Prayer has the ability to transform the world. It can change so called reality. It can bring light and goodness into dark corners, into the world, and into our hearts.”

How do you eradicate darkness? Not by beating against it, but instead by bringing in the light. When you walk in a dark room and want light, you don’t shout, “darkness be gone”, but instead, you simply open the curtains or turn on a light switch. Prayer is that light switch. It connects those who pray with the focus of prayer – to the GREAT DIVINE to whom we pray. We may not even know to whom we are praying, but we have some sense that there is a universal source of goodness that can hear our prayers and answer them. For some, they attune to a specific aspect of the Divine; Jesus, Adonai, Buddha, the Holy Mother, Lord Shiva, Mother Lakshmi and countless other aspects of the Divine. For others the divine is more abstract, as the Holy Spirit, or YHVH, or the Cosmic Being. It doesn’t matter as long as we approach this being with love, humility and respect. ~ Rev. Shankar Fern

“Prayer for Ukraine” (Ukrainian: Молитва за Україну, romanized: Molytva za Ukrayinu) is a patriotic Ukrainian hymn published in 1885, which became a spiritual anthem of Ukraine. The text was written by Oleksandr Konysky, and the music was composed by Mykola Lysenko, first with a children’s choir in mind.

Lord, oh the Great and Almighty,

Protect our beloved Ukraine,

Bless her with freedom and light

Of your holy rays.

With learning and knowledge enlighten

Us, your children small,

In love pure and everlasting

Let us, oh Lord, grow.

We pray, oh Lord Almighty,

Protect our beloved Ukraine,

Grant our people and country

All your kindness and grace.

Bless us with freedom, bless us with wisdom,

Guide into kind world,

Bless us, oh Lord, with good fortune

For ever and evermore.

………

Source: Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

About the Author

Rev. Shankar Fern

Rev. Shankar Fern

Reverend Bruce Shankar Fern, M.Ed, IYM, CH was given the Sanskrit name Shankar directly by his Guru, Sri Swami Satchidananda and is one of Swami Satchidananda’s senior disciples and a teacher having taught all aspects of Yoga to many hundreds of students in the US and Canada. Shankar practices deep spiritualty while actively living in the world and cares deeply about all our spiritual growth and the release from suffering and delusion. When teaching, Shankar invokes the Light of Lights to bless all in his presence. He will be the first to tell you anything good that comes from him comes from the Divine Force which of its own accord chooses to use him as an instrument. Shankar is an Integral Yoga Minister who does humanistic coaching and spiritual counseling (he was trained as a psychotherapist) as well as spiritual wedding ceremonies, family and pet memorial services, birth ceremonies and house blessings. He is also on the Board of Directors of the NY Integral Yoga Institute and a Chaplain in the NY Putnam County SPCA. In the business world, Bruce is the president and founder of Change-Ready Solutions, which provides businesses with training and consulting to enable them to value and leverage diversity for better decision making and innovation in their organizations, teaching managers to recognize the Spark of Humanity in all people versus being distracted by superficial differences.

Comments

2 Comments

  1. I cannot open the request for to make a prayer offering,

    Reply
    • You may also email prayer@iyiny.org. Thank you for letting us know.

      Reply

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