The prayer I’ve been saying for quite a while now, when I felt discouraged, was “I choose to trust that the wider, more inclusive, participatory, sacred cosmos is real, and holds the world I love in compassion.” I say “I choose…” because I am unable to trust, I don’t really believe, but I want to set my compass needle in that direction even when I can’t move in that direction. I first found those words about the cosmos in an article by Francis Weller in Cosmos Magazine. I’m surprised to see that I never did a blog post about them, because the “wider, more inclusive, participatory, sacred cosmos,” became such a powerful concept for me.
“Wider” is the Cosmos I saw when I realized that the reality had to be bigger than the “Big Bang” or the “Steady State.” Looking back in my blog, this is the closest I can find to a description of the Universe I suddenly had a vision of when I was wondering what was the true cosmology. When I was getting my degree in Astronomy, in the 60’s, the competing theories were the “Big Bang” based on the assumption that the Universe is expanding and getting less dense, and the “Steady State” based on the assumption that space was able to create hydrogen atoms. Of course now, everyone believes that the “Big Bang” is fact when the truth is that it’s just a hypothesis that so far has been upheld by the data. If someday someone found out that the “red shift” could be caused by something other than motion away from you, the hypothesis would have to be considered questionable. I was thinking about this one day years ago, and suddenly felt that both the big bang and the steady state were too simplistic for the reality. I suddenly saw a vision of an enormous realm of galaxies and stars and light moving in complex patterns. More recently I wrote “My new mantra is: the universe is unbelievably beautiful, extraordinarily complex, intricately interconnected, and outrageously creative.”
“More inclusive” is the understanding that everything matters, every being is important.
“Participatory” is the understanding that we make our world together. Stuart Kauffman says: “We’re participants in the story as it unfolds. We aren’t victims and we aren’t outsiders. We are part of the universe, you and me, and the goldfish. We make our world with one another.”
“Sacred” — how could it be anything else?
One day I was saying this prayer and instead of saying “the sacred cosmos is real” I said “the sacred cosmos is alive.” The word “alive” just occurred to me, signifying that it was coming from “that of god” within me. Then the word “intelligent” added itself. And finally, my new understanding from Cynthia Bourgeault added “and works through me to create a better world for all.” I somehow understood this process even though I didn’t know I did. But I say “The Universe guided me to Stonehenge” attributing intelligence and good intentions and a specific need that this Universe had.”
So my prayer has become: I choose to trust that the wider, more inclusive, participatory, sacred cosmos is alive and intelligent and works through me to create a better world for all. Just saying it fills me with positive energy.