Prayer of the Heart

Part II

In part one last week I gave you one of the ways that Carol Knox connected with God. There are other ways, too, with the primary one being meditation. Spending time in the silence and listening for a message from God, Spirit, or your higher self. One of my mentors said to have a particular chair in the house, that is the only place you commune with your higher power. Whenever you sit in that chair, you and your body know, almost like muscle memory, that it is time to meditate. Some people don’t sit still well, so walking in nature as a meditation works for those individuals.

You might have a question that you need an answer to, so say it at the beginning of meditating after you have centered. If you don’t receive it at that time, know that it could happen anywhere, anytime. You will know that it is from God because it will resonate deep in your soul. It will also be the highest and best for all concerned. Often, I will receive 3-to-6-word answers, with clear and distinct words.

When I was just beginning to develop a relationship with God, I would sometimes use the needle drop method with the Bible. I would have a question and ask it. I would randomly open the Bible and put my finger on the page where it opened. Then I would read the verse that it landed on as well as the verses before and after it to give it context. Sometimes this was helpful. Since Unity teaches the metaphysical interpretation of the Bible, using this method makes it fun, too. Metaphysical interpretation is looking at the meaning beyond the words as opposed to reading the Bible literally.

There is another fun way to connect with God. A mentor taught me about saying “Good morning Holy Spirit” and good night daily. She told me that eventually it would answer back, and it did happen. It was a neat experience.

The ultimate goal is to pray without ceasing and these methods bring us back to the Prayer of the Heart that another mentor, Rev Toni Boehm, wrote as a published booklet. I am in the process of getting a link and will add it in Part III.

“The Prayer of the Heart is an ongoing prayer held in the heart, directing your life towards God. Are you ready for a shift in your life experience? Are you ready to move higher and deeper?”

This booklet contains a ‘How To’ process on creating a prayer of the heart that you repeat over and over. It is a short prayer or affirmation that will come to your lips when you need it the most. This continues to be a powerful experience in my life. The one I chose is “Christ Heals and Reveals, I am Silently Trusting.” It is an acronym for Christ that was written by an instructor from Unity.

Last night the prayer came right into my mind and was comforting when I was thinking about a situation in my life. If I am unsure of the outcome and need to trust it will come to me. Do any of you have a prayer or affirmation that you use that may bring you peace and comfort during turmoil? I also will use the Prayer for Protection, by Unity minister James Dillet Freeman. It doesn’t come to me as fast as the prayer of my heart does, however.

Stay tuned for Part III.

Rev Airin

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A Transcendent Easter Practice

A month ago, we had a speaker, Fred Brancato, who wrote the book, “Mystery and Manifestation: Reflections on Life Experience Beyond Ideology, Theology, and Belief Systems.” who spoke about having a transcendent experience and some ways he believes one can achieve it. (See
revairin.wordpress.com/2023/03/27/god-incidences-and-divine-timing/  Meditation is the overarching key to creating it. A meditation practice builds that relationship with the Universe, or Love, or God, or what ever your name is for the one power and one presence. We all know that Jesus spent a lot of time in meditation and prayer.

Recently I listened to a talk by Eric Butterworth, who is a well-known Unity Minister. It is called The Easter Perspective in April of 1979, found here: https://www.truthunity.net/ebup/the-easter-perspective . Some of the ideas I will share here are from his talk. It amazed me that the same problems that he referred to in the world such as energy use, oil and Saudi Arabia, fires, etc. are still ongoing today.

The main question that he asks is how is celebrating Easter helpful for our challenges today in the world and in our personal lives. Mankind has been on a quest learning about himself from the search for the Holy Grail to now. Jesus was no different when he came into the world. He was a man on a quest who went through the temptations in the desert and always worked to rise above his challenges.

How was Jesus able to do that? As mentioned earlier, he had a meditation and prayer life that help him develop a relationship with God. He may have had other daily practices. A foundational one was pausing, lifting his eyes, and seeing beyond the appearance or problem, which was transcending the situation and seeing it from a higher perspective, naturally listening to God’s guidance in that moment.

Jesus told us that we have the same abilities that he had. Everyone can develop a relationship with God, listening for him in meditation and prayer without going to a priest and asking them to intercede for you. Jesus demonstrated that it was possible to have transcendent (God) experiences. Rev Eric Butterworth calls being in the tomb with our challenges such as accidents or firing from a job, “Tomb of Limitations” *. Many of us may work very hard to set things right and we are blocked with questions that we can’t answer.

“The need is not to set things right but to see it right and get it” * on a higher level of consciousness. We don’t need to know the how or why it happened, which is the natural path we take, “trying to know all the ins and outs of it.” * We want to see it rightly.

