute, the Universe, The Almighty and many others.
With prayer, you are free to become who you are truly meant to be.
Once we open up a conversation with God, all possibilities for life are right there
This relationship is an unique as we are.
Prayer and spirituality are healing in a variety of ways.
Prayer is beneficial.
Let's take a look at how some theologians and scholars define and describe prayer.
Prayer and Spirituality: What is Prayer?
Per Mother Angelica-
Prayer is to take your failings, your evil tendencies and struggle with them. Prayer prepares you to get rid of all those things inside yourself that are not like Jesus. Prayer creates a disposition of assurance-not that you're going to get every that you want-but assurance of God's presence and His love.
When you start to think of prayer as Someone you are finally about to speak to God.
The Way to God, MK Gandhi
According to Mohandas K. Gandhi, the divinity is in everything and everyone and is both animate and inanimate. To him, the meaning of prayer is that he wants to invoke that divinity in himself. He wants to feel the presence of God within himself. This is something most of us yearn for. He says, "I beg it of myself, of my higher self, the real self, with which I have not yet achieved complete identification." He wants to feel a continual longing to lose himself in the divinity which comprises everything. So, he yearns to feel the presence of God all around and in himself. He also wrote that it is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without heart. Without prayer, there is no peace.
According to Gandhi, Unceasing prayer is purifying. It is praying without ceasing. Forget about setting aside 10 or 15 minutes a day to pray and then move on.
What about praying in a way that makes you grow in holiness?
Unceasing prayer is not about saying prayers all day long because, according to Mother Angelica, prayer is not something-it is someone, and that someone is Jesus. Everything you do is for God-every action, every thought all the while being focused on your typical duties of life.
I practiced this, without knowing there was such a term as unceasing prayer when my son was in Iraq. I'm sure there was not a minute in the day that I was not prayerful-even while I was busy with the daily activities. There was real peace in this for me. Now I know that there doesn't have to be a crisis or danger to feel prayerful. God is everywhere and in everything. Recognizing this, and I mean REALLY looking for and seeing God in everything is incredibly empowering and makes unceasing prayer naturally simple. That's what prayer and spirituality are to me.
Prayer and Spirituality
How much time is needed to pray?
There is no fixed time. This is a very individual, personal choice, and one's desire or need to pray varies. There are times when we choose to review our immediate past, confess our weaknesses, and ask for forgiveness and strength to be and to do better. While one minute might be enough for some, others may feel that 24 hours just isn't enough.
Sometimes we pray in frustration, such as when things just go whacky. Just look up and release the tension. Remember that there must be some reason for the situation and say, "Jesus, I give this to you.." You can even throw in one of my favorite little prayers which is, 'Help me, please. I'm ready.'
Your Daily Bread
Prayer is the very soul and essence of our spirituality. It doesn't matter who you pray to, but it is important that you pray. It is the very core of man's life. Therefore begin your day with prayer and make it resonate from your soul so it can carry you through the day, if needed. End your day with prayer to help assure a peaceful night's rest.
Sometimes we pray in Darkness. You know you've been here-this is when you feel in your lowest, darkest place.
This is the toughest time to have faith, and drumming up faith isn't easy. This is when you really must have Faith, and you pray for Faith. Being in this dark place isn't such a bad thing. This is where real growth happens.
Have faith that it will pass and allow yourself to wallow in the darkness. Get what you need to from the darkness, and know you will come out. You can even put a end-time on how long you will be in darkness. Pray for Faith during this time.
Sometimes we pray for Hope. Sometimes, especially when we're in the darkness, we feel that all is lost. Put all your trust in God in prayer. You'll feel so much more hope suddenly.
Contemplative prayer is prayer with total absorption in God. You stand before God as a blank screen, without preconceived notions or expectations-just open and blank. Although this is a challenge for many of us, you don't
have to do anything.
Okay, here is a form of prayer that is sometimes a challenge. The form of prayer I'm talking about here is the prayer of silence. This involves quieting your mind without concern of what you must say, what you want and so on. You've got to let go of the Ego.
Investigating meditation can help with this.
Why Pray with Beads?
Prayer is essential to Christians and many others of faith. Prayer keeps us connected to the source of our being. Even so, when in prayer, it is difficult to keep the mind focused for very long. Our minds tend to wander. We may even hurry through prayer and yet the Scripture says to "wait upon the Lord." Patience is key. The sense of touch we get while touching and holding the beads actively engages the body and helps us to focus on our prayers. As we hold the cross with the fingers and thenmove from bead to bead, our minds become more engaged in our prayers. This is one great value of prayer beads and rosaries.
The beads have no special meanings on their own, otherwise. Although the beads do not carry any special meanings themselves, they do have special meaning to individuals. It is not uncommon to have several rosaries or prayer bead sets.
It is difficult to focus the mind on just one task. This is especially true in our busy lives where multi-tasking is the norm and is highly expected.
