By Paulo Coelho
I was out walking one day in São Paulo, when a friend - Edinho - handed me a pamphlet entitled Sacred Moment. Printed in four colours, on excellent paper, with no mention of any particular church or religion, this pamphlet bore only a prayer on its reverse side.
Imagine my surprise when I saw the name of the author of this prayer - ME! It had been published in the early eighties on the inside cover of a book of poetry. I did not think it would stand the test of time, nor that it would return to my hands in such a mysterious way; but when I re-read it, I did not feel ashamed of what I had written.
Because it appeared in that pamphlet and because I believe in signs, I felt it only right to reproduce it here. I hope it encourages every reader to write a prayer of their own, asking for themselves and for others the things that they judge to be most important. That way we place a positive vibration in our heart which touches everything around us.
Here is the prayer:
Lord, protect our doubts, because Doubt is a way of praying. It is Doubt that makes us grow because it forces us to look fearlessly at the many answers that exist to one question. And in order for this to be possible…
Lord, protect our decisions, because making Decisions is a way of praying. Give us the courage, after our doubts, to be able to choose between one road and another. May our YES always be a YES and our NO always be a NO. Once we have chosen our road, may we never look back nor allow our soul to be eaten away by remorse. And in order for this to be possible…
Lord, protect our actions, because Action is a way of praying. May our daily bread be the result of the very best that we carry within us. May we, through work and Action, share a little of the love we receive. And in order for this to be possible…
Lord, protect our dreams, because to Dream is a way of praying. Make sure that, regardless of our age or our circumstances, we are capable of keeping alight in our heart the sacred flame of hope and perseverance. And in order for this to be possible…
Lord, give us enthusiasm, because Enthusiasm is a way of praying. It is what binds us to the Heavens and to Earth, to grown-ups and to children, it is what tells us that our desires are important and deserve our best efforts. It is Enthusiasm that reaffirms to us that everything is possible, as long as we are totally committed to what we are doing. And in order for this to be possible…
Lord, protect us, because Life is the only way we have of making manifest Your miracle. May the earth continue to transform seeds into wheat, may we continue to transmute wheat into bread. And this is only possible if we have Love; therefore, do not leave us in solitude. Always give us Your company, and the company of men and women who have doubts, who act and dream and feel enthusiasm, and who live each day as if it were totally dedicated to Your glory.
Amen
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Loved the prayer! Sent it a forward to the two dearest persons I know.
What I absolutely loved also… is this sentence:
“Imagine my surprise when I saw the name of the author of this prayer - ME!”
the “ME!” capitalized with the exclamation mark is so expressive of your happiness, i could almOst feel that particular feeling and that particular moment.
Thank you for the smile : )
dear god,
may you be our will
our only obsession
in our dreams and our wakefulness
our only longing to fulfill you
willing to do anything
that we should and should not
willing to offer ourselves
another life if need be
here now that you are happening
o Glorious paulo
may our glory and grace
stir the sleeping hordes
into wakefulness and light
now that you have happened
and the gift of life is still with us
what shall we do with ourselves
have lived the peaks for too long
time to graze the valley of life
bo0om
fLUXman
I love this prayer
My prayer to God
I stoop to pick up the old rusty lantern and set off along the dark, winding lanes, with only faith in love to illumine my path. I thank thee for the courage to walk this narrow road away from the blinding glitter of the illusionary world. The darkness is soothing, for here, away from superficial glitter, the little, but strong flame of pure, immaculate truth in my heart will burn for long… “Black” lends a new delight to the shining lights, to beautiful sights and mighty heights. Though it may not dazzle the eye, or beget a flush of emotions, though it is only like a soft whisper…it begets the struggle to reach for light from darkness, which has great healing powers. Beneath the velvety darkness of the firmament, spangled with stars of my goals, I offer my flame, my verve and vigor to your service. This service will always “come before self”. Accept my offering to thee and grant that as I burn, my radiance may illumine others’ path.
