Prayer

I am finding lately that I have become prayerful. I have always prayed here and there, a rosary, requests for people's health and well being, and prayers of gratitude. Lately though I am realizing that when I have done what I can do and am not sure what else to do, I just pray. "What is prayer?" I asked my friend Pete this question some 7 years ago and he said prayer is an intention for something. In the intention the actions follow. His clear concise explanation and the belief behind his explanation has been a deep blessing and have enhanced my prayer life. Prayer comes in many forms including the ones we learn as children, saying a rosary is like a mantra and with it comes peace often falling into a restful nap. The Our Father, one all Christians learn, and taught from Jesus, the Son of God. When one really says and listens to the words and lives the words in the Our Father, life changes. "Our Father, who art in heaven hallowed be thy name", (where is heaven) heaven is found everywhere, "thy kingdom come", the kingdom comes when God's will is done on earth as in heaven (what is God's will), it is to love, it is to forgive, "Give us this day our daily bread" (what is the bread) it is peace, joy, kindness, gratitude, sharing, caring, and many other acts we do or have done for us, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive others" - no question here, "and lead us not into temptation" (what are your temptations), mine include gluttony, busyness, sloth, anger, the usual, "but deliver us from evil" what are the evils - hurting others tops the list through slander, gossip, criticisms other things I can't think of now, but you have your own lists of evils. When we engage in deep understanding and living the Our Father, we begin a prayer life. Beyond this prayer, is another level of prayer and that is living the gospel message through action. For example when we pray for the poor to have better lives, what can we do to enable that e.g., give money, make visits, stop to chat with the homeless on the streets. When we pray for the sick, are we then inspired to go visit friends or those unknown alone in the hospitals? Prayer life is demanding of action. Living a prayerful life includes silence so that one can hear the prayerful intentions of others and move to action.

Begin To Create Inspiration

Occasionally writing my blog is more difficult. Today is one of those days. I have many ideas but nothing concrete enough to formulate a cohesive blog entry. So today I just open the blog entry and begin writing what comes to mind and this is it. I am using my stream of consciousness to find inspiration to write by just beginning somewhere. How important is just to begin a powerful lesson for a fulfilled life. We can wait around for ever for the right time, place, environmental conditions, ambiance, and the inspiration we require and never get anything done. Or we can just begin, in this case writing a blog. Over the weekend to begin painting my bedroom green, my friend Melinda just put paint on various sections of the wall and inspired by the unfinished look, we took the brushes and rollers and finished the job much to my deep delight. So begin and see what happens. My bedroom is painted, my blog is written and now I am inspired to have a productive day.