Quick updates on Don S. and Cobus

Dear Ones,

Updates were posted on the Chapel Prayer Wall

http://healingprayers.wordpress.com/prayer-wall/

Please know you are most welcome to add words of encouragement to people on the prayer wall. There is a little place to hit “reply” under their comment.

God  bless you.

Joy to you,

Mary Kretzmann

We were very glad to hear this on Don Schultz:

Hi Mary,
Quick update on Don Schultz. He is home today and doing better. Dr.’s still do not know what is/was going on. We will let you know if we hear anything.
In His Joy and Light
Ashleigh

And here is an update on Cobus - from Ronel (his sister – my mistake earlier !)

Dear Mary
Thank you for adding Cobus to the prayer wall. It comforts me to know that people are praying for him. Please keep on praying for him.The symptoms of his illness are making him very uncomfortable and as as a result he struggles to get enough sleep.We are also waiting for a donor and the uncertainty sometimes makes us anxious.

Can you ask in your prayers that Cobus will experience the Divine presence and total peace irrespective of circumstances. I believe that for God all things are possible and that this crisis will pass.

Ronel

And here is a bit more on Cobus:

“…He amazes me in that he is still working full time despite the fact that he is really suffering as a result of all the symptoms.Although he is aware of the risks and not afraid of death he is planning his life after the transplant He is also going through a divorce….

2 Prayer Requests

1) I received this note today from Lori ( from Palos Verdes Estates, CA) a long time Ananda member from southern California, and a member of the Healing Prayer Council.

Mary, my husband Don Schultz, age 47, is in the hospital with chest pain and high blood pressure. The doctors do not know what is happening. May I request emergency prayers for healing and master’s light to assist him with recovery and his physicians to assist?

Blessings, Lori

I also sent this out to a list of 120 people today via gmail,  and both of these requests have been posted to the facebook prayer  group – “Prayers and Healing Techniques.”  So – even if you can only pray for a few days – I think it will help move the energy. I hope to get updates ASAP.

2) This man is on our regular prayer list – but I wanted to add his name here, as well. It came in through his brother,  Ronel (also in South Africa) who has just joined the healing prayer council. So – I see it as a form of support for the both of them.

Cobus Marx
Cape Town, South Africa
Condition: Liver and kidney failure. He is preparing for a double transplant.

Right now his condition seems to be getting worse. So  I told Ronel the prayers are meant to support his brother in body, mind and soul…no matter what the physical outcome. Full healing is possible – but it is not the only outcome, of course,  to an intense scenario like this. Some big karma is involved when a person needs a double transplant to survive. So – it is good to bless him and ask the Divine Light to dissolve his karmic burdens NOW.

And this can lead to healing or the transplant…we have seen it both ways…

May he be blessed in the all transforming Light of God.

age 42; male
(Tall blonde man.Green eyes. He has a good heart…
He has a lot of integrity and a strong will. May he open to receive healing now in body, mind and soul)

These are posted on the Chapel page as well – and hopefully updates will be posted there soon…

http://healingprayers.wordpress.com/prayer-wall/

God bless you.

Joy to you,

Mary Kretzmann

Ananda Healing Prayer Ministry

November 309 Newsletter

I am sending this out early because of this announcement:

Special discount to the Ananda Healing Prayer Ministry to the Vibratory Healing Experience! Just tell them you are a member of the Healing Prayer Council. I will be teaching on Wednesday – and there are some wonderful classes taught by Lila Devi – on flower essences, and by Mangala on affirmations and mantras, and more. Mangala and I have taught together many times in the past in the class called Divine Will Healing.

This event is next week – so this is a last minute discount for anyone who can make it! I understand that might be a little too close for most of you. Joy! Mary K.

Click below for your pretty, printable version of the newsletter:

November Newsletter  – printable version: http://www.scribd.com/doc/21773932/Nov-309-Newsletter

November NEWSLETTER:

Every year we celebrate Thanksgiving in this country (USA). Let’s try to take it deeper each year, and each day, as the 1934 letter from Paramhansa Yogananda reminds us on the following page.  Here in the Ananda Healing Prayer Ministry, we receive many letters, e-mails and phone calls of gratitude. This, in turn, makes me very grateful for each and every one of you, who make this ministry possible.  So this month I will share some of those with you here. Of course, not all prayers result in full physical healing. But everyone who is open and receptive in some way does receive comfort and grace from these healing prayers in their time of need. God bless you all.

