Praying Without Words

At our last meeting, as we discussed liturgical prayer and spontaneous prayer, Carol mentioned praying without words entirely. I found this idea intriguing and went looking for some resources. First, I found this quote by C.S. Lewis from his book Letters to Malcolm:

For many years after my conversion I never used any ready-made forms except the Lord's Prayer. In fact I tried to pray without words at all--not to verbalise the mental acts. Even in praying for others I believe I tended to avoid their names and substituted mental images of them. I still think the prayer without words is the best--if one can really achieve it. 

And John Bunyan, author of The Pilgrim's Progress, said,

When you pray, rather let thy heart be without words than they words without heart.

John Parsons, of Hebrew For Christians, offers this article: A Few Thoughts on Prayer, where he points out that prayer comes from the heart, and is therefore with or without words. As an offering of the heart, prayer may also be either conscious or unconscious. It is the heart's communication with God. He shares a Jewish midrash on prayer in this way:

The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Israel, "I bade you pray in the assembly of your city, but if you cannot pray there, pray in your field, but if you cannot pray there, pray on your bed, but if you cannot pray there, 'be still and know that I am God.'"

 Romans 8:26 says this,

For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

The practice of prayer encompasses so much more than words, and, clearly, the Spirit "hears" our heart, our intentions without words. A more holistic view of prayer might involve out thoughts, intentions, emotions, and images. In the words of John Parsons,

Prayer is essentially a response to God's call for us, a kind of teshuvah, or turning to God. ... It is not about finding the right words. 

Notes from Patti about Prayer

Patti mentioned this at our last group meeting and graciously passed it along to me in email so that I could share it with all of you!

Many years ago I was given a copy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's writings on "Daily Meditation" from his letters, lectures and notes titled, The Way to Freedom. Through the years,  I've adapted his notes with my thoughts to come up with a recipe to begin my day.  Through the various chapters of my life of mothering, working, healing and tending, the amount of time I spent varied, but the method remained helpful in enhancing my conversations with God.  My tangible tools are my Bible, my notebook and a pen. I often begin with jotting down initials of persons or situations occupying my head and heart.  This is simply to unload so that I can truly "devote" to my relationship with God.  I then use the following guide:

COME:

A quiet prayer to the Holy Spirit is a precious guarantee of guidance and blessing.

CONCENTRATE:

Choosing a Scripture verse can be as simple as using a verse or two from a Psalm, Bible app, devotion book or daily calendar of verses.  If the Spirit brings you to a memorized verse, use that.  Read the words aloud or to yourself.  Spend time focusing on these words.

CONSIDER:

Most verses lead me to separate scripture thoughts into 2 columns:  God's part/My part.  (This is often a humble reminder that God is God and I am not! Whew...)  

CREATE:

Praise and written prayer, using the words of scripture and the counsel of the Spirit, more naturally flows from our "time together".     

CARRY ON:

Taking the promises, lessons and perspective with me into the rest of the day has me more likely considering God beside me thru the mundane, the mountain tops and everything in between.  Journaling at the end of the day may be a consideration in the future...

Example of today's entry:

"Come, Holy Spirit.  Reveal yourself to me that our relationship may grow to your glory and my peace."

Concentrate on Proverbs 3:5,6  "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight." Paraphrase might be "You promise to make my path straight as I trust in you instead of myself.  Help me to acknowledge you in all ways."

Consider the my part to be to trust in YOU, Lord.  I spin my wheels trying to understand, fix, control etc.  but instead want to acknowledge that you see and know so much more than I do.  Your part will be to make my path straight...change the chaos into peace at the right time and in the right way.

Create in me a clean heart,  oh God.  Renew a right spirit in me.  Thank you for this time of transforming grace.  Thank you for your patient love.  Amen

Carry On with a sweet reminder to trust in a God who loves me.

Julie sent the following email to share with the group:

While working on our homework assignment, I was lead to a couple of readings from Sermon Notes of Charles Stanley. The following is a summary of what I read. You may want your Bible handy.

