There was a protection prayer written by James Dillet Freeman in 1940. It reads as follows:


The light of God surrounds us;
The love of God enfolds us;
The power of God protects us;
The presence of God watches over us;
Wherever we are, God is!

This prayer was written for a Christmas service in the middle of one of the most horrendous tragedies on our planet: World War II. In the mind of the poet, from his own recounting of the process of writing this prayer, was inspired by the need to help those during such a tragedy, and to reassure all those in the conflict that God was somehow still a part of the equation.

Mr. Freeman was a part of the Unity movement, and as such this prayer is prominent even at the service of Unity. When I was first studying Spiritualism, it is a prayer that was also taught to me to start and surround myself with a form of spiritual protection while serving and working with Spirit.

As with all things, it is necessary to grow up in the realities of the experience and the realities of the experiences of those we read and learn. We all have amazing experiences, we all have projections and interpretations of what the experience means. The mission of each of us needs to not only wake up in the realization that there is more than us, and that we are not alone, but also refine the process by which we interpret our experiences.

The first is to remember that everything we think we know comes through the realm of the human senses; even the information that comes to us from our very soul. When this is remembered and held close to use first and foremost, we remember that all our interpretations are clouded by our language, culture, dogmatic upbringing, parenting, fears, praises and in the end any superstitions we may still hold. This is part of the human condition and the human experience, to live out a life in which we learn what love, compassion and service is without having the entire faculty of interpreting the trueness of the universe. We may get glimpses. We may have extraordinary moments, days or even year of complete clarity. Those that express this type of experience often find the experience far beyond all words as the experience transcends thought and goes right to the essence of ourselves within creation. This complete merging and spontaneity with the Universe, with Spirit, with Divine Mind brings about both awe and sometimes confusion as the experience is integrated into the human experience.

Integrating this awareness comes with the work of healing and growing up within the experience for those who wish to fully integrate the awesomeness of love that resides within merging essence with the All. In this refinement, in this growing up we find that fear is no longer necessary. We find that fear is a human construct built around the mis-interpretation of signals our human body had no idea what to do with, and the brain turned it into a story to be weary. We find that no one ever is left behind by Spirit, because we are all engulfed within the Oneness of Creation at every tiny second. We realize that our awareness at present encompasses only a fraction of what our Trueness of Spirit, our Higher Self which resides outside the confines of humanness and is pure essence intermingling in the sea of unconditional love which is the Universe. The Trueness of who we are, and what we are as manifested individualized consciousness, cannot be destroyed or detracted. Our Essence is wrapped within the essence of even more individualized consciousness that route for us, engage in our human stories, whisper encouragement and learn as much from our experience as we learn from them. We may know them as Guides, Masters, Angels, Totems, Deities, Helpers, Past Loved Ones, Soul Family, etc.

Our humanness creates prayers of protection to remind us that God is always with us. Our essence reminds us that we are part of all that Divine is. Our Souls push us on to refine and grow up within consciousness to know that fear is a manifestation of misinterpretation of energies. We are never alone, we are completely loved, no one is ever left behind, and even if we are completely aware of another’s human thoughts wishing us hatred or ill, those energies have no power over the Light each of us are created.

Our prayer then may become:

Grace of Creation I am grateful for the opportunity of experience.
Divine Mind I am aware of the Light I share with You.
I am humbled and awed at the opportunities presented for me.
I am willing to serve, learn and grow in Compassion and Love.
I am surrounded by Grace.  I allow mine, and Your Light to Shine.

This post written in response to a question posed about the need of protection within spiritual work.

Protection?