Our past few chapters on Prayer by Richard Foster have been reviewing inward prayers using contemplative or meditative models, trying to allow prayer instead of creating prayer. Foster made his case so strong for the difficulty of practicing contemplative prayer that it did not encourage anyone to take the practice beyond the reading in the book. But by the end of the class we could agree that we all appreciated silence, even if we weren’t ready to take the prayers to the nth degree that the desert fathers describe. I’ve been trying to focus on being quiet, but not such an easy thing. You hear noises in the next room, a need to itch, and of course the revolving door of ideas, concerns, and questions. Last night when I laid down I wanted to try again to be quiet. When work lists started accumulating, I made a conscious judgment that I had already given work more than enough of my time and energy that day because I had stayed a few hours longer, and gave myself permission to shut those thoughts out. I’m sure it helped that I was tired and I didn’t stay awake too much longer for a different set of barricades to fly up, but this was a major accomplishment to control one set of thoughts and allow silence to fill the void. I’m not fooling myself to think I’m approaching the level that Foster describes, but instead of totally disregarding the practice, I would like to learn to appreciate some of the benefits, not creating conversations with God, but instead staying quiet and letting God have a turn.
My prayer for the congregation?
Dear God, We would love to hear what you have to share. Amen.
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