It’s not enough to just pray. There must be a change in consciousness after the prayer. What is prayer? It is our own way of communing with the Divine. We all have unique ways of praying. A prayer can be anything from a long meditation, the beseeching to an outside Diety, to affirming a Truth about an outcome we want, to just shouting out, “Enough is enough!” I’ve experienced all of these throughout my life.

What I know about the experience of prayer is that it is not about the words we speak or think; it is about what happens to us when we pray. Is there a change in our consciousness? Do we feel different when we arise from prayer than we did when we began. If not, we cannot expect any new experience. If we do not feel different, then we’ve just said some nice words.

Why is this so? I will give you the answer from my practice.  Prayer isn’t about God granting us something that we want. It is not about begging or pleading. Logically speaking, how can we pray for abundance when we feel poor? How can we pray for health when we feel sick? The state of consciousness of health or wealth or anything else, must come before the outcome is revealed.

Why? We are Energy and we are always vibrating. Our level of vibration declares to the Universal Mind/Field/God and calls back to us the same vibration. If we are in victimhood, how can we be triumphant? If we are feeling poor and lowly, how can we declare abundance.

We are the ones in charge of what is in our lives. This why those who have little usually continue to have little, and those who have lots continue to have lots. The “lots” and the “little” is not about things, it is about the amount of consciousness we have. A consciousness of little vibrates for more little. A consciousness of lots of vibrates for more lots of.

So, if we are to build anything, it would be best to build our consciousness. I believe that the way to build consciousness is through gratitude. When we feel gratitude for the joy of just being alive, for what we have, for the breath that we breathe, for our very own beingness and the miracle of being here, we are building consciousness. When we love ourselves unconditionally no matter what we are experiencing, realizing that we are perfect no matter what we think we’ve done or how much we have or don’t have, we are building consciousness. Love heals all. Gratitude is the energy that attracts more to be grateful for.

No matter how hard we try, our prayers and their answers our built by our own consciousness. I am grateful for this, because I know that I don’t have do anything to change God. God is a Presence of Love that resides in everything and everyone. It is the Presence that we receive and accept, not the opposite. It is always here where we are. The sooner we acknowledge it, and allow ourselves to move from there in consciousness, the sooner we will have arrived.

Prayer is not about being religious, or a good or bad girl or boy. Prayer is here for everyone. It is communication that takes place within ourselves with our highest selves. Hermes Trismegistus wrote centuries ago: :”As above, so below, as within, so without, as the universe, so the soul…”  “Prayer is its own answer,” wrote the mystic Ernest Holmes. Think about it and you’ll see that we pray our own answers.

Love and Aloha,

Rev. Rita