The process of joining this prayer vigil is straightforward. First, we ask you to invite and encourage as many colleagues and followers as possible within your spiritual organization to enter into this prayer vigil. You can do this by forwarding this call for the prayer vigil as widely as possible within your own networks.

Second, we ask you to announce the particular prayer or practice schedule that your group will be maintaining during the vigil. Some groups will be holding prayers once a week, others once a day, and a few monasteries will be maintaining prayers and meditation around the clock, 24 hours a day during the entire vigil. Any form of prayer and any prayer schedule that your organization chooses is fine. The vigil begins on February 1 and continues through May 16. If this stretch of time feels too long for your group, it is fine to join the vigil for a portion of this period.

Finally, we ask that you send notification of your participation to us at info@innernetoftheheart.org, and we will include your specific prayer or spiritual practice schedule you are maintaining during the vigil. If you are not able to begin on February 1, this is no problem, simply begin as soon as you are able. If you would like to begin sooner, all the better.

When we receive your announcement, we will post your participation and schedule on our website, along with the schedules of all other spiritual groups that are participating in the vigil. This website (www.innernetoftheheart.org) continues to expand, and will facilitate mutual awareness across the globe for all spiritual groups participating in the world-wide prayer for peace.

 

If so, we ask you to join this vigil all the more vigorously. Many spiritual communities or organizations are already engaged in prayers for peace, many on a regular basis—yet they are still joining the vigil as a way to commune with others around the world praying for peace.

As an example, we approached the Christian mystic Father Thomas Keating, founder of the Centering Prayer movement, about joining this global prayer vigil. He responded enthusiastically and indicated his intention to engage the 18 regional monasteries in his order, and also to promote the vigil in several hundred Cistercian monasteries around the world. After noting that the Cistercian monastic order is already engaged in prayers for peace six or seven times every day, Father Keating emphasized that “what is crucial about this global prayer vigil is that it is organized, conscious, and focused. It is important that we are praying for peace in communion with our counterparts in other faith traditions around the world.” We invite your organization to join this prayer vigil in a similar spirit.

 

Given the urgency of the global crisis and the pressing need for healing, the prayer vigil must begin as soon as possible. However, a number of spiritual groups and communities will require time to organize their participation in the vigil. Therefore the vigil can begin immediately for those groups that are able to do so, and the official starting date for the global vigil will be on February 1, at sunset local time, all across the planet. The vigil will continue uninterrupted for nearly 15 weeks, concluding at midnight on May 16, 2003.

Today is

original photo of M31 by Neyle Sollee, sangreobservatory.com    -  click here to view original photo