"The most important thing you can do during the course of the day
is to pray." Joe Coyhis
Stockbridge-Munsee
Prayer is the raising of the heart and mind to God--and in this
sense it includes meditation. How may we go about it? And how does it
fit in with meditation? Prayer, as commonly understood, is a petition to
God. Having opened our channel as best we can, we try to ask for those
right things of which we and others are in the greatest need. And we
think that the whole range of our needs is well defined by that part of
Step Eleven which says: ". . . knowledge of His will for
us and the power to carry that out." A request for this fits in any part
of our day. In
the morning we think of the hours to come. Perhaps we think of our day's
work and the chances it may afford us to be useful and helpful, or of some
special problem that it may bring. Possibly today will see a continuation
of a serious and as yet unresolved problem left over from yesterday. Our
immediate temptation will be to ask for specific solutions to specific
problems, and for the ability to help other people as we have already
thought they should be helped. In that case, we are asking God to do it
our way. Therefore, we ought to consider
each request carefully to see what its real merit is. Even so, when making
specific requests, it will be well to add to each one of them this
qualification: ". . . if it be Thy will." We ask simply that throughout
the day God place in us the best understanding of His will that we can
have for that day, and that we be given the grace by which we may carry it
out. Twelve Steps & Twelve Traditions pg.
102 Great Spirit teach us how to pray and give us
strength. |