Faith and Rituals

This is a topic that was given to me by my guides to write about today, so please bear with me as I allow them into my space to inspire…

What is faith? Faith is to have complete confidence in someone or something. It is the process by which we set our minds at rest comfortable in the knowing that whatever it is that we expect will be done by someone or will happen because of something. Synonyms are trust, belief, confidence, conviction, credence, reliance, dependence.

We rely on our faith to give ourselves the confidence to achieve something – having faith that we have studied enough to pass an exam, faith enough that the person to whom we have committed our lives, will not let us down in any way and will keep their promise to us. We have faith that the doctors’ prognosis is true and that everything will work out as he/she predicts. Faith that there is a God, because we believe it to be so, therefore we have faith in our belief system that this is so.

To have faith and to believe is the same thing. Because without faith, we cannot believe and we cannot believe without having faith.

What are we if we do not have rituals to walk us through our lives. We bring a child into the world, and we have faith that all will be well because this is what we have been assured of throughout the process of the development of the child, yet there is no absolute certainty that it will be so. A little further down the line, we feel the need to thank our Creator for giving us the gift of this beautiful child and so we organise a ritual which to most is known as a christening and to others, a naming ceremony. Whatever it is that you refer to it as, it is nevertheless the ritual of handing the soul of this tiny little being back to Spirit in a manner of speaking. It is the handing over of the guidance of their life to the Absolute, the Unknown, and having faith that all will be well.

Through the ritual of funerals or cremation, once again we consecrate the soul of the occupant of the corporeal body, back to Spirit. We practice ceremonies and offer up prayers for their safe passage. For some cultures there is a specific length of time set between these rituals to ensure that the soul of the dearly departed makes it home safely.

We believe without a shadow of doubt that we do not cease to exist. That there is a place from which we came and a place to which we will return. Through this process of faith, we live our lives in preparation for our return trusting in the fact that our souls are progressing along the various levels of spiritual perfection.

We pray and we have faith that our prayers are being heard. We have faith and believe without doubt that our prayers will be answered. For what is prayer, but a supplication to an unseen force to bring about certain eventualities within our lives in order to facilitate the comfort of our existence. In order to bring about healing for ourselves and those that we love who have fallen upon difficult times or find the human body ailing. Prayers are offered up to our Creator, to the Angels and to various Deities in whom we have belief. Interestingly we cannot see these beings to whom we send out our prayers yet there are many of us who have experienced the true miracle of our prayers being answered or granted to us.

Do we question our faith? Without dout! Do we question our belief systems. We most definitely should!