Read Philippians 4:6-7
Three Roots of Anxiety that Feed Worry
1) Fear.
The key to overcoming fear is Faith in God's Word. The Word of God is filled with examples, promises, commandments, and principles that reveal our Lord is bigger than any problem we may encounter. Let God's Word frame every situation.
2) Doubt.
The key to contentment is trust in God's ways. Contentment comes when we lay our burden at His feet, trusting in His plan and perfect timing.
3) Control.
The key to overcoming our desire to control is to surrender to His Will.
Psalm 103:19 The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all. (That includes all the details of our lives).

Trust- a strong belief in someone's integrity, ability and character. (Having confidence in the Lord)

Read Proverbs 3:5-6

We all need guidance. In order to receive His instructions we must listen, trust and obey.

A. Meditate on God's Word. (Psalm 119:105)
B. Be Sensitive to the Holy Spirit. (John 16:13)
C. Wait for God's Timing. (Isaiah 64:4)
D. Have Courage. (Joshua 1:9)
E. Accept Conflict. (Acts 5:29)

I often rely on prayer to help me during stressful times and when I am seeking answers to questions. These readings were great reminders of why prayer is an important part of my life. May they be a blessing to you too. I'm looking forward to hearing what you discovered during your study time next week. Until then I'll be thinking of you.

Thank you, Julie, for taking the time to share this with the group!! 

Resources for Prayer

Our group continues to gather in some fantastic resources for assisting us in prayer! Here are a few more that were mentioned on Wednesday:

The Hour That Changes the World by Dick Eastman is a guide to 12 steps or "movements" (as Brian McLaren might say) of prayer. Each "movement" is intended to take about 5 minutes, leading the individual through an hour of prayer. Linda mentioned this book to the group and was quick to note that the book is not written in a legalistic manner, nor should it be taken that way. It's a practical guide, with room for flexibility. (Note: The book is available both in paperback and as an ebook.)

If you do a search for Eastman's book, you might stumble upon the article How To Pray at  www.714movement.com, a site developed in collaboration with Dr. James T. Bradford. Bradford has used Eastman's principles of prayer (which are listed in the article at the link above) to develop a prayer journal called Seven: Fourteen. The 714 website and app include daily readings, devotionals, and real-time maps of people praying around the world!

Also, I cannot recommend highly enough Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Prayerbook of the Bible. This book is often sold in a combined volume with his book Life Together, which also includes some lovely readings on the role of communal scripture reading, silence, and prayer. Bonhoeffer makes a convincing case for the daily reading of the Psalms as our Prayerbook. The Psalter is the prayer book that Jesus would have used in prayer. It was the prayer book of the early church. And it still relevant today as it encompasses a range of human emotion and experience.

For previously mentioned resources, see Daily/Weekly Practices, The Daily Office, Contemplative Spirituality, and Fixed Hour Prayer, and Praying the Divine Hours.

On Sabbath and Hospitality and Friday Night Meatballs

I was reminded, in our discussion this past week, of a blog post I read a year or so ago. It was about a family that decided to host a Friday night gathering of friends in order to build community...and to unplug and rest...every Friday. It wasn't a religious thing, not a spiritual practice. But the author of the article certainly recognized that it was a reflection of spiritual and cultural traditions practiced by many around the world. I want to share the article because I believe that it is full of the sorts of practical tips that make Sabbath possible...as well as some lovely insight into how it changes us to just take a night off every week.

I could tell you about the article all.day.long. But, I'll share the link so that you can see for yourself: Friday Night Meatballs: How to Change Your Life with Pasta. 

And a sneak peak of one of my favorite paragraphs...

There's something about the mix of candlelight and comfort food (okay, and wine) that encourages people to relax and share their stories. I've always found hosting parties to be stressful, but Friday Night Meatballs has become a relaxing escape at the end of the week. In his book The Sabbath, rabbi and civil rights activist Abraham Heschel observes that "there is a realm of time where the goal is not to have but to be, not to own but to give, not to control but to share, not to subdue but to be in accord." This, he says, is the point of taking a day off for rest and reflection and the company of loved ones: it's when we manage to stop worrying about making a living that we start actually living.

