SEPTEMBER 2018: The Art of Prayer

“Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul.”  ― Mahatma Gandhi

The power of prayer and intention in our lives is all important to the realization of our free will and to the creation of a life of our choosing. Prayer is the voice that we give to our choices as we petition the higher powers that be for the love, support, protection and supply that are not only necessary to our physical survival, but also our spiritual evolution. For in the asking, we come to realize that all is given, especially when we embrace the shamanic nature of our being and become the tracker into our lives. As we open up our narrow view of prayer and intention, the act of choosing and communicating with the Universe can become far more beautiful in and of itself, as the very way that we commune becomes a sacred art.

“You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might pray also in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.” ― Kahlil Gibran

Prayer takes many shapes and forms, far beyond what comes to mind for many. There is much more to prayer to peoples around the world than to simply get down on your knees and speak out with your voice. Though this is quite beautiful and powerful in its own right, if we take a look at the way that others pray and make intention, we find that it is truly something of a divine art form. From the South American Despacho, to the Japanese Shinto, stone circles like Stonehenge or Newgrange, Dagara diviners, to the Kalachakra Mandala, Yantras and Mantras, Medicine Wheels of every culture and land, Christian sacraments, to Malas, Rosaries, Medicine Bags and Bundles, to Spirit Ties, and all the ceremonies, rites and rituals, the art of prayer is a deeply ingrained part of our world as we seek communion with something greater.

"It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.” - Mahatma Gandhi

When we gather in community on the medicine wheel we have milestones and markers, which allow us to not only see the signs and experience the synchronicities, but to better interpret them, offering us a way to ground, anchor and integrate the knowledge, or to simply have more patience as we build our own faith in the process of unfolding. With these spiritual eyes on the shamanic path we can see the often subtle responses to our prayers that will better allow the omnipotent forces that we have invoked to do their magic. And we can also better hear the instructions of our soul which can guide our actions and decisions. Through the signs and symbols of our lives we can enter into a real conversation with the Great Mystery, and actually experience a two way dialogue as we engage in conscious contact.

“The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.” ― Søren Kierkegaard

We came here to create. We are creators, or more aptly put, co-creators. First through the protection of our ego we acted out our lives and created in unconscious ritual. As we learned more about who and what we truly are, we no longer act out only symbolically, but with reverence and respect as we create a new earth reality by taking these same rituals and framing and containing them in the story of our life under the protection of sacred ceremony... consciously and with positive intent.

“Let your intentions be good - embodied in good thoughts, cheerful words, and unselfish deeds - and the world will be to you a bright and happy place in which to work and play and serve” - Grenville Kleiser

In our unawakened state we may have found ourselves relying a great deal on our own steam and forgetting to pray. Or we may have prayed, but only at times of sorrow, angst or fear. Most of us were plenty good at forming an intention, but painfully shy of releasing it to the Universe, which is actually what makes an intention, a prayer. Ultimately we want to integrate prayer and intention and weave a practice of ritual and ceremony into our lives that allows us to dance our prayers, sing our prayers, cook, clean and garden our prayers... create art, or sit in silence and be one with our intentions, certain of the soul's purpose and the desires of our heart, so that the very actions of our life take on new meaning under this high guidance.

“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be.”  - Douglas Adams

It's been a challenging journey, as we've experienced the knowledge of good and evil, duality and the polarizations of right and wrong doing. Now, unlike ever before, we have the opportunity to come to the center of our Self, the altar of our soul and pray in ways that make our whole life a sacred ceremony. When we pray we are speaking to the Divine, but when we wrap our prayers in ritual and ceremony, we are speaking directly and intimately to the divinity within our own being. We are speaking to our own soul and acknowledging that God comes through the people, the earth and that we are a great mystery. And as we leave room, the magic of the universe begins to respond back in spite of its mysterious nature, we can communicate meaningfully because we have framed and contained our desires in sacred space and surrendered them in complete faith.

