Religious heads continue the inter-religious dialogue or the joint prayer in public [e.g. the Prayer Meetings in Assisi, where Pope John Paul II and leaders of other religions said their prayers for justice and peace], and scholars discuss at international scientific meetings interreligious issues. This is certainly also meant as an inivation for everybody to join both dialogue and prayer.
   Why should we not do here and now what - according to God's revelation - shall be our common eternal occupation? Of what use are those pictures of heavenly life, if they do not shape our life on earth? In heaven there will certainly be no partitions for Jews, Christians, Moslems, Buddhist, Hindus, and Atheists.

   Can we only dream of the future family of peoples, when every country is like a park where 'governmental gardeners' are nursing various trees, bushes and flowers - especially those that are rare? Neither monoculture (to get the utmost profit) nor jungle (the strongest getting to the top) corresponds to the dignity of human beings. Thus, either w e   lay out this park or it will remain a dream.
   But the history of humankind clearly proves that we are unable to pull ourselves out of the mire by our own tuft. Take into consideration the current financial and economical crisis and the global warming, the teaching about the 'original sin' in the Christian creed, Buddha's teaching about the 'greed for life'. There is needed a real change in our mentality so that these parks come true.
     "Nevertheless, we are still in need of a change of heart. We need to confront our inner resistances and cast a grateful look on creation, letting our heart be touched by its wounded reality and making a strong personal and communal commitment to healing it." See: HEALING A BROKEN WORLD, p. 7
   What is needed are more and more people who are aware of their common origin and aim, and who are ready to turn over a new leaf and to live for others. How are we to tackle this? The answer is, by getting united in our prayers and actions for justice and peace. For there is a (personal?) force that can and will tackle it together with us.

   Prayer is understood here in a comprehensive way as the 'yearning of the human heart' - comparable to the 'wordless jubilation' (Saint Augustine). It therefore needs not to be positively directed to (the one) God. There are unbelievers or atheists, too, who are longing for justice and peace and whose hearts go out to the poor, and perhaps it will just be they who will hear in the Last Judgment, 'You have my Father's blessing ...'
   To join CS you needn't become an expert in breathing technics or in the Incessant Jesus Prayer. You will nevertheless profit by praying to the rhythm of your breath. Because you are practising something done through centuries by Buddhist and Christian monks, who have been striving in this way for illumination and peace (Hesychia).

Contrary to a secret conspiracy the CS-button/badge makes public

• either your actual taking part in CS,
• your inner attitude (longing for justice, siding with the poor),
• and your active commitment to the poor (living or working for them, sharing your possessions with them).

This sign or symbol has been taken from the mandala before which Brother Klaus prayed in his hermitage. Its core is the place for the symbol of any religion or world view - not only for Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jews, Moslems, people of good will. It serves as a 'sign of unity' for people who differ by colour, race, religion, language, culture ...

Would it not be great, if such a companionship came into existence, and if people around the world recognized each other at first sight? The CS-badge will answer to the longing of the human heart for togetherness, and help to find someone with whom one can freely talk about one's attempts and achievements, difficulties and successes, questions and insights

Why t h i s badge?

• Its arrows remind us of breathing in and out, of the origin and aim of all reality, and of the threefold prayer of Brother Klaus.
• The two circles can remind us of infinity, whether the infinity of God or of the boundless universe.
• It is the centre of Brother Klaus' mandala. There the encompassing pictures deal with the most important matter for everybody's present and future life.

How can you 'con-spire'? In the way of the Incessant Jesus Prayer, i.e. by calling upon God's mercy. Sit down, lay your hands into each other, relax, become aware of your breathing, take some deep 'drags' - inhaling the 'most precious breath of life' - and exhale in the same slow and attentive way. You can respire in this way also while you are walking, resting on your bed, etc.
Connect then with your breathing the words of the formula chosen by you. There is no sound of words to be heard, because you are praying mentally. Hence the name 'Prayer of the Heart'.

