Dear Reader,

This week, I’ve been sitting with the stories of people who survived the Venezuelan earthquake. I’ve watched several interviews, and more than once I’ve found myself crying — not only because of the devastation, but because of the tenderness, clarity, and humility that comes through when someone has been brought so close to the edge of life and death. There is a way people speak after something like that. The unnecessary falls away. Gratitude becomes simple. Love becomes immediate. Prayer becomes real.

One story especially stayed with me. A young man, around twenty-four years old, described falling through twelve stories with his wife and his two dogs. As he was falling, he said he went immediately into prayer. And when everything finally stopped moving — when he found himself in darkness, dust, and rubble, feeling the weight of his wife beneath him, still alive in that moment — all he could think of was God. His prayer became a prayer for protection, strength, and help.

When they later asked him what advice he would give to others, he said two things that have stayed with me all week. First, be grateful for everything you have, because you don’t know when you may lose it. And second, don’t wait until you are in trouble to ask for protection. Make it a daily practice. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about that, because it names something I feel many of us know but easily forget: prayer is not only something we reach for when life falls apart. Prayer can become a field we learn to live inside that activates the moment we need protection.

Find Peace in His Presence: St. Patrick’s Breastplate Heart Coherence Meditation

This week’s featured video is a guided heart coherence prayer meditation inspired by the Breastplate of Saint Patrick, also known as the Lorica of Saint Patrick — one of the great Christian prayers of divine protection. The meditation is part teaching and part practice: I share the meaning behind this ancient prayer of divine encirclement, and then guide you into a heart-centered experience of it.

What I wanted to create was not simply a prayer you repeat with your mind, but a prayer you begin to feel in your body. Through slow breathing, hand-on-heart awareness, and a simple four-line adaptation of the prayer, you’re invited to sense the presence of Christ before you and behind you, above you and below you, on your right and on your left, within you and all around you.

My hope is that this becomes a meditation you can return to whenever you feel afraid, uncertain, alone, overwhelmed, or in need of protection. But even more than that, I hope it helps you begin to relate to prayer as a daily orientation of the heart — something you practice not only when trouble comes, but as a way of living more deeply rooted in love, faith, and trust.

"Dr. Raskin, Does Prayer Work?"

When I was around seventeen, not long after graduating from high school, I traveled with my father to Canada. He had come to Connecticut for my graduation, and afterward we went to visit one of his close friends, a psychiatrist named Dr. Norman Raskin. I hadn’t thought of his full name in years, but as I was remembering this story, it came back to me clearly.

My father was a deeply spiritual man. He prayed every night, and from the time we were little, he taught us to pray too. But prayer, for him, was never only about asking for things for himself. He prayed for the world. He prayed for his clients. He prayed for family members, friends, people who were sick, people who had passed away, and people who were going through difficulty. Prayer was part of how he stayed connected to God, to love, and to the people he cared about.

So I remember being surprised when, during that visit, he asked Dr. Raskin something like, “Norman, do you believe in prayer? Does prayer actually work?” Maybe because Dr. Raskin was a psychiatrist — a man trained in the mind, in psychology, in human behavior — my father seemed genuinely curious about how he understood it.

I don’t remember the exact words of his answer, but I remember the essence of it. He said that, in his view, prayer works for those who believe in prayer. At seventeen, I don’t think I fully understood what he meant. Part of me probably heard it as a kind of psychological answer, as if prayer only “worked” because someone believed it worked. But the older I get, the more I return to that moment with a different understanding.

Maybe the power of prayer is not only in the words themselves. Maybe the words are the doorway. Maybe what gives prayer its power is the faith, intention, feeling, and sincerity moving through those words. Jesus said, “According to your faith, let it be done to you.” And in the Gospels, there is the story of the woman who touched the hem of his garment, believing that if she could only touch him, she would be healed. It was not only the physical touch that mattered. It was the faith moving through the touch.

This is how I’ve come to understand prayer more and more. Prayer is not magic words spoken from the head. Prayer is a movement of the heart. And when prayer comes from a coherent heart — a heart softened by love, gratitude, faith, devotion, or surrender — it becomes more than thought. It becomes presence. It becomes alignment. It becomes a way of participating with the divine.

That is why this week’s practice is not only about saying a prayer of protection. It is about praying from the heart.

This Weekend's Practice: Pray From the Heart

This week’s practice is simple: choose one prayer and bring it into your heart. It could be the prayer from this week’s meditation. It could be the Lord’s Prayer. It could be a single sentence like, “God, surround me with your love and protection.” What matters most is not the complexity of the words, but the sincerity and coherence of the heart behind them.

Steps / guidance:

1) Pace a hand on your heart. Let your shoulders soften. Let your jaw relax. Let your breath slow down.

2) Breathe through the heart. Imagine your breath flowing in and out through the center of your chest. Breathe a little slower and deeper than usual.

3) Activate a sincere feeling. Bring to mind a feeling of love, gratitude, faith, devotion, or appreciation. Let that feeling gently warm the heart.

4) Say your prayer slowly. Speak it out loud or silently. Let each word arise from the heart, not just the mind.

5) Pause and receive. After the prayer, rest for a few breaths. Notice what shifts in your body, your mind, and the space around you.

If you’d like to use the prayer from this week’s meditation, repeat: Christ before me and behind me. Christ above me and below me. Christ on my right and on my left. Christ within me and all around me

Stay with it for as long as feels right. Close with a simple declaration of truth such as, Amen.

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One Last Thing...

Thank you for being here, and for reading this far. I know that prayer can be a tender subject. For some, it feels natural and intimate. For others, it may carry old negative associations, unanswered questions, or even pain. Wherever you are with it, my invitation this week is simply to approach prayer not as something you have to perform correctly, but as a way of turning your heart toward love.

Maybe the question is not, “Am I praying the right words?” Maybe the more honest question is, “Can I let these words open my heart?” Can I let one sincere feeling of gratitude become the prayer? Can I let one moment of devotion become protection? Can I let one quiet invocation remind me that I am not alone?

May this week bring you a little more trust, a little more tenderness, and a felt sense that you are always held.

Until next time, I send you all my love.

Wishing you a really beautiful weekend.

From my heart to yours,

—Gabriel

PS. When you're ready, here are several ways I can support you on your journey.
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