WE ARE EXPLORING THE PRACTICE OF HEAVENLINESS
+ This is a post on the style of The Way of Prayer as we
continue to explore Heavenliness through the lens of the 12 styles of the Mandala process created by Edward Bastian. There are 3 more Mandala styles to explore
after this: Reason, Relationships and Wisdom. After that, we move on to the 9 Attributes of Heaven.
+ THE SERENITY PRAYER > The Serenity Prayer was
originally written by pastor and theologian Reinhold Niebuhr in the 1940's as
part of a sermon. Though the full prayer is longer, the Serenity Prayer is best
known for the first three lines: "God grant me serenity to accept the
things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know
the difference." The full length of the prayer is not as well known, but
is worth sharing:
God, give me grace
to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, Courage to change
the things which should be changed, and the Wisdom to distinguish the one from
the other. Living one day at a time, Enjoying one moment at a time, Accepting
hardship as a pathway to peace, Taking, as Jesus did, This sinful world as it
is, Not as I would have it, Trusting that You will make all things right, If I
surrender to Your will, So that I may be reasonably happy in this life, And
supremely happy with You forever in the next. Amen.
+ This is one of the best known prayers on the globe
because of its association with Alcoholics Anonymous. Niebuhr did not get a copyright for it so it
has been frequently adopted and adapted.
And why not? It really does get
to the heart of our need for prayer, doesn’t it?
Since it is such a favorite of AA and other twelve-step
programs, here are the 12 steps:
1. We admitted we were powerless over
alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than
ourselves could restore us to sanity.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral
inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to
another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our
shortcomings.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever
possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory, and
when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as
we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the
power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the
result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to
practice these principles in all our affairs,
Addiction comes in many forms. I believe we are all
affected by a variety of addictions. I believe unceasing prayer is the only
permanent remedy. What are your
addictions? It is good to take the time
and effort to know what addictions you have and to work the steps. Simply substitute “addiction” or “sin” for
“alcohol” and “addicts” or “sinners” for “alcoholics.”
+ The 12 styles of Mandala: Creating An Authentic Spiritual
Path: An InterSpiritual Process by Edward
Bastian are listed in SE206.
+ To get inspired and illuminated by Ed Bastian, I invite you to set aside some time for these videos:
+ You can always find a link to any of the Spiritual Explorations posts by going to http://abundancetrek.com/sepostsaccess.html
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