Prayer Practice Part Two

 

This week we are turning toward a second prayer practice from Ignatius of Loyola.  Remember, we return time and time again to practices, like a basketball player shooting free throws.  The point is not to reach some spiritual enlightened place where we levitate.  There is no finish line where we are awarded the prayer medal.  We return to examine and explore our lives because God shows up in our ordinary days.  Often, we miss the traces of God’s grace amid the blur of a frenzied schedule.  Prayer practices slow us down, so our souls can catch up, help us name and notice our relationship with God, others, and ourselves.  This is what Jesus said was the way to life ~ to love God with your whole being and your neighbor as you love yourself.  The more we name and notice God’s presence, we gain muscle memory or soul memory. 

 

The five invitations are:

 

○ Become aware of God’s presence.  Breathe deeply several times.  Settle into your body.  Place your feet firmly on the ground ~ it might be best to be barefoot or at least slip off your shoes.  Sit tall in your chair.  As you deeply breath, do a body scan.  Start with your feet and slowly work your way upwards stopping to check in with your legs, stomach, heart, shoulders, jaw, eyes, ears, and thoughts.  Notice where you are tight or tense; where there are aches; and where there is a looseness or lightness.  Direct your breath to each part of your body sending life-giving oxygen.  Remember Genesis 2 where God breathes in the breath of life.  Let that Scripture inspire you in this moment.

 

○  Review the day with gratitude. If you do this in the morning, review yesterday.  If you do this practice in the evening, you can rewind today. Name one or two thanksgivings.  Try to name a different gratitude than yesterday.  If you already gave thanks for family, bring to your mind and heart friends.  Focus on what happened in the last 24 hours that was uniquely a blessing for which you can be grateful.

 

○  Pay attention to your emotions.  Write down what is in your heart.  Remember from last week that emotions are energy in motion.  You can have more than one emotion at a time, they can even contradict each other.  Are your emotions different today than yesterday?  Or have yesterday’s emotions continued to radiate as you ruminate on what someone said or a festering frustration like a fire that keeps burning bright?  Name and notice your emotions. 

 

○  Choose one feature/moment (experience or encounter) of the day and pray from it. Does that moment bring joy or lament?  For example, if you are praying from the experience of a lunch you had yesterday with a friend, remember and relive that moment.  Taste the salad you ate, giving thanks for the farmers.  Hear the conversation again but stay open and curious.  If your friend said something that warmed your heart, ask why?  If your friend made a comment that made you uncomfortable, ask why?  Be an explorer of your own life in this moment, concerned less with conclusions and more with turning the prism of God’s presence to let the light shine through in a new way.

 

○ Look toward tomorrow.  Where do you need God’s guidance in the hours to come?  This may be a specific appointment or conversation, or a situation you’ve been facing for several weeks, or a decision you need to make.  As the psalms say, “As a deer longs for running streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.”  Where do you need renewing water in the coming day?

 

As you close may you know peace, joy, love, and grace this day.  Amen.