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Prayer
The language that God best hears is the silent language of love. St John of the Cross God didn’t say, ‘You shan’t be troubled or you shan’t be distressed.’ He said, ‘You shan’t be overcome.’Julian of Norwich, The Revelation of Divine Love
If we knew how to look at life through God’s eyes, all life would become a sign. If we knew how to listen to God, all life would become a prayer.Michael Quoist, Christ is Alive
Whether your faith is great or small, strong or fragile we hope that this page will help you to pray.To pray is a privilege. When we make time and space to pray we put ourselves into the presence of God. It’s not easy to do. We have to control our egos, to resist the many demands upon us for a time. Prayer makes us vulnerable. It is just us and God. All our props are gone. We have to be honest about ourselves and we may not like what we see. But one thing that prayer should do is change us. We are in the presence of the living God who will change us to be more like Jesus.
Some well known prayers
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, now and for ever. Amen.Jesus
God be in my head and in my understanding;
God be in my eyes and in my looking;
God be in my mouth and in my speaking;
God be in my heart, and in my thinking;
God be at my end, and at my departing.
Thanks be to thee, O Lord Christ, for all the benefits which thou hast given us; for all the pains and insults thou has borne for us. O most merciful redeemer, friends and brother, may we know thee more clearly, love thee more dearly, and follow thee more nearly, day by day.
Richard of Chichester
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is discord, vision.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Francis of AssisiLord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
How do I pray?
Pray as you can, not as you can’t - Dom Chapman
We are all unique. There will be ways of praying that suit some more than others. Praying can involve all the senses. Here are some suggestions:-Find a quiet space at home and use it only for prayer.
-Focus on a lit candle or an icon.
-Listen to some meditative music to help you become still.
-Become aware of your body and your breathing to help you relax.
-Reflect on a bible story. Imagine yourself there - What do you hear, see, smell?
-Go for a slow walk and take in the natural world around you.
-Try to develop a habit of praying at a time that suits you.
-Be realistic. If you pray five minutes a day then that’s ok.
-Do something creative – paint, sew, express yourself….
-Consider a quiet day or retreat. See www.retreats.org.uk.
Meditation - The Quiet Pool
There is within each of us a quiet clear pool of living water fed by one deep Source and inseparable from it, but so often hidden by a tangle of activity that we may not know of its existence. We can spend the proverbial forty years wandering in strange deserts, sinking unrewarding wells and moving on, driven by our thirst, but when we stop still long enough to look inside ourselves, really look beyond our ideas about water and what and where it should be, we discover it was with us all the time, that quiet clear pool which is ageless, the meaning of our existence and the answer to all wanderings. And as we drink, we know what Jesus meant when he said we’d never be thirsty again.
Verses from Psalm 139
O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord. You hem me in – behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty to attain.
Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your right hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
For you created my inmost being; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Suggestions for further readingGod of Surprises, Gerard W. Hughes - A book for those who find it hard to forgive themselves: those who hardly dare believe that God is within them.
Heaven in Ordinary, Angela Ashwin - The search for the contemplative life isn’t restricted to those who have ‘time’ to do it: it can be found in day-to-day living.
Landmarks, M Silf - With illustrated drawings and suggestions for prayer this is not a book for armchair pilgrims!
For further reading and resources try your local Christian Bookshop: SPCK/Wesley Owen in Bristol, Rainbow Bookshop in Swindon, The Vine in Wootton Bassett or Lighthouse Bookshop in Highworth.
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