Prayer

Prayer lies at the core of the religious life in most religions. The passages collected here discuss the efficacy of prayer and provide guidance on how to pray.

Through prayer, we develop a relationship with God, exposing our inner life to Him and receiving His grace. In prayer, we repent for our sins, ask God for help, and receive God’s guidance.

We learn to trust in God to fulfill our prayers and to follow His guidance for what we should do to progress in our life of faith. Conversely, God can begin to trust us as we declare our intention in prayer to do good and then strive to fulfill it.

Thus, prayer life can develop into a living relationship with God, as substantial as with a friend or, indeed, with our own parents.

Prayer directs our heart to God and purifies it, providing a natural defense against temptations and the evil promptings of our fallen self. As we cultivate a taste for prayer, it nourishes our spirit and brightens our entire life.

We receive divine energy in our conscience to do what is right, strength of character to endure hardships, and comfort in our heart as we seek to love. Some of these texts give instruction on how to pray. Prayer should be done constantly, sometimes with vigils far into the night.

Prayer should be honest; it is quiet and sincere conversation from the heart. Prayer should be accompanied by deeds; the prayer of the hypocrite is without effect.

Among the best prayers are those that put the welfare of others ahead of oneself and, as Father Moon teaches, prayers to comfort God’s heart. Some representative prayers can be found in the invocation that opens this anthology.

Your Lord says, “Call on Me; I will answer your prayer.” Qur’an 40.60

The Lord is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth. Psalm 145.18

When My servants ask you concerning Me, I am indeed Close to them. I listen to the prayer of every suppliant when he calls on Me.1 Qur’an 2.186

Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you. Psalm 55.22

Lord of creation! No one other than Thee pervades all these that have come into being. May that be ours for which our prayers rise, may we be masters of many treasures! Rig Veda 10.121.10 (Hinduism)

Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Mark 11.24

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is any of you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects. Elijah was a man of like nature with ourselves and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again and heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth its fruit. James 5.13-18

You must always pray unto the Father in my name; and whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing you shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you. Pray in your families unto the Father, always in my name, that your wives and your children may be blessed. Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 18.19-21 (Latter-day Saints)

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
Prayer is calling to God and conversing with Him. (270:17, May 3, 1995)

Prayer is a covenant between man and God; it is a pledge. Whatever you pray about, you have to practice. There is no need to pray for the same thing day after day. You only need to pray for it once with genuine sincerity. Then seek and long for it with a prayerful heart, even if it takes ten or twenty years to be fulfilled. (40:299, February 7, 1971)

Prayer is making a wish. By making a wish, you place yourself in an object position to God, the Subject. You set up a subject-object relationship of love. Having unfulfilled wishes and longings is good because they motivate us to make this relationship. Because we lack confidence to fulfill them ourselves, we pray… clinging to God. (112:54, March 29, 1981)

Through prayer you receive strength. Through prayer you are given wisdom to know how situations will develop in the future. You will be taught how to deal with every task. The wisdom gained through prayer can equip you for a great mission. Prayer is indispensable if you are pioneering such a path. (104:111, April 15, 1979)

[In times of difficulty], pray and ask God for His power to sustain you on the path.

Declare your determination: “Father, although I might die for this work, I will do it. Though I suffer from hunger and thirst, I will cling to Thee, my God.” Thus, your prayer is a pledge and a proclamation.

Once you have made that proclamation, then on your own, decide your course and determine to accomplish it. Practice love; then surely God will listen and encourage you to go forward.

Once you have prayed, as long as you practice what you have prayed about, overcoming obstacles one by one, then God will approve of you and recognize you as a trustworthy person. (112:54, March 29, 1981)

Test the power of your prayer. Pray every day for one person [without telling him]. Pray tearfully for his well-being, and see what happens. Amazingly, he will feel a magnetic attraction to you. He will feel drawn to you, but he won’t know why. (104:113, April 15, 1979)

When you make a request in prayer, it passes through several stages before it is answered. And when it is answered, the answer may come in an unexpected way.

Furthermore, when you pray for a blessing, depending on your condition, you may receive a certain amount of blessing, only to have something else taken away… We are also praying for the world.

