P R AY E R Clarif ied spirit Calmed heart! M A R I A N N E   K L AU S E R S TA L D E R
Part Two
Develop a personal prayer culture Praying is a pathway that is to be well-kept! Several aspects will have a positive effect on the development of a personal prayer culture, namely the trust that we place in prayer, the necessary preparation and the individual shaping of the prayer in accordance with our own personality.
Pray with heartfelt confidence Many people find it difficult to pray because of adopted errors that act as stumbling blocks on the path thereto. One of these is the idea of an arbitrarily punitive or helpful God. It is rightly perceived that this conception of God, which was transmitted in former times, described in many facets in the Old Testament or depicted in art, can never correspond to what God really must be: HE, the Creator of the whole Universe, the starting point of all Power and all Light, high and sublime, stands far above all human conceptions and visualisations. Many people pray to God to intervene in all the wars, horrors and hardships and to deliver the nations and 12
Pearl January 2020
peoples from the misery ensuing therefrom. Sooner or later, those who utter such prayers meet with disappointment, because their prayers seemingly remain unanswered. The wars only get worse and the misery increases unabated. Nevertheless, it may be assumed that prayers which originate from genuine compassion and longing for peace do not remain without effect. However, we must first come to the recognition that God does not intervene arbitrarily in man-made events, nor does He need to, because, already from the very beginning of Creation, He has woven His Will in the form of active forces into all parts of Creation in such a way that they have an ordering and regulating effect in absolute perfection over everything in Creation. These lawfully acting forces of Creation can be recognised by human beings as Laws of Nature as soon as they open their eyes to these forces which act in nature as well as in human life. Drawing on the parables of Jesus, Paul described one of these Laws in his letter to the Galatians: ‘Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.’ (6,7) This describes the principle of reciprocity, which runs through the entire Universe and not only manifests in nature as seed and harvest, but also confronts us human beings
