成人快手

Good morning.

What are you doing when you pray? It鈥檚 a question so personal it feels almost rude to ask, but I鈥檝e learned such a lot from people willing to share their experience and their practice.

Lots of us have versions of a Sunday school mnemonic, the image of a hand, a finger each representing thanksgiving, repentance, intercession, petition, worship. As someone who鈥檚 always talked a lot, this kind of praying can become a very wordy business, even when it appears to be silent. Lots of talking inside my head; not much listening.

I鈥檝e been learning to move away from words, towards a deeper, wordless worship. It鈥檚 easier said than done, finding a place that is 鈥渋nwardly quiet鈥�, but it鈥檚 this reaching down into love that connects me to the Light.

For most of us I guess, moments that feel like revelation don鈥檛 come every day. They happen, and they are transformative, but they鈥檙e fleeting 鈥� we hardly become conscious of them, before they are overtaken by the thinking, analytical, wordy brain 鈥� and there鈥檚 no knowing when they鈥檒l come again. I love what the American contemplative Jim Finley has to say about this experience: I won鈥檛 break faith with my enlightened heart. The moment dissipates, but I choose to allow it to shape me anyway.

One way of doing this is by honouring the convictions that arise in prayer. A twentieth century Quaker wrote that 鈥渁 prayer is always a commitment鈥�. We have to be prepared, that we ourselves might be the answer to our prayer.

And so the wordless prayer, leads us back to the world of words and action.

Thank you friends.