Contemplative Christian » Prayer http://contemplativechristian.com Grace and Presence in Prayer Mon, 02 Jan 2012 08:19:32 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 How to Pray for Dummies http://contemplativechristian.com/how-to-pray-for-dummies/ http://contemplativechristian.com/how-to-pray-for-dummies/#comments Sat, 31 Dec 2011 07:55:04 +0000 admin http://contemplativechristian.com/?p=1386
You might wonder if this post is about teaching “dummies” how to pray, or teaching people how to pray for the “dummies” in their lives.  Well, it’s neither, in fact.  Most will not admit it, but prayer is for many the most daunting aspect of the Christian life.  If you’ve spent any time in western christian church culture, you will have heard people earnestly promising to pray for each other, lamenting  how they need to pray more, or bragging about how they were praying and “God spoke” to them or healed someone.   In the extroverted traditions, prayer is often a public spectacle: loud, emotional, physical.  In the introverted traditions, prayer is often a quiet, internal conversation. Sometimes prayer is communal and prescribed, read aloud as a congregation. Sometimes prayer is no words at all…an alignment toward heaven, pure emotion.  It’s hard to know how to make sense of it all…to figure out what prayer “should” be like…what my prayer life “should”  be like.

In the contemplative traditions, prayer is usually considered necessarily private (Matt. 6:6), and internally spirit-centered (Rom. 8:26).  I don’t often quite bible verses at people, but John 14:19-20 is also interesting: “Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” This is a bigger conversation than I’m interested in embarking on, but I suggest this represents our invitation into the mystical union of the Trinity (Father, Son, Spirit).  Christ is “in” the Father, as we are “in” Him, and He “in” us. When I pray then, I’m really just communing with the cosmic Christ who already exists in me, and I in Him.  Spiritual posturing about powerful prayers and miraculous responses from God can makes us average folk feel so illegitimate, so lacking spiritually in comparison.   But, that all seems kind of silly if prayer is really just this simple.  Prayer is just resting in the presence of Christ, and you don’t even have to go anywhere…He’s already here.   And like any comfortable, intimate relationship, some conversation inevitably happens.  This is where I’ll make  my point today…how do we then pray?

If we “get” this simple idea of prayer, available to anyone…not requiring any public speaking skills or super-spiritual holiness…then the thinking and talking part of prayer can come easily, with a little direction provided by Jesus.  The Lord’s Prayer, recited in Alcoholics Anonymous recovery meetings and liturgical churches around the world, is the simplest, most direct path to prayer available.  It also possesses a depth to keep the most mystical of prayer practitioners among us challenged for a lifetime.

Take it one line at a time…sit on it, ruminate on each word, give each word as an offering, receive what there is to receive.  A mentor started me on writing my own versions of the prayer…and I suggest the same for you.  Pray this prayer every day, and if your prayer consists of only this…rest assured, you’re following the trail broken by Christ Himself on your behalf.  He is with you, and you are with Him.  It’s simple.

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil,
for thine is the kingdom,
the power and the glory,
forever and ever,
Amen

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]]> http://contemplativechristian.com/how-to-pray-for-dummies/feed/ 0 Christ Indwelling http://contemplativechristian.com/christ-indwelling/ http://contemplativechristian.com/christ-indwelling/#comments Thu, 10 Nov 2011 02:31:37 +0000 admin http://contemplativechristian.com/?p=1371
Tonight, in the fading light of early winter, my son babbled himself to sleep as I sat in prayer next to his crib. I found myself breathing audibly, in and out, exhaling in the “shhh” sound every parent used to soothe babies. My thoughts drifted to a workshop I attended recently, where a local Sufi group demonstrated a breathing prayer. Two breaths in through the nose, representing a welcoming of the Spirit of God, and a long exhale through the mouth, representing a voiding of the world and flesh. My breaths became a prayer…”shhhhhh”…Jesus, Come…”shhhhhh”…Jesus, Come.

