World in Prayer

Praying for the world means inviting others to join with us in prayer…to experience praying for the world as an active, creative, life-giving response to even the worst international news.

World In Prayer was started by a member of the Episcopal Church of St. John the Baptist, in Lodi, CA, USA, in August 2001, for two purposes:

  • To provide a weekly summary of international news with accompanying prayer (now posted – normally – late every Thursday night)
  • To model and teach ways of praying in response to international news, and invite others to deepen their own prayers for the needs of the world (see the materials in the “Our Prayer Resources” section.  Also, if you’re curious, the full story of how World In Prayer came to be started can be found in that section, in the first chapter of the Praying for the World course.)

Contemplative prayer is the spiritual practice of focusing the mind on God through the continuous repetition of a sacred word or sentence. It is to enter in an inner state of communion with God. It is also known as breath prayer, listening prayer, and prayer meditation.

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Contemplation and Meditation

Resources

 

Contemplation is a simple intuition of God, produced immediately in the soul by God and giving the soul a direct but obscure and mysterious experiential appreciation of God. (Thomas Merton)


Walking the Labyrinth

The Labyrinth is a meditational tool to explore life’s twists and turns and how we are affected by them. They always start at the outer ring and end up at the centre, which represents our true self, or God’s presence in our life, then wind back out to the outer ring. The walk to the centre is our journey towards God, and the second half is a walk where we consciously take God with us back into the world.

The most famous labyrinth dates back to the 11th century, located at Chartres Cathedral near Paris, France . It was walked as a pilgrimage, a  journey to become closer to God. The cross is at the center of the pattern of the labyrinth and is used in the construction as a guide. Today, churches with labyrinths encourage people to walk the labyrinth during Lent and Advent. Walking the labyrinth is a personal journey of reflection which does not have a right or wrong way of doing it. The goal is to connect with yourself and with God.

 

Photo credit: Simon Jones

How to walk the Labyrinth

Preparation

  1. Relax your neck and shoulders
  2. Slow your breathing
  3. Be present to your own mind, body and spirit
    1. What thoughts are preoccupying your mind?
    2. What emotions are you carrying from the day?
    3. Feel your feet connecting with the floor. Let this ground you in the walk
    4. Repeat a phrase to help you focus your thoughts. It could be a sentence such as “God is love”, or a single word such as “Love”, “Peace”, “Jesus”

 

Entering the Labyrinth

The path towards God – become aware of your distractions, obstacles, detours. Each corner is something unexpected, a change in plans, a loss of dreams, letting go of self. As you turn a corner, ask God if there is something that you need to focus on, change, or let go of so that you can more fully engage with God’s presence in your life.

The centre is God’s presence. Take time to reflect on God’s goodness to you.

The path out is growing with God – becoming aware of God’s voice, making new decisions, bringing God into your daily walk. Is God speaking to you in new ways? How are you including God in your life journey?

Web Resources:

 


Commoners Communion

The Beholding Prayer Podcast is an experiential accompaniment to Strahan’s book ‘Beholding: Deepening Our Experience in God‘ which explores prayer as seeing and being seen by God in our everyday ordinary lives. Beholding can be found wherever good books are sold.Strahan Coleman is an author, musician and spiritual director. To find out more about his ministry, including his prayer books, visit www.commonerscommunion.com. Music & Editing by Jonathan Class.

Strahan posts prayers regularly on Instagram. Search for Commoners Communion.


Reflect: Christian Mindfulness

Mindfulness is an excellent way to learn relaxation and to reduce stress levels. This app contains reflections and meditations based on the Christian principles of biblical meditation and contemplative prayer. Each reflection is a guided audio describing a particular practice to follow. There are pieces of relaxing music that you add as background to the meditations.