Be Thankful through Prayer

Praying Crowd

Goodness is the investment that never fails. – Henry David thoreau, U.S. writer (1817-1862)

As You Plant

Good morning everyone.  I’ve just read one nice article.  Simple but full of meaning about life.  I want to share it with you as you may use it in your daily life.  It’s not really about the garden but it’s  about our life.  Full of meaning.   Let me share it with you.  This is what it says …

As you plant, may I suggest the following rules for your garden planting:

Plant three rows of squash:

Squash gossip

Squash criticism

Squash indifference

Plant seven rows of peas:

Prayer

Promptness

Perseverance

Politeness

Preparedness

Purity

Patience

Plant seven rows of lettuce:

Let us be unselfish and loyal

Let us be faithful to duty

Let us search the scriptures

Let us not be weary in well-doing

Let us be obedient in all thins

Let us be truthful

Let us love one another

No garden is complete without turnips:

Turn up for church

Turn up for meetings, in prayer, and Bible study

Turn up with a smile, even when things are difficult

Turn up with determination to do your best in God’s service. 

After planting, may you “Grow in Grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (II Peter 3:18) and may you reap rich results.  Continue to count your Blessings.

Keep It Personal

Good morning friends.  I read a good article written by Ptolemy Tompkins.  Every one of us wants a fuller prayer life.  Let me share it with you … 

The main purpose of prayer is not to make life easier, not to gain magical powers, but to know God.  To know God not a s some extra-dimensional power, but as a being whose knowledge of us is intimate past all imagining—who knows us, as the Gospels proclaim, better than we know ourselves. 

But while we may believe this in theory, it’s often hard not to put on our “prayer masks” when we speak to God, as if we could somehow control how he sees us.  Prayer is the one communication where it is utterly safe to be who you really are.  God expects your true self to show up.  But it’s not like this is always that easy to do. 

There’s a good role model for us to follow.  Nowhere does the personal nature of prayer shine forth more than in the New Testament.  Jesus set the pattern for prayer as a continuous mode of friendship.  The Old Testament contains many beautiful and magnificent prayers, but those were usually led by kings or prophets.  With the New Testament, however, all of that changes.  Some scholars suggest that Jesus virtually invented private prayer.  No one in the Old Testament directly addressed God as ‘Father,’ where as Jesus did so 170 times.

 

Message of Butterflies’ Wings

Good morning friends.  I read a very nice article which my friend wrote.  Many of us will learn a lesson with it.  It really happened in real life.  This is how the story told.…

 

Butterfly Wings

I just remember when I’m still young, I just love to see a butterfly especially when she is resting on a flower.  I wonder why she love to rest on it.  I ran to the butterfly and try to catch it.  The butterfly just flew away.  It rested again on another flower.  The butterfly was sucking the nectar of the flower.  When I look at its pretty wings, it folds its wings when it rest there.  And  open its wings when it flies.  I asked myself why butterflies did that.  There are times in our life we experience a situation even we don’t want too, but in every situation God is always on our side and He will always care for us when we least expected.

At that point, I was pondering whether there was justice from heaven that allows such tragedies to happen.  But, even in my desperation, I knew that I wanted to believe in God and His love.  So prayer is the one that ease my feelings.  I  fervently prayed every day especially before I went to bed.

I  asked for a sign with butterflies, although I hadn’t heard of butterflies signifying the soul or spirit.  I sometimes even asked for specific colors—blue, yellow and green butterflies.

My agony of being alone without someone on my side just passed.  I was very heartbroken, and remained under.  I doubted now if I have really lost my faith in God had He not done so, but I am more certain at that point of His love.

I believe now that He loves me more than I do ever love myself.  And I also know that He loves me for He answered my prayer in my hour of need. He ended my suffering for being heartbroken.  And I’m really grateful for what He did.  I praise Him so much.  I love you God!

Photo courtesy:  dirtyhandsgardening

 

Prayer, music mark Doot’s centenary gala

Good morning friends.  The Doot’s centenary gala was marked with prayer and music.  Everyone expressed their joy in  participating the activities. 

On Sunday afternoon, buses, cars, bikes and atuo-rickshaws crowded outside St Xavier’s Loyola High School in Ahmedabad as people from across Gujarat gathered to attend the centenary year celebrations of Doot, a Catholic monthly.

The event witnessed first-of-its kind celebrations because it is the second Gujarati monthly magazine to reach the 100-year landmark, but the first one to rejoice it on such a scale.

The event started off with a prayer, followed by the unveiling of much-awaited Doot’s centenary edition and exhibition. As the evening progressed, a cultural program featuring classical dances, a documentary film on Doot’s journey, commemoration of Doot’s heartfelt articles since its first publication in 1911 and live music added to the mood of celebrations.

Presence of John Canis, Philip Clark, Bishop Thomas Parmar, Father Cedric Prakash, Jaswant Macwan and almost every writer who contributed to Doot in last 100 years added joy to the already blissful occasion.

Though today’s celebration concluded in Ahmedabad, the spirit of festivity will be carried forward as Doot celebrates its platinum jubilee in Rajkot, New Jersey (US), Vayra and Anand later this year. – The Times of India

Gandhi Jayanti -Birthday of Mahatama Gandhi

                        

 

                      

 

Good Morning Friends, Thursday, October 02, 2008. Day start with prayer at Dadaji’s house as today is Thursday. Today is Gandhi Jayanti that is Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday. Mahatama Gandhi is called Father of Nation, Father of India.