Richard Rohr writes of an ancient Jewish tradition regarding the name Yahweh, the name of God revered such that it was never spoken out loud. Rohr tells of how this word Yahweh actually represents the act of breathing…it can’t be voiced, because it is breath itself.  The name of God, breathed…in and out…Yah….Weh…a beautiful thing to consider. And I did consider it, as I sat in the dark listening to the breath of my infant son. God is that close…as close to us as our breath. Christ resides in me, as close to me as my breath…as natural as my breath…as tied to my very life as my breath.

What if prayer were as simple as the act of breathing?  What if we are so hard-wired to communion with God, that breathing…taken so for granted…represents the simplest of realities: that God is with us, breathing for us and in us, and we in Him, even when we’re not thinking about it?  Lord, let me recognize the every-moment gift of this God-breathed life…

]]> http://contemplativechristian.com/christ-indwelling/feed/ 0 Everyday Sacraments http://contemplativechristian.com/everyday-sacraments/ http://contemplativechristian.com/everyday-sacraments/#comments Mon, 15 Aug 2011 04:57:07 +0000 admin http://contemplativechristian.com/?p=1354
Everyday is a gift…and the living of it purposely in the presence of Christ is true prayer…true sacrament. A sacrament is a sacred rite. The Catholic church recognizes seven sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Eucharist, Penance, Anointing the sick, Holy Orders and Matrimony. Anglicans and Protestants in general tend to recognize two major sacraments: Baptism and The Lord’s Supper.

Sacraments are the important tenets, the critical pieces of the Christian faith…traditions with power to bring us back to the Throne, to cut through our egos and attitudes, to reduce us, to empty us of ourselves to allow the Person of Christ to rise to the surface. This sounds like prayer to me…for anything that brings us into communion with Christ is prayer, and anything that is prayer brings us into communion with Christ. The tendency in organized religion to name, label and define everything of importance has grouped certain acts or traditions as sacraments, and certainly all those mentioned previously are important. However, something is lost when we try to define the undefinable…when we try to control the uncontrollable…to understand the unknowable.

Life itself is a sacrament. If we considered notable moments in our day as sacred gifts given to draw us into communion with God…how might that change our experience of prayer, of relationship with God? My 8 month old son is a very active young man who rarely slows down … but this week, he lay on my chest and cuddled with me for a half hour as I breathed quiet love songs in his ear. It was a sacred moment…a beautiful, wonderful gift…true prayer…for in our sweet moment I found myself weeping in wordless prayer…my son in my arms, and I the the arms of my Father.

Be receptive…be ready to embrace the grace hiding in ordinary moments. The perfect cup of coffee on the perfect winter morning…a gift from God, calling us into communion. The unplanned encounter and meaningful conversation with a coworker…a gift, calling us into communion. The achingly beautiful song on the radio…a gift. The sunset after a long day…a gift.

Think of all the sacred rites we could engage with in the midst of our everyday, normal lives. No need to wait for Sunday morning, for God is present, arms eternally open, heart forever turned toward us in anticipation of relationship … even in the most ordinary of moments.

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]]> http://contemplativechristian.com/everyday-sacraments/feed/ 0 Everything Belongs http://contemplativechristian.com/everything-belongs/ http://contemplativechristian.com/everything-belongs/#comments Tue, 05 Jul 2011 19:00:22 +0000 admin http://contemplativechristian.com/?p=1096
Life certainly seems to have a life of it’s own sometimes.  Events come and go, and we often mindlessly move through time with very little awareness of the movement, very little awareness of our place in it.  Then, we suddenly become aware of a force outside of ourselves intervening, or rather convening, coming together with us in moments of deep meaning. This is beautiful, often bittersweet…even painful, but painful with grace and presence.

