Intention

Intention matters in prayer.  Many of us have been taught in our Western tradition to pray with attention and concentration.  We have our prayer books, daily reflection manuals in recovery, walk in the garden and concentrate on nature, and so on.  But these are all things that are part of the “prayer of control.”  We are the directors of this prayer with some idea of a “feeling” an emotion we would like to conjure.  Then we start our day of activity and forget all we “conjured” if anything, as emotions, judgments, old tapes takes over in our reactive response to our plans not working out.  Intention, on the other hand, seeks nothing but to let go of whatever comes to mind in prayer.  It has no spiritual books, or meditation journals.  It is the practice of letting go and letting a Power, beyond our imaginings to do as it pleases in our prayer.  Let the Presence be the Presence without trying to engage it in thought or agenda.  Then enter into the active part of your day.  Stuff will happen, of course.  The world can be chaos, but instead of responding with active anger, judgment, avoidance, resentment, or self-pity, we simply “let go,” which we practiced in our prayer.  The Power is at work if we allow it to flow through the heart and not the head.