A legend: In the beginning of the world the divine light was held in primeval vessels. But somehow no one knows how the vessels were shattered, and discord and confusion spread everywhere. The great task for human beings is to repair the ancient vessels, to gather together the sacred light, to call home all those who have been lost or in exile, to heal the separation and bring peace to the world.
~ from THE FEMININE FACE OF GOD by Sherry Ruth Anderson and Patricia Hopkins
Even when we bring the most difficult situations into prayer, the pain and resistance are in the situations, not in the prayer itself, as prayer is always true to itself. It discloses its own nature — that of a door a passageway to the Great Life of God. Prayer does not hold dismay, even though whatever we pray about may, for prayer move us off the place where we find ourselves and ushers us along — closer, at least — to the place we long to be.