Butterworth pointed out that if you notice in the New Testament wherever Jesus performed a healing or multiplying the loaves and fishes, that he lifted his eyes up. He was seeing things from a higher perspective or consciousness and calling on God of course, having a transcendent view of things.

The Transcendent practice that rolls the stone away from the tomb of limitation can happen in this way. We are confronted with a problem that may have felt like a crucifixion (not all of them do). We pause and go within, lift our eyes, seeing from a higher perspective, affirming the new view that we are seeing with the eyes of God.

“Fundamentally, Jesus demonstrated for you and for me and for all persons who have eyes to see and ears to hear, that if we lift our eyes and look out the right window, we can see allness in illness, we can see all sufficiency in insufficiency, we can see full potentialities even in limitations, and we find the key to overcoming and the key to a victorious, transcendent life. This is what it’s all about.” *

This can be an everyday practice to become a Master of it like Jesus.

“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”                                                                                                          Albert Einstein

Rev Airin

*Direct Quotes from Rev Butterworth’s talk

Spiritual Tools for Lent

Unity has what I call spiritual tools that are ‘hands on’ or kinesthetic that are easy to use. Our cofounders Charles and Myrtle Fillmore used them. Two of them are using denials and affirmations.  Both are forms of prayer. Hypatia Hasbrouck, a Unity Minister and a former Dean of the Unity ministerial education program, wrote a book on forms of prayer called Handbook of Positive Prayer. In it are tools for cleaning your conscience and visualizing with it. There are copies in the bookstore and online of course.

The word conscience is a noun that cues you on what is right, wrong, or a shade of gray sometimes. Consciousness is also a noun that is a state of awareness. “The true temple in the “body” of Christ is a state of consciousness. In the inmost center of every man the indwelling Christ resides.” Charles Fillmore, pg. 11 from Keep a True Lent. The awareness of Christ with in, therefore is how one has the Christ consciousness and being one with the Christ.In reading any of his books, it is rare not to find consciousness on every page. Spiritual consciousness was all important to him. Again, being at one with the Holy Spirit.

Naturally there is more to having a Christ or Spiritual consciousness than just being ‘aware’ of that fact or believing it to be true. Using tools to cleanse one’s consciousness of things no longer serving us is one way and then moving into meditation for time in the presence with and as the Christ communing and listening. In Hypatia’s book, she teaches how to use the denials and affirmations to do it. Our consciousness includes the subconscious which has been like a sponge absorbing every experience, idea and residual feelings and emotions and storing it in the mind. Depending how long we have been alive, there can be a lot in there. When there is a lot going through your mind in a particular moment, it can be difficult to “Be still and know that I am God” Psalm 46:10.

So, when one is cleansing the consciousness of the mind, it is the subconscious that is being cleaned which creates a faster and faster connection when you are in meditation and prayer. The subconscious mind also contains the intuitive faculty, which is the direct connection with other human minds (race mind) and the superconscious phase of mind (the mind of God in us).

A denial is a statement that withdraws the hold or power that a belief or habit has on you that you would like to eliminate. You only say it once because you don’t want to keep declaring it over and over. An affirmation is a statement of what you would like to be experiencing instead which replaces that belief or habit. You want to repeat this statement several times because you are establishing a new habit or belief. For example, years ago, I realized that I was afraid of driving in the bad weather. Denial: I am no longer afraid of driving in bad weather. Affirmation: I drive safely with God as my pilot. I didn’t include any words in the affirmation that I didn’t want to keep experiencing like, afraid. Feel how you would feel as though it were already taking place in your life. There is a lot more to this, but I gave you the cliff notes version to get you started if you are interested.

In the name and through the power of Jesus Christ, It is Done!

Have fun with the tools, too.

Rev Airin

And the Birth

Christmas came and Christmas went, seemingly quicker than it took to arrive. The preparation for anything takes 95% of the time and then the rest gets completed in record time. I guess one could say that your first day of school or college is preparing for graduation. Ah, but the birth of a child is well worth the preparation.

Metaphysically, the birth of the Christ within us, is taking a deeper spiritual walk with Spirit during advent and aligning our consciousness as one with the One. Faith, peace, love, and joy are the order of Sundays in Advent. With faith, we deepen our spiritual walk with Spirit. The topic was darkness and what one’s thoughts and feelings were related to it. (See https://wordpress.com/post/revairin.wordpress.com/446) On the second Sunday the peace candle was lit, and I wrote more about darkness and highlighted hope that one has despite tough circumstances. See (https://wordpress.com/post/revairin.wordpress.com/449) On the third Sunday the candle for love was lit, and I continued Magic and Miracles II, writing about the healing that occurs in the silence. See (https://wordpress.com/post/revairin.wordpress.com/461) The fourth Sunday I lit the candle of Joy and wrote about how waiting can be difficult for someone and that it is an important part of the preparation for birth. See (https://wordpress.com/post/revairin.wordpress.com/464) Also, when appropriate, some people have chosen to use cleansing and releasing rituals along the way with their daily meditation.