I started making prayer beads and rosaries for friends when my son was in Iraq. They make very personal gifts for someone you care about or for yourself. Just let me know a few (or many!) of the details you are interested in, and I'll contact you with what I can do. There is nothing quite so special as your own custom designed prayer beads and rosaries.
How then, does one stop to really contemplate on prayer when there are so many other things going on? The answer is to occupy the mind a bit so that thoughts don’t wander. One way to occupy the mind is to employ the sense of touch. Also, by praying with beads in a deliberate and meditative way you invite the kind of focused, intentional praying that God honors. This meditative state is valuable in a variety of ways including boosting your immune system, clearing your heart and mind so that you might think and consider things more clear and also invokes all the benefits of relaxation.
Prayer, Spirituality and Rosaries/Prayer Beads
Click here to learn more about how I grew to love Rosaries and Prayer Beads
Prayer and Spirituality
Years ago, I read an interesting book by Neale Donald Walsch called Conversations with God, an Uncommon Dialogue.
At a very low time of his life, Neale Donald Walsch began to receive messages from God. In fact, he asked questions and received responses, which is, of course, more of conversations. The book, and those that followed are very interesting. I've got a few peices of this conversation. They're definitely food for thought.
You can also have those conversations with God if you allow yourself to have an open heart and open ears. Read about what unexpectedly happened when Neale Donald Walsch did just that.
Click here to read exerpts from Neale Donald Walsch's Conversations with God. I devoted a whole page to it, because, no matter what you believe, you are bound to find it incredibly interesting.
Prayer and Spirituality:
Faith and Healing
When I was in nursing school some nearly 30 years ago, and even more recently, there was little talk about religion, prayer and the impact of faith on healing. In fact, healing wasn't such a common term at all-it was all about curing disease-even if curing the disease meant hurting the patient. Religion was a 'hands off' topic and it was even seen as an irrelevant or even detrimental factor with regards to a patient's physical or emotional healing. We often asked our patients what their religion was (or the admitting personnel did) but this information wasn't really used a lot. In fact, addressing spiritual needs is a standard of care, but...
This aspect of medicine was noted in a very interesting book, The Healing Power of Faith by Harold G. Koenig, M.D.
Prayer and Spirituality
Spontaneous Recoveries
He also noted how spontaneous recoveries and seemingly miraculous events were attributed to anything but. He applied his medical and scientific knowledge and skills in the research of faith and healing. What he found out is truly amazing, although many of us will find it simply a reinforcement of what we already know.
Prayer and Spirituality: What is the relationship between faith and life satisfaction; marriage and religion; coping skills; cardiovascular disease; and immune system function? Take a look at some of these interesting results by clicking here.
Hope and Faith: Do you have what it takes?
Prayer and Spirituality and Medicine
Another medical doctor who has published on the topic of prayer, spirituality and medicine is Larry Dossey. Dr. Dossey speaks more about prayer and spirituality rather than religiosity. He believes, in fact,
that prayer works no matter what your religious beliefs. I enjoyed reading his book when I was working on my master's thesis. To say I enjoyed it is kind of an understatement-I devoured it. There weren't many of us in my class- 8 to 10, I think. Most of the other nurses decided to focus their studies on very clinical aspects of nursing-Very important topics, no doubt. I focused on the more esoteric-spirituality and healing.
Finding scientific research wasn't quite so easy, but it was possible. I met Barbara Dossey, Dr. Dossey's wife (a renowned holistic nurse) at an American Holistic Nurses Association meeting, and I had her contact information from the meeting. I had several questions about his writings, so I wrote him a letter. You have to know that at this time, the internet wasn't well established, and I didn't have websites to refer to. We do now. One evening as I was preparing dinner, they called me. Silly as it was, I was star-struck. I had never read materials of a physician telling how prayer could impact
healing and how a healthcare professional might incorporate prayer into practice and WHY we should. I was not raised in a very spiritual household, but as an adult, I so thirsted for this information. He was so kind and patiently answered each of my questions. I've been a fan ever since. In his book, Healing Words, he discusses the good, the bad and the ugly with regard to scientific research and prayer. He raised a
question that I think about every day: If we know that prayer works, then are we negligent for not providing this
or our patients? Afterall, we provide medication, surgery, and prescribe therapies because we know they might work.
What about prayer, then? I don't believe that prayer or any spiritual beliefs should be brought up to patients, however it is important for patients to feel comfortable enough to discuss anything-including spiritual/religious beliefs. If a patient asks me to pray with them or discuss spiritual issues, I am always open. Otherwise, my prayers are said for them in silence. Hey, I always say a little prayer of request: 'please help me do no harm.' Another favorite of mine is 'Thy will be done.'
I conducted a research study investigating nurses' perceptions of spirituality and patient care. The interest was huge, and many nurses told me how they are so happy to hear that this aspect of healing is being addressed AND that it is starting to be okay to even talk about this. It was great to know that I wasn't alone.
Prayer and Spirituality
If you are reading this, you must have some interest in prayer. If this is new to you, I hope the resources offered and the information written is a good springboard for you.
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