Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Thursday 2/25/10 - "PRAY CANDLES WITH ME"

"PRAY CANDLES WITH ME"

"When we became alcoholics, crushed by a self-imposed crisis we could not postpone or evade, we had to fearlessly face the proposition that either God is everything or else He is nothing. God either is, or He isn't. What was our choice to be?"
(From "Alcoholics Anonymous", Chapter 4, We Agnostics, p. 53)

My choice? I chose to believe that God is everything, that God "is". I have never altered that choice. The longer I believe God is everything, the more that belief is proven in my personal experiences and the greater my faith and trust grows.

I have developed a corollary belief. It is:

Either prayer works or it doesn't.

AND - I believe prayer works. The more I pray, the more I see God working situations out in my life that seem impossible and more than I can handle.

God brought me to Alcoholics Anonymous where I found sobriety. God supported and led me through a divorce that was very difficult for me and our children. God led me into a job that became a career and allowed me to grow within myself and provided for our material needs. God opened the doors to a new marriage. I watch my children grow in the love of God and firmly believe He watches over them. The constant in all these events has been the practice of prayer.

Today I continue to pray. Prayer in my life takes many forms. At church I enter the names of people I am praying for in a book that is taken up to the altar during the mass. I pray silently. I allow meditation to merge into prayer. I pray using candles.

When I pray with candles, each candle I light represents a prayer for a particular person, a group of people or specific situations. I pray as I light them. I reflect on the prayer in the flickering lights and I send the prayers to God in the smoke as I snuff each one out. I have described this before, but my revelation today was that I can also light these candles, pray, and send the prayers to God in my mind.

Just a thought - why not pray candles with me? We can do it anywhere and anytime. I have 11 candles (I have just added a 12th candle for Lou's Andrew) and I have lit them so often I remember what each one represents. What are your prayer concerns or requests? How many candles will you light? See them in your mind's eye. Light them. Pray. Blow them out and watch them float to God. I pray your efforts will be blessed.

Prayer Girl
(Photo credit: candles by simply sublime@deviantart.com)

13 comments:

Brian Miller said...

thanks for the smiles prayer girl...i'll pray the candles with you...look there they go...

Andrea said...

Praying..praying...praying,
andrea

Syd said...

That is beautiful.

Susan said...

Love the idea! I share your love of praying and using candles is such a wonderful ritual. Here is a beautiful site I found from Scott's (Attitude of Gratitude) blogsite. You can actually light candles online...check it out. Check out the entire site too. It's awesome. And I also enjoy the Gratitude Word of the Day that I now have sent to my email daily. It's always a wonderful message. Great post! Thanks as always PG!!

http://www.gratefulness.org/candles/enter.cfm?l=eng

Shadow said...

without prayer i'd be lost...

Lou said...

Thank you, sweet PG. I've never thought of mental prayer candles. That is what I love about this blogging...learning, inspiration, hope.

God has blessed me beyond measure already.

Anonymous said...

I did this for the first time this morning ~~ wonderful prayer and meditation! Thank you so much for describing it here. I didn't use actual candles, just did it in my mind and felt very connected to God. Very uplifting and positive feel to my day now.

Nikki (Sarah) said...

I believe too. I believe in the power of prayer. I've experienced it. And I'm so grateful for that truth.

Kathy M. said...

What a lovely practice. Thanks for sharing it. Your post reminds me of something I heard in a meeting the other day. This person had walked into their sponsor's office and been impressed by something that was taped on the computer. It said, "If you pray, why worry? If you worry, why pray?

Maude Lynn said...

This is beautiful. And, I will.

Akannie said...

Thanks for this, PG....I will join you...

I think that the effort is blessed by doing it...regardless of the outcome.


Blessings!

Unknown said...

I've told you how much I love your prayer candles. I have candles I light but in a general way. I want to "kick it up a notch"! I would love to hear other things you do...I have two altars, one for prayers and one for gratitude. I love to use stones, incense and ritual prayers.

Namaste

Unknown said...

P.S. I just clicked on the candle website in Susan's comment. It is awesome. THANK YOU BOTH (and Scott) SO MUCH!

Namaste