Guide for Seven-Week Study How to Pray Without Talking to God Guide for Seven-Week Study Hello and Welcome. This study material accompanies my book, How to Pray Without Talking to God: Moment by Moment, Choice by Choice published by Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc., Charlottesville VA, 2011. You may purchase the book online at www.ur-divine.com or other on-line and on-site booksellers. As you and your study partners proceed through the reflections in this guidebook, I uphold your highest intentions; I celebrate your deepening spiritual understanding; and I bless the world benefitting from your rising consciousness of your Divine Identity. Linda Martella-Whitsett Contents Study Circle Agreements… 3 Recommended Weekly Format…4 Week 1: Divine Nature and our Divine Identity…5 Week 2: Affirmative Prayer…10 Week 3: Reform Prayer Language…13 Week 4: Denials and Affirmations…15 Week 5: Daily Prayer and Meditation…18 Week 6: Praying with Wholeness in Mind…22 Week 7: Praying with Others…25 Affirmative Shared Prayer Handout...27 2 My deepest desire is for each of us to realize all that GOD is, we are. GOD cannot be diminished when a person asserts her Divine Identity. To the contrary, GOD appears bigger, brighter, and more glorious when we bring into visibility the invisible GOD. Copyright ©2011 Linda Martella-Whitsett www.ur-divine.com Permission granted only to make unaltered copies for students in one study circle or church. How to Pray Without Talking to God Guide for Seven-Week Study We agree to: ♥ Study Circle Agreements Honor the sacred journey of each person, upholding everyone’s highest intentions during our gathering and between gatherings in our personal times of prayer. ♥ Encourage each one’s most authentic and most inspired actions. ♥ Be present for one another, maintaining compassionate attention when others are sharing. ♥ Create a secure environment for everyone, where we consider anything said in our circle confidential. ♥ Be one hundred percent personally responsible for our own experience in the circle. ♥ Not ask others to advise us or offer advice to others, trusting our own and others’ indwelling Divine Wisdom. ♥ Allow anyone the time necessary for sharing, and when we are the speaker, we agree to do what is authentically necessary without dominating the floor. ♥ Listen open-heartedly, discovering the personal relevance of others’ sharing, deriving meaning for our own transformation. ♥ Appreciate one another’s courage and support one another by viewing them according to their Divine Identity. ♥ [add agreements desired by the group]________________________________________ ♥ ___________________________________________________________________________ ♥ ___________________________________________________________________________ 3 Copyright ©2011 Linda Martella-Whitsett www.ur-divine.com Permission granted only to make unaltered copies for students in one study circle or church. How to Pray Without Talking to God Guide for Seven-Week Study Recommended Weekly Format Open. ∂ Sing. Singing together gathers us into a harmonious one-pointed vibration and raises our individual and collective energies. You may select from among your favorites each week or establish one theme song to open all seven weeks. Suggestions: All I’ll Ever Need, Ginger Curry (www.CDBaby.com) In the Stillness of this Moment, Karen Drucker (www.iTunes.com) When I Pray, Daniel Nahmod (www.iTunes.com) ∂ Pray. Be still in silence for five minutes. Or, select one participant each week to lead in prayer, practicing according to direction given in How to Pray...Chapter 7. ∂ Agree. Read Study Circle Agreements, adding others as the group desires. Study. ∂ Discuss. Answer questions at the end of each week’s chapter in the section Talk to Yourself. ∂ Participate. Follow the directions within these pages for journaling, sharing, and contributing during each session. ∂ Read. Discuss sections of the week’s chapter that each of you had noted in your reading prior to the session. Close. ∂ Contribute. Invest in your spiritual evolution. Contribute your money in appreciation, to your sponsoring spiritual community or by group agreement to a person or organization providing you spiritual nourishment. ∂ Pray. Follow instructions for Affirmative Shared Prayer in guidebook page 27. 4 Copyright ©2011 Linda Martella-Whitsett www.ur-divine.com Permission granted only to make unaltered copies for students in one study circle or church.