Terry Paul Choyce
March 12, 2006, Brunswick Street United Church
We all know that prayer works. For some of us we have seen dramatic evidence where prayers have healed someone. Most of us have felt peace and comfort when we have prayed. Others are comforted by the ritual of prayer. Others believe miracles have happened in our lives because we have prayed for them.
In my sermon today I want to give some scientific evidence for the power of prayer. It has been proven over and over again that prayer, and meditation, change our world. Now there are theories as to how that happens.
Last fall at the Health Show I went to a lecture by Sam Graci, who wrote the book The Path to Phenomenal Health. He wrote: "Daily meditation and prayer are the best way to raise optimism, hope and positive attitudes to life. They are powerful ways to boost your moods by raising your "youth hormone" DHEA, reducing the acidic and corrosive stress hormone, cortisol and boosting your "feel good" neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin in your brain.
MRIs prove that the left prefontal cortex of the brain, a center of higher mental functioning (and responsible for feelings of contentment, happiness, joy, connectedness, self-esteem and a sense of unity and oneness) is enhanced during meditation. What does this mean? It means by prayer you can improve your brain's biological structure and electrochemical wiring all life long, while reducing stress and making yourself happy."
So by taking the time to totally relax, learning to direct our minds, and bringing out our spiritual nature we change the chemical balance in our bodies. We also reduce our heart rate, increase muscle relaxation, and increase and synchronize our brain waves. This has been seen with EEG machines. When in deep prayer or meditation our brain waves become less erratic and more focused and powerful.
This leads to another benefit of prayer, which involves thedistribution of love through our prayers. My friend Alan Snow recently delivered a sermon to the Unitarian Church entitled "The Incredible Power of Prayer." He says that "all matter vibrates at its own frequency. We can either vibrate in harmony with our universe or we can be in discord.......Evidence suggests that when we have thoughts of love, gratitude, compassion, empathy and forgiveness," we vibrate in unison with the universal energy or God energy. These energy waves then spread out from us. In fact, we can direct those energy waves for long distances. This is called sympathetic vibratory resonance. It has been provenrepeatedly that we can even help with the healing of someone very far away. Our thoughts create energy waves that can spread out and travel. And the more control we are of our thoughts, and our feelings, and our intentions, the morefocused they are in bringing about change.
Alan wrote this in his sermon. "Here's an example of this incredible power we share. In 1993 the Transcendental Meditation Group told the City of Washington, DC that the Group could reduce the incidence of crime in the City by 24% over an eight week period in June and July, 1993. The Mayor said there would be snow in July before that would happen in his city. Not dismayed, the Group started their prayer program and at the end of the eight week period the crime rate in Washington did in fact decline by 23.3% . They began with about 700 people praying and the Group gradually increased to about 3800. It is interesting to note the inverse relationship in that as the size of the praying group increased, the crime rate decreased."
In the book The Maharishi Effect it says that whenever a group of meditators moved into a community the following occurred : levels of crime decreased, divorce rates fell, sales of alcohol went down, traffic fatalities reduced, and even the weather improved. And the more meditators there are, the more dramatic the positive changes. People praying or meditating together seem to amplify the power of the intention and the effectiveness of the prayer. If we could harness this people power through prayer, we could make enormous changes to improve this planet.
Prayer is used throughout the Bible. It has always been the best way we have to communicate with God and to feel spiritually connected. In our New Testament reading today (Mark 14:32-42) Jesus goes to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane. He knows he is entering into the most horrible week of his life. He knows he will be betrayed by one of his friends and disciples, and that he will be arrested, tortured, and crucified. He prayed to have this "cup" removed from him unless it was the only way for God to help the people of Earth. I hope Jesus gained inner strength when he prayed to God in the garden. During the next few weeks of Advent we will travel with Jesus through his hours of darkness, his death, and his resurrection- the ultimate miracle.
Jesus did not have the "cup" removed. Our prayers will not always be answered either. Some things are meant to happen. This does not mean that God has abandoned us or does not love us. There just seems to be some things which must be experienced. But there are so many other things which can be changed by our prayers. Alan Snow wrote "we are effectively praying all the time. We know we don't have to bow our heads to pray, or be on our knees, or be in a church. How we conduct ourselves in our daily lives becomes a living prayer. So how we feel about someone else, or how we act, the things we do and say are simply a reflection of our feelings. In other words we express our feelings. Our feelings express our thoughts. We are what we think - we become our prayers."
Let each of us here today believe in the power of our prayers. Let each of us try to bring about positive, loving changes to those we know and to those we don't know. The world is becoming more interconnected every day through communication and travel. Let us know that it is interconnected through our prayers too. Let us pray for peace. Let us pray for the solution to the world's energy crisis. Let us pray for a clean environment. Let us pray for the spiritual connection between God and all people to be strengthened. Let us Pray.
Musical Meditation:
What a Friend we have in Jesus
©Terry Paul Choyce. Used with permission from the author.