When your personal devotions and efforts at spreading the Word do not go well, do not worry that your prayers are ineffective. Continue praying, and far away something in the communist world crumbles.

Yet it takes time. So pray for something that will not come to pass in your lifetime but thousands of years from now. I am praying such prayers; therefore, the work of God will continue to flourish for thousands of years after I am gone, until my prayers are fully answered. (104:110, April 15, 1979)

Prayer restrains one from shameful and unjust deeds, and remembrance of God is the greatest thing in life, without doubt. Qur’an 29.45

Beings possessed by carnal passions, anger, or infatuation have but to revere and remember the Bodhisattva Kuan Shih Yin and they will be set free from their passions.2 Lotus Sutra 25 (Buddhism)

What lies between a man and infidelity is the abandonment of prayer. Hadith of Muslim (Islam)

Establish regular prayers at the two ends of the day and at the approaches of the night: for those things that are good remove those that are evil. This is a word of remembrance to those who remember.3 Qur’an 11.114

In the name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful. Say, “I take refuge in the Lord of mankind, the King of mankind, the God of mankind, from the evil of the sneaking whisperer who whispers in the hearts of mankind, of the jinn and of mankind.”4 Qur’an 114

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
Prayer is needed to purify the mind and spirit. It is necessary training to purify the mind and to focus the mind on God. (181:325, October 3, 1988)

When we are going the wrong way, prayer guides us to the right direction. (45:247, July 4, 1971)

Those who pray do not make serious mistakes; they know what to do. Once you develop the habit of prayer and relish its taste, you will find it tastier than food and more interesting than listening to music or watching a movie. Moreover, you will find that you are better able to distinguish between good and evil and make the correct choices in life. (128:172, June 12, 1983)

Through prayer you should know the invisible enemy and discern the enemy’s manifest works.5 (19:146, January 1, 1968)

Through prayer, your mind should completely subjugate your body. Through prayer, your conscience will receive energy and become one with God vertically; then Satan will surely flee away.

Through a life of prayer, you cultivate the path for uniting mind and body and for connecting with God, becoming one with Him. Then God will be within you, and Satan will have no choice but to run away. (229:7, April 9, 1992)

There is a polish for everything that becomes rusty, and the polish for the heart is the remembrance of God. Hadith of Tirmidhi (Islam)

“To serve the Lord your God with all your heart” [Deut. 11.13]. What is a service with the heart? It is prayer. Sifre Deuteronomy 41 (Judaism)

Set me free, I entreat Thee from my heart; If I do not pray to Thee with my heart, Thou hearest me not. If I pray to Thee with my heart, Thou knowest it and art gracious unto me. Boran Prayer (African Traditional Religions)

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Psalm 19.14

Always let a man test himself: if he can direct his heart, let him pray; if he cannot, let him not pray. Talmud, Berakot 30b (Judaism)

Of all the prayers of the heart, the best prayer is the prayer to the Master to be given the grace of properly praising the Lord. Adi Granth, Maru Ashtpadi, M.5, p. 1018 (Sikhism)

Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart… Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners will return to thee… The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Psalm 51.6-17

People are granted birth into this world by the kami. Accordingly, the mind of a person is something which communes with the will of the kami, and one must thus avoid doing anything which would impair that mind. To be visited with the blessings of the kami, one must first direct one’s mind wholeheartedly to prayer; to be granted the protection of the kami, one must make a foundation of honesty. In this way, the person’s pristine, undefiled mind will be awakened to the original, profound way. Records of the Enshrinement of the Two Imperial Deities at Ise (Shinto)

Prayer is an act of daring. How else could a mortal utter a prayer before the Kings of Kings? Nachman of Breslov (Judaism)

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
Do not pray casually, but ask your original mind. Do not pray looking up into the sky, but look into your mind. Open the door of your mind. (308:16, November 21, 1998)

When you pray, your heart should be as desperate as a baby crying for mother’s milk. (18:185, June 6, 1967)

When you pray, do not think that God is up in the sky. God is right behind your mind. First you have to battle to focus your mind. As your mind and body become more and more united they rise up, connecting to the realm of resonance. (306:255: September 23, 1998)

Do not pray when you are in a fickle mood. Rather, you should pray when you are in the most profound and heavenly state of mind. Your mind should abide at the center of your heart, not near the borderline.