Possible Prayer for Jews, Christians, Moslems etc. * 

By breathing in say the cursive, by breathing out the underlined words.

Prayer Variation

Keep praying in this way as long as you have decided before. The circumstances of your life will tell you how much time you should give CS - whether five, ten, twenty or more minutes are enough per day.

You may imagine thereby that you are looking into the face of Christ, the eternal judge, i.e. any face of a hungry, thirsty, homeless, sick, imprisoned, dead human being. The Judge will not ask first, 'Did you confess your faith in Jahwe, Christ, Allah, Buddha ... ?!
    * The Prayer of Brother Klaus can help us to gain the spirit of unselfishness and detachment, if we say these words in a sincere and trustful way. Of course, we are afraid to ask God, Take away everything... and Give everything... But Jesus says, If you who are bad give good things to your children when they ask you, how much more your Father in heaven. He will give you his Holy Spirit. If we trust in his promise, we will experience its truth. When we have given away everything, and everything that stood between us (i.e. divided our heart), between us and God, and between us and our neighbour has been taken away from us, we shall be the most blessed human beings - here on earth already. Why then should we wait until death w i l l  take away everything from us?!

   CS is prayer f o r  the 'poor' rich, so that they open their hearts and hands more and more for the poor. There is a special urgency to pray for the antisocial rich.
   CS is prayer w i t h  the poor, since love itself will urge us to share their life, respectively their living conditions. There have been rich people who have chosen this path in the past, some of them are well known. They left their castles and served the poor with their own hands. Saint Elizabeth said to her Hungarian maid servants while they were nursing the sick, "How glad we are that we can wash and feed Christ."
   CS is prayer o f  the 'rich' poor. But this is rather the aim than the reality of our life. There it is not any longer about social poverty but at stake is our attitude of detachment, our ability to surrender ourselves to God, to love wholeheartedly him, our neighbour and ourselves. The Beatitudes name it: Those who are poor before God. Let us hold alive in our hearts the longing for this Blessed Poverty, and let us pray that the Wonder of the Beatitudes (Mt 5,1-12a) will convert us.

  The greatest part of humankind is living in poverty, which is caused for the most part by the rich and mighty who defend their stolen possessions even by force of arms. This injustice must not be tolerated. According to the holy scriptures of the Old and New Testament especially the poor are loved by God. God sides with them against the rich, the mighty, the violent. If I want to be at God's side, my heart has to go out to the poor, orphans, strangers ...
   As its name suggests, CON-Spiration for/with/of the poor aims at poverty. Poverty does not mean material need but to get rid of my attachment to possessions and to become free of greed.    Nobody wants to choose poverty in itself.

In the Christian creed the revelation of the mystery of God's love is crystallized in the dogma of his Trinity. His being 'three in one' is founded in the Father's totally giving himself away to his Son. The Son, too, gives himself up to the Father. The personified love of both is named Holy Spirit.
   Since the Son of God has chosen the path of poverty (manger and cross), and - as the risen Lord - totally identifies himself with his humble brothers, I will ask him to move my heart this way: To identify more and more with the poor, and so become eventually united with God, who out of love to me became poor so that I become rich.
Hence poverty means to follow the example of Christ, means discipleship. For example to take up the Lord's advice, and to bind oneself by the vow of poverty to the poor Christ, as it happens in religious orders where nuns and monks, apart from their personal belongings, have no private possessions (cars, houses, bank accounts ...) - forming in this way a community of goods or, if you like, a commune. The founders of religions and those who have tried to restore the foundations of their religion had a special liking for poverty.
   The modern way of life has to a large extent been shaped by the American way of life. It needs urgently and persistently a counterposition, because it causes great injustices and damages. Big business and globalization prophets want to lure people into this mentality: To become consumers, competitors, and careerists.
There is happiness and bliss in people who are really poor, poor in spirit and mind. God's blessing rests on them (Cf. Mt 5,3). They live in union and peace with themselves and with others - as is shown by their lives. To strive after that kind of poverty, pays off.
   Whether we like it or not, in the course of our life we approach this aim. In the hour of our death we will leave everything behind. To be prepared for it means to give up a lot of things and persons that have troubled my heart.
   By meditating on poverty you will certainly find enough reasons to side with it or, as Saint Francis said, to choose poverty as your bride.

