Pray Without Ceasing?
At the very basic foundational understanding of prayer, we can simplify the commonly accepted definition as: "communion with God." So we must ask how is one to "pray without ceasing?" We first go to the New Testament scriptures for a very short except:
" ... pray without ceasing ... "
~1 Thessalonians 5:17
Now lets look at the word "communion," or common-union:
communion (n.)
late 14c., from Old French comunion "community, communion" (12c.), from Latin communionem (nominative communio) "fellowship, mutual participation, a sharing. Used by Augustine, in belief that the word was derived from com- "with, together" + unus "oneness, union."
Now we go to the Old Testament Book of Job:
"The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life."
~Job 33:4
Now look how simple the answer is. To "pray without ceasing" ... is to live and breathe. Look at The Book of Acts:
"For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'"
~Acts 17:28
From this verse we are told in God/Him, "we live and move and have our being." Think about that for a moment. Taken in context, all of existence IS God, ALL God, and ONLY God ... and we are (all of us) an individualized essence of the entirety that IS God. Are you not in your children and your children in you? Are you not in your parents and your parents in you? Our DNA is Gods DNA. It can be no other way.
A clear presentation that this magnificent universe that we live IN ... is the single manifest organism that many will call God. The Source, the Origin, The ALL ... and with each and every breath we take ... we pray unceasingly in common-union with God/Life. We are co-creators of all things manifest in thought and form. We have within our genes the power of the Father (Spirit/Energy) and Mother (matter/earth). Breath deep ...
Just a thought ...
~Justin Taylor, ORDM., OCP., DM.
