About the Prayers
The Idea
The Work The Premise The Wording
The Book
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About the Prayers The Idea |
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"Dedicated to peace in our time" through healing individual and collective consciousness. The prayers on this website were written by me, Clyo Beck. In 1998 I felt compelled to write a prayer about a terrible situation that existed in Sierra Leone. Moved by what I had written, I wrote several more prayers for the healing of the world's wounds. In reading them, I felt they were good, effective prayers. Prayers that could help produce miracles. But there was a catch. Since the world's collective thought had brought about these situations, many people would have to speak these prayers for the corresponding situations to improve. So the question was: how could I circulate my prayers? How could I get enough people to read them? And put their energy behind them? It occurred to me that people might read them—and join with me in envisioning healing—if I created a prayer website. But I found myself making excuses as to why I couldn't do it. And then I lost my focus. So, although I had the time and opportunity to work on an idea that really excited and moved me, I dropped the ball. Call it false humility. Call it cowardice. Whatever the reasons, I got sidetracked. A year later my own life fell apart. At the end of 2002, after resurrecting my own life, I looked around to see a world more in jeopardy than ever. And, for the first time in my life, America herself had come under direct attack in 2001. So, I pulled out the prayers and looked at them. Some were no longer relevant. But, rather than this being good news, even worse problems had come into being. Other prayers seemed to have been written to ward off terrible events that had since occurred. Looking at them, I realized it was now or never. Create a prayer website now or throw what I had written away and forget all about it; tell God: "Not me. Get someone else to do it." I couldn't say that. I could not escape the idea that I was being inspired to write prayers addressing our most pressing needs and prompted to make them available on the Internet. Believe me, I searched my soul, wondering "Who am I to create prayers?" and "Do I have anything to offer the world in terms of help?" In addition, there seemed to be so many obstacles to creating a website. Yet, I didn't feel comfortable paying a lot of money to a webmaster. And I didn't want to be dependent upon someone else updating my web pages and prayers. For instance, if a hurricane threatened the Gulf Coast, I might have only a few hours to create and post a prayer of protection to assist the people who would be in danger. I could not expect someone else, who created many websites, to drop everything and work on mine at a moment's notice. So the creation of a website required not only writing more prayers, editing and revising what I had written, but learning HTML language.In addition, it occurred to me that I might include an image with each prayer. Because I realized I had photographs of images that could be used, I had to learn how to extract those images. To do that, I needed to be able to scan photos into my computer. And I needed to buy and learn a program which would allow me to manipulate images. But once I made the commitment and made the creation of this site my first priority, I was consumed by it. And everything fell into place. Classes I needed appeared. I got a price break on Photoshop at a college bookstore. Photo after photo seemed to work perfectly. And I found myself unable to sleep, working night after night into the wee hours until this site became a reality. The reasons I created this site and the Prayerforce book are threefold: First because I was compelled to do it. Second, to help you gain more inner peace and a stronger sense of your own personal power. And third, to assist in changing our Collective Consciousness so we can create the peace and safety on earth we would all like to see. The philosophy behind these prayers is as Gandhi taught. That macrocosm mirrors microcosm. That if there is conflict in the world, it means there is conflict in our individual souls. And that, to change the world, "We must become the world we want to see." So the premise is that violence and conflict could not exist in the world if it did not exist in each of us, individually. If this premise is true, it is futile to blame others for the state of the world. Blaming others only creates another layer of alienation and conflict. Instead, the most powerful action for us, as individuals, is to take full responsibility for what we see outside and resolve to change the root cause of it inside us. We can only do this, one person at a time. Considering how long we have been struggling with violence and conflict, the goal to overcome these behaviors can seem overwhelming and impossible. We need a new paradigm of thought if we are going to break through the barriers of our minds that have kept us in conflict for so long. This is why these prayers are as they are.
These prayers are longer, perhaps, than you are used to. Although, anyone who has experience a Catholic mass knows that lengthy prayer exists. The prayers are phrased using active, as opposed to passive verbs and tense. The word "affirm" is used to strengthen statements. The prayers are written in present tense and switch back and forth from first person to third; the "I" to "We." This is based on the premise that we are one; that separation is an illusion and what is truly good for one—peace, prosperity, good health, happiness—is good for all. And that, together, through intention and the power of our spoken words, we can and must harness our collective power if we want the pain in our world to be healed. Each prayer is to be considered as a spiritual "treatment," to use Florence Scovil Shinn's words. Each is full of affirmations, directed to God, and worded in a specific way. The wording is not for the purpose of convincing God of what you want. Neither is it some kind of spiritual "legalize" to trap God in loopholes. The phrasing is for the benefit of your inner belief systems. The wording is based on Jesus' teachings, that as you speak The Word, so will it be done unto you. So this wording is used to instruct YOURSELF and YOUR OWN SUBCONSCIOUS MIND that: In this way can you invoke God's power to inspire and transform your mind through changing your belief system. Know this: you are the one who can choose what to put into your mind. Garbage in yields garbage out. Healing words in yield healing results. Choose thoughts of power and peace and you will be a force that helps manifest power and peace in your world. You may find that my prayers are different from what you are used to. They contain terminology and concepts you may have not heard before. First exposure maybe a bit like exposure to a new language. When a person begins learning a new language, he or she doesn't necessarily understand what the sentences mean. But, with exposure and use, understanding of grammar and construction grows and vocabulary is understood. So it is with these prayers.
Prayerforce: 
Purchase today When I first conceived of creating this site, I thought the prayers would be short and few. As I began writing, I realized that the need for prayer is as varied as human experience and that there was need for more than "a few" prayers. Still, I didn't want this site to become unwieldy so I tried to limit the prayers I wrote. After speaking with a couple of friends about their concerns, I added a few more prayers. I thought then that my work was finished. But friends who read the prayers loved them and wanted more—wanted a book of them! So I decided to make one available through a P.O.D. (Print On Demand) publisher. With the decision to publish, I was able to write more prayers—addressing needs that had come to my attention—without making this site unwieldy and difficult to maintain. For those of you who are interested, my book, Prayerforce has been published by Authorhouse. There's a prayer in it for each and every day that will inspire and uplift you to make a difference in your own life and in the lives of others. My intention for this site is for it to be dynamic and to add and delete prayers as current events and needs change. My hope is that, as these prayers enter your consciousness, not only will your individual healing be speeded, but our Collective Consciousness will be transformed more rapidly and our world situation will improve. Many people have been and continue to work on transforming themselves, not only so they will be happier, but for the betterment of the entire world. Prayer is often envoked to assist in making needed changes and a powerful case supporting the efficacy of prayer is made in Healing Words by Larry Dossy, M.D. I offer this website as yet another tool to that end. I hope it serves you. Thank you for visiting this site and intending peace. God bless you and keep you safe. Clyo Beck ©Copyright 2003,2004,2005 |