Be silent.
Be still.
Wait before your God.
Say nothing.
Ask nothing.
Be still.
Let your God look upon you
That is all.
God knows.
God understands
God loves you with an enormous love.
God only wants to look upon you with love.
Quiet.
Still.
Be.
Let your God love you.
A Julian contemplation. [...]
This was part of what was shared at the recent Prayer and Spirituality Evening, looking at stillness. In a previous post, I looked at some practical ways in which we can nurture a stillness in our minds and bodies. Andrew Hook talks here about the need for stillness as we come to pray:
Spirituality is embodied [...]
Margaret Silf, one of my favourite authors on prayer, describes stillness as being “10 feet down”, below the surface of the choppy waters of our lives where we mostly live.
The purpose of stilling ourselves is to bring us down to the deeper currents of our hearts, where we can begin to notice what we [...]
Continue reading about Spirituality and Prayer Evening 1 – Stillness
Last Sunday, I spoke from Isa 30:1-14, in the first part of a two talks continuing to look at why we don’t pray – part 2 is this Sunday. We also built a wall – click on the photo for a larger image, and read on to find out what it was all about…
When [...]
This Monday (12th October) I am starting a series of six evenings in church (mainly Monday nights once a month), to help people to learn to pray. I have mentioned before, but I am constantly amazed at the disciples (who remember were good Jews and therefore steeped in the Jewish tradition of prayer) after [...]
This Sunday I will be continuing to look at reasons why we don’t pray. Generally, Christians know the value of prayer, but mostly we still struggle to pray.
It has often been thus. Even in the days of Israel, keeping God at arms length served their purposes. Isaiah parodied their response:
Give us no more visions of [...]
This entry is part 5 of 5 in the series Why Don’t We Pray?
The Prodigal Son is an incredibly well known story (Luke 15:11-32). But often the focus is on the younger son, who leaves home with his inheritance from his not-yet-dead Father, squanders it, and returns to find and experience the grace and kindness [...]
Part 1 – Start Small
Part 2 – Be consistent
Many of us have prayed regularly at some points in our lives. But at some point, the ‘regularity’ turned into ‘spasmodic’. And we wake up one day realising that prayer plays a very small part in our lives.
The key, I believe, is to establish a rhythm [...]
Continue reading about Establishing a Rhythm of Daily Prayer – Part 3
Part 1 – Start small
This series of posts is looking at how we establish a rhythm of daily prayer. Periodically, I have prayed frequently and regularly but very rarely (actually never) have I established a rhythm of prayer. So tip 2 this week is be consistent.
I have a shower every morning. Never fail. I [...]
Continue reading about Establishing a Rhythm of Daily Prayer – Part 2
This entry is part 4 of 5 in the series Why Don’t We Pray? There are deep movements of our hearts, that in the normal course of events, we are often unaware of. They surface during times of change or transition. They surface when things that we have relied on for a sense of meaning, [...]
