4. Prayer on retreat, July 2014 [Read parts I, II & III] Here I am again, looking for something exciting on the iPhone, doing everything I can to avoid prayer. It is addiction: anything to stop me coming home to myself, and the work of coming home to You. What am I doing? I am … Continue reading Evanescence (IV)
Category: Prayer
Evanescence (III)
3. St Anthony's Pool [Read parts I and II] It is early morning, Summer 1991, the gardens of a college-turned-retreat house on the western edge of London. The Heathrow-bound air-traffic screams deafeningly low overhead, heading for touch-down. I am praying beside a goldfish pond. I know that if I am still and patient the fish … Continue reading Evanescence (III)
Desk-clearing
When engaging in contemplative prayer à la Keating or Main, or when meditating, the direction given is to eschew thoughts. Thinking happens. You cannot avoid, stop or squash it. Notice thoughts as they arise and let them go. It's ok, it's normal, it's what the mind does, it is easy to get hooked, but don't … Continue reading Desk-clearing
Starting again, again
When he was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him. Luke 15.20 Times are when you don't pray. There's been a lot going on, you've been on holiday, you're not feeling up to it, you're busy, stressed, anxious, overwhelmed. There are always … Continue reading Starting again, again
Experiments (part 2)
21 Experiments in Prayer In no particular order, but just as they occur to me… Sit still and breathe gently for a few minutes. Let your mind wander wherever it does, but if you get fed up with this come back to yourself. Stare out of a window for a few minutes. Watch the clouds. … Continue reading Experiments (part 2)
Experiments (part 1)
An early love of mine was chemistry. I completed my studies with a BSc in Chemistry and a PGCE. I taught chemistry up to 11-18 year olds for 3 years. That was enough. Most experiments in science lessons are not experiments: they are demonstrations. The teacher knows what the answer is. If you don't get … Continue reading Experiments (part 1)
Do not be consistent
Those who write about God, like John V Taylor in The Christlike God, suggest that there are two fundamental, and fundamentally different, experiences of God: the numinous and the mystical: in a numinous experience you feel yourself "to be in communion with a holy other" who can "attract, fascinate and compel" as well as evoke … Continue reading Do not be consistent
Waiting
I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting. Wait without thought, for you … Continue reading Waiting
Make no improvements
Time after time I came to your gate with raised hands, asking for more and yet more.You gave and gave, now in slow measure, now in sudden excess.I took some, and some things I let drop; some lay heavy on my hands; some I made into playthings and broke them when tired; till the wrecks … Continue reading Make no improvements
Practise kindness
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore. Naomi Shihab Nye In 3 reasons to prayer: 1, 2, 3, I wrote about what makes prayer difficult, why you avoid it, why you say you haven't the time or are not disciplined. In prayer you become, perhaps only dimly, aware of life's physical, emotional and … Continue reading Practise kindness