Prayer time 25 February 2026

Fully known. Fully loved

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Orientation

Haere mai. Welcome. All pray-ers and all prayers welcome. However you came in today - whatever name you have for what we're doing here, or no name at all - you are all welcome. We are here to pray. We don't have an agenda or a desired outcome. We're just here to pray. And our prayers are our remembering - remembering who we are and to whom we are connected. We are remembering what has always been true. Today our theme is this: you are fully known. And you are fully loved.

So, we simply pray, as this act of remembering, with these words affirming what we have known from before we knew it - that we are fully known and we are fully loved! We say here often, there is nothing to do or fix in ourselves to come to prayer… just as we are, we begin our affirmative prayers. And so we pray.

Relaxation

Gentle, natural breathing. Without altering your natural rhythm, just be aware of your breathing. The breath coming in, and the breath going out. And have a little listen to your thoughts right now. What is there? How funny are they? How loud? How busy? We're not here to fight our thoughts. We're just here to gently set them aside for a little while. Our minds might be busy right now - that's fine, this relaxation time will help us with that. So, whether you start at the top of your head or the soles of your feet, allow your whole body to relax, to let go. Though we do want our spine erect, but not so firm that we are tense. Let your jaw soften.

Fully Known. Fully Loved. Look at your hands this evening… where do they feel naturally at rest in the prayer posture that you have chosen? Perhaps let them rest, palms up, soft and open. Lord God. Life. Creator. Source. Elohim. The great I AM. By whatever name you address the Oneness of Presence, we speak that name, and we come as we are, in prayer. Where you are, life is. And right where we are, you are, and I am. Before a word is on my lips - you know it completely. I am. You are. We are. Together. One Presence. Omnipresence.

As we continue to relax and fall perfectly still, I offer this affirmation:

The love I seek is the love I stand in.

Nothing separates me from this love. Nothing.

Concentration

Our scripture today is from Psalm 139. It's one of the great 'being known' scriptures. I'd love for you to accept this scripture as a love letter to you. Imagine that… now, hear these words:

You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.

You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.

Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. Wonderful. To be known - fully, completely, all of it - and to be loved in that knowing. Read these words aloud to yourself or repeat them again as I speak. And from a very different tradition - the Sufi poet Rumi. We have used this poem a few times already together, but tonight we add in two lines more:

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,

there is a field. I'll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass,

the world is too full to talk about.

Two voices. Centuries apart. Saying the same thing. There is a place - a presence - beyond the noise of whether you're doing it right. And it is there, in that place, that you are truly known. That's where we're going today. So, returning to the awareness of our breathing, let's go there.

Meditation & relaxation - the long prayer

As I pray, as I read and say these words, let them be as a gift. In meditation, may you truly remember how loved and known you are.

There is a love that knew you before you had a name for it. Before you knew how to succeed at school or your job. Before you knew how to fail or make mistakes. Before you became an age where you began to wonder if you were enough. Before all of it - this love was already there. Love that is Omnipresence. Omnipresence, to and in and through, the real you.

‘I am fully known, I am fully loved.’

There is always that presentable version of ourselves - the one put together with matching socks, clean shoes, a good haircut and a smile. There's that one of us who is holding it all together on the outside, but really could easily crawl into a dark corner and have a little cry. Yes, that one of us! Sometimes that one is a little tired. A little overwhelmed. Befuddled even; confused. Well, that's the one we're affirming in prayer this evening. That is the one who is known and loved. Can you remember someone loving you for just being you? Recall that feeling - and so it is in this prayer moment.

‘I am known. I am loved. All of me.’

We are spiritual beings having this human experience. Here we are, a bunch of humans, affirming spiritual truth. Let's sit with this a moment, in silence. At the core of you, beneath the roles and the history and the things that have happened to you (for you…), there is something that has never been diminished. We can call that non-diminished self, the Whole Self.

‘At my core, I am whole. I am loved. I am known.’

Lord God, Life, Source, Creator, Divine Mind, Love of my Life… at my core, I am whole, I am loved, and I am known, by you.

‘Where I am, God is. Where God is, I am.’

Let your body receive this now.

Let your shoulders receive it.

Let the tight places receive it.

Let the tired places receive it.

You are a beloved expression of life, as you are. You aren't broken, you don't need fixing. So there's no path we're on together towards love - we are already in the One Presence of love, here and now. In affirmative prayer, we remember this.

‘I am not on my way to being loved. I am loved, now.’

And now - just for a moment - think about someone who has really seen you. Someone who knew the real you, and loved you anyway. Maybe it was a parent, a friend, a teacher. Perhaps it was a moment of such honest recognition that it has quickly sprung to mind. That was love knowing itself. That was life, reminding you of who you are through another person. Read these words again to really allow this to affirm the remembering of that love. And the same love that moved through them - is the love that is moving through our Zoom room right now. Each of us here, in our own way, is returning to something we may have almost forgotten.

‘I am known. I belong. I am not alone.’

I want to say something now that I say from the bottom of my heart, and I want you to really hear it:

There is no version of you that falls outside this love.

There is no version of me that falls outside of this love. There is no version of you that falls outside this love. There is no version of anyone at all that falls outside this love. Just as I am, I am fully known and I am fully loved. Just as you are, you are fully known and you are fully loved. Just as we all are, we are fully known and we are fully loved.

‘All of me is welcome here. All of me is loved.’

It's an incredible thing, this: to not have to understand this idea of love. We're taking the shortest route to truth - we're leaping straight to the knowing! Very clever of you!! And so actively realise this to be so:

‘I receive love. I receive knowing. I receive peace.’

And as Unity affirmative pray-ers, we love to personalise things as deeply as we can:

‘I am love. I am knowing. I am peace.’

During the week, return to any of these short affirmative prayers as much and as often as you wish.

Appreciation

And it is - it's our time to give thanks. It simply wells up so much, doesn't it? We give thanks for this time of active remembering that all are fully known and fully loved. We give thanks for the love that held us before we knew to seek it or ask for it. We give thanks for one another here in this room, choosing to pray together as a collective.

And for the readers and listeners and finders of these prayers in days to come, we give thanks for each life impacted and influenced by the simple prayer of 'remembering'. And we give thanks for the deep knowing that actually doesn't require our understanding! What a wonderful, restful way to pray! And to you - thank you for you, exactly as you are, here and now. Feel free to open your eyes again and take a lovely look into the screen. Our eyes will sparkle together with this one last reading before our closing prayers:

Your task is not to seek for love,

but merely to seek and find

all the barriers within yourself

that you have built against it. (Rumi)

So we've done this today. We've lowered the barriers and let love return, or simply refresh us.

James Dillet Freeman’s Prayer for Protection:

The Light of God surrounds you.

The Love of God enfolds you.

The Power of God protects you.

The Presence of God watches over you.

The Mind of God guides you.

The Life of God flows through you.

The Laws of God direct you.

The Peace of God abides within you.

The Joy of God uplifts you.

The Strength of God renews you.

The Beauty of God inspires you.

Wherever you are — God is.

The Lord’s Prayer (this is from the New International Version):

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

And I say go gently. If it's bedtime - sweet dreams and lovely sleep. If it's the start of your day - go do your work and be with your people, oh fully loved and fully known human that you are.

Prepared by Jacinda Faloon-Cavander for Unity of NZ