InnerSelf.com

by Marie T. Russell.

In 1952, a bill proclaiming an annual National Day of Prayer (NDP) was unanimously passed by both houses of congress. President Truman signed it into law. In 1988, a bill was introduced to Congress which fixed the annual National Day of Prayer as the first Thursday in May...

There are no elaborate sets, no dramatic overture, just three people sitting at a table with a single candle in its center and talking about the most powerful force in the universe -- prayer. Each character speaks from the level of his or her own expertise, drawing from their experience examples and insights to support their convictions. In the end...

Vibrations created by precise combinations of sounds have long been thought to affect living beings and inanimate objects. The most powerful use of the voice in Buddhist belief is reciting a mantra. A mantra is a phrase or sentence, generally in Sanskrit or Tibetan, the sound of which embodies the power of...

The most direct way to encourage your children to ask for help is to teach them to pray. Most kids like to pray once they learn how and will do it naturally in some form or another anyway. Whatever approach you take, the truth is that you can choose how you pray. After all, prayer is really having a private chat with God...

by James F. Twyman.

In mountains of Bosnia, a community of mystics who call themselves the Emissaries of Light, said to me: "Our role is not to bring peace to where it is not, but to reveal peace where it is hidden." Peace, the Emissaries said, is not something that can be understood with the mind, but must be experienced with the heart.

The phrase "thy will be done" in the Lord's Prayer is a statement of resignation for many, the calling down of a power to do something that may not be what we had in mind. It's as though we're saying, "Since I can't have what I want in life, I guess I'll have to settle...

by Rebecca Z. Shafir, M.A. CCC.

Misunderstanding, not being heard, and missing key information due to poor listening are at the crux of societal ills. One of the main reasons we listen poorly is because our internal noise levels are so turbulent and obtrusive that they mask most of what others are saying. Only bits and pieces of their message survive the barrage of our mental interference.

A woman told me that gratitude was her constant prayer, and I was impressed. But, I realized that her gratitude was actually a defense against life. 'I am so grateful for sunshine, health, my wonderful family'. 'Do you express gratitude for the storms, for the illness, for the down times too?'...

'START FROM WHERE YOU ARE' is generally good advice in any undertaking. But, like many travelers on the highway, sometimes we don't even know that we don't know where we are and yet we are unwilling to admit it. Instead, lost as we may be, we keep driving, ashamed to ask...