"the golden prayer"

"prayers are nothing more than throwing what you want out into the universe."
--kotabear

there was this was the lovely opening in my freewill astrology newsletter, a quote by deepak chopra, and it's been sticking with me ever since yesterday. and, of course, it actually got me thinking about something else from my catholic childhood that sticks with me to this day. i wanted to throw it out there, because i think deepak really expresses the concept of yielding with love and understanding in order to receive those things in return...yet in the giving of them, receiving them for yourself becomes less important than the simple act of reaching out to another soul.

because i've recently learned that it's really true: whatever you're feeling is what you're resonating, and whatever you're resonating is what you're attracting.

"Once again we face a paradox, for it appears that softening your heart and gently tending its wounds will protect you from evil. Building a fortress and defending yourself behind it will only make you more vulnerable. Healing your own heart is the single most powerful thing you can do to change the world. Your own transformation will enable you to withdraw so completely from evil that you contribute to it by not one word, one thought, or one breath."
-Deepak Chopra, The Deeper Wound: Recovering the Soul from Fear and Suffering

this quote really --finally-- brought home a prayer i've always loved, from the only saint with whom i've had a connection and continued to feel connected to even after almost a decade after leaving the Church.


Make me a channel of your peace,
Where there is hatred let me bring your love,
Where there is injury your pardon Lord,
And where there's doubt true faith in you.

Make me a channel of your peace,
Where there's despair in life let me bring hope,
Where is darkness, only light,
And where there's sadness ever joy.

O Master grant that I may never seek,
So much to be consoled as to console,
To be understood; as to understand,
To be loved as to love with all my soul.

Make me a channel of your peace,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
In giving of ourselves that we receive
And in dying that we are born to eternal life
--Prayer of St. Francis