Joy to you,

Mary Kretzmann

Ananda Healing Prayer Ministry, Nevada City, CA 95959

Testimonials

Dear Ones,  Ken Loughman was given 2 months to live in Nov & Dec 2008.  Your prayers were answered and he has gone back to work.  Thanks to all. Blessing to All, Sylvia S.  – Lynn, MA

Thank you Mary for the prayers for Martin Magaya my sisters son who was suffering from pneumonia in Zimbabwe he is completely healed and is now a committed Christian. Thank you God bless. – Barbara D., Australia

Mary, I just wanted to give you feedback.  My Dad’s energy has returned and he’s doing well.  My daughter Kristy who you prayed for at the renewal week in your class is doing quite well and shortly after I put her picture in the frame with the photo of Master’s mother she got a full time job in an assisted living facility…

Thank you kindly, Blessings, Lynn W.  Fair Oaks, CA

Dear Mary, I received a phone call last night and was told that George S. is doing extremely well.  They did a test on him and it appears that he is doing so well that he will be going home in two weeks.  They said he will not need to go to rehab and that his sugar levels are normal so he doesn’t need any insulin.  This is truly a miracle.  Many thanks and blessings to all who prayed for him.  Joy to you, Kaye – Florida

Dear Mary, Thank You for your Healing Prayers for our son on Thursday night at the center in York, ME. I want to share with you that we have seen healing taking place in minute ways since then. We are very grateful… It was wonderful to see you and your family.

Blessings! A devotee in NH

“Thank you for praying for me when I broke my arms so severely. It was a serious break, especially for someone in her 80’s! The doctors are astonished that I am healing so well, and with so little pain. Thank you very much. I would like to come visit Ananda when I am completely well. I am doing wonderfully.

Thanks again! Pauline E. – Florida

Thanksgiving Letter to Friends and Students

BY PARAMHANSA YOGANANDA (Inner Culture Magazine, November 1934)

Every day should be a day of Thanksgiving for all the gifts of Life–for sunshine, water, and the luscious fruits and greens which we receive as indirect gifts from the Great Giver. He makes us work so that we may consciously and thankfully deserve to receive His Gifts. The All-Sufficient One does not need the benefit of our thankful hearts, but when we are grateful to the Fountain of all gifts, our attention is concentrated, for our own highest benefit, upon the only Great Source of all supply, which alone can unfailingly, undeceivingly bestow upon us the lasting gifts of wisdom, abundance, and Spiritual treasures without the confinement of any mundane measure.

There are millions of people today who are drunk with egotism, who think that they keep themselves alive because they feed themselves with their self-earned magic gold of delusion. They never stop to think that man can neither make a grain of wheat, nor a leaf of green, nor the illusory, glittering, yellow gold, nor the paper and ink of which greenbacks are made; neither can he create first life independently of God–the life that gives power to the precious green papers. For these people, Thanksgiving Day, although soiled with the blood of unthankful turkeys, is a great day of awakening and of thinking of the most important and the most forgotten Molder of our Destiny.

People, drunk with delusions, eat meat almost every day, and at the same time forget the Savior who saves them from all sorrows. It doesn’t matter how many turkeys are sacrificed in order to offer thanks to the Giver of all Life, if only meat eaters may have their meat and think of the Most Adorable One at the same time. However, it is better to eat meat and think of God, rather than add to meat-eating the highest sin–God-oblivion. But many of you could thank God in meditation more consciously and better while munching on the meat of peace, than while dipping your lips in the gravy and the flavor-camouflaged flesh of a turkey, where once sensitiveness guarded the throne of Life.

