It is not easy to realize that prayers for things, for status, for human love, for external “gifts” of any kind, are always made to set up jailers and to hide from guilt. These things are used for goals that substitute for God, and therefore distort the purpose of prayer. The desire for them is the prayer. One need not ask explicitly. The goal of God is lost in the quest for lesser goals of any kind, and prayer becomes requests for enemies. The power of prayer can be quite clearly recognized even in this. No one who wants an enemy will fail to find one. But just as surely will he lose the only true goal that is given him. Think of the cost, and understand it well. All other goals are at the cost of God. (A Course in Miracles, S-1.III.6)
Yearning to find a special relationship, a special job or status is a prayer to maintain separation. The desire for anything external to our mind is a denial of our oneness with the Love of God. We also have many prayers we are unaware of that come from the unconscious guilt we carry from the belief we did harm some time in the “past.” This unconscious guilt, under the direction of the ego, seeks to find something external on which to project the guilt.
This makes the pain of guilt tolerable and leaves it hidden from our awareness. This is why we perceive enemies in our world, people we dislike, even those who seem to do bodily harm. We look for these images in order to project our hidden guilt upon them. They become our “saviors” because they seem to assuage the pain of our hidden guilt. The problem is our hidden guilt remains. We will continue to be in pain and perceive justification for guilt in others until we recognize, at least to some degree, that what we really want is peace. Judgment, projecting guilt, never brings peace.
The desire of our true Self is always to join with the Love in every brother, which is one with our true Self. This means that we need to learn how to open our mind to our true Self’s desire. We need to learn that the one whom we judge is offering us an opportunity to recognize our hidden guilt.
The Holy Spirit will guide us to a new way of seeing that lets go of the projection of guilt to reveal the presence of Love that is true of everyone and everywhere. This is a prayer for release from guilt. It is a prayer to forgive and see the innocence of Love. This prayer releases us from mistaken guilt and leads us back to the acceptance of the Love we have always been.
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