Monday, April 5, 2021

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Katie Snipes Lancaster

Scripture: Psalm 62:1
My soul finds rest in God alone.

Spiritual Practice: Centering Prayer
Centering prayer is a contemplative, wordless spiritual practice that asks us to quiet the mind and body and simply “be” in the presence of God. Set a timer. Take fifteen minutes. Be present. M. Basil Pennington was a Trappist monk who literally wrote the book on Centering Prayer. He reminds us that “in prayer we seek God. We do not seek peace, quiet, tranquility, enlightenment; we do not seek anything for ourselves. We seek to give ourselves… to God. God is the all of our prayer.”

Pennington is pointing to a kind of purity of intention in our prayer life: seek God first. It should be obvious, maybe, but it does seem like there is pressure to “hype” prayer as an activity that leads to things like peace, tranquility or enlightenment. Yes, those things might be a result of prayer. But maybe the deeper, richer, more immersive seeking is the work of centering yourself in the presence of God.

If you are interested in a “how to” on centering prayer, here is a worksheet you could print out to use daily.

Daily Prayer
Holy One who we meet in wordless silence,
Meet us where we are.
Meet us today.
Let us rest in you.
Let us trust in you.
Let us seek you and you alone.
Amen.