Hiya,
I enjoyed these all these prayers;
Paulo, I was touched by that prayer the first time I read it, and recently almost broke my feeble fingers/brain trying to re-locate and then Bookmark, angel a’s blog-link, so that I had a permanent copy…..
With your permission, thus requested, or without? (passive, too busy to reply, obviously okay….) I WOULD LIKE TO reproduce a leaflet, just like the one you saw at home, here in UK, non-denominational just The Prayer…..
- I think it takes extra special skill to write a prayer, which is to say everything one needs/wants to say each time it is prayed/read or passed onto someone…that’s probably why we learn to pray as conversation with Our God..he listens to the heart at the moment of praying…as well as the words we speak. - that’d be why Edinho was handing it out on paper.
Blessings and Love to All,
LJ xx
Hello, Leaf
of course you have my permission. Love Paulo
Thank you xx
I loved this prayer.
I hope this prayer will reach to as many wandering souls as possible so that they can also get a peace of mind.
I am one of them & I hope from today onwards I should move towards the inner peace.
Thank you for this beautiful prayer Paulo.
God Bless you
Love,
Celia
xx
Admiro demais vc!!Sou sua fã…
Namastê
Thank you for your writing, your books, and your prayer. I love the thanks writing to Bush. =)
Signs. I’m not sure about them. Then again I am not sure about a lot of things in life, including the existance of god. This article got me thinking about a scenario.
Do you know how after the end of a relationship, for a little while at least, everything would remind us of that person? Walking by a favourite restaurant, a song or something as simple as a feeling or thought.
Would you consider those signs? What of a situation where the relationship ought to end and has, but these recurring feelings and thoughts keep coming back.
Could these not simply be memories as opposed to signs? Or could it be that I am completely missing the idea of what signs are?
After all these years, your beatiful words returned to your hand, when you less expected, what a beatiful sign!
Thanks for this prayer and all your positive vibrations!
i was touched by the prayer….had it copied and pasted to a friend’s account immediately ( need i asked first your permission?)
the prayer captured what i want to ask God when i am most vulnerable and unsure of what i want to do especially when what i think may bring major changes in my life. i sent it to a friend who is undergoing great preparation for his vocation in life.
sometimes when i am heavy with emotions, i need somebody to verbalize what i want to say. mr coelho, you did just that in your prayer….should i say OUR prayer.
OF COURSE you and everybody have the permission do forward the prayer. It belongs to the Sould of the World. Love Paulo
Ana,
I would call the emotional ties memories or imprints of the previous relationship. A sign, as I would see it would be, for example, the ex’s initials painted plainly in the sky….before heavy rain, or with a lovely sunset - interpretation is individual/personal that is God’s way of speaking to us all as individuals.
Love J
Hey Jay,
Thanks, that’s what I was getting at. Interpretation. I guess then, by default, you’d have to believe in signs to see them. Otherwise one could simple dismiss these signs as mere coincidence. Guess there isn’t a right or wrong answer but a matter of personal belief. That’s what makes the game of life so confusing for many of us, there aren’t any concrete rules. Hmm, this is my experience anyways.
Hi there,
may I ask you the meaning of the symbol in your blog? looks like an up side down cross; I sort of don’t like it, I mean the meaning, but if it’s different, then I shall change my view.
thanks
freddie OFM
it is a sun with a sword in front of it, the symbol of the warriors of light.
PRAYER FOR YOU
Prayer for You
This is a perfect moment. It’s a perfect moment because I have been inspired to say a gigantic prayer. I’ve been roused to unleash a divinely greedy, apocalyptically healing prayer for each and every one of you—even those of you who don’t believe in the power of prayer.
And so I am starting to pray right now to the God of Gods … the God beyond all Gods … the Girlfriend of God … the Teacher of God … the Goddess who invented God.
DEAR GODDESS, you who never kill but only change:
I pray that my exuberant, suave, and accidental words will move you to shower ferocious blessings down on everyone who reads this benediction.