Each of us has a past, moments in our lives we’re not proud of, relationships we failed to take care of, shames we carry, burdens we bear.  And, every so often, the course of our normal everyday life is changed by the re-emergence of the past, abruptly entering the present and tearing us backward through the time we’ve hidden behind, the distance we’ve become comfortable in.  In these moments, torn out of the third-person narrative of our own lives, faced with the big picture, the overarching reality of who we are…we can face and make peace with our shadow.

Reality is a gift. Right now, I am who I am…and I can no sooner deny my shadow than deny my goodness. I want to suffer knowing pain I’ve caused, pain I’ve been dealt…I want to walk into it and accept it. When I have accepted it, I can sit freely in prayer and encounter love with a freedom not otherwise possible. Richard Rohr writes, “the path of prayer and love and the path of suffering seem to be the two Great Paths of Transformation. Suffering seems to get our attention; love and prayer seem to get our heart and our passion.” (Everything Belongs, p. 14) It all belongs…and though our natural tendency is to avoid pain and seek comfort, the call is to encounter our pain, walk into it…and find our comfort in the arms of our Father, who accepts us, and whose passion for us in our vulnerability is eternal and indescribable. “This reality, felt and not denied, suffered and enjoyed, becomes the royal road to the center. In other words, reality itself, our reality, my limited and sometimes misinterpreted experience, still becomes the revelatory place for God.” (Rohr, Everything Belongs, p. 15)

There is no end to the love of God…nothing else matters. The never-ending struggle to be “good” many of us are caught in leads only to more struggle, and for me ultimately to despair. The true journey…the path of peace that surpasses all understanding, is to reconcile with reality, to allow the mystery of God and the tragic beauty of life to play out within us. It is accepting the unacceptable, reconciling the irreconcilable…accepting that certainty and uncertainty, sin and grace, and life and death are not mutually exclusive, but belong together.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Matthew 11:28-30 (New International Version)

Richard Rohr’s book, Everything Belongs, is a wonderful vision of contemplative prayer…

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]]> http://contemplativechristian.com/everything-belongs/feed/ 1 God is Silent http://contemplativechristian.com/god-is-silent/ http://contemplativechristian.com/god-is-silent/#comments Sun, 03 Apr 2011 04:24:06 +0000 admin http://contemplativechristian.com/?p=1341
Since I was a child I’ve wondered why…with the power to create the known and unknown universe…why God has been so inconceivably silent and mysterious to His people, the supposed pinnacles of His creation. In my teens, I struggled with this silent God as my prayers seemed to go unanswered: little Tammy didn’t love me back…my beloved pet didn’t survive her injuries…my parents never resolved their differences. As an adult, I saw death and disease, injustice and heartbreak impact the lives of good people and bad people alike, I saw fools in charge of churches and wise men disparaged and forgotten. I’ve whispered, sang, cried and screamed at Heaven…and still, no burning bushes or disembodied voices appeared to alleviate my concern.

Frances Schaeffer wrote He Is There and He Is Not Silent…and even as I read all his books in my twenties, congratulating myself on my erudition, I discovered no representational argument that made God less silent. No amount of theological understanding brought God closer to me or me to Him.

I fancied myself found nonetheless, but became lost in it. It couldn’t hold me, and I wandered, adrift and seeking meaning in philosophies and substances that left me empty. Over a long period of time, I lost hope, lost meaning and lost myself. It was the best thing that ever happened to me.

Looking back, I see how God stripped away my religion and my self-reliance. In His silence, I lost the self I was, and became a vessel capable of being filled by something else. This “dying to the self”, is talked about reverently in Christian circles…but mouthing the words and taking on a pious attitude doesn’t count. You have to be stripped down to your soul…and the only way to do this is to see your own pain, your own pride and foolishness…to be willing to really see it…to run from it, hide from it, drown it and deny it until there nothing left of your will…then, empty of self and full of shame fall upon your knees before a silent and inconceivable God. The falling on your knees part can take years….and we’re not really on our knees until we release ourselves of the shame. That is the hardest part…for it comes back to visit us again and again. Let go of it…you’re not who you believed yourself to be…you’re as God believes you to be. If this feels like bad news…your shame is speaking again.

