Prayer time 26 August 2026

Behold, there is life

Download a PDF of the prayer script

Orientation

Welcome. Tonight our prayer time is a little different. We won't be recording this one, as we want all participants to be as relaxed and present as possible, and cutting the recording option allows us that freedom simply to be ourselves without the duress of a clunky word or offering living on beyond our intimate prayer group tonight.

Our little prayer community has gathered now for 40 weeks on Wednesday evenings to pray together. Tonight, simply as an invitation to share together, our prayers come from you, me, and some of our favourite resources we've prayed over the weeks.

But still, as usual, we will move through our five steps, Orientation, Relaxation, Concentration, Meditation, Realisation, and Appreciation, and in each step tonight there is space for you to offer a prayer, a line, a word, or simply your presence. I have some pre-selected prayers, scriptures and affirmations that anyone may unmute and offer to read on our behalf.

If you have brought something to share, you are warmly invited. If you haven't, that is equally welcome. Your being here is already a prayer.

We begin as we always begin.

Tīhei mauri ora. Behold, there is life.

Come as you are, and pray as you can.

Relaxation

Let's take a moment to arrive.

Wherever you are sitting or standing, let your body settle. Let your shoulders drop. Let your hands rest open if that feels right.

We take one breath together, an inhale, an exhale, and then simply listen to a couple of rounds of the natural rhythm of your own breathing.

We release whatever the day has asked of us. A reminder — we are not here to perform or to get anything right. We are here to pray, full stop, that's it, nothing else. In doing this, we remember to whom we are connected and therefore who we are.

So as we settle, we remember:

I deny that God is waiting for me to arrive in a better state.

I affirm that the life breathing in me right now is God's own breath. I am already inside it.

I am the weaned child and I am at rest.

All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well. (Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, c.1395)

An invitation into relaxation, a breath prayer, anything that has been with you this week.

Concentration

Prayer does not change God. It changes us. (Charles Fillmore, Dynamics for Living)

We bring our attention to one thing.

So we might begin with what we know to be false, and gently let it go. And then we stand still and affirm what we know to be true.

You are welcome to speak aloud, or simply to hold these inwardly.

I deny that ... (whatever feels false for you tonight)

And I affirm ... (what you know to be true)

And together:

I deny that I was skipped, and that the instructions for praying and for living life well went to everyone but me.

The Spirit of truth is within me, and it is teaching me now.

I deny that I must see the whole way before I am permitted to move.

I am given light for the step in front of me, and that light is sufficient.

And we stand still and affirm:

God in me is infinite wisdom. I know just what to do. (Cady, Lessons in Truth, 1894)

You might like to start: I stand still and affirm ... and I know just what to do.

Or: Dear God, Lord, Creator, Source, Life, Light, Adonai, Elohim ...

And if silence is our gift in this time, simply let it fill your prayer space. We can listen in the silence.

THE LORD'S PRAYER

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. (Matthew 6:9-13, New International Version)

Meditation

We move now into stillness.

One breath. Just settling. Just stillness.

The quiet knows. And I am listening.

…

Welcome back.

Realisation

We draw from our season together, and from Florence Scovel Shinn, who wrote these affirmations of reliable spiritual law more than a hundred years ago. They are ours to pray tonight.

Please read these aloud with me if you would like to, or simply receive them.

God is my unfailing and immediate supply of all good.

I am always under direct inspiration. I know just what to do.

I am in perfect harmony with the working of the law, for I know that Infinite Intelligence knows nothing of obstacles, time or space. It knows only completion.

My good is a perfect and permanent idea in Divine Mind, and must manifest, for there is nothing to prevent.

God works in unexpected and magic ways His wonders to perform.

(Florence Scovel Shinn, Your Word Is Your Wand, 1928)

And from our own season:

Heaven is in the ordinary. I am standing in it now.

The prayer is the remembering.

Would you like to offer an affirmation or a prayer for this step? You are so welcome.

Appreciation

I came to myself.

I turn toward home.

I arise in the knowledge that I have never been alone and that I am never alone.

You did not miss the prayer. You were the prayer.

Go, as the prayer you already are.

PRAYER FOR PROTECTION

The light of God surrounds me;

The love of God enfolds me;

The power of God protects me;

The presence of God watches over me;

Wherever I am, God is.

And all is well.

(James Dillet Freeman, Unity, 1941)

Is there anyone who would like to offer a final prayer or blessing before we close? You are so welcome.

We close as we always close:

The prayer is the remembering.

Thank you for being here. Thank you for being the prayer.

Āmene.

Prepared by Jacinda Faloon-Cavander for Unity of NZ