A New Lord’s Prayer for Awakening
By James Willis and Helen Reynolds
The time has come for a new Lord’s Prayer. A prayer that reminds of what we have forgotten. A prayer that helps create a relationship so close, so strong, so comforting that harmony becomes normal and love becomes evident in all situations. A prayer that brings us closer to God, to the source of miracles, the great I AM.
The prayer that we would like to introduce you to is a new Lord’s Prayer. It came by revelation through James Willis, a long-time student of A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love.
Many people are familiar with the Lord’s Prayer, or the Our Father: “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Have you noticed that the words suggest a separation between heaven and earth? Between God and ourselves? Between the Kingdom and everyday life? But the Second Coming of Christ is upon us, and the time has arrived to replace all ideas of separation with a willingness to sustain our divine relationship in everyday life.
The biblical foundation for understanding the familiar Lord’s Prayer is stated in John 4:24: God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. While the classic Lord’s Prayer is true, it requires a spiritual re-interpretation to close the gap in our divine relationship.
We need a prayer that directly overcomes separation. A Course of Love redefines prayer as “the act of consciously choosing union.” It goes on to say, “With this definition, you can see how your life can become a prayer. This does not negate the fact that a prayer is also a constant dialogue of asking, being answered, and responding. This is the aspect of prayer that makes of it an act of creation. (T1:4.3, 6.3)
Let’s discuss the prayers.
“Our Father who art in heaven” suggests that God is in heaven, a separate location from us on earth. Consider a prayer that from the very first line rekindles a comforting divine relationship: “Our Father, my constant friend and guide.” Instantly making the prayer personal and reassuring.
The second line in the prayer James received does not have an equivalent in the familiar version, but it activates our choice for unity by saying: “Help me to see Your Light in every brother and sister I meet.” Seeing beyond separation is utterly fundamental for living in truth.
Next: “Hallowed be Thy name.” What is the name of the Father of the Kingdom of Heaven? After centuries of religious dogma, even tyranny in “thy name,” God isn’t always associated with love. Yet ACOL confirms “the content of God is love.” (C:P.34.1) The new Lord’s Prayer reminds us of the truth: And to live in the knowing that Thy name is Love.
Next: “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Literally interpreted, this suggests heaven will come to earth sometime in the future. The words James received, “Thy kingdom is within in me, and Thy Creation is unfolding, here and now as I speak” bring heaven into our current reality as our state of being. In truth, we are co- creating heaven on earth with every moment of divine relationship.
The next line of the familiar prayer is also prone to literal interpretation: “Give us this day our daily bread . . .” What James received encourages miracle-mindedness and an active participation in divine relationship: “Consciously living in the flow of Loving Creation fulfills all needs to perfection . . .
Next: “. . . and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” What forgiveness is required? Our perceived separation from our Creator. Despite being made in the image and likeness of Spirit, we can perceive separation from Spirit and experience life in the illusion of isolation, fear, and confusion. ACIM says, “As you condemn only yourself, so do you forgive only yourself.” (L 46) James received these truthful words: “. . . And the only forgiveness required is by me, of myself. And then I can know who I truly AM.”
Next: “Lead us not into temptation. . .” God cannot lead us into temptation, only we can! Temptation is acceptance of the illusory “reality,” which only “exists” in the perceived separation from and denial of Spirit, Love. Instead, James received: “Living as who I truly AM I know not of temptation . . .”
And asking to “deliver us from evil” makes evil real! Evil is not real. It is part of the illusion. The new prayer says, “what I once saw as evil is a call for love that I can help to answer”—reminding us that in truth, temptation and evil are only evidence of the denial of love, which is also a call for love.
And finally: “For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.” The words ‘forever and ever’ reinforce the idea of time, which is also part of the illusion. There really is only this divine moment of NOW. The new prayer reinforces who we truly are—individuations of Love: “For in reality, You and I, Father, are One, and OURS is the Kingdom, and WE are the Power and the Glory. In this eternal moment of Now, I AM one with Thee. Amen.”
The words of this new Lord’s Prayer are so active that they effortlessly elevate us into divine relationship by affirming our desire to live in spiritual truth and to do the creative work required of us to live in the Kingdom of Heaven, the House of Truth.
Altogether, then, here is the new Lord’s Prayer:
Our Father, my constant friend and guide,
Help me to see Your Light in every brother and sister I meet,
And to live in the knowing that Thy name is Love.
Thy Kingdom is within me, and Thy Creation is unfolding, here and now, as I speak.
Consciously living in the flow of Loving Creation fulfills all needs to perfection,
And the only forgiveness required is by me, of myself,
And then I can know who I truly AM.
Living as who I truly AM, I know not of temptation,
And what I once saw as evil, is a call for love that I can help to answer.
For in reality, You and I, Father, are One, and OURS is the Kingdom,
And WE are the Power and the Glory.
In this eternal moment of NOW,
I AM one with Thee. Amen!
The words of this new Lord’s Prayer nurture our relationship with the Kingdom of God by activating our divine memory. As ACOL so eloquently says, Prayer is but reproducing and recollecting a divine memory and divine memory cannot help but produce a divine outcome. Said in another way, prayer reproduces the truth and allows the truth to exist as it is. Prayer does this because it is the act of consciously choosing union. Choosing union moves you into the real state of “all” from the unreal state of the in-between. Only from within a state that is real can anything happen in truth. (T1:6.2)
The new Lord’s Prayer returns us to a direct relationship with Love, and thus returns us to the power of our true being.
