On Prayer

pray for me they plea

pray for this one I love

 

and in my own heart prayers leak

out of my own fears

of possible cancer

of an aging body

of the shadows of fascism

 

it is almost as if we cannot help but pray

and if our own heart and mind

fail

 

something deep within us speaks forth

 

yet what is prayer?

 

a claiming of Sacred favor?

a plea?

a demand?

 

for me prayer is opening

opening all that I am to

all that there is

 

it is letting sacred flow in

and flow out

 

it be permeated with love

so that I am transformed, transfigured

healed by a presence

that changes me all the way

down to the cellular level

 

and more

 

and when we join together in prayer

praying for one another

it is like opening the floodgates of heaven

so that love and hope

peace and joy pour forth

 

and sometimes

that works wonders

the wonder of healing

or, perhaps, more often, the wonder of acceptance

and peace

 

and sometimes the prayers change

as the powerful presence

prompts our hearts

and prays for us

with sighs too deep for words

 

so let us pray