Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Renee Miller is a writer, poet, priest, entrepreneur, long-distance truck driver in training, and CREDO conference leader. From 1988 to 1997, she served as Director of the Diocesan School for Faith Ministry and as Canon to the Ordinary in the Diocese of Idaho. From 1997 to 2001 she served as Canon to the Ordinary in the Diocese of El Camino Real.

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Strength for the Journey

Morehouse Publishing

Contents

Foreword.........................................................viiAcknowledgments..................................................ixIntroduction.....................................................1Centering Prayer.................................................13Praying with Beads...............................................17The Daily Office.................................................21Discursive Meditation............................................27Caring...........................................................35Hospitality......................................................39Money............................................................45Gratitude........................................................51Technology.......................................................59Music............................................................65Art..............................................................69Movies...........................................................75Reading..........................................................83Study............................................................89Writing..........................................................95Consciousness....................................................101Body Movement....................................................109Walking..........................................................113Nature...........................................................119Handwork.........................................................125A Process for Beginning a Spiritual Practice.....................131

Chapter One

Contemplative prayer is part of a reality that is bigger than itself. It is part of the whole process of integration, which requires opening to God at the level of the unconscious. —Thomas Keating

We move at a pace in life that keeps our souls as busy as our bodies; our unconscious as full as our conscious minds. We are regularly challenged to switch between ideas, images, feelings, thoughts, and emotions with the speed of a computer alternating between programs. The effect on our souls is subtle and stealthy. Over time, we find it difficult simply to be still. We find it difficult to pray or believe that we are centered in the Divine Presence during prayer. When we are able to take the time to focus ourselves on communication with God, we find our minds assailed by those same ideas, images, feelings, thoughts, and emotions that plagued us before we sat down to pray. It seems that the moment we settle ourselves in God's presence, we find that we are thinking about a meeting we need to prepare for, or a soccer practice we need to shuttle our child to, or something we have forgotten to buy at the store, or the person in the hospital that needs a visit. We may force ourselves to complete the prayer period and wonder at the end of it if we've even prayed at all. Or, we may choose to truncate or postpone our prayer because we are frustrated by the constant chatter in our minds.

Centering Prayer, a contemporary version of the ancient practice of contemplative prayer, is not only a way to pray, but a way of prayer that has the potential to make a significant impact on the pattern of our lives when we are not praying. Thomas Keating, the Cistercian monk and master of Centering Prayer, says that we are not able to determine if the practice is making a difference in our souls based on what happens during the actual time spent in the practice. Rather, we know the prayer is effective in our lives by the comments we receive from others who begin to see a difference in us. When we simply sit faithfully in God's presence and stay there, even when thoughts distract us, we will find that we are able to bring the practice into the situations of our everyday lives. Instead of becoming focused on what may seem urgent but is ultimately unimportant, we find we are able to let it go, just as we have done during the course of the prayer practice itself. In other words, what we practice in the prayer is what we begin to live outside the time of prayer.

Centering prayer is a simple, though hardly easy, practice. After settling in the presence of God, we choose a sacred word as a symbol of our intent to remain in God's presence during the prayer period. As thoughts rise in us, we gently let them go and return to the sacred word. Thomas Keating uses a potent image. He says that as thoughts float across our consciousness, they are like boats on the surface of a river. When we are focused on what is on the surface of the river rather than the river itself we slip away from our original intention. The sacred word helps call us back to the place of stillness and faithful presence to God. It is the soft offering that affirms that we want to give our attention back to God. We continue the process of letting go of thoughts and returning to the sacred word throughout the time given to the practice—usually twenty to thirty minutes once or twice each day.

* * *

If you are contemplative and reflective you are probably easily attracted to this form of prayer. You may find that it provides respite from the rigors of daily demands. On the other hand, if you are active and highly verbal you might, at first, think centering prayer is unsuitable for your spiritual personality. After practicing it for some time, however, you may be surprised by the spiritual balance that you experience as a result of quieting yourself in the place of deep spiritual rest.

Praying with Beads

To pray is to listen to the One who calls you "my beloved daughter," "my beloved son," "my beloved child." To pray is to let that voice speak to the center of your being, to your guts, and let that voice resound in your whole being. —Henri Nouwen

One of the most difficult aspects of prayer and meditation is focus. So much that occurs in the daily round of life distracts us during the time of prayer. If we were to count the number of thoughts we have in just one hour, we would be astonished at the capacity of our minds to flit like hummingbirds from thought to thought. In many ways, this is not a new phenomenon. We easily fault contemporary life and technology for what Buddhists call "monkey mind." Yet, it is more a primordial than a generational response. It is part of being human and it is a glorious part of being human. It is what makes dreaming, imagining, inventing, and creating possible. While we can quickly become discouraged during prayer with the plethora of stuff inside our minds moving us off focus, it is that very stuff that is responsible for our ongoing health and growth.

The real issue is in the timing. There are times when we want to be free of our bouncing thoughts in order to become inwardly still. There are times we want our focus to be as piercing as a laser beam. There are times we do not want any disturbance to interrupt our intention. An external aid can often help us find the peace and focus we seek. For centuries, in all religions, beads and prayer ropes have been such an aid. While the most familiar use of prayer beads is as a counter for the number of prayers said, its...