Millions of people who eat turkey forget to thank God at all, and think more of the turkey than of God. A few people thank Him for the taste of savory turkey. If you eat turkey, be sure to stuff it with the best Bliss-spiced dressing of thankful remembrance of God for all His highest gifts of wisdom, peace, power to accomplish, and also for His other inconsequent gifts of turkey dinner, and so forth. Be sure to thank God for forgiving you for compelling the quickening of the turkey’s evolution against its own will. And also thank God that you are not the turkey, to be used for the festivity of Thanksgiving.

I am glad for you if you can find Heaven just by not forgetting God while partaking of your august turkey dinner, and I shall have to be happy for the turkeys, that they have found Heaven, and freedom from the misery of daily gobbling and the fear of waiting their doom through all of you, even though they were unwilling that it should happen.

Anyway, don’t mind my sympathy for the turkey, for I am more sympathetic toward you, who are superior to the turkey, lest you bring greater trials upon yourselves by forgetting God. He is waiting to hear your unceasing knock of devotion and to open the Gates of Omnipresence to receive you. Whether you eat turkey or not does not matter if you will only knock hard with devotion on the doors of your heart. He will open the Gates of Omnipresence to receive you.

Make every day a day of Thanksgiving (without regular feasts) and continuous contentment will sparkle in your body, mind, and Soul. If you eat turkey, be sure to search for the all-freeing God from then on until you find Him on the brink of unceasing seeking.

Dear Ones,

I couldn’t resist sending you this Thanksgiving letter from 1934…It rings with inspiration, humor and compassion for all (including the turkeys!).  I do know many of you will have a vegetarian Thanksgiving, which was almost unheard of in 1934, but some of you will be at family gatherings… God bless you all.
Mary Kretzmann

God bless you all.

Joy to you,

Mary Kretzmann

Ananda Healing Prayer Ministry

Rifqa Bary – Correction

Dear Ones,

I inadvertently sent out an e-mail update about Rifqa Bary that is no longer correct.  The situation has changed again – and it looks like she will be sent back to Ohio. This news came out after I had written the other post.  I have since taken that post off-line.

Some prayer requests are like that – it takes a very strong continuing force of Light to keep the situation in a state of “healing.”

I feel she needs all the prayers she can get.  She is in God’s hands, as we all are.  So – I leave this to your judgment as to whether or not to keep her name on your personal prayer lists.

And – I believe strongly in her case and that she deserved much greater protection than is being offered to her now. In many countries in Europe, if a girl comes forward with a request like hers, they automatically  put her in a witness protection type of program. They have learned the hard way.

It is possible that the publicity of this case will protect her…And, as in all prayer requests,  it is good to remember that this is all God’s dream and that the soul never dies.

God bless you all.

Joy to you,

Mary Kretzmann

Please Pray for Steve Kundert

Steve Kundert - Madison, WI  (or vicinity) – married; in his 40’s or 50’s

Longtime Ananda member.

He is hospitalized with a massive MRSA infection. His body is very swollen.

He had a MRSA infection in the past and it was cured with massive antibiotics.  He recently had surgery and the MRSA came back. It could be a re-infection – or a new one.  He did not want to do massive antibiotics again – but it has now become a necessity.

See him full of vitality in body, mind and soul.  See the presence of God, Christ, Guru in his hospital room filling him with healing energy. Also see a shrine of Light in his heart as a home for God, Christ, Guru.

Affirm  with loving command, “You are whole for God is in you. You are well for God is in you. “

Also affirm, “BE thou whole for God is in you. Be thou well for God is in you.”

Send this command of life force to his body, mind and soul. May it bring him complete healing NOW. Also  – may it heal whatever karma is behind the recurrence of this infection. May the karma simply be dissolved in God’s grace, or if necessary, may it be dissolved in a flash of insight. Whichever is best for his soul now.

Sometime ago I read a wonderful story about a small prayer group praying for a hospitalized woman.  The patient felt the presence of the prayer group so clearly that she thought they were in the room with her.  She could even see their faces!  That is a remarkable experience – but know that it is real, even if the patient does not always feel it that clearly.

Think of Steve receiving all of our prayers as a wonderful wave of healing light as we pray for him over the next few days.  See him smiling and well.

Thank you all for your prayers.  I will try to get an update on this very soon. This is going to about 182 people.

