Somehow, this post got lost in the WordPress database. I have no idea what I wrote, but I found some notes. It was the third in a 3-part series on what is difficult about prayer, and why prayer is important. The first was about Pain. The second addressed Change. This third was about being Insubstantial, … Continue reading 3 reasons to pray: 3
Category: Prayer
3 reasons to pray: 2
We all tend to think that if we had been in charge of creation we would have kept all the nice things and discarded all the bad ones. The more we learn scientifically how the world works, the more clearly we see that this is just not possible, for fruitfulness and destructiveness, order and chaos, … Continue reading 3 reasons to pray: 2
3 reasons to pray: 1
I am feeling it now, resistance to prayer. To pray, in the manner in which I pray, is to stop and to sit down, to relax and to let go. This is what I wrote about last month: relax and trust. But I don't want to. It hurts. As I relax, muscles that have been … Continue reading 3 reasons to pray: 1
Read from the heart
But these two ways of describing the mystery of God—the way of darkness and the way of light, the ambiguity of silence and the transparency of articulation—can never be separated. There is danger in posing a sharp dichotomy between apophatic and kataphatic approaches, as if one were superior to the other, as if the higher … Continue reading Read from the heart
Relax!
Relaxation is often presented as the beginning of prayer – what to do to get started. Then you are cajoled into the attempt to get elsewhere. This is to miss the point. Relaxation is not the antechamber of the temple. To relax is to pray. It is the temple. It is the return to this … Continue reading Relax!
No prayer is bad prayer
Prayer is properly is not petition, but simply an attention to God which is a form of love.Iris Murdock On 'God' and 'Good' Many years ago I trained as a masseur. The opening salvo of the instructor was, "No massage is bad massage." It is a beautifully ambiguous assertion: all massage, however unskilled, has worth; … Continue reading No prayer is bad prayer
Prayer in the intersticies
Prayer is a subversive activity. It involves a more or less open act of defiance against any claim by the current regime. Eugene Peterson: The Contemplative Pastor, p.10 The 'claim of the current regime' is multiple and multiply overwhelming: improve: today's achievement is never good enough tomorrow (something I learnt from working in the NHS); … Continue reading Prayer in the intersticies
11 Ways of Dealing with Anxiety: Roundup
Anxiety, holding Magnifying Glass. Studio Shot Anxiety is excitement without breathing.Fritz Perls So here we are: 11 Ways of Dealing with Anxiety. It took a while! Here's where we have been: BreatheFeel into this bodyMeeting with stillnessPrayerPauseTalkingWritingWalking and NatureDoing the dishesIdentifying fallacious reasoningSuffer the childThe next step Here are some things I have learnt in … Continue reading 11 Ways of Dealing with Anxiety: Roundup
11 Ways of Dealing with Anxiety:
11. The next step
Anxiety, holding Magnifying Glass. Studio Shot This is the final instalment of 11 Ways of Dealing with Anxiety, an ongoing experiment in meeting life with gusto. Take the next step There is one fundamental way of dealing with anxiety. Instead of sitting there worrying, get up and do something. I admit I find this difficult. … Continue reading 11 Ways of Dealing with Anxiety:
11. The next step
11 Ways of Dealing with Anxiety:
10. Suffer the child
Anxiety, holding Magnifying Glass. Studio Shot This is the tenth instalment of 11 Ways of Dealing with Anxiety, an ongoing experiment in meeting yourself with tenderness. If something hurts me, the hurts I suffered back then come back to me, and when I feel guilty, the feelings of guilt return; if I yearn for something … Continue reading 11 Ways of Dealing with Anxiety:
10. Suffer the child