IF YOU are convinced that Common Prayer will support and inspire the worldwide engagement for justice and peace, and so better the living conditions of the poor, and

• IF YOU have a homepage:
  Install a link to CS on your homepage. You can use the badge as link button.



• IF YOU are an expert in WWW matters and close friends with members of other religions and world views: establish an interreligious body / association and promote CS or something else of that kind. You will then among other things agree on a common symbol and on the use of the proceeds from its selling (for the poor).



• IF YOU hold a leading position in your church or religious community: Promote CS.



• IF YOU are in charge of a holy shrine:
  Distribute badges and leaflets to invite to CS. Ask badge producers and printers to supply you.



• IF YOU are a badge manufacturer / printer:
  Make badges and offer them for sale to places of pilgrimage, holy shrines, and shops selling devotional articles. Do not forget the manual!
  The badge could be designed according to St. Nicholas' madala or to the CS half of the Ying-Yang. Its center is to enable the exchange of the religious symbols. Thus, one can wear for a short while the symbol of a different religion, and acquire a sympathetic understanding of its followers.



• IF YOU have influence in the UN or other international organisations:
  Suggest to open the sessions with a short silence for CS. There might even be a special lamp h symbolizing the breathing in and out.



• IF YOU are a millionaire:
  Sponsor a competition between pupils of schools where children of different religions are learning together:
  Who creates the most inviting CS-Website?



• IF YOU are a multi-millionaire:
  ???



• IF YOU are Pope, Patriarch or Chief of a religion or religious order:
  Announce - in view of the forthcoming canonization of Pope John Paul II - the 'APPA' (Assisi Peace Prayer Award) for the winner of a (worldwide) competition for spreading the common prayer for justice and peace.



• IF YOU are a publisher:
  Put an advertisement into your daily or a banner as link button on your website.


 
• IF YOU are a church rector or shopkeeper:
  Call people's attention to CS by fixing a placard on the bulletin board / shop window. How about printing lots of banners which can be taken along by your 'customers'?



• IF YOU are Postmaster General:
  Print stamps
  
  



• IF YOU have friends:
  Invite them to join CS - especially when they belong to other religions.



• IF YOU are inventive:
  Get helpful ideas to spread CS, and realize them.



• IF YOU are courageous:
  Wear a T-shirt with the CS banner, badge or CS-logo.



• Last but not least: Con-spire!

If you want to write for CS a short information about your religion or world-outlook: Write only about the following:

1. Name the ultimate and decisive aim of your religion.
2. By which way or means can this aim be achieved?
3. Give two suitable prayer formulas of your religion.
4. Name the symbol of your religion (crescent, cross, lotus, star of David etc.)

Or design a Con-Spiracy-Website about the background of your religion and put it into the web!

Imagine the Lord God in Paradise, breathing Life into Adam.
Alternately, you may imagine the Risen Lord greeting the Apostles,
"Peace be with you", breathing on them the Holy Spirit,
and granting them the ability to forgive sins.


Say in the way of the Incessant Jesus Prayer

by breathing in

Peace

and by breathing out

be with you

[Back to 'formula']
See also:
[Praying With the Name "Jesus Christ"]  [Praying with one's first or Christian name]

Provided the "animated" gif-file is working on your page,
the moving gold illustrates the breathing in and out.
Everybody may choose (prayer) words and breath rhythm proper for her/him.

