Prayer and Meditation

23^rd June 2012 – Jake – A bell is no bell 'til you ring it, A song is no song 'til you sing it,

And love in your heart wasn’t put there to stay –

Love isn’t love 'Til you give it away.

REFLECTION FOR TODAY: Before becoming a part of the program, I was selfish and inconsiderate. There were so many times I said, “Me First.” I manipulated and maneuvered others into doing what I thought was right. Selfishly, I demanded that everyone else do what I wanted. If they didn’t, I sulked and stormed. If that didn’t work, I developed a headache or a mysterious pain to get the attention I thought I needed or deserved. I am trying today to be more considerate of others, more aware of their needs.

Although I know I need to take care of myself, help me to be considerate of others’ needs.

I’m important; others are too.

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Asking and Receiving
by Madisyn Taylor




Meditation and prayer can offer us different experiences and both can be powerful tools.

Prayer and meditation are similar practices in that they both offer us a connection to the divine, but they also differ from one another in significant ways. Put simply, prayer is when we ask the universe for something, and meditation is when we listen. When we pray, we use language to express our innermost thoughts and feelings to a higher power. Sometimes, we plumb the depths within ourselves and allow whatever comes to the surface to flow out in our prayer. At other times, we pray words that were written by someone else but that express what we want to say. Prayer is reaching out to the universe with questions, pleas for help, gratitude, and praise.

Meditation, on the other hand, has a silent quality that honors the art of receptivity. When we meditate, we cease movement and allow the activity of our minds and hearts to go on without us in a sense. Eventually, we fall into a deep silence, a place that underlies all the noise and fray of daily human existence. In this place, it becomes possible for us to hear the universe as it speaks for itself, responds to our questions, or sits with us in its silent way.

Both prayer and meditation are indispensable tools for navigating our relationship with the universe and with ourselves. They are also natural complements to one another, and one makes way for the other just as the crest of a wave gives way to its hollow. If we tend to do only one or the other, prayer or meditation, we may find that we are out of balance, and we might benefit from exploring the missing form of communication. There are times when we need to reach out and express ourselves, fully exorcising our insides, and times when we are empty, ready to rest in quiet receiving. When we allow ourselves to do both, we begin to have a true conversation with the universe.

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