WELMEK

PRAYER

December 5, 2002

Good evening. This is your friend and teacher, Welmek. And I greet you this evening after our one-week hiatus. I am very glad to be back with all of you.

I hope that your Thanksgiving holiday was enjoyable and that you took the attitude of prayerful communication into your holiday weekend and spent some time thinking about the previous lesson. Recall what we discussed during our last encounter.

We are beginning an in-depth study on effective prayer. And I encouraged you to try to pray more consciously and actively throughout your day. And now I wish to ask you, did you try this? And if so, do you wish to share some of your observations and insights with me now? (Pause)

Student: Welmek, I had an experience this afternoon when I was thinking about your lesson on prayer, and the moment that it came to mind, I had a very unusual thing happen. It's almost like I felt this connection of the vast love of all the creatures in the universe. It was a very short-lived feeling, but it was very profound. And it led me into a few moments of thankfulness or gratefulness. I had said several prayers earlier in the day, I couldn't think of anything right at that moment after that happened, so I just took that moment for a little bit of worship. I just wanted to share that with you.

Welmek: This is indeed a beautiful reflection of your experience, for you are beginning to sense the deep and wonderful friendship and love that is yours to enjoy as being a member of our universal family.

You have a knowledge of this family through many years of study of your text. And now you are gaining a strong assurance of the feeling of what it means to be a member of this family. This is one of the elements of prayer that will be yours to enjoy as you grow more firmly enmeshed in spiritual communication. You are operating as a cosmic citizen. This is a privilege and responsibility. And the enjoyment of this is part of your privilege. All through your life as you ascend through the universe, you will come to a greater appreciation through your own enjoyment of feeling the love and the friendship and the support of your fellow brothers and sisters. As you gain more interest in praying, you are actually growing your level of spiritual maturity. You are gaining a greater range of spiritual responsibility, and therefore the privileges - life in the spirit grows as well.

Are there any other observations or experiences you wish to share?

Student: Welmek, I am praying a lot more frequently than I ever have before, and last time when we were here and the time before that in which I was very depressed, and I noticed the next morning after the true prayer had an impact on me. So I'm becoming more prayerful and much more praying during the day, and during an activity I try to pray briefly to Michael and Mother Spirit.

Welmek: What are you experiencing in your inner life as you do this throughout the day? Would you be able to articulate that for me?

Student: I can try. I'm developing a separation - I'm only the observer, and what I've experienced a week ago, I know that God is proactive. And I have a faith, which is by no means complete or deep, but it is the beginning. I would say that those two things are the evidence that I'm experiencing on a daily basis.

Welmek: I find these to be quite significant that you are now beginning to sense this deeper reality within you. So you see, there is great benefit when you pray - is there not? (Yes) And so, this is the enticement. Your prayers will reveal new revelations of truth within your own being and open new doors of spiritual experiences to you.

For prayer is a form of service. And this is a sharing of yourself with the universe. It is expansive. It is conscious altering. And so, the more you pray, the more you are in spiritual communion and communication, and the greater is your awareness toward the realm of spirit. So more can be added into you and in time discernible within you.

Are there any other comments?

Student: Welmek, I was noticing that I was getting the validation to pray more often, and the idea of more smaller practical prayers, like being in a book store and asking for something inspiring to happen. I prayed for a little task or person to meet.

For instance, I found a book on angels. It was a collection done in 1943, The Voice of the Angel or Angels. And I found it very uplifting - and I thought that the speed of the answering of the prayer was thrilling, that maybe it means that my prayers are more down-to-earth, more small steps. I found that helpful, to be not only often in joyous prayer, but little prayers that might get answered quickly like that, that keep the mind focused on higher things rather than just mundane things.

Welmek: These experiences are very confirmatory of the efficiency of spirit, are they not? (I think so.) And they will inspire you to be more faith-filled, will they not? For you find that your answers, your support, and your excitement, is in the realm of spirit. And, as you say, it has been thrilling for you to experience this. And so I encourage you to continue to ask for these experiences through the prayers, and enjoy how it is that you see the outworking reveal itself in your life.

Student: Welmek, I would just like to say that for me prayer is something very utterly new. Whereas I feel like I've discovered and used various forms of worship my whole life. Just a wonderful, joyous feeling of thankfulness and fullness, prayer is very, very new - in the sense of conscious thing. But it is beginning to just pop in spontaneously. It occurs about a dozen times a day. It doesn't last long, but it's always welcome. It is just a very cheerful little note that happens occasionally.

Welmek: Your consciousness is opening to a wider range of spiritual habits and ideas. As you sense these nudges of prayer come into your being, bring your attention into the full awareness - not only in your mind but in your emotions. Let the prayer in your heart captivate your desire to serve and to assist another person in need. (Yes) As you pray, ask Michael's love be sent to that individual.

