Click for audio: The Prayer of Release
While living on this earth plane we basically inhabit two worlds. In reality, we inhabit but one world expressing as the material and spiritual dimensions, but we treat this one as two. When we think of a person, for example, nearly all of our thinking involves our experience with them on the material plane. If we browse a photo album, we’ll see their physical aspect representing different periods in their life and we will recall shared moments that make up our thoughts and memories of them.
When we consider who this person actually is, especially if they have now passed on, we think of them in a much broader, spiritual context. While we miss our physical interaction, we also hold them in the freeing truth that they continue their experience in ways that are at least as beautiful and productive as they were in that fraction of their experience that we witnessed. We’re saddened by our loss, inspired by what they gave us and we are comforted by the thought that they are free to continue their experience in living in ways we can only imagine.
But what of those who, either through what appears to be a terminal illness or advancing age, stand at the cusp of these two worlds? Do we pray for a miracle? Do we see them whole and free while affirming that they take up their bed and walk? This is certainly the first inclination of most of us. We assume that what is best for our loved ones is that they remain in the physical condition by which we have known them and our prayer for healing is often a prayer of restoration to this condition.
Our prayers in such cases should always include the vision of our loved ones as whole and free, for this is the truth. What is also true is that they are neither the physical body nor the composite of circumstances that we have associated with them. They are much more than this. While on earth they may have played the role of our parent, for example, but the spiritual reality is that we and they are the offspring of the Divine. Our physical bodies are mortal but our true essence is eternal.
In one sense, we are all in the process of transitioning out of this material realm. For some, this transition is a very long process. For others, it is shockingly fast and unexpected. In all cases, however, the laying down of the physical body is inevitable. Our prayer for release is one that holds to the truth of the eternal nature of the soul and affirms the best and highest for those who are the focus of our prayer. It is not our place to name their good. It is our place to hold them in the light that their highest good is unfolding, that they are complete, eternal expressions of God right now.