God is silent. All those years wondering why…and now I’m only thankful for the silence, for it’s through the silence that I finally began to hear His voice…and I realized He’d been speaking all along…saying simply, I Am Present, I Love You, I Love You.

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]]> http://contemplativechristian.com/god-is-silent/feed/ 0 Simplicity http://contemplativechristian.com/simplicity/ http://contemplativechristian.com/simplicity/#comments Tue, 27 Apr 2010 03:06:28 +0000 admin http://contemplativechristian.com/?p=1269
I’ve done less writing lately…my heart hasn’t been in it.  Reflecting on it, I realize somewhere along the way I began writing about spirituality instead of living in it.  This has been a common theme in many of my past posts, this third-person spirituality,  where one acts and thinks and prays internally as though done externally, publicly…with appearances in mind.  Here and now I look back over my own words and see, amidst moments of clarity and beauty, the footprints of my own ego…marching along trying to be noticed, heard, accepted, praised…dare I say, worshiped.

And yet, now I can be thankful for the grace to see it…for the gentle call of these last months back to a simple spirituality, one that defies elaboration.  Lord, let it be.  There is a wonderful prayer, the Anima Christi – a favorite of St. Ignatius, paraphrased by David Fleming, that echoes the Lord’s Prayer in simplicity and worship…I’ll share it here now, to hopefully communicate the flavor of what I’m talking about:

Jesus, may all that is you flow into me.

May your body and blood be my food and drink.

May your passion and death be my strength and life.

Jesus, with you by my side enough has been given.

May the shelter I seek be the shadow of your cross.

Let me not run from the love which you offer,

But hold me safe from the forces of evil.

On each of my dyings shed your light and your love.

Keep calling to me until that day comes,

When, with your saints, I may praise you forever. Amen.

Fleming, D.L.(1993). Hearts on Fire: Praying with the Jesuits. Institute of Jesuit Sources: St. Louis.

]]> http://contemplativechristian.com/simplicity/feed/ 3 The Breath of Christ http://contemplativechristian.com/the-breath-of-christ/ http://contemplativechristian.com/the-breath-of-christ/#comments Sun, 21 Feb 2010 22:58:46 +0000 admin http://contemplativechristian.com/?p=1238
I choose to breathe the breath of Christ that makes all life holy.

These words appeared on my cell phone last week, sent by my wife to encourage me during what was a challenging week. Life can be tough…in fact, if we’re honest, it just plain is tough.  Yet, life can be infused with holiness in the present moment…as we breathe this breath, and this breath, and this one…

I read bits and pieces of The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle this week, out of curiosity.  What I found was a kind of universalist approach common to contemporary, New Age-ish spirituality….but there is truth there as well.   Tolle writes about the true self and the false self, and describes the spiritual journey as primarily about letting go of the false self and living in the present.   Our false selves are full of woundedness, narcissism and judgment…where the true self, which is intimately linked to the essence of life,  is beauty and freedom.  When we can become observers of that false self, stepping out of it and into truth, we become free.  He’s on to something here…yet he paints a limited picture.

There is a part of each of us that is false…fallen if you will.  This is where our guilt and shame reside, our needs for comfort and power, our pain and our self-centeredness. Yet, the bible teaches this fallen self isn’t the whole story.  Adam and Eve were originally created for relationship and freedom, not for brokenness.  Contrary to those who proudly tout their “sinner”-ness, I think as images of God, we are more accurately thought of as inherently good…not inherently bad.  So, when the bible talks about Christ coming to dwell in us, the picture Tolle and others paint of freedom from false self becomes clearer.  The false self is the broken self, but not the whole self.  We were created for relationship.  When we release the burden of the old Adam and acknowledge the reality of the new Adam (Christ) in our life, we are claiming our true selves.