“I am realistic – I expect miracles.”  ― Wayne W. Dyer

Make an intention to be listening with humility and awareness to the whispering of your soul. Then give a voice to it...spoken and written. Place it within the safe space of sacred ceremony, enlivened with symbology, imagery, music... dance, drum and sweat your prayers... Annointed with precious oils... Activated with spiritual guides and angels... Taken into the silence of the void of your being. Align the Wills, then surrender fully to your soul, and to the Great Mystery. Watch and wait with calm certainty that the circumstances, the synergy and the guidance for right action will come and ultimately create something through this kind of surrender that far exceeds any meager wish that we can come up with on our own. Engage the Art of Prayer, for this is the true power of awareness, intention and surrender to something greater.

“Heaven on Earth is a choice you must make, not a place you must find.” ― Wayne W. Dyer

Sunday Talks with Rev. Renee Bledsoe
September 02 - The Art of Prayer
September  09 - Activating Prayer Code: Ceremony & Ritual
September 16 -  Let your Life be a Prayer - Rev. Maribel Figueroa
September 23 - Peace Day Celebration in the Universal Medicine Wheel (Alliance for the Arts)
September 30 - The Role of Heavenly and Earth Angels in the Fulfillment of Desire

Affirmations
I pray and intend my life with humility, awareness and surrender.
I claim my free will through the power of prayer.
I raise the quality of my prayers.
I pray for peace, love and joy for myself and others.
I create a sacred space for my prayers.
I seek to align with the divine will of my GodSelf.
I allow heavenly and earth angels to love and support me.
As an earth angel I am supportive of my fellow travelers and render aid in times of need.
I create a sacred life that inspires the world to wonder.
I invoke the higher powers of the universe to reveal and support my life purpose.
The more I recognize and acknowledge my life purpose, the more power and support comes to me.
I embrace the mystery of my life.
My intentions are for the highest good of all concerned.
I am open to this or something better and welcome the creativity of my higher power.
I pray for guidance in all aspects of my life.
I ask and it is given. I knock and the door is opened.
As I converse with the universe, elements of my own mysterious nature are revealed
In prayer I come to a better understanding of myself.
I inspire and infuse my prayers with sacred ceremony and ritual.
My prayers are made whole within the the sacred container of the medicine wheel.
I meditate, listen, journal and use divination to determine my heart's desires.
I want for nothing, and choose to create my bliss.
My joyful creations add to the beauty of the earth.
I allow myself to receive good into my life.
My entire life is a sacrament and a prayer.
I will to will thy will.
I embrace the art of prayer.

Chandelier Soul Star Fundraiser 2018

CoSL Chandelier Soul Star Project

We are so excited to announce that Church of Spiritual Light is getting lit up! We are approaching our 11th year and that makes it only fitting that we  have finally been given the green light to Let There Be Light.

This is no ordinary remodeling project. What we are experiencing is a true measure of something that we've been quietly and patiently working with for so many years... the illumination of our Collective Soul. For years we reached down in the depth of our being, into the void, the Great Mystery of our own souls, and found the light within. It's just that simple. And it's time to reveal this beautiful light for all to see.

So we have been guided to create and bring this beautiful chandelier, that you could say is a depiction of our Soul Star, the beautiful Blue Star that shines over our heads to life in our sanctuary at Church of  Spiritual Light. These are some renderings of the chandelier, which we have chosen that best represents where we are at this time.

It has also been given to us that this should be a community project and that our community should have their energy as a part of it. The labor to install the chandelier is being donated, however, we are doing a fundraiser to actually pay for the chandelier itself. As always, many hands make light work. So no donation is too small. We are seeking to raise approximately $500.

If you feel so called, please use the donate button below, or you may send a check made out to:
Church of Spiritual Light (marked Chandelier Fundraiser)
1939 Park Meadows Dr. #1, Ft. Myers, FL 33907

Please donate to our fund. Any amount is helpful and appreciated.

Below are some additional renderings of the chandelier.

