The Healing Path of Prayer Study Guide

Ron provides a variety of suggestions and alternatives to developing a daily mystical practice. Please describe in detail your daily prayer/meditation ritual. Feel free to describe not only how you presently pray/meditate, but how you would like your prayer/meditation ritual to be. Call on the Holy Spirit to provide you with ways to enhance your imagination/vision.
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CHAPTER 1 - IN THE BEGINNING

"My nature became so sensitized that I could lay my hands on any man or woman and tell what organ was deceased, and to what extent." John Lake

(pp.8-15) "Significant events in our lives may be pointing towards your personal mission." What significant events have happened in your life that may point towards your mission?

(P. 17)"Our fears short circuit the energy emitted during our communion with God."
Consider something you are afraid of and allow yourself to feel the fear. Do not suppress it. Choose one of the prayers from the Appendix that most resonates with you. Allow the prayer to fill you with the energy of God and melt the fear. What was your experience?

(P.25) Practice the meditation on page twenty-five for one week. What did you experience?

CHAPTER 2 - GOD IS LIGHT -ENERGY

"Let there be light! And there was light" (Gen. 1:3) In the creation of the universe, God’s first command brought into being the structural essential light. On the beams of this immaterial medium occur all divine manifestations. Devotees of every age testify to the appearance of God as flame and light. "His eyes were as a flame of fire, Saint John tells us, "and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength" (Rev. 1:14-16). Paramahansa Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi

"All things that are, are light." Ezra Pound

(pp. 34-36) What is the key to true intercessory prayer, and how will you develop it? Give an example of an intercessory prayer you may have or will say on behalf of another person.

(pp. 39-41) How will you practice the Meditation to See Yourself as Spirit? What guidance have you received from God during your meditations?

CHAPTER 3 - PRAYER WITHOUT CEASING

"When you are praying in God’s presence, examine yourself honestly, speak to Him if you can; if you can’t stay there, let Him look at you and don’t do anything else." Padre Pio

(pp. 43-45) The word for prayer in Aramaic, the language of Jesus, is "slotha" which mean literally "to set a trap."

Describe your understanding of this idea as it relates to authentic prayer and teach it to another person or group. What was their reaction?

(pp. 49-53) Many religions throughout the world have taught praying without ceasing.

Choose a prayer method and allow yourself to use it for seven consecutive days. Make an attempt to bring it to consciousness all day. What did you discover?

(pp. 57-62) Ron describes "Healing Prayer Meditations and Sacred verses for Daily Use." Choose and integrate a prayer ritual that resonates with you into your daily practice.

CHAPTER 4 - THE LORD'S PRAYER: A NEW PERSPECTIVE

"In all the religions of humankind, the sacred teachings have always been written down in the language of the founder." Neil Douglas-Klotz, Prayers of the Cosmos

(pp. 66-80) The Aramaic translation of the Lord’s Prayer provides us with a perspective of God as Jesus saw and knew Him. What does Paul mean when he tells us to put on the mind that was in Christ Jesus in reference to the Lord’s Prayer?

(pp. 80-83) Please describe how you incorporate the Meditation Ritual on The Lord’s Prayer into your daily prayer/meditation ritual, and how you might present it to a prayer group.

CHAPTER 5 - HEALING SICKNESS AND SUFFERING

"We have been taught that it is the will of God for us to suffer. We may believe that God wants us to be sick so that he may teach us compassion and empathy. We bring misfortune upon our own heads without the help of God. Hopefully, though, when our suffering hurts badly enough, we will wake up to the error of our ways, and change the causes which brought on our troubles." Rocco Errico, The Ancient Aramaic Prayer of Jesus

(P.89)Meditate on the idea from the Buddhist teacher Sogyal Rimpoche on how suffering can be a sacred event. What was revealed to you during this meditation?

(pp.90-96) Contemplate the ideas of spirit energies, suffering as a call for transformation and prayer as protection. Teach these ideas to another person or group.

"If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you."

Many times suffering is a call for transcendence and transformation. Describe a time when you were in pain, physical, emotional or mental. What did you learn from the experience?

(P.99) Do the meditation "Prayer Reading for Healing" with another person or a group. Ask the person or group to describe their experience.

CHAPTER 6 - THE FIVE STAGES OF HEALING TOWARD WHOLENESS

"The healing power of God moves through the spiritual body of man into his physical body, and this understanding helped tremendously in my prayer for healing, either for myself or others." Agnes Sanford, Sealed Orders

"It was evident in all miracles performed by Lahiri Mahasaya that he never allowed the ego-principle to consider itself a causative force. By the perfection of his surrender to the Prime Healing Power, the master enabled it to flow freely through him." Paramahansa Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi

(pp. 104-107) From what place of authority did Jesus heal the invalid at the pool at Bethesda? What are the implications of that authority for you as a spiritual healer?

(pp. 107-112) Ron describes in detail each of the five stages of healing and gives personal examples of how they have affected his spiritual journey. Which of the five stages of healing have you personally experienced? Describe each of them and give personal examples.

