How Does Prayer Fit with How We Treat Ourselves and the Earth?

A lesson from Father Payton: praying together makes a difference

I have a confession to make.

Scrolling on Facebook this morning I came upon Joseph Serwach’s article on Father Patrick Payton (1909–1992), a famous Catholic priest. He not only coined the phrase, the family that prays together stays together, but he made that his mission. He also said a world at prayer is a world at peace.

He trotted the globe and enlisted leading lights of politics and Hollywood, Catholic or not, to help spread the word to millions. Which he did. Some amazing transformations happened, and they made a documentary called Pray: The Story of Patrick Peyton,

One of his quotes invites us to take God off the shelf and into our lives.

But the God he took off the shelf, into his life, heart, and breath was not the Lord or Jesus, but the holy mother, Mary. Calling himself, Mary’s donkey, he healed himself of tuberculosis in the 1930s by praying the rosary, which is what he taught families to do together.

There’s an intimation in his story that shortly after he spoke to and prayed with huge crowds in Manilla, some of those in attendance were part of the peaceful transition that got rid of Philippine dictator, Fernando Marcos.

What’s my confession?

Besides wondering if I should start praying the rosary for myself and the planet?

My confession is that I have of late been feeling overwhelmed and discouraged. About my life, my priorities, my lack of organization, and the fact that I am not where I thought I would be by now.

I’m also discouraged and overwhelmed about some of the same things having to do with the state of the world and our planet. We as a global community are not where I thought and hoped we’d be by now, given the information we have. We know better, but we don’t do better. By each other, and by our Mother GAIA.

When feeling overwhelmed and discouraged, I pray.

I believe the power of the word can change reality. I believe it can heal. It made a difference in my Hodgkins Disease. Just like it made a difference in Father Peyton’s TB.

Praying also shifts something in me.

After praying, my spirits are lifted, my vibration’s higher, my burdens, lighter from surrendering them to Spirit.

Are my neurological pathways re-wired from praying? Does it change my brain as neuroscientists Andrew Newbert and Mark Robert Waldman write in their book, How God Changes Your Brain? After all, praying interrupts the vicious hamster wheel cycle of self-pity my thoughts get trapped in.

Father Payton broke through my spiritual funk.

Just in time for Earth Day!

He’s got me thinking about ways to ritualize and tactilize my praying, the way holding a rosary in our fingers and reciting something for each bead does. He’s got me thinking about the Holy Mother and the connections between the earth and our bodies. And the power of people praying together.

Let me quote him as quoted in Joseph’s article:

Peyton asked: “That question, ‘Where does prayer fit in today?’, I’d say where does your heart fit in your body? Where does the air fit in when you breathe? It’s an essential dimension in our very lives.”

Let me breathe that in and sit with it a moment. This is deep y’all.

What came through from doing that is connection.

There’s a deep connection between how I treat myself, especially my body, and how we treat the earth.

Some examples:

I tend to be dehydrated. Or at least, I drink way more tea than pure water. I buy alkaline, electrolyte water for my body, which it needs, but I don’t drink enough of it. It took researching and writing about that–again! — to get my attention and start drinking more water.

The earth is dehydrated. So many places are so parched, they’re deserts or forest fires waiting to happen. Yes, there are floods and rising sea levels due to global warming, but there’s way too much dry, dry, dryness. Land becomes inhabitable, forcing folks to flee just to eat.

Let every glass of water remind me to thank and bless the earth’s deserts, floodplains, and rivers.

I pollute my body with toxins. I still eat food with chemical additives that aren’t good for me. Even though I’ve cut down, I use too much sugar and caffeine, unhealthy meats and fats, artificial sugars, and preservatives.

Just like we pollute the earth with toxins. Chemical fertilizers and pesticides into the soils, industrial waste into the air and waters. We burn coal and fossil fuels and use nuclear power. Just to name a few. It feels like we’re one sneeze from global disaster.

Let every fresh green I eat remind me to thank and bless the soil, the air, and the lakes.

I still use far too much plastic. So does Trader Joe’s where I buy my fancy water in blue plastic bottles. I could take a glass jug to Whole Foods and purchase similar water. Our produce gets wrapped in baggies, sometimes those green compostable ones, but not always. I could pay attention to where I shop.

Our addiction to plastic is killing the oceans and the creatures living in them. I don’t have to tell you. We all know about the island of plastic in the Pacific bigger than the state of Texas. And we’ve seen pictures of animals trapped in it or dying from ingesting it.

Let me remember to change my shopping habits. And let those trips remind me to thank and bless the oceans and all her creatures with abundant life.

I live in my head so much of the time. I ignore my body. I have to make myself get up and move. Go for a walk, dance, eat real food, pray, love, and read a real book. I act like my body isn’t connected to me or impacted by my thoughts. I have a book called, Your Body hears Everything You Think and Say. Duh!

I take my body for granted and act like it’s going to live forever on air and chocolate. As with prayer, I act like I don’t need to ritualize the healthy and healing practices and do them consistently. And lovingly.

Just like we’ve disembodied the earth. We take her for granted and act like she’s going to live forever despite the way we’ve been desecrating her. We love, adore, and award Greta but don’t follow through on her urgent message.

Greta doesn’t want our love.

She wants us to do the right thing before it’s too late.

I say doing the right thing is how we love both our bodies and our planet.

These things are connected. We have consumer power. If we all buy organic greens, the chemical farmers will have to convert. The more fossil fuelless cars we buy, the more of those they’ll make.

When COVID first hit and we weren’t going anywhere, did you see what that did for the skies and the waters? In large cities all over the world, folks breathed clean, clear air for the first time in years. Dolphins frolicked in Mediterranean shipping channels. And much, much more.

That was a reminder–we can do this. The impossible.

With the willingness–-an intangible we all can pray for. Together.

We don’t need to run out and get rosaries. I happen to have prayer beads given me by a minister who taught us to say mantras bead by bead.

I, and we, can do that with our prayers, Ho’oponopono, and other mantras. And I can call on the Trinity — the Holy Mother, Mama Gaia, and the Divine Feminine, in all their shimmering loving presence.

In fact, I did just that when I stopped halfway through writing his article to breathe and sit with these ideas. Thusly will I continue to pray. Holding and fingering my prayer beads, bead by bead. Prayer by prayer. Every day.

Won’t you join me? Illuminaste.

Marilyn Flower’s the author of Creative Blogging: Ninja Writers Guide to Character Development and Bucket Listers, Get Your Brave On. Clowning and improvisation strengthen her resolve during these crazy times. Follow her Sacred Foolishness and Stay in touch!