the sensation of life
Anxiety, holding Magnifying Glass. Studio Shot This is the fourth instalment of 11 Ways of Dealing with Anxiety, an ongoing experiment in being present. Prayer O God, make speed to save us. O Lord, make haste to help us. So begins Evening Prayer: asking God for presence and help, not to be alone in our … Continue reading 11 Ways of Dealing with Anxiety:
4. Prayer
Anxiety, holding Magnifying Glass. Studio Shot This is the third instalment of 11 Ways of Dealing with Anxiety, an ongoing experiment in being human. Meeting with stillness In Into the Silent Land, Martin Laird suggests that "the skill we must learn" is to "meet" "thoughts and feelings with stillness instead of commentary" (pp 63 & … Continue reading 11 Ways of Dealing with Anxiety:
3. Meeting with Stillness
(repeated St Anselm’s, Kennington, 17 March 2013) Making a good space My daughters can create chaos on the living room carpet, with dressing-up clothes strewn, books and magazines they have finished reading, drawings and pencils, and various animal soft-toys they have been making up stories about and role-playing with, sweet-wrappers and bits of cut-up paper. … Continue reading Sermon: St Peter’s, Vauxhall
Prayer is simple, but not easy. Prayer is simple because, like God, it is right under our noses. It is not easy because we are not simple. When we want to pray, where do we start? When we sit down to pray our mind shoots off in a hundred different directions, worrying about what we … Continue reading Where to start?
right and left front and back centre and circumference crown to pelvic floor to toe this body breathing i am alive i have arrived there is nowhere else
There is a skill that is common to several spiritual practices: Buddhist mindfulness meditation, Focusing, the Application of the Senses from the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius, the contemplative approach of the Cloud of Unknowing and the Practice of the Presence of God. I call this 'feeling into this body'. I think it confers several benefits: … Continue reading Feeling into this body
I spent the day at St Michael's Convent, Ham Common. I have come to view it as one of my favourite places. I spent the day alone and prayed, pottered and read some more of Into the Silent Land by Martin Laird. It is a wonderful book that brings together strands I am passionate about: … Continue reading Emptiness
What are we doing when we sit in prayer with a person as they are dying? The prayer, the blessing, is in the particulars: these lines and wrinkles; this graying hair; these tired, baggy eyes; this pattern of breath; this body, these cells that hold all, all, all that this person is. Has this person … Continue reading Thoughts at a bedside
I am used to exercises to relax and prepare to pray that focus on and relax parts of this body in turn until the whole body is relaxed. Some start at the top of the head and work down to the feet; some the other way round. For my money, the best end up in … Continue reading Relaxation exercises
There are two movements: outwards to the world — opening the pores of this body to sounds, sensations, the other, the Other — moving to an opening in and to love; inwards to this body and attending to this body's voice, in tenderness and interest. "Breathing in I go back to the island within myself." … Continue reading Movements