A Prayer from The Spirit House of New Orleans
Dystopian times call for empyrean prayers
I surrender to the original source and force of Creation, that I may live each day inside the Big Room of infinite love and pervasive joy. I confess that I am in absolute need of resuscitation and realignment with the heavenly heartbeat. I ask that you awaken something within me that will stir me up, straighten me out, and steer me right.
When I despair, direct me to someone in need.
When I stray, call me home.
Make me kind as I accept instruction from your Vast Mind. Ready me to receive a fire in my bones and a rhythm in my veins. Help me soar higher than the battle over words. I ask to be a spiritually cooked servant of utmost play, a conductor of healing electricity, an instigator of trembling truth, and an uplifting instrument of creative expression. Reduce me to nothing and empty me throughout, that I may be a cleaner vessel for your gifts.
Fill me with a single drop of light to illumine my dreaming at night. Send me to the spiritual classrooms for the lessons that can only come from Thee. Help me build a merciful space in my heart to host your radical way of being forgiving and for giving. When I’m tempted to stick my head in the sand and fall silent in the presence of injustice, I ask that you disturb my illusory peace and draw me back into your Caring Light.
When I’m thirsty for courage, pour me a glass of love.
When I’m hungry for strength, feed me your songs.
Make me a tender tendril with outstretched arms that long for your embrace. Lift me high in the spiritual sky and plant me deeply in the earth. Remind me to be a child who honors all mothers and fathers, including the ancestors who came before and are yet to be.
Take me, bake me, and shake me into a helping medicine.
Grow me, harvest me, chop me, fry me up, and serve me on your table.
You are the brush; receive me as paint.
You are the potter; handle me like clay.
You are the musician; render me your note.
You are the fire; make me a warmer presence in this world.
Sing me, dance me, soften me, enlighten me, electrify me, puzzle me, fling me, fold me, embolden me, and hold me up again and again so that I may keep turning, returning, burning, and rebirthing inside your blazing, ever-raising wheel of creation.
Amen.
Sending our heartfelt empyrean* prayers to one and all,
Hillary & Brad
Speaking of hearts, thank you for hitting the “heart button.”
This prayer was excerpted and adapted from our book, Sacred Ecstatics: The Recipe for Setting Your Soul on Fire. We’re now accepting applications to the next Sacred Ecstatics Guild season that begins in October 2025! Electrical Grand Rounds continues… www.sacredecstatics.com.
*Thank you, Henry Corbin, for bringing us the word “empyrean” last Guild season. It refers to the highest heaven or heavenly sphere in ancient and medieval cosmology usually consisting of fire or light. Etymologically it means “formed of pure fire or light.”
Thank you for the prayer of light in dark times.
Formed of pure fire and light. Thank you!