BY SOUL’S CODE — Have you heard a question that goes like this from competitive friends, motivational speakers or, say — the foremost practitioners of American reality TV, Oprah and Donald Trump?

“Where do you want to be five years from now?

Which reminds us of a joke . . . How do you make the Gods laugh?

Answer: tell them your plans.
At the age of 20, what were your fantasies?

Supplementary question: How many fathoms of experience away is that from the present-day?

We created Soul’s Code because we wanted to ask ourselves more telling questions, like: What’s the most loving thing that someone has ever said to you?

Anyone and everyone out there has shared their answers on our Love Scroll, which is literally a rolling scroll of messages in the right sidebar of this site.

The responses resonate because they often have an archetypal quality.

It’s partly because the question is very old. Based on an ancient sacred rite, people would form two centric circles, facing inward. After some meditation, those in the outer ring whispered their personal inspirations into the ears of those in the inner circle, rotating around one by one.

Some submissions on the Soul’s Code Love Scroll:

GP Reply27. Jun, 2011 at 10:54 am

My 4-yr old said to me…”Mommy, you make my heart happy.”

nancy Reply 10. Nov, 2009 at 1:01 am

. . . after i was sexually assaulted, my friend came to bring clothes for me. she stayed with me thru the hospital exam, thru the police statement…it took hours and was 3 or 4 in the morning when we finished…she took me home with her, dressed me in her pajamas put me in her bed and held me. i cried until i fell asleep with her still holding me. it was the deepest act of kindness i’ve ever experienced and i am forever grateful to her. thank you deb.

There is no account sign-up. No Facebook clutter.

Click on the “Say It” button, and all that Soul’s Code asks is for an email address.

Thank you all who have shared your inspirations; We send our love back to you.

BY SOUL’S CODE — Call it a Catholic meditation. Call it a koan of loving kindness. In the 19th century, the Novena to “the forgotten saint” Jude was known as a prayer for desperate cases, or when a miracle is needed. It now seems perfectly scripted for this century.

With almost one fifth of the U. S. workforce unemployed or under-employed — and five million Americans losing their jobless benefits between Thanksgiving, 2010 and March, 2011 — is it any wonder that a new study estimates that one-fifth of the population of the last ‘superpower’ suffered from a mental illness last year?

So if you’re feeling in any way left out at the turn of this new year and new decade, we reproduce the Novena to St. Jude below as a spiritual prescription.The prayer has worked miracles for many, and we share it at the urging of friends of Soul’s Code who have testified to its positive power.
Novena is from the Latin word for nine (novem, or nove in Italian). The ritual is to say the lines below six times a day, for nine days in a row.

Prayer to St. Jude

O glorious Apostle, St. Jude Thaddeus, true relative of Jesus and Mary. I salute you through the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Through this Heart I praise and thank God for all the graces He has bestowed upon you. Humbly prostrate before you, I implore you through the Heart to look down upon me (or __________ ) with compassion. Oh, despise not my poor prayer; let not my trust be confounded. To you God has granted the privilege of aiding mankind in the most desperate cases. Oh, come to my (or _________’s) aid that I may praise the mercies of God! All my life I will be grateful to you and will be your faithful client until I can thank you in heaven. Amen. 

NOVENA

May the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus be adored, loved in all tabernacles until the end of time.
Amen.

May the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus be praised and glorified now and forever.
Amen.

ST. JUDE PRAY FOR US AND HEAR OUR PRAYERS.
AMEN.

Blessed be the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Blessed be the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Blessed be Saint Jude Thaddeus in all the world for all eternity.

The tradition is to say the Lord’s Prayer after the petition to St. Jude, followed by the Hail Mary:

HAIL MARY, full of grace,
the Lord is with Thee.
Blessed art Thou among women, and
Blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.

The prayer booklet for the Novena at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan, which is the seat of the Catholic Archdiocese of New York, advises you to make 81 printouts or photocopies of the prayer to St. Jude — and leave nine of them a day in a a church on each of the consecutive days you are reciting the petition. It also boldy declares, in bold caps on the title page, “PRAYER WILL BE ANSWERED . . . ON OR BEFORE 9TH DAY: HAS NEVER BEEN KNOWN TO FAIL!”

The point of making all of these copies of the Novena and leaving them in churches is not mathematical precision: It is to ground yourself in a place where a lot of prayer has been deposited, and to make that connection and intention a daily routine. “You will recive your intention before the nine days are over,” says our copy of the Novena, “no matter ow impossible it may seem.”

The personal stories we’ve heard here at Soul’s Code support that claim, and we invite you to share yours in the Comment field below — or request your own prayer.

GUEST COLUMN BY HEATHER GREAVES — The Earth in all her pain (toxicity) and glory has faults.

Likewise, we human beings with all our broken dreams and victories, have faults.

As below our feet. . .so it is above.

The year 2010 has begun with Earth releasing energy causing its area known as Haiti to quake and tremor. The energy was released by the rupture of a geological fault without a warning, and definitely without so much as a by-your-leave.

Earth did what she needed to do; she released energy that was pent-up, holding that which could be held no more.  Earth must be freer now.

