2006-02-23-The Prayer Circle, Cannossian Retreat
Conference CNF#51
Topic: The Prayer Circle
Group: Cannossian Retreat
Teacher: Onamonalonton
TR: Gerdean
Note
The Sisters of Charity granted us permission to use the smudge stick (in the breezeway) for our purification ceremony, preparatory to entering the Chapel to engage in our Native American Prayer Circle, with Onamonalonton* presiding. In this ceremony, one by one we washed ourselves in the smoke of the sage, turning in the four directions, releasing our bad thoughts and negative feelings, as they went up in smoke, leaving us purified.]
ONAMONALONTON: Greetings. I am known as Onamonalonton, an ancestor from this planet of the red race. I am not as old as some of you like to think. Onagar, for instance, is many thousands of years older than I am. Age is a relative thing, important to the creatures of time and space, but the older you get, the less it matters — except for the perspective it provides.
Lesson
I welcome you here. I greet you here wholeheartedly and am so pleased to be given an opportunity to introduce you to some of the joys of the spirituality that are experienced by the red men. While your wading in these waters are experimental, there are those who live this way as a way of life, where these matters are indeed sacred, part of the religious life of the red man, the red race, and infiltrating the lives of others — as all value will do, given enough time. And so, welcome to that which we can offer you that will enhance your appreciation of the Great Spirit.
I am introducing to you this afternoon the Prayer Circle, which allows you to unburden yourself of those cares and concerns which you cling to out of concern, often for fear that they are not being taken care of to your satisfaction. By giving it up to the Spirit, and by allowing your associates here to bear witness, you have entered into the process whereby you announce your intentions to allow God to take care of His children and their concerns.
We will go around the circle as many times as there is need. And there is no hurry. It is not required that you pray out loud but it is urged that you do. I will also invite those of you who T/R (as it is called) to utilize a teacher or an angelic being you work with, to speak on your behalf and pray for you. Acknowledge a prayer for peace is incorporated in this evening agenda, based on pre-arrangements.
You do not have to keep your eyes closed, but give yourself to the spirit, and pass the feather when you have finished giving your focus then to the prayer of the one next to speak. Let us go around the circle one full time.
Prayer: Spirit of Love, we ask you to bless our efforts, to use our mortality in worthwhile and constructive ways. We desire to become more like you. Let the spirits guide us and help us and be with us and as we welcome an opportunity to become more knowledgeable about the kind of things that put you in the position to speak with us and through us or to us. Amen.
Prayer: Beloved Children, I speak to you tonight as a brother, a friend. I give you my fondest hopes and my dearest heartfelt dreams as you begin a journey together at this time and in this place. Your spirit brothers are here with you. We love you, we support you, we encourage you in all that is dear to you. May we all advance together in this time we have to share.
Prayer: Father may we each be a well of peace that others may drink of as we pass by.
Prayer: Let me be an instrument of your peace and good will on this earth.
Prayer: I am the life, the truth and the light.
Prayer: Giver of life, hear my prayer. We all feel you deeply now. We come freeing our minds, our emotions, our bodies in you, that we may be feeling the healing energy regenerating, rejuvenating, re-balancing all parts of our beautiful selves.
Prayer: Father Mother God, may we be open to your presence, to being fully present in this holy moment and in every moment. Let us be able to let go of whatever we are ready to release and be filled with whatever you see, that we may be grounded more deeply in the spirit, in the peace that passes understanding.
Prayer: Beloved gracious Father, I ask for healing for all of us in this room and in concentric circles and waves reaching out to our family and our friends in our community, for our country, and for our planet, especially places that need it most.
Prayer: (Inaudible.)
Prayer: (Inaudible.)
Prayer: (Inaudible.)
Prayer: Thank you, Father, for all the blessings that you bestow upon us. I pray that you guide me to be a good steward of these blessings. I pray for peace. Let this peace start with us and go out to all with your assistance. The love … the hearts … we are all one family. Especially our brothers and sisters in Iraq and … the many believers around the world. May they come to understand they are part of the brotherhood of man. Thank you, Father, so much for being with us at this gathering and at all times.
Prayer: We thank you, dear Father, for this gathering, and all the dear hearts are here in spirit. We thank you for your Prayer Feather, that we can each give our prayers and have them lifted up so that you may hear them. We love the symbolism of the feathers because they are lifted up easily on the wind and we hope that all of our prayers will be lifted by the breath of your holy spirit, that they will be effective to bring peace here on this planet. Please let all of our brothers and sisters learn how to overcome fear with good, and I would ask a special prayer healing for our brother Norman Ingram who has had knee surgery. Please help his knee to heal wonderfully so that he can then get about and do the missionary work that he so dearly loves. And yes, let there be peace on earth. We love you and we thank you for your presence.
Prayer: There is overflowing joy in the sacredness of now.
