Prayers for the Poor

[katnut]

Some religious practices ask that you pray for the poor or for the less fortunate. Other prayer, in contrast, deals only with yourself and your correction. Your job is determine what you need in order to be complete. They pray to advance in your completeness.
This does not mean that you do not care about other people, especially those who need extra help. Correction means becoming altruistic instead of egoistic. Therefore, caring for others is "built-in" in the prayer. If you are not praying to become altruistic then you are not praying for correction anyway.
Being poor means being deficient, not having something. But why pray for something instead of working to get it? Because there is one thing that, no matter how hard we work for it, we will never get by ourselves: the Creator's quality of bestowal. So praying for the poor is wanting everyone to have the quality of bestowal because that the only thing they can't find on their one. Those who pray for the poor, for others, are rewarded first.
Your opinions?

---
"Only a life lived for others is worth living" ~ Einstein

 

[Scott Free]

I don't see that praying for the poor is anymore likely to bring "bestowal" than a typhoon, tsunami or hurricane.

Using your logic it seems to me god doesn't care for the poor much if poverty isn't considered "something."

Most religions seem to make a big deal out of poverty as though it is desirable. In this case it makes sense to pray the poor will become poorer if your one of those altruistic types willing to take on the burden of wealth for them.

 

[FUBAR]

Being poor is relative to those around you. Someone considered poor in Canada would be wealthy in other parts of the world. So would praying for the poor in Canada be less altruistic than praying for even poorer people somewhere else?

 

[scratch]

Being poor is relative to those around you. Someone considered poor in Canada would be wealthy in other parts of the world. So would praying for the poor in Canada be less altruistic than praying for even poorer people somewhere else?

Take care of your own before all. We have a problem with the working poor and this is not acceptable.
Prayer be damned, we all have a problem within our borders to take care of, and it is not getting better.
Decide.

 

[dirtylinder]

Perhaps offering them a sandwich, job, or coat would make one richer....prayer is for people who believe in prayer, it's not for me.... for future reference... if I ever become poor, i'll take the sandwich thanks!

 

[lone wolf]

Take care of your own before all. We have a problem with the working poor and this is not acceptable.
Prayer be damned, we all have a problem within our borders to take care of, and it is not getting better.
Decide.

The plight of the working poor compounded the plights of the disabled when minimum wages went up 10% and grocery prices went up 25% to compensate. ODSP went down by 10% in 1995 and has gone up in three tiny bumps of twenty bucks a hit in all that time. Can you live (in Ontario) on $1000 a month or $520/mo if you're trapped in the Welfare rut?

 

[Nuggler]

Great big heaps of groveling prayer and $1.75'll get ya a medium double double at Timmies.

8O

 

[Nuggler]

The plight of the working poor compounded the plights of the disabled when minimum wages went up 10% and grocery prices went up 25% to compensate. ODSP went down by 10% in 1995 and has gone up in three tiny bumps of twenty bucks a hit in all that time. Can you live (in Ontario) on $1000 a month or $520/mo if you're trapped in the Welfare rut?

Wait till the next election, Wolf; that's when they trot out all the neat things they're going to do for the working poor or otherwise poverty stricken.

Soon as election is over, some dipsh!t mentions global warming, or the Mongolian Pine Beetle, and..........so much for the working poor or anyone else for that matter.

:x

 

[lone wolf]

Great big heaps of groveling prayer and $1.75'll get ya a medium double double at Timmies.

8O

8OGEE-ZUZ! Is it a buck seventy-five now? Last time I had extra in my budget for a Timmie's break it was a buck thirty-five! Minimum wage hey?

Good thing the mortgage is paid off in January 'cuz I sure as Hell can't afford rent any more and the extra will be swallowed by gas and hydro increases.

...and I'm one of the better off!

 

[quandary121]

Well i think to pray, is to humble one's self to others in worse conditions than yourself. As you may have all you need and as you pray you take time to reflect on others, after praying you should go out and do something to help, other wise why pray empty words, as there are people praying that you do do something.! And that there prayers might be answered too. you might be that answer if you were as committed to helping as you were to praying

 

[gopher]

Prayer doesn't work to alleviate life's problems That's why I deserve a wealthy wife!

 

[lone wolf]

Prayer doesn't work to alleviate life's problems That's why I deserve a wealthy wife!

...then I had to pray TWICE as hard! :lol:

Woof!

 

[Dexter Sinister]

I don't see that prayer has any value at all, under any circumstances. A lot of believers, for instance, would argue that there's a divine plan with components that address all these details, and in that context prayer makes no sense. If what you're asking for is part of the plan, it'll happen anyway, and if it's not, it won't, nothing you can do will make any difference. As George Carlin once put it, there's no point in being a supreme being with a divine plan if any schmuck with a $2 prayer book can change it.

And if there's not a divine plan, who do you think you're talking to? I know of no good reason to think anyone's listening.

 

[talloola]

I think prayer is helpful for many, as it is like a sugar pill, they truly believe that it will
help them get through a tough time, and an attitude like that can be helpful for the
health and mental state of many, it would never work for me, as I don't believe in prayer
at all.
If one is praying for the poor, and doing nothing else, the poor will continue
suffering, and will make no gains, but the person who prayed, will think he has done well,
what a waste of time. Do something real and constructive for the poor, food and clothing.

 

[Dexter Sinister]

Yep, I'd vote for you, talloola. As far as I can tell, prayer doesn't make any difference. And if you doubt that, try praying for something entirely benign and selfless, believing in the New Testament's claim that all such prayers will be answered. Pray, for instance, that all cancers will go into remission and every cancer sufferer will recover. You know perfectly well what'll happen: nothing. Prayer doesn't work. Nobody's listening.

 

[katnut]

Kabbalists encourage you to be involved in society. You can interact with people or give them a helping hand. But praying for others' condition is praying to have the quality of Creator's quality of bestowal. Private correction is individual, but it would not be possible without the help of other Kabbalists, past and present. Collective prayer is also the desire that all souls reach correction , not just your own. Because all souls are connected, the progress of each soul makes a difference to the whole. When everyone does not seek correction, it is like having some students in a school class that have not read the textbook: it stops everyone in class from learning.
This is why Kabbalists spread the word of wisdom through books and learning centers to help others to correct.

 

[Lester]

I agree talloola: deeds- not words,make the difference.

 

[talloola]

I agree talloola: deeds- not words,make the difference.

And also, when others make gains, and their suffering is over, or their wounds are healed, none of those things happened from anyone praying, 'actual' events took place,
or acts of nature, and real help from others, but to think or say that better days came
about from the prayers of others is not true, although many will take the credit for
doing just that.
Praying for others to do well, is only a form of self satisfaction, and to then
walk around thinking that your prayers are actually making others heal, is ludicrous.

 

[karrie]

I sat in church when I was young, and looked around at all the people in our tiny church. I thought to myself how exhausting it must be to have that many people, let alone all the people of the world, constantly imploring you for this, that, or the other thing. And I decided then and there that I wouldn't sit around asking for stuff. Instead I pray in thanks, and only thanks.

Ultimately, it's given me a different outlook. To sit down when someone you love is dying, and pray in thanks... it takes your mind to a different place, puts you in a different perspective. I don't know where I'd be today if I let myself sit around asking God for the things I or others need.

 

[china]

Dexter Sinister

Prayer doesn't work. Nobody's listening.
I know of no good reason to think anyone's listening.

You are, Deter Sinister , You are listening .