That's it. You're going to have to read the rest yourself!

Animate: Practices

What's brewing at Morning Blend? 

Starting Febraury 3rd, 2016 we will be studying Animate: Practices, a 7-session series by Spark House. This series focuses on the core practices of Christian faith presented by 7 different leaders in the Christian community:

Prayer: Oriented Toward God by Brian McLaren
Food: Eating, with Jesus by Sara Miles
Worship: Seeking God's Presence by Mike Slaughter
Sacraments: A Tapestry of Traditions by Phyllis Tickle 
Money: The Joy of Sharing by Shane Claiborne
Service: The Needs Right in Front of You by Enuma Okoro
Community: An Unexpected Family by Doug Pagitt

Our group has heard from a few of these speakers before, and we look forward to wrestling with the practices of our faith with both new and familiar voices!

Developing a Rule of Life

This week, as we all think about what it means to develop a "rule of life," I've gathered some resources that might be helpful in the process:

The Society of St. John the Evangelist offers a short workbook in pdf format called Living Intentionally: A Workbook for Creating a Personal Rule of Life.  The workbook includes some suggestions for how to approach the development of a personal rule of life, as well as questions (with blank space for writing answers) to help a person walk through the process of thoughtfully developing such a rule.

The C.S. Lewis Institute also offers a guide called Instructions for Developing a Personal Rule of Life. This guide offers some thoughts and suggestions, such as:

Ultimately a Rule should help you to love God more, so if it becomes a legalistic way of earning points with God or impressing others, it should be scrapped. If the traditional, ancient term “rule” concerns you because it sounds legalistic, think of “rule” as a “rhythm of life” or as a “Curriculum in Christlikeness” (Dallas Willard), or as a “Game Plan for Morphing” (John Ortberg).

 ...and then leads the reader through some guiding questions for developing a personal rule of life.

Finally Crafting a Rule of Life is an entire website devoted to helping individuals to develop their own rule of life, based on the book of the same name by Stephen A. Macchia. Particularly, their myRULE page includes resources for writing a personal rule with a downloadable pdf table AND examples of "rules" written by others. Of note, there is a Visual Rule of Life example (see Lisa Forkner's Visual Rule of Life 2014). Another rule is written as a "Recipe for Daily Bread" (see Leslea Linebarger's Rule of Life 2013). Nearly all of the examples have some sort of visual representation - wheels, flow charts, photographs, etc. Lots of creative inspiration there!

Daily/Weekly Practices

On Wednesday, we discussed some of the daily/weekly practices that are already part of some of our lives that help us to stay connected to God. Several people in our group mentioned resources that have been part of their spiritual practice for some time. Among them were:

Jesus Calling by Sarah Young - This is a devotional book, which is available in paper, ebook, and app formats! This devotional has been mentioned and shared at our group so many times, it's definitely worth a special mention. Here is a brief bio about Sarah Young from the above link:

Sarah is biblically conservative in her faith and reformed in her doctrine. She earned a master’s degree in biblical studies and counseling from Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis. She is a member of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), where her husband, Stephen, is an ordained minister. Stephen and Sarah continue to be missionaries with Mission to the World, the PCA mission board.

My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers is a true classic and is available entirely for free online at the link posted here. From the linked website:

Chambers was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1874, the youngest son of a Baptist minister. He spent his boyhood years in Perth; then his family moved to London when Oswald was fifteen....

While studying at the University of Edinburgh (1895-96), he decided, after an agonizing internal battle, to study for the ministry. He left the university and entered Dunoon College, near Glasgow, where he remained as a student, then a tutor for nine years.
In 1906 he traveled to the United States, spending six months teaching at God’s Bible School in Cincinnati, Ohio. From there, he went to Japan, visiting the Tokyo Bible School, founded by Mr. and Mrs. Charles Cowman. This journey around the world in 1906-1907 marked his transition from Dunoon College to fulltime work with the Pentecostal League of Prayer.