You may not always be able to focus on His love for an extended time. But if you can only begin to direct that prayer and that love for the other person, you will have performed a mighty service for them. Perhaps this will be the only spiritual circumstance or encounter of their life for that day. And so, would that not be a wonderful component to add to someone's life, albeit brief?

Student: Yes, Welmek, it helped. I have a friend, a very difficult relationship with a friend, who I mentioned before seems to be in some final stages of degeneration due to a lot of alcohol. And it helps to use Michael's mind as to how to handle this. I found myself just praying to do the right thing when I met him that evening. And that evening it occurred to me not to be critical, just to kind of be there for him, and accepting seemed to be the good thing. That is a wonderful thing to have this way of thinking about what to do. But maybe just acknowledging I didn't really know what to do with this friend.

Welmek: You are learning well, my friend. That is all we ask of you. And you are doing very well in your task. Student: Yes, Welmek, as I try to open myself up to living in prayer, I discovered, or experienced, a rich texture just pervading my entire being - that I sense a rhythm and a flow in my day-to-day life. In a sense, living prayer allows me to be in the moment, the eternal moment that you alluded to many months ago, and since changed my life - being here in the present moment, in living prayer in that present moment.

There's so much power, so much strength and focus in that moment. And this is where I live from, or yearn to live from, in every moment. There's so much, this is who I am in this moment. And there's this connection with the circuitry of the whole universal consciousness, in this moment. And there's oneness with every being, in this moment of living prayer.

And it's a different, altered state of consciousness, like a shift within my being, like an earthquake within my being, from time to time, as I let go and let prayer breathe and live in my life, in my being. And yesterday I noticed, when I came home from work, there was such a deep longing and yearning to commune with the Father, like I had to do that, like I wanted to do that. I just wanted to let go of my life's burdens and just be embraced. And that's what prayer is for me has been. Welmek: When you pray for others, would you say that your experience of expansiveness and unity is the same as when you are in communion with the Father?

Student: I think it's less expansive all the way around. But when I do pray for others, like I prayed for my mother yesterday, there is a greater increase of love and expansiveness, just of my consciousness. I also have a sense too that my prayers, whatever they might be, are answered - in their own time and place - that I may not get immediate gratification or actualization. But, in God's time, things will manifest in their proper place and for the highest good of each person.

Welmek: Can you sense within the person for whom you are praying an expansiveness within them?

Student: There's some, yes, yes I can. (Thank you).

Welmek: I am glad that D. shared his awareness of this expansive quality in others, for I wish to lead you now in an exercise of prayer for another person with whom you feel a particular closeness or affinity. I would like for you, in your mind's eye now, to select this individual and to feel a strong mental presence of them within you. (Pause) And if you know this person very well, you may indeed be familiar with their struggle or an area that they need spiritual support and guidance. If you can identify that, open your heart and ask Michael and Mother to assist that person, so they can indeed receive what you so lovingly wish to send them through prayer. Spend a few moments doing this. (Pause)

Ask Michael and Mother to fill this individual with the spirit of your prayer request. (Pause) After you have made your request, step back and notice any spiritual impressions that come to mind, or any feelings that you notice from your prayerful attempt. (Pause) Please share with me now any observations or insights that you noticed during your prayer.

Student: Welmek, I noticed I felt a stronger, deeper, and greater love for the man that I was praying for. I often notice this experience when I do pray for others: a deeper bond with them, a stronger love for them which is one of the more enjoyable aspects of prayer, I find.

Welmek: What do you experience in asking for Michael's will to enter into that individual?

Student: I experience a stronger connection with Michael and with Mother at the moment that I call on them. (Thank you.)

Student: Welmek, I have a dear friend who is very psychologically oriented. She is a wonderful, loving person, very brilliant, engaged in a lot of volunteer work. And my prayer was for her to find some of the spiritual joy that I have known these last few years.

And it occurred to me then that this might, I don't want any kind of disaster to fall upon her in that sense. But she's so bright and so much in her mind, so self complete, that I found myself almost praying for a kind of disquiet to overtake her, that the hunger for something more might come in. So it seems kind of ironic in one way that I was hoping for something to happen in her life that would open her to this whole other realm.

Welmek: And as you are making your appeal to Michael and Mother, were you able to discern any noticeable quality of connection with them to her in her life?