Helpful Texts 2005 - 2006 - 2007 - 2008 - 2009 - 2010 - 2011 - 2012
Index of Names - Index of Topics

Christoph Albrecht SJ - Comment on the Reprimand of the Liberation Theologian Jon Sobrino SJ
Helge Stadelmann - What Evangelicals Like to Contribute to the Overall Church Dialogue
Johannes Müller SJ / Johannes Wallacher - Forty Years Populorum Progressio
Marco Moerschbacher - When Black Priests Bring Themselves to Notice
Alexander Foitzik / Werner Schönig - "An Ethical, not a Political Problem"
Tahsin Görgün - Humans as Creatures And Deputies of the Creator
Stephan Leimgruber - New Perspectives of Interreligious Learning
Raif Georges Khoury - Christians in Lebanon and the Arab Culture
Johannes Röser - To Dare More Democracy - within the Church
Christoph Krauß & Gerhard Kruip - Caught up in Self-blockades
Hamideh Mohagheghi - Only Obedient Wife and Good Mother?
Alexander Foitzik / Josef Sayer - "Not Separate from the Poor"
Luis Gutheinz - A View into the Workshop of Chinese Theology
Johannes Müller SJ - Climatic Change and World-wide Poverty
Hans Maier - 'There Is Missing a Common European Feeling'
Christian Ruch - Buddhism in the German-speaking Countries
Christian W. Troll - Muhammad - Prophet also for Christians?
Dieter Senghaas - How to Reorient the Intercultural Dialogue
Petra Kolonko - Peking Olympiad in 2008 and Human Rights
Rita Süssmuth - Change of Perspective with Consequences
Pierre de Charentenay SJ - Is there any future for Europe?
Reinhold Esterbauer - Christian reason as soul of Europe?
Andreas Heuser - To a Large Extent Unknown Neighbours
Michael Reder - Reform of World Trade and of the WTO
Armin Laschet - More pragmatically than a few years ago
Michael Schrom - Controlled Democracy and Wild Faith
Alois Koch - Johann Adam Schall von Bell (1592-1666)
Albert Keller SJ - Intellectual Discussion or Tolerance?
Andreas Fincke - A Chimera of Freedom of Religion
Dieter Senghaas - Is There Any Future For Peace?
Christian Frevel - Socialists and left-wing Christians
Jürgen Springer - 'We all always pray for the Pope'
Ali Dere - How Much Islam Does Pluralism Stand?
Walter Cardinal Kasper - Changes of Ecumenism
Martin Maier - Fifth General Assembly of CELAM
Georg Evers - Politically and Religiously Strained
Wolfgang Schonecke - No Simple Programmes
Erich Zenger - The Jesus Book of Benedict XVI
Magnus Striet - Does a God who is silent exist?
Magnus Striet - Not For All But For Many Only?
Christoph Böttigheimer - Truth and Tolerance
Hans-Joachim Höhn - "We are the original!?"
Michael Sievernich - Fauxpas in Aparecida?
Walter Cardinal Kasper - Faith and Reason
Peter Heine - A Distinctive Self-confidence
Daniel Bogner - Interpreters or Lobbyists?
Gerhard Kruip - Another world is possible
Harding Meyer - Standstill or new Kairos?
Harry Harum Behr - An Ordinary Subject?
Ernst Ulz - Our Message Are The People
Volker Gerhardt - The Rationality of Faith
Margit Eckholt - Creative on New Ways
Alexander Foitzik - Option for the Poor
Gerd Stricker - An Absurd Programme
Karl H. Neufeld - Second Africa Synod
Martin Leiner - Faith in Christ and Myth
Veit Strassner - The Nerves Lie Bare
Jürgen Springer - The Chinese Letter
Georg Evers - Calm after the Storm?
Ulrich Ruh - Continuity and Flexibility
Hans Zirker - Why I am not a Muslim
Annette Schavan - Europe's Wealth
Bernhard Grom SJ - Christian Zen?
Ernst Ulz - A Powerful Revolution
Jürgen Springer - Frayed Puzzle
Georg Evers - 'River and cross'
George Evers - Hopeful Signal
Karl Osner - Meeting the Poor
Ulrich Ruh - Is God Coming?
Klaus Müller - New Atheism?
Martin Maier - Inculturation