My Simple Prayer at Christmas

 

My Simple Prayer at Christmas

Today is Christmas Eve. And tomorrow Christmas will be celebrated by countless Christians and non-Christians alike. And what this celebration will embody may vary widely. For myself personally, I very much look forward to gathering with my husband and our beloved family. Within our family, there are also a diversity of paths that we walk, some religious and some not.

I do not commonly identify specifically with any particular religion or spiritual tradition in my writing or conversations. This is rooted in my intention to be inclusive and respectful. There are people in my life who are Christian, Buddhist, and Muslim. There are those who are agnostic, those who walk the red road and practice indigenous traditions, and those who worship the Goddess and Gaia. And there are other often overlapping paths with many different names for God, Goddess, Spirit, Mystery, Great Mother...

I welcome them all. I welcome the diversity of people in my life whose beliefs and practices I learn from and am expanded by. Most of all what I look for is how do these religious or spiritual practices nourish and strengthen our capacity for humility and healing, generosity and gratitude, compassion and tenderness, connectedness and caring, joy and laughter, wisdom and love?

In these times, and all times, I believe that it is important to look deeply into how our beliefs and traditions, whatever they are, serve as an antidote to othering, to fear and judgment, to dehumanization and polarization, to the messages that we humans are divided up into better than or less than, into saved or unsaved. Who is included in our circle of caring? Who is excluded? How conscious are we of the sacred thread which is woven through us all and through all of life?

These are the questions that are important to me. Essential is this: how is my spiritual practice healing and transforming my human wounds and illusions, deepening my heart and my connection with all beings, and expanding my capacity to love? 

What are we bringing to our gatherings with family and friends over Christmas and over whatever other holidays we may honor and celebrate? Hopefully it is the spirit of peace, of openness and acceptance, of welcoming and respecting diversity, of inclusivity and nonjudgment, of consciousness and generosity and love. And hopefully it is the recognition of the sacred in one another that sparks and grows ever greater love within our hearts and the heart of our world.

And this is my vision and my simple prayer at Christmas and beyond:

May all beings be filled with lovingkindness.

May all beings be free of suffering.

May all beings be at peace.

May we be healed.

May we know the truth of

our sacred and beautiful true nature.

May we undefend our hearts.

With love & blessings to all,

💗

Molly