27. Prayer

 
If prayer is to be discussed at all, it goes without saying that these words only apply to people who concern themselves with prayer. Those who do not feel the urge to pray can calmly refrain from it, because otherwise their words or thoughts will inevitably amount into nothing.

If a prayer is not felt deeply and thoroughly, it has no value and therefore no success. A surging feeling of gratitude in moments of great joy, as well as the experience of the deepest pain in moments of suffering, provides the best basis for a prayer that can expect success. At such moments the individual is permeated by a specific intuition that drowns out everything else. This enables the main wish of the prayer, whether it is thanks or a request, to receive undimmed power.
 
People often form quite a false perception of the unfolding and outcome of prayer and its continued development. Not every prayer reaches to the Supreme Ruler of the Worlds. On the contrary, it is a very rare exception that a prayer really manages to reach the steps of His Throne. Here, too, the fundamental Law of the Attraction of Homogeneous Species plays the greatest role.
 
A sincere, deeply felt prayer itself becomes magnetic and attracts like kind, in coming into conjunction with a centre of force of the same kind, which permeates the main content of the prayer. These centres of force can just as well be called regions of spheres or named otherwise, because it will always basically come to the same thing.

Reciprocal action then brings about what was the main wish of the prayer. This could be peace, strength, rest, plans suddenly arising within, solutions to difficult questions, or other things. Something good will always result, even if it is only one’s own increased calm and composure, which then in turn leads to a way out, or deliverance.
 
Once sent out, these prayers may intensify in strength through the reciprocal action of similar centres of force and find an ethereal path to people who, stirred by this, provide help in some way and thus the fulfilment of the prayer. All these processes are easily understood when the ethereal life is taken into account. Here too, justice again lies in the fact that the decisive factor in prayer will always remain the inner nature of the individual praying, which, depending on its depth, determines the power, and therefore the vitality and effectiveness of the prayer.
 
In the great ethereal happenings of the Universe, every kind of emotive feeling finds its own particular homogeneous kind, since not only could it not be attracted by others, but it would even be repelled by them. Only when something of the same kind comes about does connection occur, and with it, reinforcement. 

A prayer containing various intuitions, which, despite the one who prays going into great depth, still carry a certain power within them even in their diversity, will therefore attract various things and bring back various things in reciprocal action. Whether fulfilment is possible depends entirely on the nature of the individual parts, which can either further or inhibit each other in their effects. In any case, however, it is better in prayer to send out only one thought as an intuition, so that no confusion can arise.
 
Christ by no means intended that the 'Our Father Prayer' must always be prayed in its entirety; rather, He merely summarized everything that humans, in earnest volition, can certainly request with certainty of fulfilment.

These petitions contain the foundations for everything that humans need for their physical well-being and spiritual ascent. Yet they contain even more! The petitions at the same time indicate the guidelines for the striving that humans should pursue in their earthly life. The arrangement of the requests is a masterpiece in itself.

The ‘Lord’s Prayer’ alone can be everything to the seeking person if they immerse themselves in it and understand it correctly. They would really need nothing more than the 'Lord’s Prayer'. It encapsulate the entire Gospel. It is the key to the Luminous Heights for those who know how to experience it correctly. It can be both a staff and a lamp for everyone’s forward and upward striving! It holds immeasurable wealth within it.
 
This richness alone demonstrates the actual purpose of the ‘Lord’s Prayer’. In the ‘Our Father' Jesus gave humanity the key to the Kingdom of God – the core of His Message! However, He did not intend for it to be prayed in a recited fashion.
 
Humans need only pay attention after they have prayed and they will recognize for themselves how much distraction it brought them and how it weakened the depth of their intuition, by following the order of the individual requests, however familiar they may be to them.
 
They will also find it impossible to glide from one request to another with the deep fervour that is necessary for a true prayer! Yet, in His own way, Jesus made everything easy for humanity. The right expression is 'child’s play’. He especially pointed this out: “Become like children!” In other words, think simply, seek out as few difficulties as possible. He would never have expected from humanity something so impossible as is demanded by a truly deep praying of the Lord's Prayer. This too must bring to the conviction to humanity that Jesus intended something different, something greater. He gave the key to the Kingdom of God, not a simple prayer!
 