James shared more of his experience receiving this prayer on Helen’s “More Love” Podcast, www.livetruetoyou.com/jameswillis
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Embrace this Opportunity
Featuring poet Chelan Harkin, Mari Perron, Mary Reed, and Patricia Pearce ★★★★★ Featured in Miracles Magazine
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The Sacred, Wild Barrel
By Chelan Harkin
Oh world,
I’ve been trying to convince you
of my sanity for far too long!
Trying to hold it together,
play the part.
I’m ready for the sacred undoing!
I’m ready to give up the game
I’m delighted to say
I’ve lost.
Here is my raw, naked heart
my soul is ready to strip down
and streak though social conventions!
I am tired of pretending with you
that I’m OK with anything short of the sweetest,
most tender intimacy.
I’m un-signing my name
from these social contracts
enabling extreme blandness and terrible distance
from our hearts!
Come close and I will kiss your face,
come closer and I will offer you
every jewel in my soul,
come closer still and I’ll delightedly
give you my very life
and then rummage through my closets
to see what else I have in there for you!
Friend, it doesn’t take much
to destroy social norms.
All it really takes is to crack open
the sacred, wild barrel
of love in your chest
and offer it to whomsoever
might pass by.
Chelan is a 32 year old, recently published mystical poet of books, Susceptible to Light and Let Us Dance! The Stumble and Whirl with The Beloved. Or order from a local independent bookstore that ships internationally. The poetic expression of inspiration and truth is Chelan’s primary spiritual path in which she aims to open a window in the soul to gaze upon the wonders of reality more clearly, and receive its beauty. http://chelanharkin.com
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Thank you James. It moved me to translate it into Swedish, and a friend will do the same, into German. <3
Thanks to you and your friend Lars. After I received the prayer, I asked what I was supposed to ‘do’ with it, as I am not on social media, and was told that it was not my problem, and the “flow of Loving Creation’ that I had written about would look after it. So thank you for being part of that Flow!
James
Thank you for this message. In 1998 I was taking a course from Jean Houston and was assigned an exercise to write the Lord’s Prayer for our new times and understandings. This is it:
Our Divine Parents
Who live in places too splendid to imagine,
How great is your reputation!
May your new order come.
May your true desires be accomplished on earth
The way they are in the Greater Reality.
Give us today our necessary nourishments on all levels
And forgive us our blindness, our failures and detours
Even as we forgive you and others
All blindness, all failures, all detours.
Let us not be seduced into the way that destroys hope and
initiative
But redeem us from what holds us back.
For all love, power and beauty is yours
Even as it is ours—
Through you—For ever and ever. So Be It
Thanks for sharing your prayer Paula, what amazing words to come up with when asked!
LOVE IT!!!!!!!
When the Lord’s prayer is understood correctly it is the most powerful group of words on the planet. Jesus told is that Kingdom of Heaven is within. So the prayer is directing inwards to the presence f God.
Jesus recommended the prayer but Hermes developed thousands of years ago. Everything you will ever need contained in these words.
I don’t get it that we need a “Lord’s Prayer” at all. It’s all One, there is no Lord who need be prayed to. There is no “me” that needs “His” help. There’s no “me”, no “Lord” that is separate. Is just is. The ‘new’ version is a lessor block to Oneness than the ‘old’ one was, but it still promotes duality.
Because most in this “reality” believe they are truly separate (in illusion).
Hey Larry, thanks for your enthusiasm and appreciation.
Hi Miles, perhaps you are correct, we don’t “need” anything as we are already whole, complete and accomplished. Maybe I could’ve thought of a better line to start the article with. James wasn’t asking for a new Lord’s Prayer, he received it very unexpectedly. It’s similarity with the traditional Lord’s Prayer in tonality, message and rhythm is what drew the direct comparison.
My experience with James’ prayer is that it activates my divine knowing/remembering and I can connect with the words in a way that feels relevant. I haven’t ever experienced that with the traditional Lord’s Prayer – but that could be the result of repetition of use before I ever had any understanding of unity.
If I think back…..to the start of my journey from illusion to unity – “I” definitely experienced a “me” that needed help because I was still in illusion, whilst I had willingness, I was yet to remember/reconnect with unity. But….. there is only the present, so our conversation goes around again!!!!
Thanks for taking the time to comment, I’ve enjoyed the reflections your comment created. Helen
Hi Miles,
Love reading all the comments here, and thank you for sharing.
I agree: maybe (in hindsight) the word “need” is not necessarily needed. 😊
However, my having been raised Catholic and been brought up with The Lord’s Prayer, I always felt that I was being directed to a “God” outside of myself.
This “new” Lord’s Prayer (for me) is more about its *essence* — a transmission here beyond the words (words being only pointers).
Attempting to write how it is speaking to me is —a prayerful immersion, where the words enter my heart and come alive: a *felt* resonance which elevates and renews in the moment.
A biblical Hebraic phrase that might be applicable is “the quickening,” a kinda swell of inspiration.
Being still, and with an inner knowing —that I am Home. 🌺
And again, this is my experience, and that is what the beauty of A New Lord’s Prayer is for me.
Hi James and Helen, Thank you for the work you did to bring this to me. I have just finished a very full day and after reading what you wrote I feel refreshed and light. Love tends to do that, thanks again.
Thankyou Judy for taking the time to send these kind words. Love how Love works!
Hey Judy, thankyou so much for taking the time to leave these kind words. I’m so delighted to read them. Helen
Thank you, James and Helen. So illuminating!
James, I have shared your prayer with others, and even during a live online session, and it was truly elevating for all present. Living Grace. 🙏
LOVE IT!!!!!!!
Thankyou Lynn.
Thanks Lynn