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
Category: Prayer
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
Sensation: the key to the art of living
A dear friend made very helpful comments in response to Where to start?. He deserves a reply, and I need to express myself more clearly. Here is the second of a set of pieces in which I reflect on what he says. One way in which I feel you may be going a wee bit … Continue reading Sensation: the key to the art of living
Sit!
A dear friend made very helpful comments in response to Where to start?. He deserves a reply, and I am going to devote a few pieces to this. Here's how he opens: As a person who finds it hard to sit still finds it hard to be quiet is suspicious of the notion of a … Continue reading Sit!