Prayer in compliance with a request received in a letter from my wife,
Wyn: "Lord, guidance is sought for the group now meeting at Ponca City."
We care! We are much pleased by the direction and development. There
is a light in Ponca City. It grows. And no more is needed than a small explanation.
As to the manner of preparation: why are the God-chosen worried over ritual,
form, manner? What purpose do such manners have? Are they not designed to
open the soul to God's ever-presence?
So do. But do not be concerned with how, only what is done.
If the form of action works to make impatience or unnecessary consumption
of time and effort, does it lead closer to joy, peace, love? or does it
become an irritant, an impediment to the Way? We would not devote time to
such if it were wasted. Is it wasted? discard it. Does it elevate soul to
joy, peace, love? do it.
See? The purpose of all forms of worship is to develop a spirit. As one
finds the development in one form, so another finds his own. All ways are
the Way if they lead to God. No form is the Way if it leads elsewhere.
So each must decide. So forms must vary. So one must travel in his own manner.
So there is one church, yet no one church. See?
And with this church-cell: do not insist on a single approach; rather let
each relate how she lifts to joy-peace-love. Tell, share, do--but do not
try to limit.
I relayed my wife's other question. "They ask concerning how to establish
real two-way prayer."
There are ever the same steps, but they take many forms. Climb the steps,
play among the forms.
1. The first step is to stop! This is to stop other things, to go apart,
to quiet the mind and heart and body. For this men have built churches,
and sanctuaries, and cathedrals, so they may go apart into a quiet place,
away from the whirlpool of daily concerns. Some build the cathedral within,
some seek it without.
And so with this little cell of light: a place apart. Do not clutter it
with rules. Do not set times and sequences. Only come together away, and
lay aside the world. Lay aside the dreary load, the fear, the trouble. For
the moment, stop all these, and rest.
There is reason for this. One cannot pursue two ways at once. So stop pursuing
all but the one. This in itself will set a stage of holiness, for peace
is of God. Relax, and only dwell on peace and peaceful things. Do not push
or strive or concentrate. Take off shoes. Sit where and how you please.
Be in comfort of body, heart and mind. This is necessary.
2. The second step is to open. To open is to become receptive, as to open
the mind, the heart. The open mind is one that asks dear questions, that
seeks and knocks, that finds and grows. The open mind is like that of a
little child. It learns, it grows, it develops, because it knows only that
it does not know and that it can learn.
The closed mind believes it already knows, or that it cannot learn. It does
not ask, seek, knock--or grow. So do not set assumption--a summing up and
closing--as a barrier across the Way. Let not a subject be closed. Let none
be forbidden. Let no one become a stubborn resistance to the cleansing,
the growth of minds.
The open heart is one which dares--dares to see beauty, and ugliness: to
feel joy, and pain, to expose the deep, dark spots in self. The closed heart
dies. It cannot help or heal another, or itself. It is closed to help from
we who care. So dare to care, to feel, to love, to be healed. It is truly
said: the key is inside. The key is courage.
When one can open the deep dark spots to oneself and to another, he can
open them to God. Then healing may reach them. As the open mind is necessary
for growth, so the open heart is life.
3. Third is to generate reano, the living water. Not the water of earth,
but that of God, with which he slakes his children's burning thirst, washes
their souls, and sends them off to school refreshed and cleansed. Reano
is reverent joy, warmth of heart, harmony of mind, elevation of spirit.
To generate reano is to dwell on the good, the true, the kind, the holy,
the beautiful--in whatever form one perceives them. Such are all aspects
of God. To partake of such is to feed and fill the soul.
Bring such in from all the wonder-filled world around you. Cherish such
things, dwell on them, and bring them up again and again from the chest
of treasured memories. Do this in peace, with an open mind and heart, and
the bubbling, glowing, warming, healing, thrilling reano will well up within
you as a spring of sparkling crystal water.
From this, drink. In this, bathe away the stains and cares. And with this,
do the work of God. For, like water, reano is power. It can dissolve the
granite boulder, sculpture the coast line, move the mountain, wash the wound,
quench the thirst, and bathe the child. See? It is the power: reverent joy.
In the cell, assist each other to generate, each telling, sharing, the good,
true, beautiful. So build each other. Pool the living water, so it will
attain the power of a great river. This is necessary. The form does not
matter. Why do men build cathedrals with and from the loveliest of materials?
Why the rapture of stained glass windows? Why do they enter with the most
beautiful of music? Why the sweet and pungent smell of incense? Only to
develop beauty within themselves, to generate reano. So do also, with whatever
speaks of God to you.
4. Fourth is to care for another. As any stream, the living water must flow
or become stagnant. When you are filled, overflow. Then more can come to,
into, and through you. You may drink from a pool, but only moving water
has power, only the stream can cleanse and wash away the stains. So let
it flow. Direct your overflowing joy, by mind and heart, to another person.
Care for that person as God cares. Not burdened with worry, fret, fear;
not obsessed or compelled, but filled with the glowing joy, desire for him
the truest of blessings.
5. And then, ask: "Father, how can we truly help him?" Not I,
not you, but we. And we includes God, and I, and all who work together in
the Way, all of we who care. Not that I become the channel of blessing,
but that blessing come to the one cared for.
As the desire of caring for another attunes heart to God's heart, aligns
will with God's will, so the question "how" attunes mind to receive
from God's wisdom.
6. And then listen. Listen in the joyful, caring quiet. Listen as when awaiting
an important announcement. It will come, for we delight to bring it. And
again the form does not matter. Some may feel the touch of divine inspiration,
as a burst of knowing what must be done or not done. Some may see it as
a picture, a vision. Others may hear as a voice within. Some may receive
by surrendering a hand for the pen. But all must listen, must still their
own voice, their own thought, and await the message. The manner of its delivery
is not important, only the source and the message.
7. And then do. Act, speak, write, go--or refrain from acting, speaking,
writing, going--according to the message. And so do the work of God.
Now then, this is what the necessary steps accomplish:
The first reduces the static, the interference within. It fashions the station--the
stationary--the still receiver.
The second turns on the receiver, opens the channel.
The third tunes the receiver up toward the frequency of God's transmitter,
so tuning out all others.
The fourth aligns the antenna with that of God, pointing it in the direction
of caring, in the direction called the Way.
The fifth sends out the query, the call that God answers.
The sixth awaits and records his reply.
And the seventh puts his message into action.
This, then, is the communion--the communication--of the saints. So we who
care communicate among ourselves, on earth, in heaven, and between the two.
All we who care are merely relay stations in the vast network of God. Those
of greatest fidelity distort His messages the least. All add their own to
the vast knowledge, the unbounded caring. And all delight in sharing their
own small bits of knowledge and kindness with those who come up on this
holy network.
None of we who care is perfect--knowing all and caring for all--but together,
we also pool reano, and it flows through us as the shining river whose source
is the wellspring of God. And so you also are becoming, part of the network,
part of the river. Well come, and welcome.
The one word of warning: there are other stations, other transmitters, other
networks. Those who do not follow these steps in this order, no matter how
called or in what specific form, may open to lower frequencies and selfish
sources whose antennae point in other ways. This is how some are trapped,
fooled, misled, dominated. But this you need not fear. The ways of the lower,
darker worlds are impossible when aligned with the Way of God. The messages
of lower frequencies are not heard when attuned to frequencies within the
realm of light.
The light always and ever dispels darkness.
So now, go in the light--the light that is in Ponca City, and in heaven.
Peace.
Deo