Improvise on These Five Ways and Find Time for Prayer

Much of my life I've felt simply too busy to pray.  I crave God, and know that periods of stillness before God are essential for developing the intimacy that is life giving.  But--and here's the rub--there's just too much to do. Over the last few years I've shifted.  It's not that making time for prayer is easy; it's still a struggle.  But I've reframed the way I view what I do.  Desperation (as I've written about before) is a marvelous motivator.  Desperation forced me to change my diet and habits half a dozen years ago when my health dropped through the floor.  And part of that change meant a shift in my daily practices.  Prayer--contemplative stillness before the Source of All--is simply not an option.  It is life.  To be driven along in the garbage and clutter of a chaotic life was never appealing, but I felt powerless against it.

Here's a link to a great article that offers five ways to carve out time for renovating a chaotic life and making time for exercise.

Yeah, make those changes--stubbornly, doggedly--and live better.  But I can't help but wonder what transformations we'd know if we got exercised about the sacred and made similar changes so we could plop down before the Holy for awhile each day.   I think our life depends on it.

Whether it's because we're unorganized, unmotivated, or simply over-tasked, we’re all too busy. If I were to ask you to dedicate an extra hour each day for something, you'd laugh and call me crazy. However, what if I asked for a fraction of that? What if I wanted 30 minutes of your day and promised that the time investment would actually increase your productivity each day? Not only that, but you'd potentially live longer, perhaps be happier, and definitely have more energy.

That doesn't sound like a bad deal. A little prep work, a small time investment, and loads of new attitudes and productivity gains. Where is the catch?

Those who think they have no time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness.

Many today are finding that the body and soul were never meant to be disconnected.  Joining exercise and prayer is the path not only to healing, but to better attitudes and greater productivity.  But we will have to choose to make changes and swim against the stream.

Prayer as an “Easy Tour”

From my journal | Tuesday, May 22, 2007 | St. Marcarius Monastery, the desert of Skete, Egypt

The key to prayer is to stop trying, stop seeking, stop posturing, and simply open to Christ, greet him adoringly, and then let my love for him carry me blindly, trustingly, wherever he leads.

Matthew the Poor calls pure prayer, prayer of the heart, contemplation, an “easy tour”—something so simple it is nearly unbelievable by the sophisticated mind (From Orthodox Prayer Life).

“It requires a simple and easy-going soul that can go on, caring little how or where it goes. This may be likened to walking in the dark in simple faith, making no use of the sense, mind, or imagination. It is as though a blind man were guided to walk along a path free of stumbling blocks or other impediments without boundaries on the left or right—a path that is seldom trodden by anyone. This blind man may have a simple heart, a clear conscience, a serene mind, and a calm imagination. In this case, he would advance rapidly forward in faith without confusion, as an open-eyed man would do. But if the blind man were a sophisticated, skeptical, and fanciful philosopher, he would grope his way with a stick, and because of the existence of ditches, barriers, or wild beasts, he would stumble on the way. After a while he would prefer to sit down rather than walk on.”

As helpful as methods for prayer may be (and in many cases, necessary for the beginner, and for those who get stuck or lost along the way), it is love above all that leads the praying person across the final leap toward real oneness with God, a leap no method can span.  Love then, and do so simply . . . let love carry you across until there's only Love.

Can One Talk About the Experience of Prayer?

In what way is prayer like sex--too intimate a mystery to describe?  Yeah, well, lots of people talk about sex.  Sex is paraded around in movies, on TV, and in music.  And to a large degree it's cheapened.  But there are forms of public art that reveal the beauty and wonder of sex and can invite us deeper into its mystery.  We'd be better off without some forms of public talk of sex, but worse off without others. Prayer too is in many ways too intimate for words.  And yet, we are compelled to talk about it.  But how can we talk about it without cheapening it?  Can we explore it artfully, reverently, so that our talk can invite us deeper?  Is it worth trying?

I'll give it a try, then you tell me if such talk is cheap and, like sex, better left behind closed doors.

I crave God.  I desire an experience of God that can keep me sane in the midst of an active life, but can open the door toward real union with God even in the midst of the busiest moments of my active life.  I want to disappear into God, to be consumed by the sacred fire.  Recently, I experienced the following during a dawn period of contemplative prayer, and wrote of it later in my journal:

"In stillness early.  Light breaks in.  I shudder.  Tremble.  Catch my breath.  FIRE!  Theosis!  I see it.  Touch it.  Taste it.  LOVE!  I shake.  And must voluntarily come back down 'the mountain'.  The heights are too intense for me."

About "theosis" see this link.

Awareness Prayer :: Prayer of Repose :: Prayer of the Heart

From my journal | Tuesday, May 29, 2007 | Iona, Scotland Begin by greeting the Beloved.  Follow your easy breath, in and out.  Survey your whole body, beginning with the toes and ending with the nose.  Release all tension.  Sink into the Presence of God.  Gently breathe, giving your thoughts the freedom to come and go. Like snowflakes, you may notice them but you can’t hold them.  Simply let them fall.

If the Devil brings ugly things, lusts, lists, or pride into your mind, you can find freedom by telling him that you know what he’s up to.  Smile at him.  Laugh at him in the confidence that greater is He who is in you than all the hosts of the Devil.  The Devil cannot abide when you jeer him.

Return to the Beloved.  Open your heart to love.  Become drunk with love.  The demons are terrified when they encounter a soul aflame with love.  Love will tame the wild beasts—your mind, your commands, your will cannot.

Wait, wait, wait until you reach the silence which is the voice of the Beloved, then on the inhale speak inwardly, “Jesus,” and on the exhale, “Mercy.”  Repeat, following your uncontrolled breath as you rest in God.  When the restfulness begins to come to a natural conclusion—or you sense the need to do so—simply bring your soul to an awareness of its body again.  Thank the Beloved Trinity and re-enter the day.

Practice a Receptive Posture. Simply Consent to God

Those of us serious about God often feel like we’re floundering about in an ocean without a boat or life vest.  We may feel that without help we’ll drown in the roles and responsibilities, our to-do lists and daily dramas.  A drowning person fights to stay afloat, and we who seek the wholeness of a life with God through prayer often struggle to stay afloat. There are two problems that the spiritually serious face.  The first is not to work hard enough.  Prayer is work—not just the practice of prayer which our active lives, the many distractions that come to us moment after moment, do not support, but also the work of pressing past our illusions about ourselves, the masks we wear, the falsehoods that we parade about.  To get past ourselves and into God is work.

That said, the second problem we face is trying too hard.  Drowning in the sea of distractions we can panic.  Floundering about we will waste precious energy and go really nowhere.

Fr. Thomas Keating and the Centering Prayer school of contemplative spirituality help us here.  Keating’s practice is receptive.  It is a non-combative form of payer. And while Keating and his school do teach a method, that method is established on attitude.  The method supports the attitude.  That’s important.  A method approach to the life of prayer can get in the way of intimacy with God.  Most of us have an annoying habit of attaching ourselves more to a method than to the God we seek.

Here’s the center of Centering Prayer’s method.

Go into silence twice a day, aiming for 20 minutes each sitting.  “Seek the face of God” above all else (Psalm 27.8), and simply open yourself and consent to whatever God wishes to do within you.  Put unwavering trust in this consent.  It is enough.  Better than anything else.  And when the barrage of thoughts come at you:

• Resist no thought
• Retain no thought
• React emotionally to no thought
• And return, ever so gently, to the sacred word you’re using as prayer, calling your attention back to God when you get distracted.

By consenting to God in this way, you are receptive to grace, and you’ll stop floundering about in the sea of your otherwise distracting life.