Unity began with the prayers of Myrtle Fillmore. In her search for healing and wholeness, she discovered a deeper connection to God and a new understanding of prayer. Seeing the transformation in her, Charles Fillmore began what he called the scientific study of prayer, of world religions and Bible metaphysics.
Many of us pray for healing, for freedom from fear, anger, and anxiety. Sometimes we pray because we desire to change and grow, perhaps to know more of God and our relationship to Him. Even as we affirm that God is everywhere equally present, we lift our eyes to pray to a God out there. Charles Fillmore wrote in Teach Us to Pray, that
It is man's exalted ideas of God and his disparaging ideas of himself that have built the mental wall that separates them.
It is our very own belief in Michelangelo's glorious God in the clouds which precludes a real relationship with our Creator. But just as important to this disconnect is the question: Do We Really Pray or do we just give lip service to the prayers we learned along the way. Or, worse yet, do we leave the praying to the professionals, only making a desperate plea for help in emergencies?
Rabbi Abraham Heschel raised this question in "Praying by Proxy" from the book Man's Quest for God: Studies in Prayer and Symbolism (p.100) referring to religious services in the Temple, but he could just as easily have been referring to any modern church. He writes that
Services are conducted with dignity and precision. But one thing is missing: Life.
There will be no surprise, no adventure of the soul... He will attain no insight into the words he reads; he will attain no new perspective for the life he lives.
Each Sunday I strive to bring a powerful sense of God right here, right now! Dancing a fine line between wit and wisdom, I want to strike a spark to dry, lazy thinking and ignite a fiery passion to know God, to feel His presence and power in everyone present. We must not get too comfortable with the way things have always been! That's not good enough!
Think and pray and question! S t r e t c h your wings and grow!
Rev. Claudia Naylor
