The Act of Praying

When we connect with God in an act it is called praying. All religions have a distinctive ritual for praying, and all these rituals distinctively show how to connect.

But there is beyond all these religious rituals and ceremonies a way of connecting that is called creative and active praying.

In a normal course of praying, which I call passive praying we are alone with God whereas in creative and active praying God is alone with us.

What is this distinction and what this means, I will try to explain. When we pray in passive mode according to rituals we focus on God and ask His hearing, His compassion, His guidance, His forbearance. We ask him to listen to our prayers, our vows, our aspirations and our desires. We know He is there but we want Him to listen to us, give us audience, and acknowledge us. Here we are alone with God.

In creative/active praying which constitutes of :

Looking to this world positively, smiling in the face of adversity, holding and comforting somebody in distress, finding virtue in people when general perception is otherwise, speaking about love when the atmosphere is filled with hatred, passing on our loaf of bread to the one who is hungry and needy. Here :

God is alone with us since in these acts as we are acting on his behalf and are in process of creative activity like God's, so unlike passive praying where our attention is on God, here in active praying God's attention is on us. Wow what an attention this is to be in!