“Prayer to Passage” is a phrase that I coined in 2004 while living in New York City. I prayed for God to speak to me in a way that gave me a real answer to what I was dealing with at the time. My husband had recently left me for an affair with no word of his return, I had no money, and I was plagued with uncertainty and despair. I needed an immediate answer.

Following my prayer, I stepped outside of my Greenwich Village apartment to go for a walk. On the sidewalk outside the door to my building was a small piece of paper. I felt called to pick it up. It was blank. And something said, “Turn it over, Addi.” As if to say, “Addi, it’s Me, God. Turn your life over to Me. Believe that I have words for you in this immediate moment.”

I looked to the other side of the blank paper. It was the inner fold of of a book jacket. The book it had been cut from was ‘The Four Agreements’ by Don Miguel Ruiz. I wasn’t familiar with the book, so I began to read.

Here is what it said:

.
“THE FOUR AGREEMENTS

BE IMPECCABLE WITH YOUR WORD. Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

DON’T TAKE ANYTHING PERSONALLY. Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.

DON’T MAKE ASSUMPTIONS. Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness, and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

ALWAYS DO YOUR BEST. Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgement, self-abuse, and regret.”
—Don Miguel Ruiz

I thought it was some of the most inspirational, profound writing I had ever read. And it spoke to me with such clarity that I knew it was the beginning to a communication with God that would be a continued blessing in my life. The passages on that paper were answers to a prayer. And I couldn’t imagine what discoveries were waiting to be created anew.

Now, I utilize Prayer to Passage every day. It adds an intimacy to my conversations with God that flourish our relationship with immediate words to live by. I will be adding Prayer to Passage to each blog entry, starting today. Sometimes I concentrate on a specific question. Sometimes I feel the pages of a closed book in silence for a moment before my fingers reach the page to where I open the book. I invite you to try it.

I’ll start. Today I have ‘Meditations from Conversations with God’ by Neale Donald Walsch. My question to God is, “How can I better trust that writing a blog about my communication with You is the right path?”

In silence, I’ll concentrate on the closed book until I find my page. And I’ll open the book to share the passage with you. Here is the passage from page 188: “Fear is the opposite of everything you are.”

And it is that simple. I will blog on… fearlessly.