prayers | betsybeadhead

If you are Jewish you are obliged to say 100 blessings a day. One hundred times a day you are to find something to be thankful for. There are prayers for everything, and just looking over the prayers can remind you of how blessed you are in more ways than you ever realized.

There are prayers to be said upon seeing an unusual person. Upon seeing a rainbow. Upon seeing someone beautiful. There are of course various prayers for food. My favorite are the bathroom prayers – where you give thanks that everything that should stay in, stays in, and everything that should get out, gets out. I would never have thought to have a prayer of thanksgiving for that, but it makes perfect sense. All of these prayers make you mindful of all the many ways you are blessed every day. They keep you aware and grateful.

I think this is an excellent practice. We humans often take our many blessings for granted. We forget to be thankful for electricity until it goes out due to a storm. We forget to be grateful for running water until we need a plumber. We constantly grumble about what we don’t have while forgetting to be thankful for what we do have. And often we forget that “bad” is often just our value judgment. Our need to label things “good” or “bad” causes us many problems.

Here’s a twist for you. Give a complement to a stranger. Do this often. Start small and work your way up to complementing 10 strangers a day. Find something about them to tell them how cool it is. Perhaps it is their hairstyle. Perhaps it is something they are wearing. Look them in the eye when you tell them what you have noticed that is cool. Be sincere. Notice how this changes them and you. You both feel better. Well, you might be a little freaked out at first because you are shy, but trust me, you’ll get over it. Happiness spreads. Be a blessing to someone else.

One of the lines I like to incorporate into our supper prayers includes “Dear God, thank you for all that we have, and all that we don’t have.” Sometimes not getting what you want is actually a blessing.

This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad. This applies to every day. Even the rainy ones. Even the ones with a tornado warning. Be thankful for everything, at all times. It takes practice, but it is worth it.

Originally posted on FB 11-8-12

There is something to be said for the power of group prayer.

A few days ago I felt like I was going into battle at work. A lot of nonsense is going on with management and I felt very conflicted. The rules keep changing on what we are allowed to do, and we feel that we are being pitted against each other in each department. Jesus tells us to pray for our enemies. That is very hard, as you well know. I wanted strength to get through the day with my faith intact, knowing that God is always with me and serving as a good witness to His love.

I remembered all the prayers that lifted me up at Cursillo. Those prayers, from friends and strangers, helped me to get where I needed to be. Those prayers helped me and others overcome physical limitations so that we could be fully present that weekend. I wondered if there was a way I could tap into that power again, and while wondering it came to me that there are monks and nuns, both Christian and Buddhist, who are praying for everyone all across the world, right now. They are praying for peace and harmony and joy. They are praying for one-ness with each other and with our Creator .

I claimed those prayers. I claimed them as mine and tied into that web of support. I felt buoyed up, strengthened by a cloud of witnesses who do not even know me.

Last night I remembered that, and decided to pay it forward. It is good to pray for others by name, but it is also good to pray for those people you don’t even know. We can pray that they are helped, raised up, loved. That they are served by others as Christ would serve them. That those who are lost are found. That those who are found turn that light outwards towards others and expand the family of awakened humans.

I’m thankful that I am in this communion of saints, and thankful that I am learning how to give and receive this kind of support.

There is a hymn that has the refrain “We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord”. It is time to make that real. We say in America “E pluribus unum” – out of many, one.

What would happen if this Body of awakened people all started to move as one?

Love in action is the very definition of God through Christ. The Bodhisattva vow also speaks to this. It is the vow of an enlightened person to not go on to Nirvana but to stay behind and help others achieve enlightenment. I am sure there are other examples like this throughout the world in other religions.

Our goal is to seek and serve God by serving our fellow humans, and all creation, treating everyone and everything with respect and love.