Prayer

Be still and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10

Prayer is first an act of listening. For to long we have taught people the words of prayer but not the attitude of prayer. I am surprise that God does not just shout “stop, Be Still, listen.” We are filled with words and what is not filled with words is filled with images. Personal prayer is drastically different from public worship.

Silence, silence is the beginning of prayer, listening is the first act of prayer. The next act of prayer is self offering. You may be thinking what about my needs, my concerns, my prayer list, my petitions. To speak them in prayer is to offer them to God. To offer them to God is to let go of them. I find the greatest challenges in prayer are listening and letting go. 

In our spiritual life the prayer path offers us:

Peace
Oneness
Inner harmony

In our faith lived in the world we learn from prayer:

To listen first, speak second
To move ourselves out of the way
To be a non anxious presence

We teach prayer in our Midweek worship that incorporate longer silences into the worship. We teach prayer in our Labyrinth ministry and in our adult class on prayer.