When you want to pray about an important matter in your life, first purify yourself. Make sure your environment is free from worldly distractions and your inner state is far removed from the borderline; then pray. (123:80, December 12, 1982)

Pray with all sincerity, never wavering… “Heavenly Father, how can I best attend Thee? How sincerely have I attended Thee?

Have I properly represented my family, my community, my tribe and my nation before Thee?” You can know the answer at once, and knowing it, you shed tears. Fallen people cannot attend the Heavenly Father without tears of repentance.

Without cleansing we cannot re-create our environment, which having been lost sorely needs re-creation… Do you weep when thinking about your nation? Do you wail in repentance when thinking about the world?

Since Heavenly Father is weeping for them, and the Lord [Christ] is also weeping for them, you people on earth should be doing the same. When you stand with God and Christ, you can participate in their life. (171:19, December 5, 1987)

Whether I am in the east or the west, prayer helps me to move in a circular orbit around the Axis. I can then participate in the realm of life where God dwells.

However, people usually do not live centered on the Axis. They live a casual life, as they want… Prayer is what tunes me to the center point. (171:14, December 5, 1987)

How does one make a true prayer? By overcoming obstacles with patience, love and sacrifice. People who live this way see their prayers fulfilled. They do not even need to pray, since they are already advancing to fulfill it. (112:52, March 29, 1981)

Call on your Lord with humility and in private. Qur’an 7.55

When you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And in praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Matthew 6.7-8

O believers, when you stand up to pray wash your faces, and your hands up to the elbows, and wipe your heads, and your feet up to the ankles. If you are defiled, purify yourselves; but if you are sick or on a journey, or if any of you comes from the privy, or have touched women, and you can find no water, then have recourse to wholesome dust and wipe your faces and hands with it. God does not desire to make any impediment for you; but He desires to purify you, and that He may complete His blessing upon you; haply you will be thankful. Qur’an 5.6

Prayer should not be recited as if a man were reading a document. Jerusalem Talmud, Berakot 4.3 (Judaism)

It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart. Mohandas K. Gandhi6 (Hinduism)

The Great Spirit is everywhere; He hears whatever is in our minds and hearts, and it is not necessary to speak to Him in a loud voice. Black Elk (Native American Religions)

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
When you pray, you should shed tears and sweat. (112:54, March 29, 1981)

What prayer position do you prefer? The best is to kneel and lower your head. You have to restrict your body. You will feel pain and discomfort, but you must be serious to overcome it. Then God will accept you as His. (104:110, April 15, 1979)

Prayer is powerful. It is a pledge, an oath and a proclamation to Heaven. (240:35, December 11, 1992)

The way of righteousness requires that we declare our intentions and then report what we do. First declare in your prayer, “Father, I will do such and such today,” and later on report, “I have accomplished those things today.” (308:211, January 5, 1999)

Prayer is to honestly report your situation to God; then you draw closer to Him. Since you are not just saying idle words but reporting what you have practiced, your report remains as a record.

Because your report remains as a record, God acts to give blessings. That is why a person who prays is powerful. Though he prays quietly, he is a powerful person. (233:105, July 30, 1992)

The Tao—the spiritual path—begins with prayer. Traditionally, people pray in the mountains. They pray in the mountain fastness, alone and solitary. In such a place you should cultivate yourself. (157:13, February 1, 1967)

Pray constantly. 1 Thessalonians 5.17

Celebrate constantly the praises of your Lord, before the rising of the sun and before its setting; yea, celebrate them for part of the hours of the night, and the sides of the day: that you may have spiritual joy. Qur’an 20.130

I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. Psalm 16.7

The truest vision comes a little before daybreak. Hadith of Tirmidhi and Darimi (Islam)

Rabbi Johanan said, “Would that man could pray all day, for a prayer never loses its value.” Jerusalem Talmud, Berakot 1.1 (Judaism)

O you wrapped up in your raiment! Keep vigil the night long, save a little— A half thereof, or abate a little thereof Or add [a little] thereto and chant the Qur’an in measure, For We shall charge you with a word of weight. Lo! The vigil of the night is when the impression is more keen and speech more certain. Lo! You have by day a chain of business. So remember the name of thy Lord and devote thyself with complete devotion. Qur’an 73.1-8

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
In the Bible we read that we should pray constantly. Why is it a crucial teaching to live by?

