Let Agape flow in the heart of a special person

After finishing a very rough draft of Chapter 2 of my book, I realized that the very act of writing the book is helping me understand how to communicate agape. This 2nd Step in the 7-step agape prayer practice is about holding in prayer a person who has a special part in your spiritual development. Of course, as I've mentioned in previous postings, calling this a 'prayer' is a little misleading, because it is not what people normally mean by 'prayer.'

In order to get a feeling for what kind of praying could be involve with this approach, I advised the reader to practice this step rather than merely reading about it. I explained that the first time this phase of the agape prayer practice is begun, you can come at it from an attitude of honestly and truly visualizing the well-being of one person you choose for the focus. So from this unusual perspective on prayer, imagine specific ways for well-being to develop in the life of that person.

But also I mentioned that the person ‘praying’ is not asking for ‘something’ to happen, but is holding that special person in prayer. In a sense, when Step 2 is practiced, there should be a visualizing of spiritually sharing with that person in a way that a picture is created in the mind's eye of what it would be for that person to connect with agape deep within them and let agape flow in that person’s life.

An insight I came to when writing that chapter has to do with agape coming through another person relating to you. I put it this way: “You may sense God giving you agape through that person. That is one of the beautiful aspects to the spiritual power of agape, that God can bring it into your life through other people, and especially during a deeply moving worship service or a time of intense discussion about spiritual concerns. The more you work with agape, the easier it will be to feel like agape is ‘flowing’ from the person you choose for this step, especially when you are studying with that person or with a group in which that person is a member.”

As I was trying to find a way to describe the kind of prayer attitude I was meaning, I wrote: “St. Paul wrote some 2,000 years ago that the gift of agape is already there in your heart. So this type of prayer comes as a method for waking up to what is deep within you. And one way for a lot of people to know that they need to wake up happens when they see that they are denying that this special spiritual energy is pouring into their heart.”

The very process of writing this book has opened me to see so much more to the deeper dimension of agape.

Agape from the human perspective

Each day the way I prepare to write more of my book is by going into a tree area at the far end of a park near my home and meditate on Rom. 5:5. As I’ve mentioned in previous postings, this morning prayer time includes a ritual to open myself to receive agape. This meditation practice has helped me deepen my awareness of agape. But I started this practice almost 3 years before the thought entered my mind to write my book.

That’s how I came to realize agape as a spiritual power that opens up my awareness of divine Presence manifesting to me. But what should have seemed obvious to me, and yet has only become obvious recently, is the point that this is an explanation from the human perspective.

Oh you might say, “Well, duh. What other perspective could we possibly have?” And yet, it’s important not to think it’s anything other than that. My attitude was that something was starting to happen in the morning, and yet there was something wrong with that perception.

So I went back to the Bible to look up the verse. The first mistake I’d made was glaringly obvious. It had to do with the human sense of time. I'd forgotten that the verse was not in the present tense; in fact, what usually gets called past, present, and future are there in that 1 verse: “and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s agape has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” (Rm. 5:5 New Revised Standard Version) What I’d forgotten is this -- Paul said, “has been poured....”

The second mistake came to me when I realized: God’s agape is not limited by time. Agape is ‘there’ in human hearts, agape has always been ‘there,’ agape will always be ‘there.’ The change that has come to me has to do with the eternal essence of agape.

So what should be obvious to me is the flow of agape from the center of my being has always been happening. Just because I started to become aware of it does not mean that it just started. That’s my own perception problem.

That’s merely another example of how people tend to see identity. What I needed to realize is I could not find my identity with God’s Presence as long as I expected an event that I thought was somehow God 'coming to my ego-identity.' But instead, what agape was doing for me was opening me up spiritually -- I merely had not been open to that awareness. So I needed to be made aware.

