{"id":1837,"date":"2022-01-22T07:12:28","date_gmt":"2022-01-22T15:12:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.katrinasdream.org\/katrinas-story-2\/lets-pass-the-era-3\/2017-womens-equality-day-celebration-washington-d-c\/2017-womens-equality-day-celebration-washington-d-c\/?p=1837"},"modified":"2022-04-02T05:51:05","modified_gmt":"2022-04-02T13:51:05","slug":"the-prayer-imperative-by-mother-alla-bozarth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.katrinasdream.org\/dreamscape\/the-prayer-imperative-by-mother-alla-bozarth\/","title":{"rendered":"The Prayer Imperative by Mother Alla Bozarth"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
In the beginning we think<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
that prayer is an option,<\/div>\n
a contingency plan,<\/div>\n
a last resort.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Then life happens to us.<\/div>\n
Reality floods us.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Life gathers us into bundles<\/div>\n
and teaches us survival skills<\/div>\n
as, one by one and sometimes<\/div>\n
all together, it pushes us<\/div>\n
out of the boat and directly into<\/div>\n
the white water current<\/div>\n
of our rushed and rushing lives.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
As we right our capsized vessels<\/div>\n
time after time and climb into them again,<\/div>\n
as we right ourselves over and over yet tumble we will,<\/div>\n
we learn the humbling essence of things.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
We learn the prayer imperative.<\/div>\n
We come to comprehend<\/div>\n
the theological meanings<\/div>\n
of prevenient* prayer and abandon<\/div>\n
convenient prayer as an arrogant notion.<\/div>\n
We need the Grace that comes before us,<\/div>\n
the Grace that comes with us,<\/div>\n
and the Grace that comes after us<\/div>\n
to make the repairs.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
This is where prevenient prayer<\/div>\n
meets prevenient Grace.<\/div>\n
The Grace that comes before us<\/div>\n
reveals an indwelling Grace,<\/div>\n
rounding the rough edges<\/div>\n
in the chaos of all the way through.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
In the violent current one cannot swim,<\/div>\n
let alone do so gracefully.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
One can only pray and practice<\/div>\n
strokes of contrast and strokes of oneness,<\/div>\n
now surrendering to the Larger Life<\/div>\n
of driven water, now fighting for dear life\u00e2\u20ac\u201d<\/div>\n
with no time for conscious trust, until<\/div>\n
the accidental Mercy of movement positions us<\/div>\n
where we could never know we needed to be<\/div>\n
and we’re saved, or accidental Grace suddenly<\/div>\n
gives us the insight of how to float between waves.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Then we’ll find ourselves no longer seized<\/div>\n
by turbulence but, perhaps with<\/div>\n
post-traumatic tremble, in a calm state<\/div>\n
that could be heaven or could be wisdom.<\/div>\n
Therefore, I pray\u00e2\u20ac\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Great Loving Mystery, precede me in every thought and act~<\/div>\n
Succeed me through every challenging moment~<\/div>\n
Recede me from every danger of harm to body or soul.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Come before me to create a pathway.<\/div>\n
Come beside me to hold me on course.<\/div>\n
Come after me to mend all the messes.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
The inevitable messes.<\/div>\n
Keep one hand on my shoulder<\/div>\n
and one hand over my mouth,<\/div>\n
as the wise ones pray.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Prepare and repair my paths and my ways,<\/div>\n
and do so for all my loved ones and foes<\/div>\n
through the length of our days.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
And this is my hourly prayer,<\/div>\n
day by day and night unto night.<\/div>\n
Sometimes it is the prayer<\/div>\n
that I breathe.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
At the end of my life<\/div>\n
I shall have become all prayer.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n
Alla Rene Bozarth <\/a>\u00a9<\/a><\/div>\n
Purgatory Papers<\/div>\n
Copyright \u00c2\u00a9 2015<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
*Prevenient prayer is prayer before making a decision or taking an action. Prevenient grace is “divine grace that precedes human decision” and action.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the beginning we think that prayer is an option, a contingency plan, a last resort. Then life happens to us. Reality floods us. Life gathers us into bundles and teaches us survival skills as, one by one and sometimes all together, it pushes us out of the boat and directly into the white water…
Read more →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[548,211,547,113,546],"class_list":["post-1837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-alla-renee-bozarth","tag-mother-alla","tag-ordain-women","tag-philadelphia-eleven","tag-women-priests"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katrinasdream.org\/dreamscape\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katrinasdream.org\/dreamscape\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katrinasdream.org\/dreamscape\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katrinasdream.org\/dreamscape\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katrinasdream.org\/dreamscape\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.katrinasdream.org\/dreamscape\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katrinasdream.org\/dreamscape\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katrinasdream.org\/dreamscape\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katrinasdream.org\/dreamscape\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katrinasdream.org\/dreamscape\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}