This is a call to live fully in the present reality of our restored relationship with Christ, not to continually struggle with sin and our broken nature, seeking forgiveness and screwing up again and again.  We are whole already…we only need to acknowledge it…moment by moment, breath by breath. If God is love, and Christ is in us and we in Him, then we can be free from the false reality that we are defined by our sin. Sin hardly matters…in fact, if you believe Romans 5:20, which says, “where sin abounds, grace abounds more”…then sin is only the shadow side of grace, and grace is grace, however you try to look at it.

Tolle is right…most of how we react to life on a daily basis comes from our false self…and through building awareness, we can begin to see that for what it is.  We can let go, and fall back into the gentle arms of Truth…and live in freedom. However, truth is not a hazy notion of some benign universal consciousness…is it Personal. I am who I truly am only in light of who Christ is. When I breathe His breath right now, I enter into reality…the incomprehensible reality of Relationship.

I choose to breathe the breath of Christ that makes all life holy.  We can choose to live His life in us…for we exist in the context of our relationship with Christ, just as He exists in the context of His relationship with Father and Spirit. It’s not something to be grappled with theologically or explained intellectually…we need to let go of those impulses to control and define. Relationship is personal, and Christ is right now waiting, with us and in us…all we have to do is breath…

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]]> http://contemplativechristian.com/the-breath-of-christ/feed/ 0 My Lord’s Prayer http://contemplativechristian.com/the-lords-prayer/ http://contemplativechristian.com/the-lords-prayer/#comments Sat, 05 Dec 2009 08:02:36 +0000 admin http://contemplativechristian.com/?p=1197
Father, in heaven…I’m drawn to my knees in your presence,

my heart aches in response to your embrace,

your name rests on the tip of my tongue, to holy to utter out loud…

my words fall short, and I can only sit in silence.

Let your reality envelop me, now and forever…

let your will be done,

on earth and in heaven,

in this heart as it is in your heart…

let me walk in your footsteps…like a son walks in his father’s footsteps.

Lord, meet my needs,

relieve me of my attachments to those things I don’t need.

Forgive me for my continual tendency to choose my own interests,

to seek comfort and escape, to seek recognition and power…

to struggle for control.

Give me a heart of grace, quick to forgive…

let forgiveness and patience be my natural reaction to those I encounter…

especially those I know intimately.

Lead me on a safe path, away from temptation…

there is nothing new…temptation always offers a way out.

There is always a choice.

Lord, let me recognize temptation and run from it…

Deliver me from evil,

protect my house and family, those I know and love…

let me recognize evil when I encounter it,

and give me the wisdom to respond.

Lord, thank you for this gift of life,

shared with you…given meaning by you,

given beauty by you,

given by you.

I rest in your presence…forever.

Amen

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]]> http://contemplativechristian.com/the-lords-prayer/feed/ 0 The Good News? http://contemplativechristian.com/the-good-news/ http://contemplativechristian.com/the-good-news/#comments Fri, 16 Oct 2009 04:20:48 +0000 admin http://contemplativechristian.com/?p=1183
I’ve been thinking about grace lately, as I begin a new chapter in my career journey.  For years I’ve worked with families in crisis, primarily with the homeless…and these folks know a thing or two about grace.   If you’re beat down and full of shame, to be looked in the eye and told you matter is liberation.  When I’ve taken families into shelter and begun to work with them, inevitably the single factor affecting change in their lives is unconditional love.  It changes things.

The church is supposed to be about unconditional love, but if I were to ask 10 people on the street what first comes to mind when they think of church, I’ll bet that’s not it.  What’s going on here?  The gospel is supposed to be good news.  If what we’re calling good news is the last thing people want to hear, then it’s not good news.  Well, some would say, it’s only good news to the predestined, or it’s only good news for those who believe correctly.  It turns out if you’re on the other side of the tracks, its very bad news indeed.  Hellfire and brimstone, in fact.  Something doesn’t add up.

