Annotated Table of Contents
Introduction. The concept of living life as a prayer is introduced, and you are invited to participate in a healing journey—to become a consciously constructed prayer that is offered to the Divine.
Hello Divine Oneness. This Aboriginal Morning Prayer sets a beautiful tone for the book, because it simply but profoundly embodies the principles addressed in the rest of the book.
Part I PREPARING YOURSELF TO BECOME THE PRAYER.
This section of the book contains a number of stories of healing journeys, intentions, prayers, poems and processes for healing. Healing is an increasing awareness to let go of negativity, scarcity, and imbalances in the body, mind and spirit. Through this process, you will learn to think positively about others and yourself, to notice the abundance and beauty around you and to understand yourself as a whole being participating in and contributing to all of life. By learning to love yourself enough to share that love with others, you will discover that you can fully embrace the Divine within and without.
Chapter 1 The Intention: This chapter describes the process of setting an intention. This process is very useful when you set out on a personal healing journey. You may know what you desire, but you don’t have a clue about how to get from here to there. A specific process is delineated and stories illustrate the process.
Chapter 2 Opening to the Divine Within: Through poetry and guided imagery, this chapter invites you to take a journey into the belly of the Earth to experience the flow of Divine Energy and Love coming from the Earth, from the Sky, from God the Mother and from God the Father. You will be guided to feel the energy and love as it is manifested in the heart and to feel filled with Grace.
Chapter 3 Finding the Beauty in Feelings: In an encouraging and self-affirming manner, the text helps you to see the importance of learning to feel and then communicate your feelings in a way that others can understand. Several stories serve as examples of ways to face fear and shift the feeling of fear into an integrative method for healing. You are given specific tools for acknowledging, facing and releasing feelings. Ways to shift feelings through sensing a higher purpose at work are portrayed in stories, prayers and poetry.
Chapter 4 Healing: Healing is discussed as a process of recreating a natural dynamic of balance and harmony in body, mind and spirit. You are an expression of energy and you, along with everyone else, have an effect on the Universe. As you come to understand and apply the cycle of change to your life, you embark on a healing journey that affects the quality of the energy you express as a manifestation of life as a prayer. This can result in learning to trust yourself—trust that you are working for the highest good of all concerned. Stories and poetry support these ideas.
Part II CREATING THE PRAYER.
This section of the book teaches you how to create yourself as a living prayer through a variety of means. The text both teaches and models many kinds of prayers, meditations, ceremonies and rituals that help you to weave the Sacred into your busy life.
Chapter 5 The Prayer: This chapter is filled with different kinds of prayers and meditations and stories about their uses. You learn how to structure your prayers and how to integrate them into ordinary reality. Personal prayers are discussed and modeled, and prayers that relate to the Native American Sweat Lodge Ceremony are given as examples of ways to structure prayers. Prayers from other denominations are discussed. You are also encouraged to heighten your awareness of Divine Love as expressed by the way you care for and think about your body. A broad spectrum of meditations is presented with specific instructions so that you might find a prayerful practice that is suited to your life. You also learn how to create prayers for others, for peace, and for the healing of the Earth.
Chapter 6 Beginning Your Day: You are encouraged to pay a great deal of attention to how you begin each day. You will learn a number of ways to open to the new day in a sacred and prayerful manner, thus setting the tone for the whole day. A Cherokee morning ritual is included as well as a Native American poem; both serve to remind you to stop and pay attention to the sacredness of all of life.
Chapter 7 Embracing Abundance: Through illustration and discussion, you learn the difference between models of scarcity and abundance of living and being. This chapter encourages you to embrace an abundance model of life, one that helps you notice the beauty within and without and to be continually be in touch with the Divine Presence everywhere. A Navaho prayer/song, along with other poems, invites you to stand in your own truth, beauty and power in a wholesome way.
Chapter 8 Opening to Other Sources of Information: This chapter discusses the kinds of guidance you are given by the Creator that help you with your spiritual development. A beautiful story about an unusual encounter with a deer illustrates the core ideas.
Chapter 9 Prayer Through the Use of Ritual: In this chapter, you will learn the importance of rituals in ordinary life and how to create them. The Sacred Dance of Ecstasy and a Fourth of July Ritual for Activation are laid out in detail as examples of rituals created for groups of people.
Chapter 10 Making Yourself Available: This final chapter summarizes the process of how to live life as a prayer and how to weave this prayer into ordinary life. Through the use of imagery, you are guided to imagine living in this manner and encouraged to practice generosity—to set an intention to be available for the highest good for yourself, your family, your community, the beautiful planet and for all of life. The book ends with a poem dedicated to the Sacred Marriage Within.
