Ernest Holmes wrote, “Some prayers are more effective than others. Some only help us to endure, while others transcend conditions; and demonstrate an invisible law which has power over the visible.”

I’ve experienced and witnessed the results of both types of prayer. Of course, I would love for all prayers to be of the latter kind – transcending conditions. I know that they can, for if it has happened once it can happen again and again. The question is: do we believe that when we pray we are answered or will be answered? Also, who do we think is answering those prayers.

Some people believe it is an outside Deity who is making decisions of which prayers will be answered. Others believe that perhaps that Diety is holding something back, and then at other times giving everything. Some people believe that suffering can be their lot, and that it is occurring because of something that they did or didn’t do. Some people just don’t believe in prayers being answered at all. God has let them down at one time in their life in a big way; therefore they have come to the conclusion that there is no God at all.

For me, prayers are always answered. There is not a time when a prayer is not answered. I can believe this because I know that I am responsible for the answers to my prayers whether they just allow me to endure or do transcend. Do I believe I am worthy of the thing that I so very much am praying for? Do I believe in the limitless power of an Infinite Law working through me? Do I let go and allow it to work through me?

Really I do not have to do anything, but allow and accept. When I fall sick, the only thing I ever do is align myself with Goodness and Love. I can’t make a condition go away. I can’t make myself well.

Really, that person who says there is no God is closer to the truth as far as I am concerned. The only God there is would be the God that we can know through the inlet of our own consciousness. So, whatever God is to us, whether judge or shepherd, He/She/It is.

I have come to believe that God is a deep Presence that I experience. The more I am at one with that, then my only prayer is the constant flow of my thought from that direction. The only reason I formally pray is to either give thanks or to align that flow again. I am a walking prayer when coming from that consciousness.

God is Good. I do not believe in a God who wants anyone to suffer or promotes suffering as a way of being. Suffering is the absence of God in the consciousness of the one suffering. The best prayer for me at times like that is “God is right where the pain is.” When I say this, I am saying that God hasn’t left me. God can’t leave me no matter what I am experiencing. God is always right where I am, and I cannot escape it because God is me. God is you, too. We are all looking out through the eyes of God at the level of our understanding. We are always growing and expanding in this understanding. Suffering is just an experience on the way to this reality.

These are my beliefs and I feel that I am compelled to write them here. Ernest used to say, “Relax into it…” when talking to anyone struggling. He meant relax into God. I love this idea and it works for me. It takes all the stress out of trying to make something happen or to try to understand something, including God. Have you ever stretched a tight muscle? It releases the tightness and the muscle just relaxes. It feels like that. Just relax into It, Rita. When I do, my prayers become my very thoughts as I go through me day and they do transcend conditions.

Love and Aloha,

Rev. Rita