- Upcoming Membership Service: if you have been considering becoming a member and would like more information, please reach out to Charlotte
- Discussion Circle is on the last Sunday after Church; this month we will look at the Sermon on the Mount. These discussions are here to to inspire, teach, guide, and challenge us–all are welcome to join us (this is an exploration of sacred passages, poetry, and words to inspire us toward freshness, surprise, and wonder)
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Our Sunday Reflection is recorded and can be found HERE (posts each Sunday late morning or early afternoon). These words are written to be spoken aloud; please forgive grammatical and other written errors.
All are Welcome. If you are uncomfortable with the word God, please feel welcome to insert your own word for the divine or Mystery in your life (Universe/Grace/Spirit/Divine).
Before I get too far, I want to be sure I’m clear that I’m not here to tell anyone how to pray. There are as many ways of praying as there are people and this is beautiful. I think Grace loves the creative ways, the heartfelt ways, we reach out toward the Mystery.
This Reflection is to simply encourage us to consider how we pray and why…perhaps as a way to deepen the practice. Perhaps to find the comfort in sensing that God is listening…however we speak.
How do you pray? Do you pray on your knees or while sitting with a mug of tea in a comfy chair? Do you pray with words? Formal words or whatever spills forth? Silence? With creation? Only in church or out in the woods? Every morning? Every night? Once a week? Are you wondering when was the last time I prayed??? I can’t remember. I think I may have forgotten how.
You may be praying “as Jesus taught us”, praying in “secret”, or praying in ways that might seem nothing like prayer is “supposed” to look (but is a prayer).
If it all gets confusing…don’t worry, there are classes and classes and books and books and TikTok’s and Ted Talks on how to pray. Which tells us that there are so many ways to pray. There’s a recent book by Celeste Yacoboni, How Do You Pray, where she asks a whole lot of people (and us) how they pray. It is inspiring and beautiful to read all the different ways people reach out toward Grace.
Secret: there’s no one right way.
Look at the different ways we’ve prayed together just this morning. Though poetry, through song, through stillness, through reading scripture, through the words voiced about our lives, through the prayer taught to us by Jesus…
That’s just in less than forty minutes together. That’s a lot of prayer and a lot of different ways of praying.
Jesus teaches us to pray: “Pray, then, in this way:…”
We are taught to Love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and all our mind. That’s a prayer.
We are taught to pray together. We are taught to pray in secret.
Just like letter writing, we can formally build a prayer. You’ll find that many prayers you hear follow this, or a similar, frame of: ACTS. Adore (may your name be revered as holy). Confess (forgiveness). Thanks (it is said that “thank you” holds an entire prayer in two words). Supplication, which is a “humble petition”. Followed by a closing or seal: Amen.
One of my colleagues uses PRAY: Praise. Repent. Ask. Yield.
I love the yield part. The part where we remember to surrender. The part where we remember that while we are reaching out…sometimes the answer in return is not what we long for. And what do we do with that…when it seems like we are returned silence (no one is listening: despair) or the opposite of what we ask (am I being punished: anger and shame)?
Sometimes, we long for the prayer to cure us, but it is the “unanswered prayer” that heals us.
Yield, or surrender, reminds us to have faith in a Mystery bigger than ourselves.
It is important to come back and ask ourselves, what do we mean when we pray. Yes, Grace answers the most chaotic of prayers…honestly, I think Grace loves the messiest of prayers the most. The ones filled with the wettest of tears and the runniest of noses. The ones where we fall to our knees in desperation. The ones where rage runs out and there is nothing but surrender. The prayer with a few words or one single word…
Please.
Thank you.
Help.
Oh God!
It is said that a prayer is us reaching for God. But we can only reach so far. It is said that in the stillness (Be Still and Know is a prayer) God reaches back. This is the reciprocity of faith. It is then that we are filled with Grace. We speak (with or without words) our prayers, but we are filled in the Quiet.
Perhaps prayer is a way of moving through (and cleaning up) some of the mud that keeps us stagnant, stuck, forgetful, and blinded. Perhaps prayer is simply helping us to clear away the clutter that gets in the way of love and being beloved.
Perhaps prayer is simply a reminder that we are not alone.
Prayer can help us to make meaning of our lives. Prayer can help guide us toward the work we are meant to be doing. Prayer can support us when things get ugly and hard—there are amazing stories of faith in the darkest of times that can inspire us in our own lives.
Sometimes the prayer is the work itself. Sometimes the prayer leads us toward our work. Sometimes prayer sustains the work.
Prayer gives us a place to remember that there is something bigger than ourselves. In some way orchestrating the whole in ways we cannot possibly understand. We don’t have to do it all ourselves; we cannot do it all ourselves. PAUSE. We are a part of this wholeness; while we plant seeds and trees (and do our work) we will never fully see the fullness unfold. We must trust in that something bigger. Trust that we did our part in a Whole much, much bigger than our single selves. This can be beautifully humbling and comforting.
We find, in prayer, that we are not alone. There is something greater than ourselves and those who walk this journey with us also quietly planting seeds and trees.
Prayer reminds us of What Matters Most. In our sorrows and in our concerns, we are re-guided toward what is most important. Those we love. The gift of this life. The beauty and blessings. Our work, our real work, of making this world a better place…being the hands of Love and healing in this world. We see others in need of our prayers. We remember our siblings on this human journey. Prayer can reorient us toward what is most precious.
Moments of prayer can be an opportunity to see where we have strayed from what matters most. Where we have gotten distracted or so busy. Where we have let our emotions and ego lead us away from the path. It can be a time to acknowledge that we have gotten lost and a chance to allow ourselves to be led back to the path we have chosen to follow. A path of peace, of love, of kindness, of courage, of ____.
Prayer highlights our blessings. When we give thanks we remember what is precious and beautiful. What is worth saving and what is worth working for. It is so easy to see only the “bad stuff”, but gratitude shines a light on what is Good. Sometimes, it is simply: thank you.
I, personally, love spring when a bounty of things to be grateful for are bursting forth!!
And then we seal it: there is a Mystery bigger than ourselves, we have a community of fellow humans on this journey, we remember what matters most, we notice where we have strayed and turn our compass back toward the path, we give thanks for all the Goodness of this world…and we seal it. Amen.
Amen….
Community Church of North Orange & Tully 