The Welcoming Prayer

The Welcoming Prayer is a powerful practice of surrender and transformation. It invites us to embrace our present experience fully, including difficult emotions and circumstances, as a path to healing and freedom.

By welcoming everything that arises - thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations - without judgment or resistance, we create space for grace to enter. This radical acceptance allows us to respond to life's challenges with greater compassion, creativity and love, rather than reacting from old patterns.

The prayer guides us to let go of our attachments to security, affection, and control - the ego's attempts to manage life. As we release these desires, we open ourselves to God's loving presence and healing action within us.

This practice empowers us to face pain and suffering directly, feeling it fully in our bodies. By identifying with the suffering side of life, we cultivate deep compassion for ourselves and others. We realize how much it hurts to hurt, which naturally softens our hearts.

Ultimately, the Welcoming Prayer frees us from the exhausting struggle against reality. It teaches us that our resistance causes more suffering than the circumstances themselves. As we surrender our opposition and welcome what is, we discover an unshakeable peace and connection to the divine.