A little history trivia there are two actual dates for the birth of Jesus: Professor Colin Humphreys wrote in the Royal Astronomical Journal that a comet around April of 5 BC was the star of Bethlehem giving us the birth date of Jesus at that time. In Proverbs 15, it says “Holiday of the nativity September 11, 3 BC”.  The planet Venus could have passed for the star on 9/11 in Revelations 12:5 And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.”Most Bible scholars agree that Jesus was not born on December 25.

From Valerie Straus, December 25,2015, Why is Christmas on December 25^th?, Washington Post: “By most accounts, the birth was first thought — in around 200 A.D. — to have taken place on Jan. 6. Why? Nobody knows, but it may have been the result of “a calculation based on an assumed date of crucifixion of April 6 coupled with the ancient belief that prophets died on the same day as their conception,” according to religionfacts.com. By the mid-fourth century, the birthday celebration had been moved to Dec. 25. Who made the decision? Some accounts say it was the pope; others say it wasn’t.” There is much more to the article mentioning that in the Julienne calendar the winter solstice was considered to be the 25^th of December. Look it up if you want to know more.

Either way, I like that it is December 25. Most likely because I have grown up with it being that way with the faith traditions I have been a member.

Notice these next few weeks if something new has emerged in your life that has given birth. It could be a new way of living after a loss or a change of direction or finding a new job or occupation. It could be a new or deepening of a relationship with someone or something.

Enjoy the adventure, for life is an adventure to be lived, not a problem to be solved!

Rev Airin

PS If you want to read more about birthing the Christ, check these out.

Birthing the Christ, Part I

Birthing the Christ, Part II

Self-Care Nurtures

Nurturing oneself is self-care and self-care is nurturing. This is a good time of year to keep it in mind with the holidays coming. Self-care is a practice that is good any day and anytime. Ideally, a person wouldn’t want to wait until they feel depleted. In my case, I learned about it before I needed to put it into practice. Becoming a Unity Minister, it was part of the curriculum along with cultivating a prayer life which included spending time centering in daily meditation. Unity’s cofounder, Charles Fillmore would spend hours every day in meditation. He was affectionately called ‘Papa Charlie’ and was always smiling and going on spur of the moment picnics.

Selfcare isn’t age or gender specific nor is it only certain occupations. Many of you reading this may have heard about practicing self-care sooner than in your late 30’s like I did. I am sure I could have used it sooner. All genders are affected from male and female to transgender. Taking time to nurture yourself is important.

If you enjoy having pets like dogs or cats, spending time with them usually makes one smile and petting them increases the hormone Oxytocin that makes you happy and them also. This also reduces stress and anxiety. Also, meditation helps with your breathing and ability to relax more easily. A study was recently published in JAMA Psychiatry on the reduction of anxiety using meditation vs taking a daily dose of 10-20 mg of Lexapro. The results showed that they both reduced anxiety by 20%, NPR article here: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/11/09/1135211525/anxiety-medication-meditation-lexapro

One can take a mental health day and go to a favorite place outside or stay home and not have to go anywhere which includes having fun. Parents and especially women may feel guilty or that it is being selfish to take time out to relax and reenergize oneself.

A few years ago, I did a study on doctors and how they practiced self-care as part of a research project during my chaplain training. I had read in the research literature that they had the highest number of suicides. This was concerning to me, and I asked the 10 I interviewed that question. The average age was 45 and they had learned to take time for traveling, recreational activities with family, reading fiction, and some journaled and danced.

Dr Saundra Dalton-Smith is a mom, medical doctor and researcher who helps “the overstressed deal with their work-rest imbalance and find actionable answers to the thriving lifestyle they desire.”

From her website: https://ichoosemybestlife.com/resources/

She emphasizes rest and what that means. There is even a quiz you can take to assess yourself.  She also says that you can do short daily activities as part of your routine for self-care.

So have it be something fun and relaxing to keep yourself energetically charged for the day.

Rev Airin

Raising the Veil

Long Lake, Naples, ME

Letting go of the
political agendas
Seeing through the
fear based promises
choosing a life of peace
opened by Love’s gate
moving at the pace of God
Listening in the grace
of the All is well
Dissolving the veil

A Heart filled with Gratitude

We give thanks for the unearned grace of God that flows like an infinite fountain immersing our lives. It keeps the flame of hope within us burning 24/7. The infinite blessings that are bestowed upon us when all we need do is have that awareness. This wealth is beyond comparison, stretching through the universe. Remembering it is ours, say yes to accept, we come as a child to the kingdom here and now in gratitude. Amen.

How Do We Pray? Part I