She Reads Truth is an online community of women, who read the Bible together online daily. Daily devotionals are available on their website or their app, OR you can subscribe to get them in your email inbox. Currently, the site has an Advent study available online for free. Here's what they have to say:

God’s Word is a gift, and reading it is a privilege. She Reads Truth cheers on ministries whose mission is to reach the unreached with their very first Bibles. Our mission is to invite the already-reached to reach for their Bibles—every day.

Discovering the Bible: Your Daily Bible Reading Companion by Gordon Addington takes the reader through the Bible in a year. (The link to this book will take you to a website that gives a portion of their book sale proceeds to charity. A drop down menu when you make a purchase allows you to select a charity of your choice!) About the book:

A respected Bible teacher, Gordon L. Addington, both a medical doctor and a doctor of ministry, wants to take you through this journey in one year. InDiscovering the Bible, he gives insightful notes and the historical background for each day’s reading. See how God unfolds His amazing plan of redemption throughout the entire Bible.

Checklist for Life for Moms is a book specifically for moms and the challenges moms face:

In addition to a brief narrative, each chapter of this interactive handbook features:

• An "I Will" checklist of heart and attitude reinforcements.
• A "Things to Do" checklist of action points.
• A "Things to Remember" section of Scripture verses and applicable quotes from famous and not-so-famous people

For more resources for practicing "Daily Offices" or Fixed Hour Prayer...or whatever you want to call your daily practice of prayer...see this previous blog post: The Daily Office, Contemplative Spirituality, and Fixed Hour Prayer.

If you have more to add, just add a comment. I'll also be adding as things come in to my email! 

Edited to add: Tesha asked about the book our family used a number of years ago. It was called A Contemporary Celtic Prayer Book  by William John Fitzgerald and Joyce Rupp. This book offers a week's worth of morning, midday, and evening meditations following a repeating format. The meditations include traditional liturgical prayers (The Lord's Prayer, The Magnificat, etc...), as well as poems, hymns, and some guided meditations. The latter portion of the book includes prayers for special occasions and holidays. Aurora loved this book as a young child because she learned the format quickly and knew what to expect. She also had many of the prayers and poems memorized in a relatively short period of time! Without prompting, she asked me about this book just a few weeks ago and expressed interest in going back to it!

More Genogram Resources

I stumbled across the article on Wiki How for creating a genogram, and I thought it was brilliant! If you haven't taken the time to draw a genogram yet, now's the time! And this article will help you with the basics for how to keep everything straight in your "family tree." Check it out here: http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Genogram

You'll do yourself a big favor by using the standard genogram symbols when you draw your "family tree" because the symbols help you keep track of what's what without having to write all the actual words. Charts of all the symbols can be found in the above article. 

What is The Wall, the Dark Night of the Soul?

I shared these two articles last week, but I wanted to make sure everyone had a chance to look at them. They pertain to the discussion on The Wall/The Dark Night of the Soul...

What is a Dark Night of the Soul? and The Dark Night of the Soul by R.C. Sproul. 

The first deals with the history of the the "Dark Night of the Soul" concept: 

The phrase “dark night of the soul” comes from a poem by St. John of the Cross (1542-1591), a Spanish Carmelite monk and mystic...  The monk taught that one seeking God will cast off all attachments to this world and live a life of austerity. Before attaining union with God, however, the soul must pass through a personal experience of Christ’s passion. This time of testing and agony is accompanied by confusion, fear, and uncertainty—including doubts of God—but on the other side are Christ’s glory, serenity, and a mystical union with God.

The second deals with the concept of the Dark Night as it might be understood in the wider Christian community: 

This phenomenon describes a malady that the greatest of Christians have suffered from time to time. It was the malady that provoked David to soak his pillow with tears. It was the malady that earned for Jeremiah the sobriquet, “The Weeping Prophet.” It was the malady that so afflicted Martin Luther that his melancholy threatened to destroy him. This is no ordinary fit of depression, but it is a depression that is linked to a crisis of faith, a crisis that comes when one senses the absence of God or gives rise to a feeling of abandonment by Him.