I pray that you will give them what they don’t even know they need—not just the boons they think they want but everything they’ve always been afraid to even imagine or ask for.
DEAR GODDESS, you wealthy anarchist burning heaven to the ground:
Many of the divine chameleons out there don’t even know that their souls will live forever.
So please use your brash magic to help them see that they are all wildly creative geniuses too big for their own personalities.
Guide them to realize that they are all completely different from what they’ve been led to believe about themselves, and more exciting than they can possibly imagine.
Make it illegal, immoral, irrelevant, unpatriotic, and totally tasteless for them to be in love with anyone or anything that’s no good for them.
O GODDESS, you who give us so much love and pain mixed together that our morality is always on the verge of collapsing:
I beg you to cast a boisterous love spell that will nullify all the dumb ideas, bad decisions, and nasty conditioning that have ever cursed the wise and sexy virtuosos out there.
Remove, banish, annihilate, and laugh into oblivion any jinx that has clung to them, no matter how long they’ve suffered from it, and even if they have become accustomed or addicted to its ugly companionship.
Please conjure an aura of protection around them so that they will receive an early warning if they are ever about to act in such a way as to bring another hex or plague into their lives in the future.
DEAR GODDESS, sweet Goddess, you sly universal virus with no freaking opinion:
Please help all the personal growth addicts out there to become disciplined enough to go crazy in the name of creation, not destruction.
Teach them the difference between oppressive self-control and liberating self-control.
Awaken in them the power to do the half-right thing when it is impossible to do the totally right thing.
Arouse the Wild Woman within them—even if they’re men.
DEAR GODDESS, you pregnant slooth who scorns all mediocre longing:
I pray that you will inspire all the compassionate rascals communing with this prayer to kick their own asses and wash their own brains.
Provoke them to throw away or give away all the things they own that encourage them to believe that they are better than anyone else.
Show them how much fun it is to brag about what they cannot do and do not have.
Give them bigger, better, more original sins and wilder, wetter, more interesting problems.
Most of all, Goddess, brainwash them with your freedom so that they never love their own pain more than anyone else’s pain.
O GODDESS, you wildly disciplined, radically curious, shockingly friendly, fanatically balanced, mysteriously truthful, teasingly healing, lyrically logical master of rowdy bliss:
Cultivate in yourself a fervent yearning for the intimate companionship of these budding messiahs. Play with them every day. Answer their questions. Listen to their stories. Inspire them to love you so much they lose all their hatred forever.
DEAR GODDESS, you psychedelic mushroom cloud at the center of all our brains:
Bless the insanely poised creators out there with lucid dreams while they are wide awake. Provide them with their own spin doctors, and vacuum cleaners for their magic carpets, and solar-powered sex toys that work even in the dark.
Give them a knack for avoiding other people’s hells, and a thousand masks that all represent their true feelings, and secret admirers who are not psychotic stalkers.
Arrange for a racehorse to be named after them, or an underground river, or a thousand-year-old storm on Saturn.
Teach them to be their own prophets and pray to themselves and right their own wrongs and sing their own songs and be their own wives and save their own lives.
DEAR GODDESS, you riotously tender, hauntingly reassuring, orgiastically sacred feeling that is even now running through all of our soft, warm animal bodies:
I pray that you provide all the original sinners out there with a license to bend and even break all rules, laws, and traditions that keep them apart from the things they love.
Show them how to purge the wishy-washy wishes that distract them from their daring, dramatic, divine desires.
And teach them that they can have anything they want if they’ll only ask for it in an unselfish way.
And now dear God of Gods, God beyond all Gods, Girlfriend of God, Teacher of God, Goddess who invented God, I bring this prayer to a close, trusting that in these mysterious moments you have begun to change everyone out there in the exact way they’ve needed to change in order to become the gorgeous geniuses they were born to be. Amen. Awomen.
Rob Brezney (copied from an email sent me last week)
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