Prayer: (Inaudible) your gift of life an opportunity to learn your will.
Prayer: Father, thank you for what you reveal to this gathering this weekend. Amplify our love and (inaudible).
Prayer: Father God, I am so happy. I want to thank you for that, for bringing these children here that I might share with them your loving presence. I see you in each one, I feel your love from each one of them, and my love is made stronger and bigger because of our combined respect for you, appreciation for you, and love for you. You are my joy. And these people materialize that joy for me. They prove to me that you are real and they prove to me that my faith is not for naught. The brotherhood of man is at least as precious as sonship because without each other to reflect your glory, we would be like you, in the beginning, and as the original I AM. You were alone, and opted to spread yourself around and share your joy with your creations, and so we came into being that we might know you and share you and know your joy.
What a wonderful present it is, that we come here consciously, knowing that we are going to be with fellow believers, other faith children, other agondonters, who believe in you. Even though we can’t see you with our physical eyes, we can see you with our spiritual eyes, in each other. Help us to strengthen that resolve and that reality, Father, and make us greater than ourselves, for your glory and our eternal happiness. I praise you, I adore you, I worship you. Amen
ONAMONALONTON: This is Onamonalonton. Having tasted the water of life through the tears of your sincere prayers, the cleansing power of water, as it is with the air, I will talk a bit about the four directions¹, because these are ways that you can simplify your spiritual life and reflect on the reality of God and his creation and the sacredness of life — even as you go about your business in the world.
The sun rises in the east and so we begin our reflections and meditations in the east, which is the beginning of a new day. So as you recognize east, think in terms of new dawn, new beginnings.
As we go south, around the circle of the Four Directions, we know that as we set out our feet are firmly planted on the ground, on the earth — the earth that feeds us and provides for us, those needs appropriate for the material life: the food and the housing that give you comfort and peace existence.
The west is wisdom and your experience that gives you wisdom, where the sun sets and you reflect back on your day and on your life and you garner the truth of your being.
In the north, the air then lifts and carries you up into the spirit world which oversees all the other directions, connecting you with your comings and goings, your life and your friends, and being a part of it all, through the air you breathe and share with all the other creatures and creations.
The heavens (north) are opposite the earth (south), as wisdom (the west) is opposite the beginning (the east).
Your prayers are heard. We will go around the circle one more time.
Prayer: Blessed be the children of the world, of the universe, and the universes.
Prayer: May our love grow with the coming (inaudible).
Prayer: Blessed be the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.
Prayer: Hear my prayer, this time for the children who are troubled in heart and in mind. (Inaudible)
Prayer: I pray that we may all welcome our friends, give them the right (inaudible).
Prayer: Lord, I ask that you make us instruments of your peace, that where we find sadness we bring joy, where we find despair we might bring hope.
Prayer: (Inaudible)
Prayer: (Inaudible)
Prayer: Pray for the Sisters that prepared this place for us to gather in (inaudible).
Prayer: (Inaudible) all the good works that are being done. (Inaudible) We ask your blessings on all of these. Thank you, Father.
Prayer: Love is our joy.
Prayer: I would add to the blessings onto the sisters here as they are about doing the business and the others in their service. I pray for (name) in this world. (Inaudible).
Prayer: And again, Father, I thank you for the privilege of sharing You with my fellows. It is a privilege; help me not abuse the privilege by my whining and my complaining and my finding fault and my verbalization of all the imperfections through my judgments, my opinions, and my conceits. Lift me up out of the quagmire of my own consciousness. Clarify my thinking. Help me maintain a sweetness about me that is not saccharin but that is attractive. Help me be all that I can be and let go of that which I am not. Give me the grace to understand my brothers and sisters better, to not be so impatient, to not be so eager to build the Kingdom that I destroy the building blocks. Help me to remember all the good things that I have and all the blessings that I have known. Help me to not regret the past but to remember the lessons of the past that make me the person that I am today. Help me love that person wisely, for in learning to love myself wisely, I am sure I can more wisely love my fellows.
ONAMONALONTON: Onamonalonton here, one more time. We are being effective. Effective prayer is the key — to know what it is you long for and to verbalize it, to put it into a pattern of consciousness — for then you can accept what it is and deal with it and become more effective in the solution of those concerns about which you pray.
Closing
I suggest we take a break. Stretch. Embrace. Look around, and remember that we have all weekend, and we have the rest of eternity.
Again, I thank you for inviting me to participate with you in this prayer circle. So be it.
References
- Onamonalonton lived to be ninety-six years of age and maintained his headquarters among the great redwood trees of California. Many of his later descendants have come down to modern times among the Blackfoot Indians.
Footnote 2: While all Native American tribes recognize “the Four Directions,” the interpretation of them is unique to each tribe. It is assumed these interpretations most closely resemble those of the Blackfoot Indians.
