We Share One Life, We Are One Life
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*Mystical Rose [Mary, Mother of Jesus], Katherine Aka "Kat", Flickr
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And think not you can guide the course of love. For love, if it finds you worthy, shall guide your course.
*Kahlil Gibran
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Adonai, the Lord, visited the mystic Master, Baal Shem Tov. G-D said, “There is one among the congregation that prays the most lovely and meaningful prayers of all the others.” The Master inquired as to this man's name. Adonai told him the name.
The Baal Shem Tov visited this man, in the man's little hut, back in the wood. The Master said, “My friend, Adonai tells me you have the most lovely and meaningful prayers of all in the congregation. I never see you even join in the prayers. What does Adonai mean?”
“Master,” began the man, “I'm just a simple and illiterate man. I know only ten letters of the alphabet. When I enter prayers, I see others praying, and the beauty of it arises into my Heart, so that I can barely contain the feeling for Adonai. So, I bow my head, and say to Adonai, my Love, 'Adonai, you know I am illiterate and cannot say the prayers.' Next, I mention the ten letters I know to Adonai. Afterward, I say, 'Adonai, you know my Heart, you know how much I love and adore you. I ask humbly for you to take these ten letters and form them however you wish that would most please you. Amen.'"
The Baal Shem Tov was immediately struck with Awe at the Love and Faith of this illiterate man, and he understood what Adonai had meant in saying, “There is one among the congregation that prays the most lovely and meaningful prayers of all the others.”
And the Baal Shem Tov said, “Friend, thank you, today you have reminded me of what I most want, also, to give to Adonai, my Love.” And from that time on the Baal Shem Tov often told of the illiterate man who gave him the most important lesson he had ever received in the practice of prayer.
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Prayer moves us into the Silence, where G-D Alone Is. Prayer is from Silence into Silence, for Silence is the Home of G-D. Words cannot go with us into the Inner Sanctum of Mystery, where, as the ancient Hindu sages spoke, we are Alone with the Alone. Yet, words, even letters or sounds without apparent meaning, can usher the Heart of the sincere worshiper to the threshold of the Heart of Life. There we discover we are with and in G-D, and with and in one another in G-D.
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We are each a lovely, pure Rose, in the Garden of Grace.
*White Rose, Pyogenes..., Flickr
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*You can contact Brian at briankwilcox@yahoo.com. Please keep in mind, when reading from this site, that teachings cover an extended period of years and, therefore, reflect changes over that time.