In my last reflection, I stated how difficult it was to take time in quietness to spend time in prayer and meditation. When I met with my covenant group, several pastors commented about the difficulty we all face in finding the place, the time, the center without the world intruding through noise, interruptions, and other intrusions of busyness whether worldly produced or even in our "monkey chatter," thoughts that continue to run through our heads when we try to quiet ourselves. Wednesday, I was going to talk about something entirely different but ended up talking about our need for quiet moments. I used Psalms for Praying by Nan Merrill to look at the 23rd Psalm as a breath prayer. I would invite those who read this to find some means to do centering prayer either through meditation, guided imagery, chanting, lectio divina, or breath prayer. Maybe one of the things we can do is to learn about centering prayer and the importance it has in spiritual renewal and formation. Jesus would spend time off by himself in prayer. God created Sabbath as a means for us to take time to re-center ourselves in God's spirit.
I know that there are many times that I become scattered in thought and spirit. When I am able to practice centering prayer, I find myself energized and focused in thought and deed. This is one of the reasons that John Wesley spoke about the importance of spiritual disciplines. This has been something throughout the history of the church that has been emphasized for faithful disciples. One thing that one could do would be to use a centering prayer of breath breathing in and saying God let your face shine upon me your servant; as you breath out save me in your steadfast love. Psalm 31:16. If you can do this for 5 minutes each day, you might be surprised about what might happen.
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