Prayer time 3 June 2026
Before you were visible
We are the image-bearers of God.
Download a PDF of the prayer script
Orientation
Good evening.
Before we were visible to ourselves, You saw us. Before a word formed on our lips, You knew what we carried here tonight.
We open the eye of the soul. We bring to You every image we have been holding, every picture of limitation, every scene of what we fear cannot change. We lay it down. And we ask now for what we most need: to see what You see. To hold in our imagination what is spiritually true, rather than what appears before us.
We are the image-bearers of God. Tonight we remember it.
And so we affirm, with a Unity prayer:
I surrender my entire self to God; spirit, soul, and body and I rest in His loving presence.
Relaxation
We turn our attention now to this body. The temple of the living God.
To our feet, where they rest. The weight of our hands.
We release into You every part of this body. Arches of the feet. Calves and legs. We surrender them to You.
The shoulders. The back of the neck.
From the top of my head to the soles of my feet, I feel relaxed.
I relax in mind and body. I feel God's peace.
We bring our attention now to the space between our eyes, the picture-making centre of the soul. We release it into stillness. Every image that is not of You, we let go.
[Pause]
I am free from stress, tension, and strain. I surrender to God. I am at peace.
I am calm, I am serene, I am relaxing more and more. I am resting in God.
[Pause]
In God we live and move and have our being.
Acts 17:28.
I rest in God.
God's peace now fills my mind and my body.
[Silence]
Be still and know that I am God
Psalm 46:10.
Concentration
Thou wilt keep him/them in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee.
Isaiah 26:3.
We imagine only good. We hold before us now what is true, what is whole, what is of God.
We bring to You, Father, everything that has occupied our imagination this week, and we ask You to redirect it toward what is spiritually true.
We pray as Jesus taught — phrase by phrase.
Matthew 6:9, New International Version
Our Father in heaven,
We acknowledge You now as the loving Parent of all. And if You are Father, then we, Your children, carry Your nature within us. We are your children and we belong to You, all of us here and those listening at another time. Our Father in heaven...
hallowed be your name,
We honour Your nature as altogether good, the source only of wholeness, of healing, of love. We release every belief that You have sent difficulties to us. Your name, Your nature, is hallowed, holy, whole, and healing. ...hallowed be Your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
We open ourselves now to the perfect divine idea that already exists in Spirit, and we invite its expression through us, in our lives, in our bodies, in our relationships. Your will is a plan that is entirely good, and we align with it now. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
We ask here and now for both our physical and spiritual sustenance. We ask for divine substance, the Living Truth, to come fresh this day, this evening, to us now.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
We release now whatever we have been holding against another, or against ourselves. We open to receive the full measure of forgiveness we are willing to extend. We choose it freely, and we choose it now. Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
We refuse now to accept appearances as final. We will not hold the false image as the true one. We choose to see with divine sight, to see what God sees, the spiritual truth beneath every surface. 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.
So we return to where we began. We return to God, and remember that it is to God we are connected. All power is Yours. All glory is Yours. The kingdom we have been praying toward is already established, already real, already held in mind/Mind. We close not with our need, but with the truth of Your sufficiency. For Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
Now we direct the imagination toward what is spiritually true.
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
Philippians 4:8, King James Version.
Hold them in the imagination, steadily, until the mind accepts them as the operating picture.
A prayer from Florence Scovel Shinn:
I am always under direct inspiration. I know just what to do.
Meditation
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh, 1856:
Earth's crammed with heaven,
and every common bush afire with God;
but only he who sees takes off his shoes.
The bush was always burning. Moses turned aside, and saw.
And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM.
Exodus 3:14.
We turn aside now, like Moses at the burning bush. We stop. We look.
We ask to see what You see, Father. The true spiritual image of this situation, the one You hold, that we have not yet allowed our imagination to receive.
[Silence — three minutes]
Ocean Faloon-Cavander, Ambience (original composition, permission granted for public use).
Nathanael asked him, Where did you get to know me? Jesus answered, I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.
John 1:48, NRSV.
Before we were visible to ourselves, You saw us. You hold the real image of each life in this room. What is that image? What do we need to let go of that doesn't align with the 'me' that you see?
Another Florence Scovel Shinn prayer:
God is my unfailing and immediate supply of all good.
Realisation
I release the image of limitation I have been holding.
The true spiritual image of my life is wholeness. I am whole now.
I release the thought that my imagination is governed by what I can see.
My imagination is the eye of the soul. I direct it toward the good.
I release the habit of imagining the worst. Ruminations and so on!
I imagine only good and look for its expression in, through, for and all around my life. For my good, your good, and the highest good of all concerned.
[Silence]
Before I was visible to myself, God saw me. The divine image of my life is already held.
Florence Scovel Shinn:
I now make my perfect records through the Christ within — the records of Health, Wealth, Love and perfect self-Expression.
My mind is stayed on God.
Whatsoever things are lovely, I think on these things.
The light of the Christ within is the true picture.
I see with divine sight.
I am seen. I am known. I am loved.
[Silence — minimum 45 seconds]
Appreciation
We give thanks for the power of imagination, alive in us, available, redirectable.
For the burning bush and the fig tree and every ordinary moment, crammed with heaven.
We give thanks for this community. For the practice we hold together, week by week.
We bless everyone in this room.
My mind is stayed on God.
Whatsoever things are lovely, I think on these things.
I am seen. I am known. I am held.
[Pause]
James Dillet Freeman:
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!
In God we live, and move, and have our being.
Tihei mauri ora.
Prepared by Jacinda Faloon-Cavander for Unity of NZ