Prayer

There isn't a person on the planet who doesn't long for the Beloved's touch. Everyone wants to pray, and everyone can pray. The trouble is, prayer's been so highjacked by religious people and especially by serious religious people that many of us don't want what we think prayer is, or don't think we can do what prayer requires. That's a terrible tragedy.

God is not a remote deity. God is not angry. God doesn't belong to a particular race or tribe or nation. The God revealed in Jesus is with us, for us, in us.

This means God is as near to you as the beating heart within you, as close as your next breath. Prayer, then, is as natural as breathing. The purest prayer is simply an awareness of the presence of God within and all around you.

Intention: Today, I will pause from time to time, take note of my breath, feel the beating of my heart, and sense the God who is within and all around me.

Interiority

Where is Christ? Where is the One in whom "all things in heaven and on earth were created" (Colossians 1.16)? Yes, up and out, "reconciling all things" (Colossians 1.17).

But also down and in, "holding all things together" (Colossians 1.17).

"Christ lives in me," wrote St Paul (Galatians 2.20).

Bernard of Clairvaux testified to an experience I want for you:

"I confess to you I have many times received the visits of the Word. I could not perceive the exact moment of his arrival. He did not enter by the senses, but whence did he come? Perhaps he did not enter at all, for he who enters comes from without. But I found him closer to me that I to myself" (Sermons on the Song of Songs).

Intention: Today, I will cradle the Creator of the Cosmos within my heart. I will trust that the Author of Life is in me--closer to me than I am to myself, holding me and all things together.

THIS WEEKEND! "The Art of Meditation: Sustaining the Compassionate Life" with Fr. Laurence Freeman OSB in Fresno :: Sign up today!

How can I pray when I feel so scattered? Is there a way to experience more of God in the midst of my busy life?

Can I find more meaning in the daily tasks I do?

How do I respond redemptively to the rise of violence and fear in our world?

Click here to go to the website for more information or to pre-register!

Prayer isn't an escape from the world, nor is it merely asking God for things, for security, for safety. Prayer is relationship with the Beloved, it is the experience of union with the One who made and loves you.

Prayer is, of course, words. But it's got to be more than words just as a relationship must be more than words if it's going to do what good relationships do. And prayer also must turn us outward in meaningful engagement with the daily tasks that are ours to do, and in compassion that helps transform the world into the world God is making it to be.

Prayer is the most basic expression of our faith; in fact, aside from breathing, is is the most basic act of being human.

Each year, UPC hosts the Central California Prayer of the Heart Conference. This year's conference combines our Prayer of the Heart Conference and the Interfaith Scholar Weekend. Fr. Laurence Freeman is one of the world's greatest living teachers of Christian prayer and meditation. If you want your life to count, to act in whatever small or great way you feel compelled to act in this world, then meditative prayer is a necessity. It grounds you in Jesus Christ, the center of life.

This conference will help bring meaning, perspective, power, and dignity to your life, and it will join you with others, who, like you are offering their lives for the sake of healing the world. It will help you walk courageously, yet gently as a redemptive force to bring hope and healing to the world around you.

Schedule:

Friday, February 8, Location: Islamic Cultural Center of Fresno (no charge)

7:00pm Lecture "Meditation into the Common Ground"

Saturday, February 9, Location: Temple Beth Israel, Fresno ($45 advance, $50 at the door, $10 students)

8:30 am Continental Breakfast and Registration

9:00 Shabbat Observance (Torah Commentary)

9:15 Lecture: "The Crisis of Religion is the Time for Contemplation"

10:45 Lecture: "The Cave of the Heart: The Stages of Meditation"

Lunch

1:15 Session: "Questions and Answers with Fr. Laurence Freeman"

2:15pm Closing

Sunday, February 10, Location: University Presbyterian Church (no charge)

9:30am Worship with a sermon and guided meditation by Fr. Freeman

For more information about Fr. Laurence Freeman click here.

To register for Saturday's conference click here.

Why the Trinity matters: spiritually and scientifically

In window into What or Who you're partnering with when you open yourself in prayer. Richard Rohr and the Pattern of the Trinity (this is a video; it starts as a black screen here on my blog; be sure to click the play button below): If your browser won't play this film directly from my site, follow this link to the video at Work of the People.

The fruit of prayer: compassion

People often dismiss the contemplative life, the praying life, as disconnected from the realities of daily life. That's a terribly naive and myopic assessment.  This site is dedicated to a robust and compassionate life lived in public, sourced by Divine power.

Here's a recent book I've come across...an important work on the relationship between the contemplative and active life.  Contemplation ought to lead to the deepest forms of involvement in daily life--especially the struggle for all to live well on this increasingly trouble, yet beautiful planet.

"The key to compassion is conversion of self; prayer enkindles the grace of conversion. As Francis prayed, he became more deeply attuned to the experience of God in his own life which in turn deepened his compassion for others. Through prayer Francis reached the deepest oneness with God; he realized this oneness by sharing in the human poverty and humility of Christ. Compassion transformed Francis into another Christ 'because of the excess of his love.'"

There's a growing emergence of compassionate folks whose acts are sourced by prayer.  You're among them.

For stuff about the book, click on the image.