The versatility of a prayer will always weaken it. A child does not approach their father with seven requests at once, but always only with whatever weighs most on their heart at that moment, whether it be it sorrow or a wish.
 
In the same way, those in distress should turn to their God in prayer with whatever burdens them. And in most cases, it will only be one particular concern, not many together. They should not ask for something that does not really weigh upon them. Such a request cannot be experienced deeply and vitally within, so it becomes an empty form and naturally weakens a request that may truly be necessary.
 
Therefore, one should only ever ask for what is truly necessary! No empty forms that must fragment and, over time, foster hypocrisy!
 
Prayer demands the deepest seriousness. One should pray in calm and in purity, so that through calm the force of intuition is heightened and, through purity, it gains the luminous lightness that enables the prayer to ascend to the heights of all that is light, and all that is pure. Then fulfilment will come, which will benefit the petitioner greatly, truly advancing them in all aspects of their being!
 
The power of prayer is not what propel or thrust it upwards, but only purity in its corresponding lightness. Anyone can achieve purity in prayer, even if not in every prayer, as soon as the urge to entreat is alive within them. It is not necessary for one’s whole life to be in order already. Nothing can prevent a person from raising oneself now and then in prayer, even if only for a few seconds, in the purity of one's intuitions.
 
Moreover, the power of prayer is aided not only by complete calm and the deepened concentration it enables, but also by any outburst of emotion such as fear, worry and joy.
 
Now, it is not said that the fulfilment of a prayer will always necessarily correspond to earthly conceived ideas and wishes, nor will it be in harmony with them. Fulfilment often goes far beyond this, leading the whole to the best outcome, not just the earthly moment! Therefore, an apparent non-fulfilment must later be recognized as the only right and best fulfilment, and the person is glad that things did not go according to their momentary wishes.
 
Now for intercession! Audience often asks how the reciprocal effects of an intercession, that is, the request of another, can find its way to a person who has not prayed themselves, since the reaction must flow back along the prepared path to the supplicants themselves.
 
Again, there is no deviation from the established laws here. During their prayer, the intercessors think so strongly of the person for whom they are praying that their wishes are first anchored or firmly knotted in that other person, and then travel upwards from there, thus being able to return to that person for whom the intercessor’s strong wishes have already come alive, and encircle them. It is, however, an absolute prerequisite that the soil in the person for whom prayer is offered is also receptive and, through homogeneity, suitable for such an anchoring, and that no inner hindrances are set against it.
 
If the soil is not receptive, that is, unworthy, then in the slipping away of intercessions is simply the wonderful justice of Divine Laws, which cannot permit help to come from outside through another person to completely barren soil. This rebounding or slipping off the intended anchorage of an intercession from the person concerned, who is unworthy due to their inner state, results in the impossibility of providing help. Once again, the automatic and self‑evident manner in which this works is so utterly perfect that a one can only stand in amazement before the unabridged and just distribution of the fruits of all that is self‑willed.
 
If this did not proceed so inexorably, there would be a gap in the machinery of Creation that would allow possibility for injustice to those who are unworthy and cannot be interceded for, although intercessors again can only arise through the reciprocal action of previously given friendship or similar relationships.
 
Intercessions from individuals without an inner, unconditional urge of true feeling are devoid of value or success. They are only empty chaff.
 
There is yet another way in which genuine intercession works. It is like a signpost! The prayer rises directly and points to the person in need of help. If, following this indicated path, a spiritual messenger is then sent to bring help, the possibility of providing help is subject to the same laws of worthiness or unworthiness, that is, of receptivity or rejection. If the person in need of help is turned inward towards the darkness, then the messenger who wants to help in response to the intercession cannot make contact and is thus unable to have an effect, and must return without achieving anything. Therefore, the intercession could not be fulfilled because the laws, in their living activity, did not permit it. However, if the necessary conditions are met, genuine intercession is of inestimable value! It either brings help, even if the person in need is unaware of it, or it unites with their wish or prayer and thus gives them great reinforcement.