 

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi, the apostle of peace and the Father of the Nation was born on 2nd October 1869 at Porbandar in Gujarat. Gandhi Jayanti is celebrated on every 2nd October to celebrate birthday of Father of India. I am proud to say that I belong to Mahatma Gandhi’s state Gujarat.

 

 

In his autobiography My experiments with Truth Gandhi recalls that his childhood and teen age years were characterized by education in a local school, marriage to Kasturba at the age of 13 and an intrinsic love for ‘truth’ and ‘duty’.

 

Mahatma Gandhi strongly believes in prayer. His following prayer is very popular one. We also sing the following prayer at Manav Parivar Prathana Hall today morning.

 

“Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram, Patit Pavan Sita Ram

Sita Ram Sita Ram, Bhaj pyare tu Sitaram

Ishwar Allah tero naam, Sab ko Sanmti de Bhagawan”

 

 

                     

 

Gandhi, as he was popularly called, proved that non-violence is the most effective instrument of social change. His teachings are promoted even today to avoid violence and find peaceful solutions to conflicts.

 

 

Through his sheer dedication and self-belief, Gandhi freed India from the British Raj (British Rule). He proved to the world that freedom can be achieved through the path of non-violence.

 

Gandhi explains his philosophy and way of life in his autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth. Mahatma Gandhi follows following principal in life.

 

 

We will talk more on his quotes in next post.  

• Truth
• Nonviolence
• Vegetarianism
• Brahmacharya
• Simplicity
• Faith 

 

The United Nations General Assembly announced on 15th June, 2007 that October 2nd will be celebrated as the International Day of Non-Violence.

We will talk on quotations from Mahatma Gandhi in next post.

Prayer Healing

Defined broadly, faith healing is the attempt to use religious or spiritual means such as prayer to prevent illness, cure disease, or improve health. Those who attempt to heal by prayer, mental practices, spiritual insights, or other techniques say they can summon divine or supernatural intervention on behalf of the ill.

 

According to the varied beliefs of those who practice it, faith healing may be said to afford gradual relief from pain or sickness or to bring about a sudden “miracle cure”, and it may be used in place of, or in tandem with, conventional medical techniques for alleviating or curing diseases. Faith healing has been criticized on the grounds that those who use it may delay seeking potentially curative conventional medical care. This is particularly problematic when parents use faith healing techniques on children.

 

ref: wikipedia, agentswebworld, insurance software

Prayer in Hinduism

Prayer or worship is considered to be an integral part of the Hindu way of living. The chanting of mantras is the most popular form of worship in Hinduism. Yoga and meditation are also considered as a form of devotional service towards the Lord.

 

The Vedas are a collection of liturgy (mantras, hymns)

 

The Hindu devotional Bhakti movements emphasizes repetitive prayer. Stemming from the universal Soul or Brahman, prayer is focused on the personal forms of God, such Shiva, Vishnu, or Vishnu’s avatars, Rama and Krishna.

 

Before the process of ritual, before the invoking of different deities for the fulfillment of various needs, came the human aspiration to the highest truth, the foundational monism of Hinduism, pertaining ultimately to the one Brahman. Brahman, which summarily can be called the unknowable, true, infinite and blissful Divine Ground, is the source and being of all existence from which the cosmos springs. This is the essence of the Vedic system. The following prayer was part and parcel of all the Vedic ceremonies and continues to be invoked even today in Hindu temples all over India and other countries around the world, and exemplifies this essence.

ref: wikipedia 

Prayer

Good Morning Friends,

Thursday starts with Prayer at Dadaji’s hosue. From 6-00 am to 7-30 am. Let’s talk about prayer.

Prayer is the act of attempting to communicate with a deity or spirit. Purposes for this may include worshipping, requesting guidance, requesting assistance, confessing sins, as an act of reparation or to express one’s thoughts and emotions. The words of the prayer may take the form of intercession, a hymn, incantation or a spontaneous utterance in the person’s praying words. Secularly, the term can also be used as an alternative to “hope”. Praying can be done in public, as a group, or in private. Most major religions in the world involve prayer in one way or another.

 

The efficacy of prayer as a petition to a deity is usually evaluated with regard to the concept of prayer healing. There have been numerous studies done, with contradictory results. There has been some criticism of the way the studies were conducted.

The act of worship

Praying has many different forms. Prayer may be done privately and individually, or it may be done corporately in the presence of fellow believers. Prayer can be incorporated into a daily “thought life,” in which one is in constant communication with a god. Some people pray throughout all that is happening during the day and seek guidance as the day progresses. There can be many different answers to prayer, just as there are many ways to interpret an answer to a question, if there in fact comes an answer. Some may experience audible, physical, or mental epiphanies. If indeed an answer comes, the time and place it comes is considered random. Some outward acts that sometimes accompany prayer are: anointing with oil; ringing a bell; burning incense or paper; lighting a candle or candles; facing a specific direction (i.e. towards Mecca or the East); making the sign of the cross. One less noticeable act related to prayer is fasting.

A variety of body postures may be assumed, often with specific meaning (mainly respect or adoration) associated with them: standing; sitting; kneeling; prostrate on the floor; eyes opened; eyes closed; hands folded or clasped; hands upraised; holding hands with others; a laying on of hands and others. Prayers may be recited from memory, read from a book of prayers, or composed spontaneously as they are prayed. They may be said, chanted, or sung. They may be with musical accompaniment or not. There may be a time of outward silence while prayers are offered mentally. Often, there are prayers to fit specific occasions, such as the blessing of a meal, the birth or death of a loved one, other significant events in the life of a believer, or days of the year that have special religious significance. Details corresponding to specific traditions are outlined below.