Student: Just that this might be the form that it would take. That the self-sufficiency she feels in her mind there would have to be a kind of wanting for something more. I got that as a kind of a mechanism that that is how it might work. (Thank you.) Student: Welmek, I noticed praying for my boy, that as I zeroed in on . the prayer seemed to improve. I know he needed to feel loved. Then I realized, through the prayer, there's a sort of reciprocal thing happening. I realized he needed the Spirit of Truth. He's at that point, he's very scientific. The Spirit of Truth is the better prayer. And it seemed to flow better. So I guess our prayers are ever expanding, and it's like co-creative with the people we're praying for to help the person. Welmek: And when would you say you noticed you made the shift in your mind from what you prayed for, for the feeling of him to know he was loved, and the prayer for him to be receptive to the Spirit of Truth? When did you make that shift?

Student: I think the shift came when the degree of self-interest, not selfishness, but the greater self gave up to more of spiritual hope and allowed the prayer flow even for his brother, A., so that I didn't have to limit it in any way. And, as I focused on the actual personality of the boy that I just made very good eye contact with about an hour ago, that that way the element of self seemed to leave and the quality came in, the appropriateness came in.

Welmek: And was this before you made the appeal to Michael and Mother or after or during?

Student: It would be after. It took a little while to focus in on Michael and Holy Mother, and allow a little bit of time to go by. (Thank you.)

Student: Welmek, I have a daughter in her sixties, and she has cut herself off from the family. And I realized that through prayer I can be with her, on a higher level, as I wish. I can pray for her through the day, if necessary. So suddenly I realized that I do not need to be upset because she's cut herself off from the family. I can have a special relationship with her, and help bring her in close, and have some impact.

Welmek: And as you notice the insertion of you into her life, in the realm of spirit, do you also sense something happening in her, as well?

Student: I don't know yet. I pray for, but I never know how to pray. Now, once I become a better prayer, I would be interested to see what happens with this profounder way.

Welmek: When you made the appeal to Michael and Mother to come into her being, could you articulate what you experienced in that moment of time? Student: I think I began to hope at least that I can now have that transcendent connection with her, and that that will grow in intensity and effectiveness. (Thank you.)

Student: Yes, Welmek, I prayed toward my roommate C., because prior to me coming here we had a situation that kind of turned towards conflict, that turned kind of dark on his part and unsavory. So, when I prayed, I prayed for love for him, and also that Mother and Michael would take care of him. And when I do, and I did this yesterday as well, and I felt more at peace yesterday. Today, I feel more conflicted, because of the decision we came to before I left to come here. So, I don't really feel any sense of great peace - but of some apprehension - because normally when I pray for somebody or something, there is a great swell of love and peace and a sense of certainty. But with this situation, I feel apprehension - and even a sense of fearfulness - because in a sense I've done all I could do for this person.

Welmek: When you made the appeal to Michael and Mother for this individual, what did you experience in that moment or several moments after that?

Student: There was a letting go, (side one of tape ends) a sense of sympathy for this person, a sense of sadness. (Thank you.)

Welmek: I wish to summarize some of the common elements of your answers. These prayers are an attempt to bring in something greater of spiritual reality into the lives of these people, who are perhaps still sleeping in spirit and not yet fully aware of the potential of love and truth and peace and joy that can be activated within them.

Your answers all carried within it the awareness that you were bringing something into their inner being that is good and that is helpful and nurturing - that they may not have even thought about in their own mind or their own lives.

In prayer, you are carefully planting a new spiritual ideal within the mindal environment of those individuals for whom you pray. Think of how a seed, when it has been placed in fertile soil, is conserved so that it can grow by having its roots firmly established in the soil in its home environment. Prayer is your conserving of this spiritual ideal that you are now introducing into the mindal environment of your brothers and sisters. This might be the only time in their lives that they have something planted within them that goes right into their young, and perhaps yet uncultivated, foundation of truth.

You were all planting these seedling ideas, and you all experienced certain responses of hope, of empathy, of love, of joy that something new is happening within them. So, as you have planted this idea within them through your prayer - as it has been instituted in them through the prayer circuitry - let your continued prayer attempts for them be to foster this environment. Through your prayers, add the rain and the sun that they need for this seedling thought to take root in the soil of their mind - and to grow - to become a sprout and a bud and a flower.

Opening your heart, feeling the Father's love for this individual, will water this seed. Asking for Michael's truth will be the sun that illuminates this idea within their foundation. Asking Mother Spirit to continue to work within their minds, to open and to make that environment with them soft, receptive. This is how you can serve and grow this seedling within them.

So, as you pray for these individuals, keep these ideas of seedling nurturing in your mind. This is one of the most beautiful services you can perform for your brothers and sisters, for you are helping them in the very way that is gentle, that is compassionate, that is subtle. The ways of spirit do not try to coerce people to grow. No, my friends, spirit moves in the lives of these individuals by embellishing those ideas of truth, so that they become so enlarged within the mind and hearts of the individual - that will lead them to say "yes", and to receive and to become that which is growing within them.

