www.worldprayers.org/

Through prayer we communicate with the Divine in us, the source of lasting peace. Such is the spirit behind this engaging website, which offers viewers a collection of prayers and meditations from the world’s various religious traditions.

Basically four types of prayers are presented: Invocations (petition and healing); Meditations (reflection and contemplation); Celebrations (thanksgiving and affirmation); and Adorations (devotion and love). The home page features each of these categories, which offer viewers random selections. I accessed “Adorations” and viewed a verse from the Book of Deuteronomy; “Meditations” showed me a prayer from the Dalai Lama; a touching prayer of Martin Luther King, Jr. was found in “Invocations.” With each click, a new prayer or meditation appeared. An index is also available to browse the various traditions by category or religion.

Seeking a prayer of which you only know a few words? Input them in the dialogue box in the Search menu, and you are offered a list of selections containing the words you have chosen. This is a busy, troubled world in which we live. Is there any better time than now to turn within, and let our hearts and minds flow into God? This inspiring site can help us to do just that.

—Cliff Johnson

---

The Spiritual Chicks Question Everything: Learn to Risk,Release,and Soar

By Tami Coyne and Karen Weissman
Paperback, $14.95
Red Wheel/Weiser

Real life doesn’t go away when we’re on the spiritual path—it is the spiritual path."

So say the “Spiritual Chicks,” a pair of savvy New York women who became writing partners in 1994, after meeting each other in a spirituality discussion group. This delightful and irreverent book takes a different approach to New Thought spirituality and metaphysics, and is organized around 60 questions, including, “Do I Need a Guru?” “If I Have Free Will, How Come I Keep Making the Same Mistakes?” and “Why Do You Think You Need to Do Something?”

Each question is followed by a short essay, usually humorous, sometimes hard-hitting, and sometimes poignant—which elaborates on the subject at hand. The foundation of the book is what the authors call the One Life Principle: the idea that there is a single power in the universe, expressing itself in many forms. Since this is the case, we each have our own way of exploring our spiritual connection, so there is no need for “spiritual name calling,” i.e., labeling things as “good” or “bad.” The Chicks posit that “everything is spiritual—even stuff we don’t like or don’t agree with.” Ultimately, their counsel is to (1) question everything; (2) condemn nothing; (3) and then, align ourselves with what we want. Not a bad approach to life.

—Jan Suzukawa

---