Hands together, eyes closed…

I always used to add “Don’t forget to blow your nose”…

The traditional form of prayer is one that is led from the front, but where today ‘the front’ is virtual. For many, prayer is just not there currently due to the absence of a formal church meeting. So how might we use what we see everyday to help us in prayer? Without hands together, eyes closed?

Traditional Prayer

We may pray by remembering mnemonics, letters which help us to remember how we should pray. This could be J O Y, we pray to Jesus first, then for others then ourselves. It seems compartmentalised, separate, even with boundaries – does it have to be that way?

Ignatian ways

I have found Ignatian Prayer so stimulating this year, as I have attended the GPRL course. This is where we are drawn in to a scene in prayer.

Here’s one imaginative prayer example:

I recently pondered upon the Baptism of Christ, wondering where I was in this scene by the River Jordan. Looking at the people, looking for where Jesus was, seeing what he was doing. I asked myself why was I standing on the banks of the river and not in there? Well, that’s for me to ponder further.

On that journey

What it did do was to echo those 4 stages of ministry:
to come and see, where was Jesus?;
to follow Jesus, come closer;
be with Jesus, to ask Jesus why I was on the banks of the river;
and to remain with Jesus, to understand where I was in life and how to grow closer to Jesus, and the Kin_dom.

An alternative method of prayer

I want us to imagine watching the news: on the TV, on your mobile. There’s something on the screen: perhaps a tragedy unfolding of natural destruction, such as with a tsunami/earthquake, or more contextually the Pandemic; or the storming of the Capitol Building in Washington. Here, definitely not hands together, eyes closed.

Now, pausing at each stage:

1. Try to notice the face of someone caught in the middle of it;
2. Notice their expression;
3. Imagine experiencing their feelings perhaps fear/trepidation/anxiety;
4. What it might be like to be in their shoes – regardless whether we think they were in the right or wrong (i.e. Capitol Building example);
5. Enter their space for a while, let it become your prayer;
6. Speak to God as a friend, what would we want to say to God, from the perspective of the other?

This isn’t a way of expressing criticism, but feeling the issues at heart.

Warning: This might hurt.

So what?

We start to speak our feelings to God. I struggle with this, but this helps.

In the intimacy of our conversation with God, we can start to rationalise what is going on inside us, and we can continue to share the concerns of the world with God, through the eyes of the other.
For Christ is seen in the other.