Satan controls this fallen world. He lures us every which way and continually afflicts us with pain and suffering. The only way God’s power can reach us is in the perpendicular direction of the Spirit. (201:208, April 9, 1990)

When you pray for public things all day and all night, your prayer becomes a living prayer. Then every few years the level of your prayer will advance, with different topics for the prayer. (104:112, April 15, 1979)

Pray often to touch limitless spiritual power. That power should become the main spring of your life. (Way of God’s Will 2.2)

Indescribable joy comes from a life of prayer. You enter the state of God’s thought at the time of creation. (29:321, March 13, 1970)

Pray a lot. Although you may live alone, if you pray hard you will never be lonely.

Prayer is like breathing. If you pray a lot, you will become spiritually bright. You will become very sensitive and acquire the ability to discern good and evil. Effective prayer requires sacrifices and special devotions. (30:283, April 4, 1970)

Prayer supplies the warehouse of the heart. If you do not have time to pray, pray through the work you do. (27:89, October 26, 1969)

When you become a person of complete character, your life becomes a prayer. (Way of God’s Will 2.2)

He who prays for his fellowman, while he himself has the same need, will be answered first. Talmud, Baba Kamma 92a (Judaism)

The pure whom you have found worthy for their righteousness and their good mind, Fulfil their desire, O Wise Lord, let them attain it! I know that words of prayer which serve a good end Are successful before you. Avesta, Yasna 28.10 (Zoroastrianism)

Sitting cross-legged, They should wish that all beings Have firm and strong roots of goodness And attain the state of immovability. Cultivating concentration, They should wish that all beings Conquer their minds by concentration Ultimately, with no remainder. When practicing contemplation, They should wish that all beings See truth as it is And be forever free of opposition and contention. Garland Sutra 11 (Buddhism)

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
Your prayers will definitely be realized if they are not for selfish ends but in accordance with God’s will and righteousness. (104:109, April 15, 1979)

Instead of praying to receive a blessing, pray that you can offer devotion for God’s sake. To pray out of a desire to receive a blessing is a selfish prayer. It is better to pray asking God’s blessing on the nation and the world. (126:339, May 1, 1983)

My teaching is this: Do not pray for yourself. Pray for the fulfillment of your mission, pray for others, and offer your prayer as words of comfort to God. (91:117, February 3, 1977)

People who are experienced in the spiritual life know to pray for themselves at the very last. If you enter into the realm of the holy, the realm of the spiritual, you will naturally pray for God first.

And the moment you meet the Lord, you want to invoke blessings upon Him. By praying for God’s sake, you can know God’s heart throughout history.

Next you should pray for Jesus; then you will understand his heart when he walked the earth. Then you should pray representing the multitudes of saints in Christendom who have fought for the great Will of the dispensation, putting yourself in their places.

Following in the footsteps of all the prophets and saints who walked the path of faith since the fall of Adam and Eve, you should pray in tears, “Please allow me to become an offering to cleanse all their sorrows.” After you have finished that prayer, you may pray for your beloved children and, lastly, for yourself. That is the order, according to heavenly law. (7:328, October 18, 1959)

When in prayer we pledge before God to advance the foundation of Heaven’s victory at the cost of sacrificing ourselves, God takes responsibility and fulfills our prayer.

To fulfill the content of our prayers, God does not walk an easy path. He goes through many courses to arrive at the place to meet our requests.

When you stand in the most miserable situation akin to God’s, then God can directly take action; otherwise, God cannot act.

As long as we stand in a sacrificial and sorrowful situation and our true heart corresponds with God’s desire, then God will recognize us and be merciful to us. (18:269, June 12, 1967)