“I praise you and raise you in the name of love.”
I used to repeat this prayer many times each and every weekday morning during my commute to work, which was only 13 miles but sometimes could take as long as 2-1/2 hours depending on weather, fires, accidents, road construction. and a seemingly long list of other inconveniences and annoyances that are a part of living in Los Angeles. At the time, I was taking a class studying the work of metaphysical New Thought mystic Emma Curtis Hopkins who taught Ernest Holmes. Emma’s teaching is that when we see others, and ourselves, in the Highest Light we are able to then consciously shift into this Divine Illumination of Truth: that we are all made out of and into God’s Divine Love, and so we are the love that God is.
This was not always easy for me when I’d have to sit in a long line of traffic watching a construction crew block the road ahead while backing tractors and two-ton trucks into an already palatial residence that was getting even greater and grander upgrades. I’d stew in resentment that these homeowners of multi-million-dollar homes were so selfish as to cause me to be late to work. I obviously was not seeing so clearly. Another one of Emma’s teachings is “do not be deceived.” I was letting myself be deceived by holding on to thoughts and feelings of blame, shame, and guilt. By the time I arrived at work, I’d be flustered and frustrated believing that I had no choice but to try to endure the daily torture of this commute.
But then I learned this short affirmation of Truth. So, when someone would cut me off, I’d say out loud: “I praise and raise you in the name of love.” Well, uhm… sometimes it went more like, “A___ h___! - I praise and raise you in the name of love.” But the more I did this spiritual practice, the less I used such emphatic language – and the more I started to really believe the words and take them to heart.
One classmate told me that she had the same experience. How she described it was that “this brainwashing really works.” I started to differ with her on the use of the word “brainwashing,” but then I silently said to myself, “I praise you and raise you in the name of love.” And when I did, I realized that yes, this prayer is a washing and cleansing of the brain, of the lower level thoughts of mind that cloud up our thinking from seeing and knowing the absolute Truth of Divine Love that is ever present, ever powerful, ever now and always.
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