CHAPTER 7 - CONGRUENCY IN PRAYER:
LISTENING TO GOD AND FOLLOWING THROUGH

"One of the greatest secrets that I have learned through the years is that when I have realized my own helplessness and have acknowledged it to Him, I have received some of the greatest manifestations of His power that I have ever experienced. You are nearest your possession of this imparted grace when you realize your own helplessness and your complete and entire dependence upon the Lord."

I am reminded of the young lady who in describing faith used this illustration. She said, ‘When I was learning to float on water, I realized I had to completely relax and without fear trust the water to hold me up, it worked. I floated in the same way I faithed.’ Kathryn Kuhlman, God Can Do It Again

(P. 117) Ron tells the story of a man stranded on his roof in a flood who doesn’t recognize his prayers are being answered in different ways.

Describe some of the ways God answers your prayers.

How do you discern whether the answers are coming from ego or the Holy Spirit?

(P. 118) Ron describes a time when he prayed for "money to buy food." God answered his prayer in a very unexpected way.

Recall a time when you prayed for something and it was answered very unexpectedly, i.e, not in the manner you expected.

(P.122) In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus said, "Whatever you pray for believe you have it and it will be yours, but when you pray you must first forgive."

Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal a situation where you need to forgive. Allow the feeling of un-forgiveness to surface and feel it fully. Now ask yourself, could you allow the Holy Spirit to reveal the Truth about this situation? Would you allow the Holy Spirit to release this from you? Allow yourself to release this situation into God’s light.

Describe the difficulty or ease by which you were able to forgive.

(P. 124) "We have been wired for faith and power and can use them in positive or negative ways."

Examine what you have faith in (positive or negative). How has that faith manifested in your life?

Discuss the manifestation of faith with another person or group. What did you learn?

(pp. 126-128) "Prayer on an authentic level is allowing God to speak to us and guide us."

Practice the exercise on page 128 and describe your experience.

CHAPTER 8 - EVERYDAY MYSTICISM

"Apprehend God in all things for God is in all things. Every single creature is full of God and is a book about God." Meister Eckhart

(pp. 131-138) Ron reminds us that hidden in God, inflamed with divine love, peacefully serene, the mystic possesses a creative strength and power that those of us caught up with our primitive self do not possess. Moreover, he indicates that his and our calling is to be a mystic-in-progress. What does being a mystic mean to you, and what are the necessary elements of being a mystic? What do you need to change or let go of in order to embark on your mystic-in-progress journey?

(pp. 139-42) One of Jesus’ major teachings was that we must love not only our neighbors but also our enemies, because "the Father in heaven makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust." As a mystic-in-progress what does this mean to you and how have you exemplified this particular teaching?

CHAPTER 9 - NEW SACRAMENTS AS DAILY RITUALS

"And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." Exodus 19.6

(P. 146) Ron describes a sacrament as a sacred ritual that acts as a vehicle for Divine energy to be released for some specific purpose.

Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you a specific person, place or situation that would most benefit from a sacred ritual.

Describe how you created and performed a ritual for a specific person, place or situation. What was your experience?

CHAPTER 10 - THE HOLY SPIRIT AS THE ENERGY MANIFESTATION OF GOD

"When I was forty-two and seven months old, Heaven was opened and a fiery light of exceeding brilliance came and permeated my whole brain, and inflamed my whole heart and my whole breast not like a burning but like a warming flame, as the sun warms anything its rays touch. And immediately I knew the meaning of the exposition of the Scriptures, names of the Psalter, the Gospel, and the other catholic volumes of both the Old and New Testaments, though I did not have the interpretation of the words of their texts or the division of the syllables or the knowledge of cases and tenses. But I had sensed in myself wonderfully the power and mystery of secret and admirable visions from my childhood - - that is, from the age of five- - up to that time, as I do now. This, however, I showed to no one except a few religious persons who were living in the same manner as I." Hildegard of Bingen, Scivias

(pp 166-187) Chapter 10 is entitled "The Holy Spirit as The Energy Manifestation of God." Given what you’ve learned in this chapter, develop a thirty minute presentation which you will teach to a small group. In addition to indicating what you will say; include a prayer to invoke the Holy Spirit. (Feel free to use Ron’s examples. Modify his examples or develop your own).

CHAPTER 11 - PRAYER AS BLESSING AND DECREE

"Thou shall also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee; and the light shall shine upon thy ways." Job 22.28

Based on Chapter 11, describe the differences between blessings, decrees and affirmations.

For one week practice blessing people, situations and objects throughout the day. Describe your experience.

(P. 193) Create a personal blessing from one of the sacred scriptures that inspires you the most.

Describe how you incorporated the blessing into your daily practice.

CHAPTER 12 - TOWARD A DAILY MYSTICAL PRACTICE

"Ordinary people can and do become whole. They can and do live in ways that express their highest and most cherished values - values which also happen to be those most prized universally and collectively throughout human history. People who become whole are the ones who find completeness by consciously integrating inner and outer realities." Marsha Sinetar, Ordinary People As Monks and Mystics.

Ron provides a variety of suggestions and alternatives to developing a daily mystical practice. Please describe in detail your daily prayer/meditation ritual. Feel free to describe not only how you presently pray/meditate, but how you would like your prayer/meditation ritual to be. Call on the Holy Spirit to provide you with ways to enhance your imagination/vision.