Welcome to the Prayers for a New World podcast. I'm Bill Frase, and I'm here with my life partner, Wendy, to have a conversation about this podcast purpose and my hopes for it. Hey, Wendy.

Hi, Bill. Thanks for having me here today to talk about your new podcast. I'm so excited to hear more about how you came up with the idea and also the name.

A while back on my Wake Up Call for the Soul podcast, I would record prayers and people would ask me if they could have prayers that I prayed or things like that and so I started putting them on my podcast because I didn't have anywhere else to put them. That always seemed kind of weird, but I only had one podcast and now I'm on Transistor where I can have as many podcasts as I want, which I guess we'll see how that goes, but I I was like, oh, well, I can have a podcast channel that's just prayers. And so that's where that kind of basic idea came from, this hope that maybe the prayers that are shared on this channel might be helpful or inspirational to people in some way.

Well, that's a great idea because I do know that people specifically went online just to hear your prayers. And I have gotten feedback from other people I know that they find your prayers very lovely, inspirational, inclusive. And so I think it's a great idea to have a specific podcast that is just for prayers. This will be easier for people who desire to listen to those as part of their regular prayer routine. I know that different people think of prayer differently, so perhaps it would be a good time for you to define what exactly is prayer to you.

Prayer is the human capacity to communicate, contemplate, commune, and contribute through resonance with Ultimate Being and Reality and all.

Sounds good to me. I like this idea of an Ultimate Being, Source. It's very inclusive. No matter if you're religious or if you just practice knowing and resonating with a higher being, prayers don't have to be the traditional prayers that we all think of that are even memorized or rote. But really, a prayer is a way for me to experience that presence of the Ultimate Being and commune, as you said.

So I really do like that idea of communicating, contemplating, communing, contributing. I guess you have that C theme going on there.

I like alliteration.

Well, Bill, I feel I must ask just growing up in the church and being a part of a religious community. We have a lot of prayers there. And I think that perhaps you see things a little bit differently when it comes to maybe religious prayers versus other prayers.

Yeah. So I just feel like it's a good idea to talk about this distinction because I think a lot of people, when they hear the word prayer, their brains automatically go to religion, that prayer is something religious people do. And I'm pretty sure people that consider themselves religious pray a lot. I would expect them to. The distinction that I'd like to make in this conversation and in this whole podcast is that for me, prayer, while it has become associated with religion, it is not inherently religious.

If you look at the definition, I'm talking about human beings, that I consider prayer to be a fundamental capacity of human beings, probably more fundamental than communication, I mean, verbal communication. That it is something that comes with people probably before they even come out of the womb. That prayer is a thing people are doing precognitively, as they might say, before they have these articulated verbal thoughts. And so I just, the bottom line for me is just, you know, when you hear the word prayer, I invite listeners to just say, okay, yeah, religious people pray, but people, human beings pray. It's one of the things that we are designed to do, that we're able to do, and it doesn't have to be within a religious context.

And I don't consider any of the prayers that I pray, at least as far as I'm concerned, to be within a religious context. I consider them to be within a human context. So thank you so much for inquiring about that.

Well, that's very interesting. Yes, thank you for clarifying the distinction that you make.

It's so interesting when I think about my journey with prayer. I consider my core foundational practice to be a prayer practice, and that practice for me is typically wordless. And it's so interesting that over the years I've found myself in all these situations where I'm offering verbal prayers when my actual preference is just to pray in silence.

I like the idea of silence in prayers, but sometimes it is helpful to lead into that silence with some words to help us focus. And it is interesting to me that you named this podcast Prayers for a New World instead of maybe Meditations for a New World or a New Humanity.

I use the word prayer specifically because prayer has to do with the expression of these deep yearnings and longings from the depths of my being. And I'm not saying that that's not possible in meditation, but everything that I've perceived, witnessed, experienced meditation to be, I haven't sensed those deep expressions of yearning and longing from the depths of being. That's why it's not called Meditations for a New Humanity or something like that because in that, at least in my understanding of the word meditation, it doesn't include that that deep yearning piece. And again, not to say that it can't be, I just haven't seen it yet.

Thank you for clarifying that because I know that there is some distinction nowadays that people make between prayer and meditation. But everyone has their own distinction. And it's all good, I feel, as long as we are reaching towards that Higher Creator, Power, Being, and connection with with Source and with all of humanity.