I’d tried to explain that this way in a Nov. 22, 2011 posting: “I came to realize that through that action of God's agape, (which came to me as a spiritual sensation that I was being ‘caringly’ and ‘lovingly’ drawn into a close, intimate relationship of divine Presence) I was experiencing an opening up in a deeply devotional way to becoming increasingly aware of a Presence that is always ‘with me’ because there is no way that the eternal Presence is ever ‘not there.’ Any sensation of ‘not there’ is strictly my own lack of awareness, and nothing more.

Wondering about Agape

Writing this book has helped me deepen my awareness of agape. Also I have found myself aware of how much I don’t know about agape.

And as usual with me, what I don’t know is what bothers me. Partly, I’m bothered because I’ve been working on this blog for over 2 years and the book for 2 months, and yet I’m just starting to see that I’ve been missing a lot of the depth of spiritual meaning in agape.

What started this latest realization is my recent re-reading of the Bible quotes with ‘agape’ left untranslated. I started to see that the point being made there is this: agape is spiritual because there is the divine intent that humans must act on agape. That is a requirement -- that’s the point of calling the 2 Great Commandments and the New Commandment by that designation. We are created to live by agape. Humans are commanded!

When in my last posting I used a couple of quotes from my 1st draft of Ch. 1 I was expressing ...

“This type of prayer comes as a method for waking up to what is deep within you. It came to me as a deep spiritual sensation that was a way for finding, in the way that the ‘Kingdom Parables’ of Jesus are about finding what is at the true heart of Life. And in a similar way, the act of sending follows from a deep attitude of finding what is truly best for the ultimate well-being of people.”

After I had posted that, I read it from the attitude of a reader finding it by exploring the internet. What struck me then was the thought that those words didn’t seem to come from me. They must have been inspired because I don’t know what they mean.

To try seeing what they might mean, spiritually, I strung some of them together and came up with the following:

       Agape is meant to “wake us up to what is deep within” -- “at the
      true heart of Life,” and for “finding what is truly best for the ultimate
      well-being of people.”

That shakes me up, because even though I do believe that agape is at the heart of what is “truly best for the ultimate well-being of people,” I don’t yet have a handle on what that means.

Agape Prayer book Ch. 1

I finished the 1st rough draft of Chapter 1 of my book “The 7 steps of Agape Prayer.” Here are a few excerpts.

“This type of prayer comes as a method for waking up to what is deep within you. It came to me as a deep spiritual sensation that was a way for finding, in the way that the ‘Kingdom Parables’ of Jesus are about finding what is at the true heart of Life. And in a similar way, the act of sending (that will be described in later chapters) follows from a deep attitude of finding what is truly best for the ultimate well-being of people.
“Let yourself feel the spiritual joy as you begin finding a vision of your well-being. Let a picture develop in your imagination of what would fulfill your life. Try to sense what that would feel like as your living is effected. Then sense how the spiritual power of agape is part of that. Feel the power of agape flowing into the center of your being. Let the spiritual sensation come to you so you experience being drawn close to and opening up to both the personal Presence and vastness of eternity.”

    Most of the chapter used the methodology of Bible study. I used the approach advanced in this blog of leaving ‘agape’ untranslated so as to see the full impact of what agape means to Christian understanding. Of course, the main NT passage I concentrated an intense study of was 1 Cor. 13, but I also studied parts of Matthew, Luke, Romans, and Galatians.

Agape Prayer Practice -- the beginning of a book

I’ve decided to write a book based on these postings of the last couple of years. I’ll structure it using the form of extended prayer practice that I call Agape Prayer. The last time I reported in this blog on the “Agape Prayer practice” was in the April, 2012 and July 27, 2010 postings.

I developed 7 ‘steps’ with the practice, as I prayed for an expanding list of persons (a few of the ‘steps’ took a long time to develop, so I didn’t move from ‘step to step’ until I was fully ready). The book will give a general summary that makes this prayer practice available for anyone else to follow.