AUGUST 2018: Power & Light

Don't shine to be seen, shine so that others can see the way. ~ Unknown

If you see the Light, in its most practical nature, as the Truth, then you understand that enlightenment is the means by which we reveal the truth to ourselves and to the world. Yet, enlightenment is about far more than simply being honest. True enlightenment strips away all the illusions about life itself, including people, places and things, parts of our own personality and belief systems and anything else at all that is keeping us from the truth of love. It inspires us to open to our soul and it allows us to see the light in everyone and everything.

When you possess light within, you see it externally. ~Anaïs Nin

Many people try to shine a spotlight onto themselves from without, competing for attention and living in a perpetual state of lack, forgetting all about power versus force and the power of their true light.  When you absolutely know who you are, what you have to offer to the world and the importance of anchoring your God self onto this planet, then you know it's not really that much about you shining at all. It's about you becoming in alignment with your radiant God Self, so that the unique aspects of this creation that you are resonant with, can find you and we can all be re-united with the Light.

People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is light from within. ~Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

We are here now in a dance of shadow and light. This is a dance that we must come to enjoy. For even though we all know that the life giving light of the sun is what keeps our body and mind alive and well. It is under the cover of the night, and in the void of our own soul, where all possibility exists and the deep lake of our inner being, reflects the light of God and refracts it out into the world in a way that allows us to reveal, share and receive God's Love. This is the means by which the omnipotent forces of creation can experience itself in the material world, where we can play and have fun, creating our dreams and manifesting love without "blinding" each other with our Light. This is how we all come to shine our Light from within and live as one.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.' We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. ~ Marianne Williamson

Sunday Talks with Rev. Renee Bledsoe
August 05 - Power &  Light
August 12 - Boundaries & Free Will
August 19 - The Illuminated Heart
August 26 - Working with Spiritual Light (Rev. Maribel Figueroa)

LIGHT AFFIRMATIONS
I am guided by the Light.
I am filled with the Light of the Creator.
I meditate with the Light.
As I shine the light and reflect on my life, I look for the love.
I ask what would love do?
I am evolving into full realization and becoming my soul.
My soul will set my spirit free.
My light must come through the depths of my soul.
The Light is in service to my soul.
In the darkness of my soul, all things are possible and I choose according to the desires of my heart what I will create.
I use reflection and contemplation to know myself.
I allow myself to shine.
I allow others to shine, and bask in the gifts they freely give.
I see the inner beauty of all those who surround me.
I receive the gifts of life, through all the people, places and things on my journey.
The Light destroys all illusions of love.
The Light leads me to divine love.
I am inspiring, when I am inspired.
I live an illuminated life.
I dance with shadow and light, understanding that this is how I am able to choose with my free will.
It is within the darkness, that I find the true light within.
I order to access the darkness, I turn toward my problems and issues, not away.
I face the power of my own Light within and actively work with it to dispell illusion.
Once I see the Light, I have faith that my innate wisdom will guide me to the choices that will illuminate my heart and soul.
As I illuminate my mind, I free my body. As I illuminate my heart, I free my soul.
I am a radiant Light unto the world.
What I love inspires and enlightens the world.
I shine my Light from within.
I am powered by spiritual light.

CODA Meetings: Co-Dependants Anonymous

“Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart... 

Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.” -Carl Jung

Beginning September 7th, 2018, we are pleased to announce a new CoDA (Co-Dependents Anonymous) Group is now forming. The group is hosted at Church of Spiritual Light, 1939 Park Meadows Dr.#1 Fort Myers, Florida 33907.

The intention of this group is to help people to learn about and gain support in forming and maintaining healthy and loving relationships both with self and others. We will be exploring personal boundaries and patterns of behavior that are beneficial to create better relationships, using the 12 Steps as a guideline for recovery.

Co-Dependents Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women whose common purpose is to develop healthy relationships. The only requirement for membership is a desire for healthy and loving relationships. If you would like to learn more about codependency, click here to review.

Meets Every Friday 6pm

Suggested Donation (for the space): $5

Open Meeting - All are welcome!

Hosted at Church of Spiritual Light 1939 Park Meadows Dr. #1, Ft. Myers, FL 33907