God bless you all.

Joy to you,

Mary Kretzmann

Ananda Healing Prayer Ministry

and Healing with Divine Energy blog, and prayer team.

PS. Sometimes I also send out smaller “hotline prayers” via my gmail list. Those go to about 50 people when something warrants it.  Actually  – ALL of the prayers warrant it – but I have to pick and choose…

Two urgent requests from Ananda India

These 2 urgent requests came in and this was the best way to get them into your capable hands…Of course, it is Divine Mother’s hands flowing through you and through Her infinite Love.

I am in New Hampshire  – I will be teaching at the Ananda center in Maine this Saturday – but I am checking e-mail. I am sure that this will reach enough hands to bless them with prayers now…

#1)  Arjan Dev Khanna?(see note below)  – It is for Manju’s father. Manju and her husband hosted my family when we were there in India in 2007. The were wonderfully gracious hosts.

This note came in via e-mail from a dear friend in India  – a member of the Ananda Center in Gurgoan (near Delhi).  I will also ask my facebook prayer group to pray, and I’ll see if Lipa can put updates there or in the comment section here…

#2) Kanta Sethi – Kolkata, India (Calcutta)  – she is currently in Zurich, Switzerland – see note

Love in God, Christ, Guru,

Mary Kretzmann

http://healingprayers.wordpress.com/

Dear Mary and Ramani

Hi! I think both of you know Manju. She serves in our ashram. Mary and Tim stayed at her place last time when they were here in India.

Her father has been taken ill suddenly and in the ICU. All his organs are failing.  They are suspecting it could be cancer of prostrate. His kidneys are enlarged. Lungs are full. Heart is also not in good condition. They haven’t yet found the right diagnosis. Its is still unclear as to which direction the treatment should be.

His name is Arjan Dev Khanna. I assume he will be in his eighties. He has been very brave despite all these things happening to the body.

Please pray that the doctor may come to know how to treat his bodily ailment. May he be completely healed- body, mind and soul.

Thank you, angels. Love and blessings to you both.

In Master,

Lipa

And a second time sensitive prayer from India (dated October 6)

Dear Mary,

Jai Guru!

My mother Kanta Sethi, who was visiting my daughter in Zurich, has had a stroke and her left side has got affected.

We need guru’s light to help her recover and be repatriated to India.

The insurance company is refusing to pay hence it has become very stressful for the family.

I request you to kindly request all our guru brother and sisters  include her in their prayers.

Ritu Duggal

Ananda Sangha Kolkata

Testimonial to the Ananda Healing Prayer Ministry:

Dear Ones,

Ken Loughman was given 2 months to live in Nov & Dec 2008.  Your prayers were answered and he has gone back to work.  Thanks to all  Blessing to All

Sylvia S

October Newsletter – 309 Dwapara

Ananda Healing Prayer Ministry

(Note: I send it out here first…you can get a printable copy on scribd here)

Healing Story of Light:

Several weeks ago a woman called me from town, wanting prayers for her grown daughter concerning a very serious and unusual matter.  As we spoke, I was struck by her spiritual good sense, and yet I could see that she needed extra support for her special prayer concern. We kept in touch as the situation developed, and I gave her some healing suggestions to keep God strongly in her mind during this time. Meanwhile, I got a small, specialized prayer team to focus on her prayer need. The last time we spoke – it was clear that Light had entered the picture, and this matched some of the reassurance that I had felt in prayer. A member of the prayer team also confirmed this. So – this created a special understanding over the phone, and she then told me why she had called the Ananda Healing Prayer Ministry in the first place.

She said that about 18 years ago she was at a very low point in her life.  She had married a veteran who had Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. She loved him and wanted to help him, but in the end, his troubles brought out her own pain, and she turned to alcohol. One night she was in very deep despair about her life, and was overwhelmed and helpless. She then awakened in the middle of the night to a bright light filling her room with healing grace and peace. At the center of the Light, she saw the face of Paramhansa Yogananda. She recognized his face from book covers but she had never read his books. She was not a disciple or a follower at that time – she just knew who he was.)  She asked, “Where is this Light coming from?” and she received the answer, “It is coming to you from Ananda.”

