I pray differently now than the way I did when I was actively involved in the Mormon Church, but still, prayer is very important to me, and perhaps more important to me than it was then. For now, my prayers are mostly giving thanks and expressing gratitude to God, the Creator, for the amazing opportunities and possibilities that come into my life every day--without my asking--it's the yearning of my heart and soul that is often unspoken, and maybe not even known to me until it appears.
Myself, I would have no desire in addressing my prayers to "My Fellow Brothers & Sisters" or closing it with "In the name of (insert name of the group"...
The way I see it is the Creator of All That Is has provided everything we need; but we are the ones who create our lives from all this raw material, or these possibilities. God doesn't interfere; we make the choices. There's a difference between being the recipient of all the abundances for lives and choices, and the One who has provided the abundance.
I like meditation very much. My dad was a g.g. grandson of PPPratt and he apparently had many spiritual experiences, like going into the "spirit" world and conversing with people in his family who had passed on, receiving information, some of which he would tell me about, other things he'd talk about often. I kind of stood in awe of his spiritual powers, and so did everyone in his family--he was like a prophet in his own right, or so I thought. Now that he's passed on, I think he may have had some mental problems, and I feel guilty in even saying that. I also had some "spiritual" experiences, and just recently I had a very vivid dream in which I saw my father just as plain as day standing in front of me. He was in an LDS church, and I, for some reason, was sitting in the back with my daughter. Anyway, there he was, and I went up to him and stood just a few feet from him and looked at him; he only said, "How are you?" I told him I was fine. Then he started to fade away, and I moved toward him and said, "Do you have something to tell me?" (thinking that since I had left the church maybe he had something important to tell me), and he looked at me and said, "I'm sorry for the pain and suffering you had in your life." And then he faded away. I'm wondering if this was in my own mind, as some way of resolving some issues. People are so complex. But it seems to me that what I need somehow comes to me, not in any way that I would expect it; but my needs are always provided. Like I'm on a path and it opens up as I move forward and all that I need is there--even when I didn't know it was what I needed.
May 29, 2008 at 5:43 PM
I agree with the idea of prayers. The age-old addage, "Families that pray together, stay together." eludes to the unity, togetherness and commonality that prayer brings. So what does a family do once one of the family members (like me) decides that they don't wish to pray to God anymore? Should the family stop praying? Should the family push this unifying tool aside?
Prayer glues the thoughts of individuals together. In the case of the family, prayer helps everyone in the family recognize common goals that are wished for by some or all of the family members. It helps family members set goals and visualize the future of the family. Throwing out the tool would ignore the benefits just to spite the religious ritual. Not all of the religious rituals are bad.
But how do we make the prayer work for both the humanist and religious mind? In general, prayer has the following structure: Dear Heavenly Father... Thank you for... Forgive us for... Please bless us with... In the name of ...
Dear Heavenly Father... The prayer invokes supernatural help from above by being sure to be thankful, and then asking humbly for those things needed. Since a humanist believes in the moral power of humans, the humanist prayer should invoke it as such. The opening could become: My Fellow Brothers & Sisters...
Thank you for... & Forgive us for... I find it calming and positive remembering the good and bad in the past together with others that I care about. Thinking back on the things in the past that we are thankful for and regret has intrinsic values. Although I prefer to focus on the positive, without recognizing our errors and crimes against our fellow humans, we are bound to continue them. The only way that I would change this would be to state: We feel thankful for... & We recognize our shortcomings and understand that we have failed in ... We strive to do better... Please bless us... This phrase enumerates the goals, desires and wishes of the group. Vocalizing these desires and needs puts them into the forefront of the collective conciousness of the group. But instead of invoking the blessings from a supernatural being, this phrase should recognize the importance that each member of the group has in realizing the need or desire. This phrase should emphasize the level of reliance that each member of the group has on others in the group rather than depend on external forces. This will enable the responsibility of seeing these things to sit directly with the group. To accomplish this statement, the prayer should state something like the following: We need each other to ... In the name of... Humanist do not wish to assign this prayer to any deity or other supernatural being, but would rather assign it to themselves. Therefore, the prayer could end as: In the name of (insert name of group here)... Amen
"Humanist Prayers?"
3 Comments -
I pray differently now than the way I did when I was actively involved in the Mormon Church, but still, prayer is very important to me, and perhaps more important to me than it was then. For now, my prayers are mostly giving thanks and expressing gratitude to God, the Creator, for the amazing opportunities and possibilities that come into my life every day--without my asking--it's the yearning of my heart and soul that is often unspoken, and maybe not even known to me until it appears.
Myself, I would have no desire in addressing my prayers to "My Fellow Brothers & Sisters"
or closing it with "In the name of (insert name of the group"...
The way I see it is the Creator of All That Is has provided everything we need; but we are the ones who create our lives from all this raw material, or these possibilities. God doesn't interfere; we make the choices. There's a difference between being the recipient of all the abundances for lives and choices, and the One who has provided the abundance.
May 20, 2008 at 8:42 PM
The more that I think about this, the more I like the idea of using meditation, or group meditation.
May 27, 2008 at 10:44 AM
I like meditation very much. My dad was a g.g. grandson of PPPratt and he apparently had many spiritual experiences, like going into the "spirit" world and conversing with people in his family who had passed on, receiving information, some of which he would tell me about, other things he'd talk about often. I kind of stood in awe of his spiritual powers, and so did everyone in his family--he was like a prophet in his own right, or so I thought.
Now that he's passed on, I think he may have had some mental problems, and I feel guilty in even saying that. I also had some "spiritual" experiences, and just recently I had a very vivid dream in which I saw my father just as plain as day standing in front of me. He was in an LDS church, and I, for some reason, was sitting in the back with my daughter. Anyway, there he was, and I went up to him and stood just a few feet from him and looked at him; he only said, "How are you?" I told him I was fine. Then he started to fade away, and I moved toward him and said, "Do you have something to tell me?" (thinking that since I had left the church maybe he had something important to tell me), and he looked at me and said, "I'm sorry for the pain and suffering you had in your life." And then he faded away.
I'm wondering if this was in my own mind, as some way of resolving some issues.
People are so complex. But it seems to me that what I need somehow comes to me, not in any way that I would expect it; but my needs are always provided. Like I'm on a path and it opens up as I move forward and all that I need is there--even when I didn't know it was what I needed.
May 29, 2008 at 5:43 PM