To know Christ, grow in Christ, and share Christ's love.
Our Spiritual Journeys by Merrill Wade -
June 30, 2006
Learning to Pray - Part 2
In my June 19 post I explained why I choose to pray in silence, at least for 20 minutes per day, simply desiring to be in the presence of God. As I stated, Jesus often went off by himself, in order to simply be with God. Silence points to such "simply being with God." Without an agenda. Choosing to be humble. Waiting to be led.
Traditional Christian writers have called these ideas about prayer "contemplative spirituality." To contemplate isn't only to think deeply, it is to rest deeply as well. Now, to be sure, contemplation is not withdrawal, avoidance, or escape from life's demands. Instead, contemplative sprituality sees life as a rhythm - moving from silence to action and action to silence. One of my chief complaints about our society is that we no longer have the time to think and rest - deeply. There is always so much to do.
I think of Jesus and his rhythm of prayer and action for the world. He would retreat and then he would emerge, buoyed and strengthened by God's love, to teach and preach and offer his vision to a broken world. When Jesus came forth from contemplation, he didn't tend to go to the seats of power for approval for what he believed and taught. Interestingly, Jesus was led by his prayer life to seek out and support those persons in his world who were in need of basic sustenance for daily bread and those victimized by cultural bigotry such as poor women, lepers and other sick persons. Caring for these more downtrodden persons was at the heart of his work.
Perhaps one of the reasons people in our culture fear silence is that we dread time alone with our consciences - knowing that we are able to help the weakest in our midst yet so often afraid or unwilling to do so. None of us can, so to speak, "save the world" alone. Yet each of us is uniquely a gift from God - valued as a child of God in our own right - and certainly capable of making a difference in our own time, if even for one other child of God. Silence is at the heart of faith and faithfulness on Our Spiritual Journeys. A Christian journey is a journey of prayer and expressing love for the needful neighbor, action and prayer - wedded together as a way of life.
What do you think?
The Rev. Merrill Wade is an ordained priest in the Episcopal Church, serving at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Austin, Texas. You are encouraged to contact him at
Merrill@StMattsAustin.org.
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