|
go here to buy my stock photography
Alan Creech
 Custom Search
though the yield of the olive fail sites & things i like
abbey of gethsemani faith communities christ the king blogs i read
aaron klinefelter
|
January 26, 2010
> 10:39 AM
re-thoughts on prayer and liturgy > 1 Too long since I've blogged, so I think I'll start back with some re-posts - oldies but goodies. Some of these posts not so old, but something perhaps worth putting out there again. I recently took a trip to Negaunee, Michigan (that's waaaay up there folks, in the UP) to lead United Methodist District Pastors retreat for a friend of mine, Eric Kieb, at his church there (he is Pastor of Mitchell UMC in Negaunee). It was a good time. It was definitely a gift for me to be able to do that kind of thing. I talked about liturgy, the liturgical lifestyle, liturgical prayer, etc. It flowed somewhat into the mystical life, union with God and cool stuff like that. Very good conversations. I'm going back through my blog posts to find some of this kind of material. I'm sure some of it will be identical to what I talked about up there. Hopefully, some of it will be helpful in some way to someone. I'll start with this post entitled "prayer," originally posted April 29, 2008. ----------------------------- prayer "Prayer enlarges the heart until it is capable of containing the gift that God makes of Himself."Can't say it much better than that. I read that last night and thought it was well worthy of sharing here. It makes me think a couple of things: that prayer is a medium. It's something we do because we are in the state that we're in. This may sound odd, but I'm not sure God created us to have to pray. He created us to have such a close and intimate and undivided union with Him that prayer, as we know it, is not necessary. Yes, I know Jesus prayed, but He had also stepped into our broken realm. Our goal - well, God's goal for us is Mystical Union with Himself, nothing less. Praying is necessary and good and we need to do it now. Even what we call the Saints "praying" in heaven to God for us, wouldn't be quite the same as what we're doing here from one dimension to another. To see them, "there" in the fullness of His Presence, having to kneel down and lift there hands or put their hands together in order to ask God to help us - well, it's odd and a very, very limited way of looking at what that Life is like. Another thing is that prayer is not just some isolated "thing" we do here and there: pray to ask for help or for things; pray to get forgiveness; pray so that we don't have a car accident; stop and pray so that your sister won't go to hell, etc., etc. Prayer is more than that. It may include things like that from time to time, sure, but it's not just that. It is the opening of ourselves to God. This is why we are told to pray without ceasing. There are many different ways to pray. This should be obvious. So somehow, always, wherever we are or whatever we're doing, we can be "at prayer" in some way, even if it's just saying to ourselves that we are open to God, we are listening. Our mind can chew on things - we can meditate even without candles and music and silence. Sure, there are particular ways to pray and we should be doing those things, praying in those ways. But we need to come to realize that prayer is sort of a way of being, a constant attitude, both inward and outward. And as we open ourselves, God is there to "come in" and do the work that only He can do. 3 Comments:Oh this is excellent, sir. It's something that I try to talk to people about sometimes, but end up failing miserably. Prayer doesn't have to be a "Sign of the Cross" sandwich. By Thanks, Thom. I'm glad it's helpful in some way. "Sign of the Cross sandwish" - that's good. :) This post has been removed by the author. | permalink | e-mail me | 
|
daily prayer
ordinary time lectionary readings > today
my blog post labels
blogging archives
|
000
038