Healing Trauma

I am reminded of Dr. Peter Levine’s work in resolving and healing the psychological wounds of trauma through the release of energy trapped in our bodies’ tissues.

Energy that was aroused because of a threat or challenge and for whatever reason was never discharged.

That aroused energy remains stuck in the body, manifesting post traumatic symptoms until it is finally released. Shaking and tremors accompany this release.

It is a very physical experience. And the secret to healing trauma in this way lies in listening to the body’s voice.

As Martin Luther King stated, “Riot is the language of the unheard.”

Haiti’s Healing

We rush to the aid of the people in Haiti, with our pain, glory and yes, our faults.

In our pain, we cry for things to be better, not perfect, just better.

And also pause to remember that we, like the Earth, have faults.

Living on Earth, we are humbled by Her faults, and experience just how vulnerable we really are. . .vulnerable to the faults of Nature, the faults of our brothers and sisters, the faults of our systems, and ourselves.

There are many millions that have experienced and are still experiencing fear and helplessness from the numerous threats as a result of the Earth’s faults.

I pray that once the threat has passed, they experience calm down deep within the tissues of their bodies. . .sooner rather than later.

Heather Greaves promotes healthy living, sharing yoga and meditation with groups and individuals. She is a certified yoga therapist and polarity therapist.

Heather can be reached at info@yogatogo.com. Visit her site at Body Therapies: Yoga Training Inc.  Read Heather’s previous article on Soul’s Code: Waiting to Exhale.

GUEST COLUMN BY CHELSEA LANGAN — It’s been a tough couple of days for Haitians, their families, and sympathetic souls around the world. The devastation that has unfolded in such an already grief stricken island seems catastrophic.

But on a positive note, I believe they’ve acquired a rare opportunity to rebuild their nation from the ground up with a new, uncanny, unprecedented strength and perception that has the potential to spread miracles to the rest of the world.

One might consider the damage from the earthquake a free demo, a courtesy, rather, from God himself.

Although many of the Haitian structures deemed sacred have been leveled, or re-leveled in some cases, I don’t question God’s testaments to the ephemeral.

We are fleeting creatures on a fleeting plane, and he wants you to understand this.

There is no real value in that which can be so easily torn asunder. Even if something is deemed sacred—which everyone is free to do— it will not compare to the sacredness of Source, of our souls themselves.

Where are you at with your perception? If you didn’t think poverty-stricken Haiti was beautiful and sacred then, can you now? Can you see God in the rubble at all? If you are now moved to improve your perception, begin reading A Course in Miracles. It’s really just as simple as changing your mind.

Haitians have been forced in a relatively harsh manner to re-evaluate what is truly dear, the love of souls, so I am confident they will emerge a renewed people with only the keenest eye for the soul of man!

There is much strength and beauty that will emerge from the rubble, and any life that looks as if it were lost is okay.

Also, those who look as if they’re suffering chose to long beforehand to help show you what you, too, should be thankful for.

It’s all a blessed reminder.

Death on such a scale is simply an enhanced version of the endless cycle of birth and death we remain steeped in. It may look as if it were forced, or people were really suffering, but such an occurrence could only happen to the strongest souls on Earth to honor the vitality they’ve accumulated thus far and help push the rest of humanity in their direction.

Everyone is safe. They may think they have scars on their souls forever, but scars easily disappear when you come from forever.

Please add your comments of support and love for the people of Haiti.

Chelsea lives and blogs on the outskirts of Charleston, SC, and teaches a Vibrant Living Course at the Technical College of the Lowcountry in Beaufort, SC.  She plans on pursuing Reiki and Psych-K studies further, and will begin her Master’s in Social Work soon. She considers her full time job to be focusing on the best the world has to offer so that she can manifest more of it for everyone. Chelsea blogs at Spirit Boutique.

GUEST COLUMN: RONDA LARUE — 9/11 is, and was, a big wake up call to witness the internal machinations of fear, and its multi-faced projections. And as with all tragedies, it is a call to dive deeper under the ruble of suffering, shock, and reaction to reclaim an ecology of the heart.

Spinning on a Prayer…

In our greatest imaginings
who could dream a world such as this?

Who among us can,
even now,
conceive of something as voluptuous
as the gentle commingling of earth to air
that brings an early morning dew?

Or something as delicate
as the spider’s intricate web
cloaked in wet droplets
and standing perfectly fragile
– yet intact and strong -
as it’s caressed by the morning’s first hues;

…a weaver spins her vast universe
within a thousand spectra of color,
and so casting a rainbow of infinite Chance!

Or the glimmering of her shining prisms
that catch the notice of two out walking,
each to his own path.
Stopping: eye meets eye.

Soul sees Heart;

…an impression of something each once knew.

Two from the One emerges, a panoramic palate,
and so spilling a harvest of infinite Choice.

And still, a ceaseless and patient dawn
rises from the endless darkness of night.
This intricate and delicate world
spinning silently on a prayer!
Perfectly fragile – yet intact and strong;

…yielding and accepting
to that which we offer every moment,
each new day,
by way of our touch,
our prayer, and our song . . .

May you be a Dreamer
in the imaginings of a peaceful Heart,
And so may your dreaming come true.

©Ronda LaRue, Author: Remembering Who You Really Are