She said this was unquestionably the most important event of her life. She changed her life; she left her husband, and got sober. She visited Ananda Village a few times over the years, but never really latched on, so to speak. However, she became very dedicated to Christ. He became her guide. She has also helped to shepherd others toward clarity and Light.

This experience of Light happened to her so many years ago that there is no way to confirm if anyone had actually placed her name on the prayer list, but it is very probably so. (We often pray for local situations, for it is one of our best ways to be truly neighborly. People remark that they feel the healing prayers, and are greatly helped. This has helped to foster positive vibrations with the local community.)

Anyway, isn’t it amazing that so much can be happening and we don’t even know? So many blessings of our Masters are available through Ananda via books, music, the websites, meditations and healing prayers; it brings to my mind this quote from the Gospel of St. John: (John 21:25)

“And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.”

Swami Kriyananda in Los Angeles

I also felt expansive blessings going out during Swami Kriyananda’s recent talk in Los Angeles. It was a very special feeling to be outdoors in the amphitheater, with the darkness and peace of the evening all around us, listening to Swamiji. The audience, made up of long time Ananda people and many first time listeners, felt very connected in the heart to what he was saying. I highly recommend you watch the video of the event here.

And finally, I wrote a piece in September for my healing blog called, “The saddest prayers…” concerning the tragedy of how to pray for victims and families of suicide.  Here is a condensed version. More can be found at healingprayers.wordpress.com. I also invite you to sign up there to receive the special e-mails if you haven’t already.

The saddest prayers… (Excerpt)

1) I will pray for the soul of the person myself… When praying this way, I first make doubly sure that I am feeling strong in the Light of God, Christ, Guru.   I look at picture of Paramhansa Yogananda’s eyes, whether I am praying in my office or before an altar.

I ask the Masters’ power and grace to flow through me to that soul. When I feel a sense of contact with the soul, I pray: “Look up! Look up! Look up into the Light!”

No matter into what dark mists a soul may temporarily fall, there are angels there – right above – waiting for him to look up again…In suicide, a person…temporarily lost faith in his own ability to  “look up” for the Light…The soul needs to be firmly called, and re-awakened to look up again.

It is also very good at this point to make a strong prayer demand to God, Christ, Guru: “Help this soul, NOW. Please touch this soul NOW with Thy Light!” (Note – if you feel at all uneasy, do not pray in this way.  It may be “too close” for you. Please read on for a more “removed” prayer in #3:)

2) We put the names of the family on the prayer list for healing of their shock and grief.  We will also mention the name of the suicide victim in the prayer request…This helps you to empathize with the family on their loss, and to send some prayers to the victim, but only if you feel able…

3) So, if you feel so inclined, you can add in a prayer for the deceased soul as well. You can use the one-part Divine Mother Prayer, and then ask the Masters to watch over that soul.  …When you do the three AUMs, make them strong and powerful. This keeps you strongly as a powerful sender of the energy and not a potential “receiver” of the darkness or depression that overwhelmed the soul.

4) I will also suggest to the family and/or close friends to pray for the soul for years to come. This is a great source of spiritual comfort and direction for a soul who has died in this way:

Get a picture of the deceased in which he looks relatively happy, or strong…  Place it on a special shelf as a prayer altar, with holy things to remind you of God…When you see that altar – send loving thoughts of God’s Light to the soul….  As time goes on, do whatever seems natural and best for you, and allows you to heal in God’s peaceful presence… Continue with prayers for that soul daily, or weekly, …or on holidays, birthday and anniversaries. All of your loving prayers are helpful…

God bless you all.

Joy to you!

Mary Kretzmann

Ananda Healing Prayer Ministry

and

Healing with Divine Energy blog

Pray for Deeanne Perin

Hotline prayers

Prayers now for her surgery and immediate comfort and healing are most appreciated. We’ll also get her name on the regular prayer list for next week

If you can pray into next week  – that would be wonderful – because the first list of the month goes out via “snail mail” – so people won’t get it right away. But please know that whatever you can do is helpful. It is in Divine Mother’s hands.

