Pastor announced recently that we were going to have a class in centering prayer led by one of our retired Pastors who specialized in this study for many years of his life.  He shared there is much healing in this type of prayer. Pastor said it was part of Congregational Vitality for our church.

As we took our first meeting one week ago it became clear to me that this special type of prayer often called contemplative prayer (if I understand it correctly) is what Centering Prayer is all about.  It is quite a different form of prayer.  It was explained beautifully that we often pray for others (petitional prayer) or we give thanks or praise (praise prayer) or we often ask God for things in prayer (another form of petitional prayer).  But I never thought of prayer as a way to just quietly be in touch with God to commune with and rest in the Lord; to be close with God.  What a fantastic fabulous simple thing to do; to know that I can just sit down and put myself closely in touch with our Lord by mere intention.  I learned that I didn’t even have to ask for Him to be near or try to “feel” Him near.  I learned in fact not to “ask” for anything but to use my own sacred word to unlock the door to my  inner room to be close with God.

Our group decided we would meet for five more Saturdays to practice centering prayer and to discuss it.  I found myself joyful at the prospect to explore this powerful form of prayer and to understand how to exercise it.  I learned that I can ‘let go’ of my will to pray for things, for people, for outcomes for praise even for the wish for God to be with  me…I just have to be willing to still myself to unlock the “secret room” inside myself to accept God’s presence as it is “thy will be done” not my will be done.   I don’t even have to feel it; just be there-show up for the Lord and myself.  It is about commitment to the encounter with God.  I have begun to better understand how deeply personal and private is the relationship we can potentially have with our God which in turn opens our hearts and our minds so that we can exercise our heart of Christ.  It is at the heart of our Christian faith.  Recently, as a result of my Stephen Ministry, I started a Caregivers Self-Care Support Group at our church as I recognized a need.  I based the new support group on the Spiritual 12 Steps and was led to a wonderful book called “Self-Care for Caregivers” – A 12 Step Approach as put out for me by our Pastor.  In the 12 Spiritual Steps there is a wonderful step (my favorite) the 11^th Step which states: “Sought through prayer and meditation conscious contact with God”.  Such is learning Centering Prayer.   Now I can have  intention in seeking conscious contact with God even if to filter the Lord through every cell of my being as light that shines in a light bulb.  I only have to ‘remember’ to plug in! This is wondrous to me and I give such thanks to learn these prayer lessons in Centering Prayer so that I can intentionally plug in on a daily basis to know God’s presence in my heart and my life.  How my life manifests is God’s will; not  mine!

“Be Still and know that I am God.”  Psalm 46:10

Doris