The general outline and extensive notes for the book are quickly falling in line. As the writing is developing, the book structure will be 7 chapters that correspond to the 7 steps of Agape Prayer. So far, I added also an 11-page introduction, mainly explaining my theory that ‘agape’ should not be translated in the Bible as ‘love.’ I plan to add an appendix that gives a selection of the main scripture readings where 'agape' appeared in the original Greek, and I will leave 'agape' untranslated in the listing.

Agape Prayer Practice -- the beginning

For a couple of years, I’ve been developing a form of extended prayer practice. My prayers were enabled by what St. Paul referred to as the spiritual power of agape. As I worked with the prayer, it extended into a series of steps (or phases or expansions).

This series begins with RECEIVING, and the rest of the practice involves SENDING or praying for people, as is recommended in scripture.

[As the reader goes ‘down’ the postings that ‘come after’ this one in descending order, there will be 6 posts, with each one focusing on one step.]

The last time I reported in this blog on the “Agape Prayer practice” was in the 7/27/10 posting. (Most of the postings in this blog for the last 2 years have been about the receiving that makes up this first step in the series.)

As St. Paul explained in his letters: for those who open themselves to be receptive, the spiritual power of agape flows to us as a gift from God; then agape flows through us out to other people, then to the rest of Creation in patient, kind, caring, compassionate, accepting, loving, respectful, joy-filled ways. Even though we know that the flow does not originate with us, but our faith development is strengthened by praying that process.

I developed 7 ‘steps’ with the practice, as I prayed for an expanding list of persons (a few of the ‘steps’ took a long time to develop, so I didn’t move from ‘step to step’ until I was fully ready). I’ll now give a general summary that makes this prayer practice available for anyone else to follow.

STEP 1 begins with receiving agape from God. We need to practice becoming fully aware of what agape feels like as it opens us up spiritually and then draws us close to God’s Presence.

Honestly and truly pray for God to use the power of agape to give you a vision of your well-being. Feel the power of agape flowing into the center of your being. Let the spiritual sensation come to you so you experience being drawn close to and opening up to both the personal Presence and vastness of eternity.

As St. Paul wrote: “God’s agape has flooded our inmost heart through the Holy Spirit … given us.” (Romans 5:5 New English Bible, with 'agape' left untranslated, as it was meant to be)

Of course, these steps are only possible because agape is not coming from you, but is actually the way the divine Presence is made manifest to all that God creates. Obviously, this prayer practice should lead to action -- to the power of agape actually flowing through your life’s work, out to actively helping the lives of people and to the care for Creation.

Step 2 of Agape Prayer Practice

Of the 7 steps involved with the Agape Prayer practice, STEP 2 begins the process of SENDING agape to other people. It starts with praying that the feeling you experienced personally in Step 1 happen in the life of a person you feel close to and respect.

This should be a person who is especially important in your life, possibly someone who had an influence on your spiritual development (maybe even a mentor or teacher). You should choose a person with whom you already have such a strong relationship that you deeply want that person to receive God’s agape in her or his life.

Honestly and truly pray for the well-being of that person. Feel the emotion of sharing in agape with that person. Feel the power of agape flowing into the center of that person’s being. Imagine that person being drawn close to and opening up to both God’s Presence intimately and the vastness of God’s Presence spreading throughout all Creation.

As you pray for this person, you should experience the spiritual concern that this person will find personal well-being and deep sense of peace.


Next, as you slowly, steadily practice steps 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, you will find yourself developing the deep, spiritual attitude of benevolence which seeks the well-being and happiness of others.

You should practice these steps from an attitude of realizing that agape is not originating with you; but instead, you are merely following the divine Presence manifesting the power of agape in the life of the person you are holding in prayer. Over several months spent prayerfully following God’s agape to bring well-being and deep joy to others, you will begin to experience a spreading of peace throughout your life.

As you continue this practice the power of agape should be felt flowing through your daily life, out to strengthen your relationships.