I am a non-Roman Catholic, contemporary, mainline, fairly conservative Christian Pastor. I want to know "Christ and the power of his resurrection" through a deeper prayer life. I also want to be more effective at the slippery task of teaching prayer to others. My Lenten Journey for 2011 has included Basil Pennington's book "Centering Prayer". (Image Publishing, 1980-I have a brief review here also) It's blessing has been to discover that Contemplative Prayer and Meditation are the same thing. Shocking, huh. This is a brief attempt to understand and share truly Christian meditation. This brief article is meant to be a seed for your practice and not the final fruit. Here goes..............
Meditation/meditate is the Old/Jewish Testament, better the Psalmist's, word haga or hagut, and the Greek Word, meleteo. They both imply intense thinking, utterance,and imagining in an intentional giving of oneself totally to the process of connecting with God. Where the word Pray, various Heb. and Gr. proseuchomai is used with different nuances-intercession, praise, confession etc.-Meditation has one single use, simply to "be still and know." Both prayer and meditation are called for in both Old and New Testements. Both are modeled by Christ. Bottom line: Prayer and meditation are explicitly and intimately Christian practice. Still, "meditation" seems to have been given over to other world religions and the contemporary Christian Disciple will be blessed by discovering or re-discovering it.
First, we need a starting place. Central to Christian Meditation or "Centering Prayer", is the use of the "Prayer Word". Pennington compares it to a "mantra" though he does not use this more eastern term. The Prayer word is a single word or short phrase that is discovered (Mine comes from Psalm 52), and trains the mind to focus and center on God. Find yours in scripture, a song or in your heart but it must be yours. The purpose is not to the denial of outer thoughts or distractions but to be detached from them. (p. 102) The writer compares this to having a conversation with one person at a noisy party. We can focus on a conversation with one individual while the noise and bustle go on around us. When we realize that we have lost our focus, speaking the prayer word is the action we take to snap our attention back to a God centered conversation.
Set a particular place aside for prayer if possible, sit quietly and allow yourself time, at least 20 minutes. Lots of busy people do this in the shower-it may be the only quiet some get during the day. Begin by repeating your prayer word, keep it simple, and allow the prayer word to fade into silence. stay in this centered place and listen. God has something to say to you-and probably won't use words.
The question that I most often get when teaching prayer is, "What do I do with these distracting thoughts that I have?" Centering Prayer is a healing and nurturing time with God that is destroyed by external thoughts. These thoughts are wild monkeys swinging through our minds and stealing intimacy with God. Pennington's Chapter 6 deals lends a five way strategy to deal with them by using the gentle assertion of your personal prayer word. These are five common types of thoughts that disrupt our prayer and meditation.
The first type of though is the "Simple Thought". These are the natural and steady stream of thoughts that simply need to be put aside by using your prayer word to deny them a hand hold. Second is the "Catching Thought" that hooks us and comes to us during the course or prayer. They are born in prayer and can drag our awareness away. We must hold tenaciously to the prayer word "which capsulates the the fullness of my faith-love relationship with God." (105) You don't quit but renew your prayer. Third are the "Monitor Thoughts". These are very troublesome because they tempt us to make prayer a production event or worse a celebration of what we are doing. To conquer this we must remember who we are praying to and "ruthlessly" insert the prayer word and return to the presence. Fourth are the "Bright Idea" thoughts. These tempt us to leave prayer to go and do something-probably something good but half baked if we allow it to interfere with our prayer. Don't quit. Center with the prayer word and complete the time of prayer. Fifth and finally, the "Stressful Thoughts". Prayer can bring us stresses from relations and situations in our daily lives. It is this type of thought that can halt the prayer that can bring healing of the stresser. Only by being aware and staying centered can we continue to experience God's presence in prayer. (P. 103-110)
This process is better learned with a spiritual director or a trusted Christian friend that shares your journey. However, God has given you a sufficient amount of information to discover deeper prayer on your own. Pennington parallels Centering/contemplative/meditative Prayer with Sleep. "Just as dreams release tension from our lives while we sleep, so too do thoughts and images that flow through our minds while we are resting in contemplative prayer." (p. 109) In this contemplation God is given our thoughts and takes over.
