Rhythmic Prayer: The exercises

The second chapter of my prayer journey is all about rhythm. The contrast between periods of work and rest creates gaps into which we can invite God.
These are the exercises that Gerard and Chrissie Kelly suggest in their book, which can allow us to fill the gaps in our lives with prayer.

Liminal Prayer: coming apart at the seams

Coming apart at the seams sounds like bad news! But in another sense, it's nothing but good news. Coming apart is an old-fashioned term for the life of prayer, and often the time to find moments to withdraw from the preoccupations of the day is the joining places. The moments between waking and sleeping, between home and work, the pause between appointments. These are liminal moments, stages between one state and the next and they most offer the chance of private thoughts in an otherwise public day. Can you identify some of the seams in your life that you can convert into prayer moments? Having done so, can you commit to using them with regularity? Every traffic light, two seconds before each meeting, the same bus ride every day. What about offering a silent prayer every time you cross a boundary or threshold?

Pause, rewind, play

There is great scope for creating “pause moments” in the day and habitually turning them to prayer. The time it takes to boil a kettle, to take a shower... In the Celtic tradition each of these would have its own prayer. There were prayers for lighting the fire, milking the cow, or washing your face. Perhaps we can create prayers like that for ourselves. Think about the “pause moments” that most regularly occur in your days and which of them could most easily be turned to prayer.

Spot the dot

We have done this before in church. We were invited to put a sticker on our watch, or our phone, or our glasses case, so that every time we saw it, it would remind us to pray. Would anyone like a new dot?The fishbowl of faithThe Kellys have a friend in London who used to feel guilty about all the people he promised to pray for. He had too many people on his list, and couldn't stick to a timetable. His ingenious solution was to find an empty fishbowl at home, and write the names of everyone he had committed to pray for on pieces of paper. Whenever he went out of his front door, he would pick a slip with closed eyes and pray for that person through the day.

Thanktank

The German mystic Meister Eckhart taught that “If the only prayer you said in your whole life was 'Thank you.' that would suffice.” Saying grace before meals can for some people be a rare island of gratitude in an ungrateful world. Some make a habit of praying on the last moment before sleep, thanking God for the warmth, security and comfort of a bed and for the home that allows a family to rest in peace. Some have learned in their first waking moments to pause and thank God for the new day. When Jesus broke bread and said “Do this in remembrance of me,” was he thinking about the service of Holy Communion, or something simpler? “Every time you see bread, think of me. Every time you break it, remember me.” Sew prayer into the very fabric of your day and you will find that fabric transformed.

Prayer Journey - My second step

After admitting to some struggles as I try to get my prayer life up to speed, this Sunday I'm going to preach on the second chapter of Gerard and Chrissie Kelly's book, Intimate with the Ultimate.

This is all about getting a rhythm in your prayer life. Music to my ears. I've always been stop start, trying out something new and being all enthusiastic for a week or two, only for the next new thing to become another source of guilt, or an unwanted millstone round my neck.

The chapter begins with a provocative quote from Christine Sine: "I am challenged by the idea of entering into the joy of the Sabbath as a glimpse of eternity. Taking the Sabbath seriously affects the rhythm and focus of my whole life, not just one day a week."
Tomorrow will be my day off, and I will be resting. I don't always manage a full day off, and if my sermon isn't finished, I'll be sneaking into the study or sitting with my laptop on my knees while watching television in the evening, finishing my Powerpoint or the notice sheet.
(Ever wondered why there are so many typos in the notice sheet? Maybe there was something good on telly on Saturday night ...)

But it's not just about taking a day off once a week. Important though that is, what the Kellys are really talking about, is contrast.
They give the example of the discovery made by impressionist painters, that using contrasting colours could make each one shine more brightly. If we can inject some contrast into our lives - times of effort interspersed with times of rest, times of action balanced by times of reflection - then the resulting rhythm will add depth to all we do.

These rhythms aren't prayer in themselves, more containers into which prayer can be poured. They can be thimble-sized, or big enough for a gallon of Spirit. But without the container, the prayer can't be held. Try getting yourself a drink without a glass to put it in. You end up in all sorts of contortions trying to get your head under the tap.

If rhythm can stop my prayer life getting contorted, it's well worth a go!

Prayer journey? Prayer traffic jam, more like

Well, I have to confess that my prayer journey is off to a slow start.

Thank you to everyone who has been asking me how it is going - I hope I've been honest enough with you to say that it is going very very slowly! I did say that prayer wasn't my strong point, didn't I?

So instead of zipping along the M1 of prayer, I am firmly stuck in the traffic jam of the spiritual life. But not disheartened. It's too easy to get either guilty or fed up, and decide that's it, I'm not going to bother. I don't want to succumb to these temptations. I also want to try some of the suggestions in the Kellys' excellent book.

Past of what I am doing at the moment is removing some of the blockages to prayer. I've spoken about guilt already, I've spoken about the fact that we need to be really persuaded that God is on our side, not waiting to appeased by us, or argued into grudgingly helping us out. I really believe that, and I'm determined to put it into practice.

The next sermon on this subject will be preached on June 23rd, at 8am and 10am in Holy Trinity Hertford Heath. There will also be blog posts on the subject of chapter two - prayer as a rhythm. I am really looking forward to this - I sense that my own efforts at prayer are fitful and clumsy because I lack any rhythm. I hope to be reporting on some ways to bring God into the ups and downs of my life pretty soon.