New Series: Contemplative Pauses in Daily Life
Beginning a New Paid Series! Prayer as Life with the Divine. Continuing the practice of Returning to Our Soul Home.
Prayer as Life with the Divine
"Authentic prayer does not mean to turn to God in order to get some-thing;
it means to turn to God in order to be with someone. Prayer is not so much
our words to God as it is our life with God.
~ Caroline Myss, Anatomy of the Spirit
How do you engage in prayer?
For many people, prayer is equated with saying words to God, to a divine being. It is one-way speaking. Yet there are many ways of prayer, forms, manners, embodied practices.
Over the next months, I want to invite you to taste, dip, or dive with me into the well of connecting with the mystery we call God, to practice prayer perhaps in some new ways and rhythms.
Prayer as life with God makes me think that prayer is always happening, there is no pressing pause or play. So many mystics emphasize that God is near, God is at home, it is we who are unaware.
Rhythms of prayer have been practiced for centuries, practices that call us back home, that remind us of our life in God. Daily liturgies and monastic hours of prayer are available in many formats, from podcasts and books, to songs and chants.
Over the past years, I’ve been loving the simplicity of John Phillip Newell’s Celtic Benediction, always starting with being still and “aware of God’s presence within and all around.” So often we can move through things/books/guides/reflections and not pause and sink in to contemplation. At least that’s been the case for me.
My hope is to offer a simple prayer guide for a time of day that you might return to throughout the week, integrating it into your day, and then move into the next for the following: Morning, Mid-Morning, Noon, Mid-Afternoon, Evening, Night.
I am not attempting a massive redo, more a contemplative offering, for myself and you. Inviting us to slow down, connect with our selves and with God with us.
10-Minute Daily Practice
Each newsletter will offer a brief word-based prayer, song, and/or practice to consider, as well as some journal prompts for a different time of day. These will connect with the hours of prayers, drawn from Macrina Weiderhehr’s book Seven Sacred Pauses: Living Mindfully Through the Hours of the Day, Cole Arthur Riley’s Black Liturgies, and John Phillip Newell’s Celtic Benediction, as well as others.
I will offer other weekly newsletters interspersed with reflections on prayer and will tag previous Returning to Our Soul-Home newsletter series I did, for further reading and reflection. However the main idea is that the newsletter will beckon you into practice and connection, not into extensive reading.
As always, I welcome hearing from you!
with gratitude,
Bethany Dearborn Hiser
Journal Prompts:
How do I view prayer?
How might prayer be life with God?
What arises in me as I consider prayer as simply being with God?
What rhythms do you already have?
Practice:
Set a timer for 5-10 minutes, find a comfortable position, and practice turning inward, connecting to God always with you, always with Gaze of love toward you. If it’s helpful, below is a guided practice.
Guided Meditation: Prayer as Gaze of Love, by Kelley Weber.
Read more:
Contemplative Prayer Keeps Us Home
“Through contemplative prayer we can keep ourselves from being pulled from one urgent issue to another and from becoming strangers to our own and God's heart. Contemplative prayer keeps us home, rooted and safe, even when we are on the road, moving from place to place, and often surrounded by sounds of violence and war. Contemplative prayer deepens in u…
