"Real Prayer Is Falling in Love"

Hello there, my friends.

It's been absolutely eons since I last posted here, and so much has happened in the world.

Much of it, to do with Religion, and the insidious ways that these man-made systems convince some of us to look down upon and hate the rest of us.

ISIS, Charlie Hebdo, the Copenhagen shootings, the Coptic Christian martyrs in Libya... the list goes on and on.

All of this to promote a certain group's "Checklist" of prohibitions and rules, devised to clearly separate the righteous from the apostate. And always, always focused on outward shows of piety that many are now adopting in the world, not out of devotion to God, but sheer terror.

How much we need peace in these days.

And there is one, simple act that gives birth to peace: prayer.

Based on an intimate Relationship with the Creator, not out of fear, obligation or tired tradition, but out of deep, personal love.

The heart of the Father is open.
Jesus is the Door and prayer is the Key.

Prayer with such an Intimate God (Who calls Himself "Immanuel, God with us") ceases to be a burden and becomes instead a Living Conversation. One that is so intimate that Jesus told us to always commune with His Father with the door shut, just the two of you in secret, together.

As we prepare for the coming Easter celebration, moving up through forty days to Palm Sunday, I have felt myself attracted to a practice of prayer called "Examen".

Originally a spiritual discipline created by Ignatius of Loyola, a series of new videos created by the movement 24-7 Prayer brings this Relationship-based praying to life.

As Alain Emerson so touchingly observes in the short video segment below, "real prayer is falling in love" with the One Who made the stars, knows your every need and longs desperately for an intimate relationship with you, His Son or Daughter.

I hope you enjoy these reflections and that they bring you Peace in this troubled World.

Little Shop of Horrors

The unthinkable occurred in London this week. A British soldier was attacked by two men in broad daylight who cut his throat using meat cleavers, then filmed themselves to celebrate, bloodied hands and all. A heinous, barbaric act, fueled by pure religious fanaticism. 

Beyond the depravity of the crime, it should remind us again of the danger of all religious systems. The gods created in the image of Man degenerate to terrible idols who demand constant blood sacrifices.

Religion never changes a man's heart:
it only blinds him to his own sinful state, the in-born Virus of the human race.

Religious systems, no matter what their orientation or name,
can never cure us of the Virus.

At their best, they are like funeral parlor make-up artists, only able make a corpse look more presentable (for a time). The decay remains; the stench resurfaces. They cannot bring the dead back to life. 

At its worst, Religion becomes a Little Shop of Horrors.

Instead of creating love, these systems encourage hate. Far from cultivating humility, they stoke the fires of pride, intolerance and self-righteousness. 

The "Shop's" products? Inquisitions. Pogroms. Apartheid. Homofobia. Murder.

Fearful slavery to the checklists of man-made dogmas will never result in true change. No one is made free by Religion, because Religious systems thrive on Show, on outward presentation. Such rules and regulations never produce inner transformation.

Is There A Way Out?

Yes, and it's quite different: the unadulterated message of Jesus.
 (Who, by the way, was killed by Religion.)

He made it quite simple. To save ourselves (from ourselves) we "must be born again".

How? Not by following complex Rules, but by following Him: the "Way, the Truth and the Life".

How urgently we need to heed those words in these confusing times.

It's not about Regulations, it's about a Relationship.

And Restauration. Having laid down His own life for us, He offers each of us a fresh start, with total forgiveness of all we've done wrong. It's a gift, not a system.

Only this New Birth spiritually, on the inside, can save us from ourselves, from the Virus. It sets us free from the Dungeon of Dogma.

Choosing to change course, to follow Him out of love instead of fear, produces real change. As well as love for others.

Starting again,  asking Him to come in and place His own Spirit inside,
opens us up for the greatest Adventure of all:

A relationship with our Father, the Creator. 

................................

PHOTO CREDITS
In order: Google Images / Press.com / JLG on Facebook

Trust · Confiar

What is essential is quite simple.

Lo esencial es siempre muy sencillo.

A little gem from a sweet blog I love...

Una pequeña joya de un blog muy dulce que me encanta...

Bona nit! · Good Night!

Life after Birth · La vida después del nacimiento

Castellano · Ver la traducción más abajo


A Conversation Between Two Children
Two babies were in the womb of a pregnant woman. The first one asked the second:

"Do you believe in life after Birth?"

"Of course I do," he replied. "Something must exist after Birth. Perhaps we are here because we need to be prepared for what we shall be later on."

"Ridiculous! There's no life after Birth. What would that life be like?"

"I'm not exactly sure, but there will certainly be more light than here. Maybe we walk on our own two feet and we eat with our mouths."

"That is absurd! Walking is impossible. And eating with the mouth? That's totally silly. The umbilical cord is what we feed ourselves from. I'll only say one thing to you: life after Birth is out of the question. The umbilical cord is far too short."

"I believe that there surely is something more.Maybe it's just a little different from what we are used to here."

"But no one ever returned from there, after Birth. Labor is what finalizes life. And in the end, life is nothing more than the prolonged anguish in this darkness."

"Well, I'm not really sure how it will be after Birth, but we will surely see Mama and she'll take care of us."

"Mama? You believe in Mama? And where do you think she is?"

 "Where? Well, all around us! In her and through her we live. Without her, all this would not exist."

"I don't believe it! I've never seen a Mama, so therefore it's logical that none exists."

 "Yes, but sometimes when we are silent, you can hear her sing, or feel how she caresses our world. You know, I think there really is a real world waiting for us and for now, well, we're just getting ready for it."

* * * * *

Una conversación entre dos niños
En el vientre de una mujer embarazada se encontraban dos bebés. El primero pregunta al otro:

-¿Tú crees en la vida después del nacimiento?

-Claro que sí. Algo debe existir después del nacimiento. Tal vez estamos aquí porque necesitamos prepararnos para lo que seremos más tarde.

-¡Tonterías! No hay vida después del nacimiento. ¿Cómo sería realmente esa vida?

-No lo sé exactamente, pero seguramente habrá más luz que aquí. Tal vez caminemos con nuestros propios pies y nos alimentemos por la boca.

-¡Esto es absurdo! Caminar es imposible. ¿Y comer con la boca? ¡Eso es totalmente ridículo! El cordón umbilical es por dónde nos alimentamos. Yo te digo solamente una cosa: la vida después del nacimiento está excluida. El cordón umbilical es demasiado corto.

-Yo creo que seguramente hay algo. Tal vez sea sólo un poco distinto a lo que estamos acostumbrados a tener aquí.

-Pero nadie nunca ha vuelto de allá, después del nacimiento. El parto apenas encierra la vida. Y al final de cuentas, la vida no es nada más que la angustia prolongada en la oscuridad.

-Bueno, no sé exactamente cómo será después del nacimiento, pero seguro veremos a mamá y ella nos cuidará.

-¿Mamá? ¿Tú crees en mamá? ¿Y dónde crees tú que ella esta?

-¿Dónde? ¡En todo nuestro alrededor! En ella y a través de ella es donde vivimos. Sin ella todo esto no existiría.

-¡Yo no creo! Nunca he visto ninguna mamá, por lo tanto es lógico que no exista ninguna.

-Bueno, pero a veces cuando estamos en silencio, tú puedes oírla cantando, o sentir como acaricia nuestro mundo. Sabes, yo pienso que hay una vida real que nos espera y que ahora solamente estamos preparándonos para ella.....

*****

Photo credits: Pinterest / Author unknown · Autor desconocido