The the new world part of it, I was just trying to think of a podcast title. I was like, well, the thing I really want is I want a new and different world.

I'm not crazy about the one that I've inherited, to be completely honest. There's a lot of beauty here.

I consider most of that to be coming from, we could call it Source, either directly or indirectly. I mean, and there's so much love in human beings and in people and things, but there's also so much in this world that it needs to change. And for me prayer, yeah, there's an acceptance to what is in it, but I have just always been wired to deeply desire a different world, a different future. And when I thought about the prayers that I pray, that's really where they're all headed for me.

They're all headed in this direction of a new and different world, a different, more expansive, more loving, beautiful, kind, gentle reality for, not just for myself, but for all. And so that's why it's Prayers for a New World.

That sounds wonderful. I am excited about the idea of a new world because this current world needs progress, needs improvement. While there are many great things about the world, I see a vision of a better, bigger, more inclusive world. And that possibility is out there, and that excites me. Do you have any specific goals or intentions for this podcast?

Perhaps direction that you're planning on going in?

Yeah, so at this point my intention for this podcast is that every prayer will in its own unique way, be an invitation for listeners to open themselves and invite that breaking in of a new world, one that isn't defined by things like separation, fear, violence, and sacrifice. My hope is that these prayers that'll be included on this channel, that they might inspire listeners to hope and to yearn for possibilities and potentials for themselves, for others, the world, for all that go way beyond our current ability to imagine or even put into words.

So I'm also thinking about you and your life and how you have really committed to prayer individually and amongst groups. And you participate in a lot of group prayers. You've organized a lot of group prayers. And so will those kind of things be included in this channel?

So the kinds of prayers that I'm thinking might end up on this channel are prayers from my daily life, perhaps special timely prayers related to current events or things that are going on in the world, prayers from things I'm working on, for example, prayers that are in a book manuscript I'm working on or that might come up as part of some other project that I might feel inspired to record and share on this channel. I might just be spontaneously inspired to record a prayer and put it up there for people.

Is there anything else you would like the community to know?

I'm sharing these prayers for another reason as well. By sharing them, to the extent that anyone listening to them resonates with them, and if these prayers in some way stir their own deep yearnings and desires, then that excites me because through these principles of unity and resonance, those desires and intentions for the best and highest within these prayers, then as they resonate with more and more people, it actually helps to bring this new world into being. It's not just about listening. I mean, if you're on this channel and you quote unquote just wanna listen to the prayers, great, but if you're inspired to, in your own way, pray along with them through the depths of your own being, that's going to actually help manifest this new world that we all desire, and not necessarily the new world that Bill has in his mind. Because these things are operating at a deeper aspect of our beings and reality, it's going to be a world that works for everybody.

Not just Bill, not just those of us who might be praying together in this asynchronous way, but these deeper things come into reality and into being through that type of resonance. We've been taught that separation, fear, violence, these are the keys to making progress. And in this podcast, I'm hoping to flip that script to helping more of us to realize, to discover how unity, love, peace, generosity, these are the ways that we as human beings can come together to transform our individual lives, to elevate the consciousness of our species, and to help bring this world and the cosmos, our own hopes and dreams, into reality.

That sounds like an excellent vision for the world, and I hope that listeners will get something out of the prayers as they pray them. It's all an invitation, as you said.

Yep, all an invitation. We're doing our best to honor free will over here. Alright. Well, thank you so much, Wendy, for joining me for this conversation, for the kickoff of this new podcast that I'm I'm excited to share and I'm I'm curious to see what what happens with it. Yeah, it's just it's always wonderful to talk to you and so appreciative of your support.

I hope this podcast helps those of us who are wanting to dig deeper to discover who we really are, what's really real and true, and to find our unique place in that new world that's being born every day through the expression of our deepest desires and joyful yearnings. So with that said, let's pray together.

Source of life and love, thank you for this opportunity. This space where we can talk about a new project, a new endeavor that we hope might reach folks with the truth, the reality, the power of your Love and the possibilities and potentials for it working within them and through their lives. And not only as individuals, but that through unity, through the resonance of our beings with all that is, with all, that this world, this reality, this cosmos might be transformed into its highest expression.

And so help us to express those things that might be most helpful to listeners in this opening episode of Prayers for a New World. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, One, and all our relations, and it is done.