We need an action to end also. The author suggests using the Lord's Prayer or other formula prayer as a way to "come out" of prayer. A favorite scripture, poem or song would work also. End this precious time with a formal invitation for God to come with us on the rest of our journey.
We begin with a process. We will know that it is successful when it disappears and we no longer need it.
Meditation/meditate is the Old/Jewish Testament, better the Psalmist's, word haga or hagut, and the Greek Word, meleteo. They both imply intense thinking, utterance,and imagining in an intentional giving of oneself totally to the process of connecting with God. Where the word Pray, various Heb. and Gr. proseuchomai is used with different nuances-intercession, praise, confession etc.-Meditation has one single use, simply to "be still and know." Both prayer and meditation are called for in both Old and New Testements. Both are modeled by Christ. Bottom line: Prayer and meditation are explicitly and intimately Christian practice. Still, "meditation" seems to have been given over to other world religions and the contemporary Christian Disciple will be blessed by discovering or re-discovering it.
First, we need a starting place. Central to Christian Meditation or "Centering Prayer", is the use of the "Prayer Word". Pennington compares it to a "mantra" though he does not use this more eastern term. The Prayer word is a single word or short phrase that is discovered (Mine comes from Psalm 52), and trains the mind to focus and center on God. Find yours in scripture, a song or in your heart but it must be yours. The purpose is not to the denial of outer thoughts or distractions but to be detached from them. (p. 102) The writer compares this to having a conversation with one person at a noisy party. We can focus on a conversation with one individual while the noise and bustle go on around us. When we realize that we have lost our focus, speaking the prayer word is the action we take to snap our attention back to a God centered conversation.
Set a particular place aside for prayer if possible, sit quietly and allow yourself time, at least 20 minutes. Lots of busy people do this in the shower-it may be the only quiet some get during the day. Begin by repeating your prayer word, keep it simple, and allow the prayer word to fade into silence. stay in this centered place and listen. God has something to say to you-and probably won't use words.
The question that I most often get when teaching prayer is, "What do I do with these distracting thoughts that I have?" Centering Prayer is a healing and nurturing time with God that is destroyed by external thoughts. These thoughts are wild monkeys swinging through our minds and stealing intimacy with God. Pennington's Chapter 6 deals lends a five way strategy to deal with them by using the gentle assertion of your personal prayer word. These are five common types of thoughts that disrupt our prayer and meditation.
The first type of though is the "Simple Thought". These are the natural and steady stream of thoughts that simply need to be put aside by using your prayer word to deny them a hand hold. Second is the "Catching Thought" that hooks us and comes to us during the course or prayer. They are born in prayer and can drag our awareness away. We must hold tenaciously to the prayer word "which capsulates the the fullness of my faith-love relationship with God." (105) You don't quit but renew your prayer. Third are the "Monitor Thoughts". These are very troublesome because they tempt us to make prayer a production event or worse a celebration of what we are doing. To conquer this we must remember who we are praying to and "ruthlessly" insert the prayer word and return to the presence. Fourth are the "Bright Idea" thoughts. These tempt us to leave prayer to go and do something-probably something good but half baked if we allow it to interfere with our prayer. Don't quit. Center with the prayer word and complete the time of prayer. Fifth and finally, the "Stressful Thoughts". Prayer can bring us stresses from relations and situations in our daily lives. It is this type of thought that can halt the prayer that can bring healing of the stresser. Only by being aware and staying centered can we continue to experience God's presence in prayer. (P. 103-110)
This process is better learned with a spiritual director or a trusted Christian friend that shares your journey. However, God has given you a sufficient amount of information to discover deeper prayer on your own. Pennington parallels Centering/contemplative/meditative Prayer with Sleep. "Just as dreams release tension from our lives while we sleep, so too do thoughts and images that flow through our minds while we are resting in contemplative prayer." (p. 109) In this contemplation God is given our thoughts and takes over.
We need an action to end also. The author suggests using the Lord's Prayer or other formula prayer as a way to "come out" of prayer. A favorite scripture, poem or song would work also. End this precious time with a formal invitation for God to come with us on the rest of our journey.
We begin with a process. We will know that it is successful when it disappears and we no longer need it.
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