Is there a such a thing as ‘ritual’ intelligence ? What kind of wisdom is needed to create rites with this ‘carrying’ power?

Can we find a living rite of passage for life crises where there is suffering and danger – and yet great potential for soul journeying ?

In a contemplative way of remembering we choose to bring awareness gently, simply, directly and repeatedly to the inner place of where we experience that whole painful event. We ‘touch’ into this place where we remember often and reverently - each time approaching it as an entry point in our own soul that connects us to hidden healing grace.

What I have found most  deeply nourishing is simply to pray ‘Thy Kingdom come’  as a way of saying ‘yes’ to  abundance. Saying ‘yes’ to an abundance of being  -  not an abundance having a lot.

This prayer has become for me not so much a plea for forgiveness in the heavenly courts but a vital practice drawing me into the dark wisdom of the divine feminine. Looking back on the past year from this perspective it seems quite possible to say that I have been unexpectedly ‘gifted’ with very painful ‘reasons’ needing forgiveness. So no wonder I have been gripped by the prayer.

More than ever before when I reach this juncture of the prayer I go towards the ‘how’ of contemplative asking that simply waits to be fed from the Heart. It is a manner of asking for nourishment that waits to receive even the desire to be nourished by goodness, beauty and truth. 

"It was, and is, an opening up of dark chasms and hidden caverns where the prayer ‘may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven’ echoes off surfaces so newly exposed. Thy will be done on earth – yes, in this too! And so it is with greater need and urgency that I have reflected on some of the spiritual writings."

What I have found most  deeply nourishing is simply to pray ‘Thy Kingdom come’  as a way of saying ‘yes’ to  abundance. Saying ‘yes’ to an abundance of being  -  not an abundance having a lot.

‘I have come to think of this moment as a daily ‘hallowing’ - a daily act of invoking a sacred name.  In the present moment. And with as wholehearted intention and clarity of mind as I am able.'

For years I flirted nervously and skirted reluctantly around Father-God language – or sought to balance it with Mother language.  That is,  I did that until some deep inner healing of the masculine and feminine began to change my manner of praying. 

How do I dare to pray ‘The Lords Prayer’? Very hesitantly, I will describe ways that this very distilled teaching on prayer has gradually changed from being a formula of petitions to a living process and a means of making transforming soul journeys.