I do not know when I first heard of prayer. I do recall my mom laying my little body down on the bench of a church. I slept while the people were worshipping. I was raised in a culture where prayer was as natural as breathing. Most persons would no more think not to pray than not to breathe.
While my ideas of prayer have changed over the years, prayer seems something I was destined to live and teach. For me, to live is to pray, to pray is to live. I tell others, "I don't understand how people live without prayer. I don't think I would have made it this far without it."
It is true. I have been at the bottom, so far down there was no more down to go, and there at least could pray. And I have companioned others down low, including facing death and been graced to hold them through prayer.
In my childhood religion, when someone requested prayer for someone else, they would say, "I ask you hold ... in prayer," and the reply, "I'll hold ... in prayer." Prayer is a way we can hold each other. Knowing someone is praying for us can lead to us feeling held. All prayer, spoken or unspoken, in stillness or movement, is a means of spiritual intimacy with each other and our Source.
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[P]rayer is the most perfect and most divine action that a rational soul is capable of. It is of all actions and duties the most indispensably necessary.
A Jewish story is of a cobbler who visited Rabbi Isaac of Ger, saying, "Tell me what to do about my morning prayer. My customers are poor men who have only one pair of shoes. I pick up their shoes late in the evening and work on them most of the night; at dawn, there is still work to be done if the men are to have their shoes before they go to work. My question is: What should I do about my morning prayer?"
"What have you been doing?" asked the Rabbi.
"Sometimes, I rush through the prayer quickly and return to my work, but then, I feel bad about it. At other times, I let the hour of prayer go by. Then, I feel a sense of loss, and every now and then, as I raise my hammer from the shoes, I can almost hear my heart sigh, 'What an unlucky man I am that I am not able to make my morning prayer.'"
Said the Rabbi, "If I were God, I would value that sigh more than the prayer."
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Likely, much that passes through the mind and lips and is called prayer bears little resemblance to true, or spiritual, prayer. On the other hand, many prayers have never passed through minds or lips and were unknown to the one the prayer was happening within.
What has been called "True Prayer" in contemplative Christianity does not come from the mind or lips. The heart prays.
Sometimes, the heart praying can arise to the mind and lips. It can manifest in the body. Thus, the heart praying can lead to gestures such as prostrating, bowing, kneeling, dancing, singing, chanting, praising, or lifting hands to the skies - and, yes, a sigh.
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Spiritual Exercise
(1) Complete the following.
Prayer, to me, is essentially ...
(2) Do you agree with the saying of today on prayer from Augustine Baker? Explain.
(3) Breath Prayer
Breathing in: Beloved [or another word for the Sacred] Breathing out: Your love
Breathing in: Thank You Breathing out: [silence and smile]
Breathing in: Beloved Breathing out: Your joy
Breathing in: Thank You Breathing out: [silence and smile]
Breathing in: Beloved Breathing out: Your peace
Breathing in: Thank You Breathing out: [silence and smile]
Repeat the above until mind sinks into the silence. Rest there, still and quiet. When the mind wanders, let the breath bring you back to the stillness and quietness.
*Use of photography is allowed accompanied by credit given to Brian K. Wilcox and title and place of photographs.
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse.
