Today’s Readings: Psalm 147; Isaiah 12:1-6; John 7:37-52; Revelation 1:1-8; Psalm 65
When I was in seminary, I had a wonderful instructor who helped us explore various dimensions of our spiritual lives. Her name was Jane Vennard. Jane had many areas of expertise – two of which included retreat ministry and prayer. I never had an opportunity to benefit from Jane’s guidance on how to organize spiritual retreats. I did, however, have a chance to take a class of hers title “The Life of Prayer”. In that class she radically expanded my understanding of what constituted prayer. Prior to the class, I had been very traditional in terms of what I considered prayer. Basically I thought prayer was those times you sat still with your head bowed and your eyes closed as you asked (& thanked!) God for stuff. That was it. I had no idea that there were other forms of prayer to explore beside that one type called intercessory prayer. During that class, however, we explored a variety of other ways to pray ranging from centering prayer to the Jesus prayer to the use of Lectio Divina. I was reminded of the importance of broadening one’s understanding of prayer by the psalmist’s opening words in today’s second psalm. In Psalm 65: 1, the psalmist began by saying: “Silence is praise to you, Zion-dwelling God, and also obedience. You hear the prayer in it all” (from The Message). The psalmist’s closing words in that verse reminded me of the most important learning of my seminary in Jane’s class on prayer: prayer isn’t an activity that we do at one moment in time – prayer is an attitude that we carry with us all the time. When we approach life that way, we have the potential of turning nearly everything we do into prayer. Today, if you aren’t already in the habit of thinking about prayer as an attitude rather than an activity, I would invite you to try that mindset on. If you do, you’ll be surprised at the many new places you'll find God present in your life. Til next time…
When I was in seminary, I had a wonderful instructor who helped us explore various dimensions of our spiritual lives. Her name was Jane Vennard. Jane had many areas of expertise – two of which included retreat ministry and prayer. I never had an opportunity to benefit from Jane’s guidance on how to organize spiritual retreats. I did, however, have a chance to take a class of hers title “The Life of Prayer”. In that class she radically expanded my understanding of what constituted prayer. Prior to the class, I had been very traditional in terms of what I considered prayer. Basically I thought prayer was those times you sat still with your head bowed and your eyes closed as you asked (& thanked!) God for stuff. That was it. I had no idea that there were other forms of prayer to explore beside that one type called intercessory prayer. During that class, however, we explored a variety of other ways to pray ranging from centering prayer to the Jesus prayer to the use of Lectio Divina. I was reminded of the importance of broadening one’s understanding of prayer by the psalmist’s opening words in today’s second psalm. In Psalm 65: 1, the psalmist began by saying: “Silence is praise to you, Zion-dwelling God, and also obedience. You hear the prayer in it all” (from The Message). The psalmist’s closing words in that verse reminded me of the most important learning of my seminary in Jane’s class on prayer: prayer isn’t an activity that we do at one moment in time – prayer is an attitude that we carry with us all the time. When we approach life that way, we have the potential of turning nearly everything we do into prayer. Today, if you aren’t already in the habit of thinking about prayer as an attitude rather than an activity, I would invite you to try that mindset on. If you do, you’ll be surprised at the many new places you'll find God present in your life. Til next time…
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