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Chapter 23 - Prayer |
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a priestess said, "Speak to us of Prayer." |
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| And he answered, saying: You pray in your distress
and in your need; would that you might pray also
in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance. |
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| For what is prayer but the expansion of your self
into the living ether? And if it is for your comfort
to pour your darkness into space, it is also for
your delight to pour forth the dawning of your heart.
And if you cannot but weep when your soul summons
you to prayer, she should spur you again and yet
again, though weeping, until you shall come laughing.
When you pray you rise to meet in the air those who
are praying at that very hour, and whom save in prayer
you may not meet. Therefore let your visit to that
temple invisible be for naught but ecstasy and sweet
communion. For if you should enter the temple for
no other purpose than asking you shall not receive: |
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| And if you should enter into it to humble yourself
you shall not be lifted: Or even if you should enter
into it to beg for the good of others you shall not
be heard. It is enough that you enter the temple
invisible. |
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| I cannot teach you how to pray in words. God listens
not to your words save when He Himself utters them
through your lips. And I cannot teach you the prayer
of the seas and the forests and the mountains. But
you who are born of the mountains and the forests
and the seas can find their prayer in your heart,
And if you but listen in the stillness of the night
you shall hear them saying in silence: Our God, who
art our winged self, it is thy will in us that willeth. "It
is thy desire in us that desireth. "It is thy urge
in us that would turn our nights, which are thine,
into days, which are thine also. |
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| "We cannot ask thee for aught, for thou knowest
our needs before they are born in us: |
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| "Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself
thou givest us all." |
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