PRAYER THAT CONTEMPLATES

In the beginning, the elohim created skies and earth.

Welcome back. Let's think about prayer.

I have been writing about the five kinds of verbal prayer. Now, I would like to turn to contemplative prayer. 

Contemplative prayer can be as relaxing as it gets. You open your mind to God, or if you prefer another metaphor, your heart. It is a technique that can be practiced daily.

The aim is to practice internal silence in order to listen to God. Now, I have a problem with that. I seek in my own contemplation to hear silence. I wait for peace and clarity to be woven within me. I do not wait for a voice, but a presence.

I mistrust anyone who says they hear God's voice, including myself. God has already spoken to us through Jesus when we were commanded to love. God will not tell me what to eat for breakfast or what lottery number I should pick or what college I should attend.

Whatever language I hear, be it from God, the only word it will say to me is, "Love."  I shall take that as God’s ultimate imperative.

Also, I do not come before God as a guilt infested sinner whom God abhors (Jonathan Edwards). I am God's child who loves God. I come to God to be with One who loves me. So I do not have to agonize in prayer.

Indeed, the theology of agony seems sick to me. If life strikes me down, and I am in agony over existential pain and suffering...well, that's another thing. I do not have to cast myself down and erupt into a volcano of agony before God just because I believe God requires that sort of groveling.

Let me repeat, life needs not my help to evoke pain and suffering.

Remember, God is more humane than humans. Were I a sick bastard whose ego needed others to grovel before me, I would not be in any way like our God of love.

That being written, I do wait for peace and clarity to arise. Both often come, and more easily, for us all when we are more practiced in contemplation.

There are different ways to practice contemplation. In a noisy world, I find myself compartmentalizing my inner self away from the world's noise. I can be in a crowded room and focus my thoughts from without to within just by searching in my mind the places where silence dwells.

Also, saying a word over and over aids contemplation. Any word that evokes spiritual thoughts will do. I want to move beyond words so I listen to my breathing. I also count my breaths at first until I move beyond air to spirit. As I do this I imagine myself in the presence of God, sitting and waiting for God's peace and kindness to fill me.

These words I use are metaphors. They evoke images. I can just as well use the word "spirit" to indicate God's presence filling me, or "love."  Some people imagine Jesus, Mary, or a saint.

I highly recommend Thomas Keating's article "The Method of Centering Prayer.”  I learned about centering prayer from Marcus Borg's book The Heart of Christianity.

If you are interested, go to Google and type in Keating’s name and article title. There should be several links about centering prayer.

To give you an idea of his technique, I include his four guidelines below.

1.  Choose a sacred word as the symbol of your intention to

     consent to God’s presence and action within.

2.  Sitting comfortably and with eyes closed, settle briefly,

     and silently introduce the sacred word as the symbol of

     your consent to God’s presence an action within.

3.  When you become aware of thoughts return ever-so

      gently to the sacred word.

4.  At the end of the prayer period, remain in silence with

     eyes closed for a couple of minutes.

Anyone who has never practiced contemplation, but is willing to attempt it, will discover another way to draw close to God. I hope this post leads to deeper spiritual growth for anyone willing to practice it.

Blessings…