------Contemplative or Centring Prayer – by Helen Friend

I’m doing this in two parts. The first a bit of an explanation of the history of contemplative prayer with a practical exercise at the end and then next week will talk about the doing of contemplation/silence.

Contemplative prayer has come from the and Mothers. These were the early and monks in the 2nd -5th centuries AD. Most people have come across Desert Fathers or Abbas, but there were also Desert Mothers or Ammas. They lived in the deserts of Egypt, Syria and Judea, and being in the desert was not an easy existence but difficult and challenging. They seem to have evolved for a few reasons, a couple being, the result of the persecution of Christians after the time of Jesus. Then when Emperor Constantine was converted to Christianity it became such a part of society and politics that you had to be a Christian to hold any position or get anywhere in life. Some people wanted to escape all of that. It was generally a stirring, restless time, and some folk began to desire to seek silence and solitude. Interestingly similar to now, here in the West, where there has been for sometime a movement of new monasticism.

The main founder of desert monasticism was who lived AD 270-356, and you may be familiar with some of the names. , , and my favourite the Black, a robber before becoming a monk. Then there were the Desert Mothers. Amma Syncletica Alexandria AD 270-350. Also Sarah of the Desert who had a strong personality and not afraid to speak her mind, so had the respect of the Abbas!

Contemplative or centring prayer comes from the Greek Hesychasm, which means ‘stillness, rest, quiet, silence’ its main root was in Eastern Christianity. This was central to the Fathers and Mothers practice of prayer and something that we are rediscovering in these days of busy, fast lives with minds full of other things. Sister Wendy Beckett says this: ‘the purpose of silence is a directed stillness, which receives rather than acts. Silence is essentially a surrender to the holiness of the divine mystery’

Elijah experienced this in 1 Kings 19 11-13 NRSV ‘but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence’

A basic beginners exercise Before we can settle our minds it is helpful to know and settle our body first. This is a short exercise to try. It is designed to explore how familiar we are with the different parts of our bodies. As a physio I used to teach this and if you are familiar with mindfulness you will notice quite a bit of cross over.

Sit in a comfortable posture. Close your eyes. Become aware of sensations. Feel them. Be aware of touch of your clothes on your shoulders. Your back touching the back of the chair you are sitting on. Your feet, the sensation of your shoes Your skirt or trousers on your legs Feel your hands as they touch each other or rest in your lap. Your left foot how it feels on the floor Your right foot Left hand…thighs…feet…shoulders…back…right hand…left hand…right thigh…left thigh…right foot…left foot…. Keep moving from one part of your body to another and don’t stay on any part more than a couple of seconds Do this for anything from 2-5 mins. Time is not important and at the start not everyone finds it easy to so this. Breathe normally throughout.

Try this when you’re sat in a chair occasionally through the day. Keep it short. Next time we’ll move on to the mind.

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Lamentation for a Time of Crisis from Daily Meditations by Richard Rohr https://cac.org/sign-up/ for free updates from this site

Intelligently responding to the Coronavirus demands that we access resources of physical, emotional and spiritual resilience. One practice Christianity has developed to nurture resilience is lamentation. Prayers of lamentation arise in us when we sit and speak out to God and one another—stunned, sad, and silenced by the tragedy and absurdity of human events. . . Without this we do not suffer the necessary pain of this world, the necessary sadness of being human.

Walter Brueggemann, my favorite Scripture teacher, points out that even though about one third of the Psalms are psalms of “lament,” these have been the least used by Catholic and Protestant liturgies. We think they make us appear weak, helpless, and vulnerable, or show a lack of faith. So we quickly resort to praise and thanksgiving. We forget that Jesus called weeping a “blessed” state (Matthew 5:5) and that only one book of the Bible is named after an emotion: ’s book of “Lamentation.”

In today's practice, Reverend Aaron Graham reflects on the elements found in prayers of lament. I hope that you will find in his words and in the text of Psalm 22 a way to voice your own complaints, requests, and trust in God, who is always waiting to hear.

We need to be reminded that our cries are not too much for God. [God] laments with us. In fact, [God] wants us to come to the [Divine Presence] in our anger, in our fear, in our loneliness, in our hurt, and in our confusion.

Each lamenting Psalm has a structure;

· They begin with a complaint. . . that things are not as they should be. · They turn to a request. God, do something! Rescue me! Heal me! Restore me! Show mercy!

· Laments end with an expression of trust. Laments end with the reminder that God is setting things right, even though it often seems so slow. It is right for our laments to turn towards a reminder that God is in control and about the business of righting all things made wrong. [1] Consider praying these words found in Psalm 22, or choose another passage of lament. Before you pray, ask God to speak to you. . .

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest. Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them. To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame (Psalm 22:1-5).

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