Card #23: Prayer

There is this famous story about Moses: One day Moses was walking through a forest when he came across a man on his knees praying out loud so Moses decided to stop and listen. The man prayed, “God, you must be feeling very alone sometimes. I can come and always be with you like a shadow. Then you won’t have to suffer loneliness because I am with you.  And I am not a useless person either. I will cook for you. Everybody likes what I cook. I will prepare your bed and I will wash your clothes. I will take care of you when you are sick. I will be like a mother to you or maybe a wife or a servant or a slave.  I can be anything you want me to be. I will give you a good bath. I will take away all the lice from your hair and from your body. . .”

 Moses got very annoyed and stopped the man. “What are you doing?” he asked. “To whom are you talking? Lice in God’s hair? He needs a bath? You’re being profane and sacrilegious. Stop this nonsense! You are nor praying. God will be offended by you.”

 The man looked at Moses then fell at his feet. He said, “I am so sorry. I am an illiterate, ignorant man. I don’t know how to pray. Please teach me.”

 So Moses taught him how to pray the right way. He was very happy that he had put an illiterate and ignorant man on the right track. It worked wonders for his ego.  Moses walked off his head held a little higher, a small proud smirk on his face.

 But when he reached a point in the forest where he was clearly alone, a thundering voice came from the sky and said, “Moses, I sent you into the world to bring people to me, to be the bridge between people and me, not to take those who love me away from me. That’s exactly what you just did. That man is one of those most intimate with me. He is sincere, loving and his love is always true. Whatever he was saying, he was saying from his heart. It was not a ritual. What you gave him, the way you taught him how to pray is just a ritual. He will repeat it but it will be coming only from his lips.  It will not be coming from his whole being. So please go back there and apologize. Take back your prayer, your ritual. You destroyed the beauty of his dialogue.”

 Did Moses go back and apologize? I don’t know. You see I got this entire story from my Transformation Tarot cards that I bought a few months ago.  This is my daily ritual. I wake up at around 6 a.m., brew my coffee, put my pills in a dish and go out to my porch. I read a chapter from my favorite book, Simple Abundance, then I write whatever comes to mind. Then I draw from my Transformation Tarot deck. Now you tell me what is so sinful about this tarot card? I don’t know. I don’t see it except that it is not Catholic? But wait, isn’t Moses a Catholic?

 First you draw a card.  #23. Prayer. Then you open the little book that comes with it and look for #23. Prayer. It happens to be on page 77. On the top of the page it gives you the lesson for the day.

 This is the lesson: Let your gestures be alive, spontaneous. Let your own awareness decide your lifestyle, life pattern. Don’t allow anybody else to decide it. That is a sin —  to allow anybody else to decide it. Why is it a sin? Because you will never be fully in it. Your decision will be superficial. It will be hypocritical.

 Don’t ask anybody how to pray. Let the moment decide, let the moment be decisive and the truth of the moment should be your prayer. Once you allow the truth of the moment to possess you, you will start growing and you will know the tremendous beauties of prayer.  You have entered on the path to God.

 Now isn’t that a beautiful lesson? When I got this card I thought of all the people  praying novenas all day. They read their prayers all the time. Me, I talk to God.  Every day I thank Him for the life He has given me, the richness of it not in terms of money but in terms of experience.  I thank Him for sitting with me through my knitting and pointing out my errors then helping me decide whether I should just disregard it or rip and start again.  Definitely, we are very intimate friends.  That makes me very happy.

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