[Our Lady has requested that this month’s message come from The Way of the Rose. This is one of the ten chapters entirely in Her words at the end of the book.]
GIVING BIRTH TO PRAYER
“People today believe that prayer is a forgotten art, but to believe that is to close your eyes, stop up your ears, and shut the door of your heart against the world. For the Earth and all that is in it—the plants, the animals, the weather, the elements themselves, even those things that you do not think of as possessing life force or volition—all of these without exception are deeply and continuously engaged in prayer.
“Your lungs work, even while you are sleeping. Your heart beats from the moment that you are born. The mists cover the valleys. The rain falls, and the rivers flow. Prayer is the one ceaseless, universal activity. When you take up the beads of the rosary, you are joining with that activity as surely as the sun rises and sets, the moon moves through her phases, and the stars turn in their great wheel around the sky.
“You must know that there are no limits on prayer because there was no beginning to prayer. At birth you come in somewhere in the middle of a great story of prayer that, because it forms a circle like the beads of the rosary, is truly without end.
“Know that when you pray, your prayers are heard and answered everywhere at once. In truth, prayer doesn’t begin anywhere…or end anywhere. The prayers you utter flow to you, then through you, then pass beyond you to points elsewhere throughout the world.
“You believe that your lives are supported by a monetary economy, but that economy is only an illusion. The world itself is nothing but an economy of prayer. This is what you must learn. This must become your devotion. The world is nothing but prayer.
“Prayer makes things happen, but making things happen is not the same as prayer. You have heard people say, ‘Pray…and take action.’ They never say, ‘Take action…and then pray.’ You must learn to discern the path ahead through prayer and then follow where prayer leads. How else will you seek your heart’s desire? How else will you know that you are free?
“There will be times when your actions are limited, when your options are few and your world is narrowed. Even then, to pray first will guide you and show you the possibilities for action that you would otherwise not have imagined. Through prayer you can reunite with the fecundity and creativity of Life itself.
“Draw forth from the darkness what is within you so that it may be seen and take on form and color, just as a mother brings forth the child from her womb, and the Earth brings forth flowers. You must give birth to prayer even if you must experience birth pangs, even if it causes you travail. Not to do so is not to carry forth the Life that is within you.
“Always know that you were born to bring forth that which is within you into this world, and that work begins, as all things begin, with the Rose.”