Reflection of the day - Wednesday

Prayer

".... praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints"

Eph 6:18         

Contemplative Prayer is what changes the seer much more and better than passively being told what we are to see. Most Christians are more familiar with "prayer." More often, prayer has become something functional; something you do to achieve a desired effect—which too often puts our pride back in charge. If you make prayer a way to get what you want, you’re not moving into any kind of change or relationship with God. It's the same old relationship, but well disguised: "How can I get God to do what I want God to do?" It's the, egocentric, false self deciding what it, or God, needs and not looking or having the faith to accept what God wants. Instead of just manipulating everybody else, it tries to manipulate God. For this reason religion can become so dangerous and delusional. If religion does not transform people at the level of both mind and heart, it ends up giving self-centered people a very pious and untouchable way to be on top and in control. How often do we see this in our churhes? God becomes their defense - this is what Jesus found to be true of the Scribes, Pharisees, and teachers of the law.

You discover your True Self in God. It is not discovered by anything you have done right or wrong. It is not about requirements; it’s about relationship — the quality and capacity of your relationship with God. This is the foundation for contemplative prayer. The false self will say prayers but the True Self is a prayer and looks out at reality from a different pair of eyes larger than its own. This is why in Ephesians it says "pray always" (6:18). We pray always whenever we act in conscious and loving union with God, which eventually can be all the time—even in our sleep!

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