Deeanne Perin, Seattle, WA

She has a really bad break in her leg; will have surgery on Friday October 2.

Here is a note from her daughter,  Mary Perin,  a first grade teacher at the Ananda Living Wisdom School  in Seattle.

Thank you so much…Her name is Deeanne, she lives in Seattle, and she fell and badly broke her leg. She is going to have surgery this Friday morning to insert a plate under her knee. So it looks like she will be in the hospital until possibly the middle of next week.

Again, thank you so much for your prayers!

Mary

Bless you all for your service through prayer!

Mary Kretzmann

Ananda Healing Prayer Minsitry

Dr. Russell Blaylock on Flu Vaccines and vitamin D3

Fall and Winter Health Tips

I am offering these health tips for your own education to make wise choices for yourself or your family.  Paramhansa Yogananda gave health tips in his mail order lessons.  Some health problems are best “cured” by preventing them in the first place, whether it be through nutrition, fasting, cleanliness or avoidance of toxins.

There is concern these days regarding swine flu and/or the swine flu vaccination, and possible mandatory vaccinations.  (Several states have these laws on the books, but probably would not be activated unless there was a large and serious outbreak.)

I thought you might appreciate this video series from Dr. Mercola and Dr. Russell Blaylock (NeuroSurgeon,  Author,  Lecturer,  Educator).

He’s the most knowledgeable that I have seen on this topic.  He reads  extensively, including the many studies on vaccines and disease. He really digs and gets solid information from the CDC and the best medical journals.

His specialty was neurosurgery and he is especially concerned with reports on how substances affect the brain and nervous system. His remarks are based on science, and not only on anecdotal stories. We receive many prayer requests for children and adults with neurological conditions, so I think it is worth hearing him out on this.

Dr. Blaylock’s website has a wealth of information on many health topics: http://www.russellblaylockmd.com/

#2 Discusses stealth virus contaminants  in vaccines; squalene and other adjuvants in vaccines (and its relation to auto-immune diseases) and much more.  In the testing phase – CDC reports the no adjuvants were used. It tested the virus only, but the actual vaccines will be heavily laced with adjuvants (this is an aspect of “fast tracked”).  This is a serious health concern regarding neurological health. He also points out the enormous profit to be made by the pharmaceuticals via mass vaccinations.

#3 Discusses that prior to this fall, vaccines with adjuvants have never been used on children. “So children are being used as guinea pigs.”  Discusses squalene used topically or orally (safe) vs. injected (dangerous immune reaction.) Also discusses mercury, and the effect on infants and pregnant women.  (They are being pushed to the head of the line to have these vaccinations.)

#4 Discusses types of people susceptible to higher risk with the flu.  He also disputes the high numbers being projected by some people in the government.  – Vitamin D3 – including his recommended dosages for adults and children; Selenium to help the immune system – especially for older folks to prevent flu. And much, much more…

Be happy and be healthy.

God bless you all,

Joy!

Mary Kretzmann

The saddest prayers…

As the Ananda healing prayer ministry grows, it is inevitable that we receive prayer requests for that deepest of personal tragedies, a suicide. We have always received some such prayers, but the number of prayer requests for suicide victims has indeed increased over the past year. (The number of suicides has also increased on a national level.)  My heart goes out to the families involved.

Also, because at least one of these recent suicide prayer requests directly pertained to economic woes, I was moved to write the free e-booklet called, “Opening to Divine Abundance.“  About 1500 people have read it in the last 3 months. (The booklet offers in-depth help, including special prayers and affirmations.)

Suicide is a tragedy not only for the victim, but for family and friends left behind.  It leaves a sorrow that cannot ever be filled, except with the peace of God. They are left with an aching heart, and wishing they could have somehow known, and prevented it from happening. It requires special prayers for both the family and the soul of the victim. Many times the family had no idea the person was at such a level of risk.  It is heartbreaking, but healing can occur through God’s grace.

