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About Prayer:

EVERYONE has his own history and everyone has his own history of prayer or response to the word of God. This response is inevitably uttered within a person's own history, but also within the history of his own times and of all time.

A gnosticism has crept into prayer which reduces its objectivity, turns it into something abstract and unrooted in the human condition and contemporary situation. Not that we should be surprised at this phenomenon, only that we should be aware of it. We affect to hear God better from the vault of past history, and avoid the possibility of that vault being in fact a tomb.

Prayer should by rights tell us more about ourselves than anything else.

The examination of prayer in terms of history highlights the need of prayer to be in accordance with truth. Truth, naturally, is not an abstraction: it exists only in things and persons. Truth only possesses a person in an earthly condition in so far as the requirements of that earthly condition are fulfilled. Labour, work, art, politics, leisure are such normal requirements. In so far as he satisfies them, the human person grows and develops, comes into his own truth, expresses his own self. In his response to the word of God, man can only respond in accordance with his human condition. The more he fulfils the requirements of this condition, the more fitted will he be for the response. His prayer will be more personal, more real, to the degree that it is more historical, more in tune with the events, happenings and meetings through which he grows and which is his history.

What many are aware of today is the anomaly existing between their prayer and their life in the world. This is probably because they underestimate their worth as a partner in the dialogue of prayer. In everyday conversation or discussion, a man can be
aware of his deficiencies and lack of skill, be at times incoherent or inarticulate; but with the passing years and with experience he learns to hold his own with his equals or superiors. This is seldom true in the average person's conversation with God, notwithstanding the fact that God is continually intimating to us that we have something to contribute to the conversation, and that by his deliberate choice He has chosen us to be a living partner in a joint enterprise.

Avvon d-bish-maiya, nith-qaddash shim-mukh.
Tih-teh mal-chootukh. Nih-weh çiw-yanukh:
ei-chana d'bish-maiya: ap b'ar-ah.
Haw lan lakh-ma d'soonqa-nan yoo-mana.
O'shwooq lan kho-bein:
ei-chana d'ap kh'nan shwiq-qan l'khaya-ween.
Oo'la te-ellan l'niss-yoona:
il-la paç-çan min beesha.
Mid-til de-di-lukh hai mal-choota
oo khai-la oo tush-bookh-ta
l'alam al-mein. Aa-meen.

"... Our heavenly Father, hallowed is your name.
Your Kingdom is come. Your will is done,
As in heaven so also on earth.
Give us the bread for our daily need.
And leave us serene,
just as we also allowed others serenity.
And do not pass us through trial,
except separate us from the evil one.
For yours is the Kingdom,
the Power and the Glory
To the end of the universe, of all the universes." Amen!

The Lord's Prayer in Aramaic

“Don’t expect God to answer your prayers for material well being. That wouldn’t be a relationship based on love; that’s more of a business deal. A sincere prayer to God doesn’t always guarantee a material solution to problems, but it certainly ensures that we come closer to God. And that coming closer to God fills the heart with a spiritual joy that transcends petty material pursuits.” ~ Radhanath Swami