When you pray for these individuals in the future, recall the experience that you had in prayer tonight, and let this guide you. Use this as a measurement within your own mind of the service that you have performed - for you have all gained a greater realization of the value of what you were doing. And so, continue to use this as your impetus to pray for these individuals.

I will pause now and entertain your questions about praying in this fashion.

Student: Welmek, I have a question for you. Can the younger brother pray for the older brother? And what I am asking, I pray for my brothers and sisters here on this planet, but I can I say a prayer for you? Is there something that you would wish to have me pray for? Something in your life?

Welmek: My dear friend, how it endears you to me in what you have asked of me. And truly I am grateful and acknowledge the sentiment. What I would ask that you consider that I need not of your service because the need is so great on your planet, and your thoughts are better directed toward others who are in greater need. I have none such need, my friend. My life is fully assured and well underway. Those who are in need are desperate for your prayers. Spend time focusing on them, and I will join in my prayers with you - and you can call on me to pray with you at anytime - and I will be with you in spirit and add my efforts and attention to them as well.

Student: Thank you, Welmek. I will do that.

Welmek: This would be an answer to a prayer for me.

Student: It seems to me that I'm aware that my daily life would be kind of prayer [ ]. That would take some jelling to reach that state of mind or spirit or all three. It seems to me that I gradually would be able to break down the barriers between ordinary action and building that action with spiritual intention and active prayer [ ]. Every encounter is prayerful. (Some words were unable to be transcribed)

Welmek: This is so true, my friend, and you have gained a greater illumination of the wonderful service that being in prayer entails. As your intention grows in this prayerful attitude, be not discouraged that your mind can wander and that you move out of prayer. It is the attempt at prayer that is significant. Each time you pray, you are spiritizing your thinking, and you are adding more depth and weight in your mindal environment and making better habits for yourself. To that eventual end that yes, you can actually be in a state of prayer at all times.

But see this as a goal to be achieved over the eternity of your lifetime, and make your attempts each day as best you can. And be well satisfied that you did your best each day. You will grow in awareness of prayer. You will grow in your ability to be prayerful. And you will find that it will not matter what the outcome of the prayer is. For your faith in what you are learning to mindfully focus on will become so enlarged within your mind that you will be very happy with the attempts at service that you are making.

Live each day as best you can - in prayer as much as you can - and we will bring this back to the table in several months; and it will be quite amazing to you to see your progress. And I address this last comment to each of you here this evening.

Student: Welmek, I notice that each prayer has an element of worship in it. I feel that it must be the thought adjuster conducting the worship, because the minute you pray you are happy that you believe in prayer, and you are grateful you are in a system that uses prayer and before you know it it's converted to a worship experience. It's got to be not only a fringe benefit, but the feeling of growing into a larger and larger universe citizen. But it happens all kind of seamlessly, and I feel that the proportion is it seems to be almost 50/50 here. Is that a way of looking at that?

Welmek: What you have described is very apt. For it speaks to the very essence of how you use your mind as a spiritual tool. The two major components of spiritized thinking are prayer and worship. Prayer - in seeking guidance and help for yourself and others; and worship as the awareness of the divine presence in your life and the celebration thereof.

And, as you say, this 50/50 relationship is the proportional balance. In time, as this becomes mastered, you will find that your day can be in this proportional relationship more consistently so that 100% of your day is spent in 50% prayer and 50% worship. And would that not be a wonderful awareness, indeed?

Student: Sounds right.

Student: Welmek, I'd just like to make a comment to you and to my friends here about something I noticed: that as I become more receptive to just being more emotional and feeling more - as it were, kind of loosening the soil of my emotional garden - that all kind of weeds are popping up that I thought I had gotten rid of long ago.

I am determined not to be discouraged and to carry on. I'll get out my hoe and start weeding, from time to time, because the flowers are popping up and the relationships are well worth it. But that is a side effect that I've noticed, that some old bad habits keep coming around. And it is because I am not acting like some kind of tyrant in my own mind anymore, and just squashing them.

Welmek: How, my dear friend, it pleases me that you sense this richness now in your emotional soil beginning to bud these new flowers; and it is true that for a time there are these weeds there. But, as you say, you are hoeing them out. And the more you turn to the Father for His love, the more his hand can be there in the soil and removing the weeds with you and for you and through you. And so that, in time, these weeds will be troublesome no longer, and you will find that the habits that you have are clean and healthy and life and spirit affirming. Let the weeds come up naturally. Let the hand of the Divine Gardener remove them for you.