I am protective of the healing prayer council, and the types of prayer requests we send out to you.  This is because  I don’t know exactly who will receive each prayer request, since there are 700 of you.  Some people feel unsure about how to pray for the deceased in general, and especially for those who died under dark circumstances (murder or suicide).  I fully respect that; each person has a different karma and thus there are varying  levels of spiritual strength and insight for such healing prayers.

My normal response has been this:

1) I will pray for the soul of the person myself… When praying this way, I first make doubly sure that I am feeling strong in the Light of God, Christ, Guru.   I look at picture of Paramhansa Yogananda’s eyes, whether I am praying in my office or before an altar.

I ask the power and grace of our Master to flow through me and touch that soul. When I feel a sense of contact with the soul, I pray: “Look up! Look up! Look up into the Light!”

No matter into what dark mists a soul may temporarily fall, there are angels there – right above – waiting for him to look up again.  It is their divine service to reach down and lift up that soul to the next appropriate level. But he must look up to the Light.  In suicide, a person (despite his other good qualities)   temporarily lost faith in his own ability or to  “look up” for the Light. That is why I pray so commandingly. The soul needs to be firmly called, and re-awakened to look up again.

It is also very good at this point to make a strong prayer demand to God, Christ, Guru: “Help this soul, NOW. Please touch this soul NOW with Thy Light!”

Note – if you feel at all uneasy, do not pray in this way.  It may be “too close” for you. Please read on for a more “removed” prayer in #3:

2) We put the names of the family on the prayer list for healing of their immense shock and grief.  We will normally also mention the name of the suicide victim within the body of the prayer request.  However, I will not list the name of the victim as the main recipient of the prayers. (This is to honor, as I said, the varying needs and abilities of the healing prayer council. Without all of you – there would be no council! So, I am careful.) But knowing the name helps you to empathize with the family, and to send some prayers, if you feel able…

3) So, if you feel so inclined, you can add in a prayer for the deceased soul as well. I recommend simply using the one-part Divine Mother Prayer, and then ask the Masters to watch over that soul.  Feel you are placing this soul in their divine care. When you do the three AUMs, make them strong and powerful. This keeps you strongly as a powerful sender of the energy and not a potential “receiver” of the darkness or depression that overwhelmed the soul.

4) I will also suggest to the family and/or close friends to pray for the deceased for years to come. This is a great source of spiritual comfort and direction for a soul who has died in this way. Here is what I normally suggest:

Get a picture of the deceased love one in which he or she looks relatively happy, peaceful  or strong.  It can be a small photo.  Place it on a special shelf as a prayer altar. Place some holy things on the altar to remind you of God (such as a Bible or a picture of Christ, etc.) When you see that altar – send loving thoughts of God’s Light to the soul.  In the beginning, do this daily because your own grief is strong, and your thoughts are with this soul. It heals you to send this energy,  and your loving thoughts and prayers definitely help the soul in need.

As time goes on, do whatever seems natural and best for you, and allows you to heal in God’s peaceful presence.  You might continue with prayers for that soul daily,  or weekly.  Do pray especially on any days when the sadness is strong, such as holidays, birthday and anniversaries.  You cannot avoid thinking of the person then, so this helps you to bring God’s Light into that process. All of your loving prayers are helpful.

(You might also choose to set the photo front of a much larger picture of Paramhansa Yogananda or Jesus Christ. (Or tuck a small photo into the corner of the picture frame. However, do not use your main altar photo as this space should be kept peaceful and clear for your own devotion and meditations.) In this way – it is much easier to picture that soul being cared for by the Divine Presence.  Whenever you see the altar, invoke the blessing and guidance of God, Christ, Guru on the deceased soul.)

I’ve wanted to write up something that can be sent to families when they are hit with this tragedy.  (I will also include testimonies from Ananda ministers who have prayed for family and friends in this way.) For now, this post, which is primarily directed to you, the prayer council, contains the seeds thoughts that will be held in that upcoming piece. I will let you know when that is ready. I would love to read your comments, insights or questions, as they may help me in writing this compassionate piece. You can send me an e-mail – or leave your thoughts in the comment field, especially if they may be helpful to others.

Please know you can leave a prayer request for any and all departed souls (or living!) on our CHAPEL page.