The whole concept of grace throws this on its head.  God’s acceptance of us has nothing to do with us…it comes to us with no consideration of our merit.  We cannot earn it or screw it up.  If we could earn it or screw it up, it wouldn’t be grace.  It certainly wouldn’t be good news.  It cannot be something some people have and others don’t.  Grace is unconditional…that means without condition.  This is what sets Christianity apart from the rest…the idea that God is forever turned toward mankind, a lover who walked to the edge and beyond in pursuit of His sons and daughters.

The choice lies in whether we can bring ourselves to turn toward Him…to be seen as we are, laid bare, and embraced.  Many deeply doubt their own worth, and cannot accept this kind of love.  Many deeply doubt love itself, and are wary to open themselves to trust.  I think God reserves His deepest compassion for these…those who don’t choose Him, who cannot choose Him.  These, who are often ostracized, judged or argued with by defensive Christians, are the prodigal sons, for whom God would drop everything and run down the road to embrace, tears of joy streaming down his face.  Perhaps there are some of these reading this now.  Come home…His arms are raised, not in anger, but in compassion.

I am a mess.  Yet, in my Father’s eyes, I am perfect and accepted completely.  So, maybe I’m not a mess after all.  I am willing to take the chance, and live from a place of freedom…from my own disappointment with myself, from the judgments of others, from being alone.  Grace is an invitation to live in the moment, in the embrace of the present.  It’s an invitation to enjoy the shared experience of reciprocal love we enter into when we lay back in the arms of God.  God is a lover.  Do not be afraid.

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]]> http://contemplativechristian.com/the-good-news/feed/ 3 Road Trip http://contemplativechristian.com/road-trip/ http://contemplativechristian.com/road-trip/#comments Mon, 17 Aug 2009 06:42:46 +0000 admin http://contemplativechristian.com/?p=1054 Contemplative PrayerI spent the last few days driving through Northern Idaho and Western Montana…a mountainous region in the northwest corner of the United States.  This area is rugged and beautiful…full of jagged peaks, rugged terrain and an array of wildlife.  The Beartooth Plateau has exposed rock that dates to 3.3 billion years ago, and the Missoula Valley is composed of sediment from a 12,000 year old mammoth lake that covered most of the northern portion of Montana.  This particular lake was formed by an ice dam that eventually weakened and broke, letting loose a volume of water comparable to that found in modern Lake Ontario…which followed the path of least resistance through Idaho, Washington and Oregon. It was the largest flood of known geologic history.  It must have been devastating to the people living in the region.  From the air, you can see the ripples left in the ground after the flood passed through Eastern Washington.  From the ground, they are part of the landscape: rolling hills dotted with farms and covered with crops and grasslands.

I took away a sense of scale…and of beauty.  In the midst of the raw savagery and brilliance of the created world, one can only admit powerlessness.  We are so incredibly small…yet called to faith that moves mountains. Try contemplating this while standing next to an actual mountain.  Christ must have, spending as much time as he did in solitude at higher altitude.  Honestly, what it comes down to is this:  I have nothing.  This whole journey is too magnificent and wild to tame…yet, we try and try to define and control it…to wrap up the Christian journey into a neat package we can easily manipulate.  If we think we’ve got it figured out, our challenge is to go stand at the base of a 5,000 foot mass of solid basalt and pray it away…just a few inches away will do.

And yet…

Before the mountains were born
or you brought forth the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

God is God.  Creation speaks wonderfully of His nature.  God’s nature as expressed in Nature is not tame, not safe…but good.  Very good, in fact.  I think there’s a reason that solitude taken in the outdoors touches the soul deeper than even the most profound quiet moments in our created homes and churches.  Being out in the midst of Creation, in the presence of God’s creative expression of Himself, of His nature…being there ensures we remember who we are…where we stand…who we stand before.  Let’s follow Christ away from the crowds, up to that place, to the mountainside…into the presence of the One who makes the heavens shout and the mountains burst into song.



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