Soul Prayers

Now I lay me down to sleep.

I pray the Lord my soul to keep.

If I should die before I wake,

I pray the Lord my soul to take.

This was my nighttime prayer from when I was 6 until I was about 8. I prayed it every night and at the end of the prayer, I always blessed people. "God bless Mommy and Daddy and Jill and Phil and Jay and David and my cat..." My list of people to bless got longer and longer as I got older until eventually I would fall asleep still blessing people, cats and dogs. I think that what kept me praying all those years was that third line in the "Now I lay me down" prayer. WHAT DO YOU MEAN, 'IF I SHOULD DIE BEFORE I WAKE???' This was a deeply disconcerting notion for me at the age of 6. Seemed unfair and uncalled for that a kid, such as myself, might die before she wakes.

This was my first experience with prayer. Not altogether unsuccessful -- I never did die before I woke up, so that was good. Even when I stopped saying the prayer every night, I still did not die before I woke up. Whew.

I gave up prayer after that for many years. Now I'm a pray-er and I would like to stand on the street corner and ask people if they pray. I think it would be interesting to know (a) if someone prays and (b) what she prays for or about. Actually it would probably not be that interesting because when you get stopped on a busy street by a stranger asking you a weird question, you are probably not going to say the personal deep kind of stuff.

I'll tell you my answers, though: (a) yes, (b) I'm not always sure.

Prayers come in at least 4 varieties. First, the "Now I Lay Me Down" kind of prayer that is repeated as a good luck charm. You hear these prayers spoken from memory in churches on Sunday morning.

Second, there are the desperate "Oh my God, save me!" prayers which are cried out in dire moments when all seems lost. These are dramatic prayers and surely carry a lot of weight with God, however they are said only in dire moments and most people don't have that many dire moments. When the moment has passed and God has answered the prayer however He did, the person thinks something like, "Whew, that was close. Now I can get back to my regular life."

The third kind of prayer is the sincere kind that good (and bad) people pray to keep God on their side, urge Him to action or thank Him for something. "Please let me pass this exam" or"God help me be a better person" or, like the most beautiful prayers I've ever heard, which are the prayers of The Lady, one of the spiritual masters of Miracle of Love. Her purpose in life, says Kalindi, is to teach the world to pray. If I can figure out how to download a recording, I'll post one of her prayers for you.

The fourth kind of prayer is my personal favorite. It is the prayer your soul is praying and you may not even know what the prayer is. I like this kind of prayer because it's scary, but exhilarating and it lead one into deep spiritual experiences. You can identify the prayer best when you look back at what happened in your life and say, "That must have been what I was praying for." This soul prayer brings many people to the Miracle of Love Seminar. It brought me to Kalindi and keeps me doing the work of finding union with God. What does your soul pray for?

Thank you for listening. God bless you...and your cat and your dog.