Centering Prayer

Centering prayer again

Guidelines

“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, and introduce the sacred word as the symbol of your consent to God’s presence and action within.

3. Return ever-gently to the sacred word when engaged with your thoughts, feelings, images, and reflections.

4. At the end of the prayer period (20 minutes), remain in silence with eyes closed for a few minutes.”

Contemplative Outreach, Ltd., www.contemplativeoutreach.org.

 Reviewing the guidelines for Centering Prayer is worth doing often, even if we have been using this spiritual practice for some time. Catholic monks Thomas Merton, Thomas Keating, Basil Pennington, and Quaker Richard Foster have described this contemporary form of the ancient contemplative or listening prayer practice. This ancient prayer practice is rooted in the traditions of the Desert Mothers and Fathers, The Cloud of the Unknowing, Teresa of Avila, and St. John of the Cross.

A friend from New York, Steve Standiford, associated with Contemplative Outreach, has practiced centering prayer for over twenty years. He reminded us at a retreat at our church of an old story about how to deepen our relationship with God and experience God’s presence and love in our lives through centering prayer. “A first-time tourist to New York City gets into the cab and asks the driver, ‘How do you get to Carnegie Hall?’ The driver responds, ‘Practice, practice, practice!’”  

As with most of our attempts to learn about a spiritual tool, we learn about the practice by practicing it over and over again.   

Joanna          https://www.joannaseibert.com/

 

What I Learned at Vacation Bible School

What I Learned at VBS

“Help me slow down, Jesus.

Hheellpp mmee ssllooww ddoowwnn JJEEUUSS.

Hhheeelllppp mmmeee ssslllooowww dddoowwwnnn, JJJEEEUUUSSS.

Hhhheeeellllpppp, mmmmeeee, sssslllloooowwww ddddoooowwwwnnnn, JJJJEEEEUUUUSSSS.” —“Bible Story Teller” in Rolling River Rampage: Experience the Ride of a Lifetime with God! (Cokesbury VBS, 2018).

My friend, Mary Manning, and I have been the storytellers at St. Mark’s Vacation Bible School (VBS) for many summers. I have been the storyteller at VBS at the other churches I served, but I always did it alone. It was so amazing to have a partner. Mary is a retired schoolteacher. I am a retired teacher of medical school students, residents, and fellows, but Mary had a lot to teach me. I had decided how to tell the story for each group. At our first meeting, Mary suggested we do it another way. She was so right. I keep thinking what a disaster it would have been if she had not been there.

Now I know why Jesus sent the disciples out two by two. At my late stage of life, I am learning that almost any ministry is better with a partner or even more, if possible. We learn so much from each other’s experience and expertise.

This prayer for today about slowing down was our favorite from the story of Mary and Martha. I try to say it during my day, every day.

I learned one more thing at VBS. Mary and I were with each group of children for only twenty minutes. We told stories about Jesus calling the disciples, Mary and Martha, Zacchaeus, the Last Supper, and Jesus sending his disciples out with the assurance he would be with them always. Before telling the new story each day, we would review the story from the previous day. I was amazed that the children in each group, even the four-year-olds, remembered so much of yesterday’s story. Of course, each story was reinforced through crafts, music, and games.

VBS taught me that what we teach and what we say can be like seeds planted to germinate in children’s hearts at some later date. I am reminded of my teachers at VBS, who taught me about the love of God through stories. I am still learning from them through Mary.

Fog

Fog

“We mostly spend our lives conjugating three verbs: to Want, to Have and to Do. Craving, clutching, and fussing, on the material, political, social, emotional, intellectual, even on the religious plane, we are kept in perpetual unrest, forgetting that none of these verbs have any ultimate significance, except so far as they are transcended by and included in the fundamental verb, to Be, and that Being, not wanting, having and doing, is the essence of the spiritual life.” Evelyn Underhill  in  The Spiritual Life.

Fog

 I rise early on our first day at the beach in over six months to a dense fog where we can barely see in front of us. The fog lifts slightly. A pod of silent pelicans flies by so close I can almost touch them. They take my breath away. Their majesty is stunning. I spy dolphins at a distance and follow them across my visual path. Finally, the fog clears just enough for an osprey to come out far about the water, looking for breakfast.

This is the story of life. Most of the time, we live in a fog, never knowing our direction or path completely. We have moments when the fog clears briefly, and we receive insights. The dolphins, the pelicans, and the osprey are like those insights that majestically fly by. If we are not alert, we will miss them. We treasure those moments and wait patiently for the next ones.

 As I write, I have lost the dolphins. It is a lesson. If we are not constantly alert, we will miss the insight. But being observant cannot happen constantly. We want to hold on to our brief insights and capture them. This could be like the disciples wanting to make booths to Elijah and Moses at Jesus’ Transfiguration.

One more observation. As I stay alert, any pain and anxiety I have goes away. I learn that being mindful and living in the present moment is turning my life over to God. It is a place of peace.

fog clearing