Bathed in Love
"Silence yourself and move into God's presence with words of gratitude and praise. Close your eyes and imagine your enemy at a good distance from you, yet close enough that you can see him or her. If you feel afraid imagine that Jesus is sitting with you, giving you courage and strength. Watch your adversary, recalling behavior, words, and attitudes that have distressed you. Then imagine both you and your enemy bathed in the love of God. Sit with this image as long as you are able, paying attention to any changes in the person or yourself. When you are ready let the image fade and rest for a moment while you continue to experience God's love. Close your prayer with words of thanksgiving for any grace that you received."
— Praying for Friends and Enemies
Intercessory Prayer
"True compassion brings us into solidarity with all of God's people. Solidarity not only connects us to others, it makes us one with all our sisters and brothers, including those on the opposite side of the battlefield. Compassion and solidarity are not easy. They are awakened in us slowly. As we pray for others, our prayers are gradually transformed, our hearts are softened, and our eyes are opened. Once opened we can never close our eyes again. We begin to see the world through God's eyes of love."
— Praying for Friends and Enemies
The Mystery of Our Bodies
"During a day of prayer that included attending to the body with reverence, I led the participants through a meditation on the heart. We placed our hands over our hearts, feeling them beating. We found our pulse in various places in our bodies, feeling the blood pumping through our systems. As we placed our hands gently on our bodies we gave thanks for the wonder of our hearts and the life that our blood carried throughout our bodies. We imagined the blood reaching the tips of our fingers and we gave thanks. We imagined the blood circulating through our brains and we gave thanks. We attended to the heart beating and pulsing on its own with no direction or control from us, and we gave thanks. The mystery of our bodies became a wonder to us and we thanked God for our embodiment and our lives."
— Praying with Body and Soul
Prayers of Touch
"Fingering prayer beads is a traditional prayer of touch. Prayer beads have been part of devotion in most religions over time and around the world. The beads may be used in a variety of ways such as counting mantras, or reciting the name of God, or pondering the mysteries of the gospel. Beneath the differences of the way the prayer beads are used is the common experience that fingering the beads aids concentration. . . . There are also less traditional ways of praying by hand. . . . Building models, knitting and stitchery, painting, baking bread, throwing pots, weaving — all can become a form of prayer. I have a vivid memory of a scene from the movieGandhi in which Gandhi removes himself from the tumultuous activities in his quest for justice and sits in solitude spinning his own cotton.
"The activity of our hands may free our minds and our hearts for God. But I also believe that the activity of our hands can become our actual prayer. We, in the image of God, can bring form out of chaos, order out of disorder, and give shape to our dreams of creation. With our intention and attention on God, our hands that build and sew and knead and paint and weave can imitate and embody the creative spirit of God."
— Praying with Body and Soul
Prayerful Activism
"Prayerful acts of civil disobedience seek change in laws, government, or corporate practices. Prayerful activists bring their hope and their faith that the world can be transformed in accordance with God's law and promise of justice. They acknowledge that they are part of whatever problem they are confronting and that they can become part of the solution. These activists work and pray for specific changes. They see clearly what must be done. Of equal importance is another form of prayerful activism, when people go into conflicted, oppressive, and painful places with no plan of action and no idea of solution. They go with empty hands and minds and hearts to simply be present to what is. This loving presence with no words, no actions, no agenda, and no resolution is what Zen teacher and peace activist Bernie Glassman calls 'bearing witness.' "
— Embracing the World
Praying for Discernment
"Mistakes, uncertainty, ambiguity, and personal desires are all part of discerning the will of God. We can never know for certain the right course of action. God's will might never be absolutely clear. The most we can do is take a first hesitant step in a direction that feels right, then pause and ask ourselves if this movement is from love, with love, toward love. God's love for us and our love for God, for ourselves, our neighbors, and the world are at the heart of discernment. We could simply say that in praying for discernment we are asking to be guided by love — God's love and the love of and for others."
— Embracing the World
Draw on the Images of God
"God is multifaceted and mysterious, beyond even our wildest dreams. Draw on all the images of God that make sense to your mind, heart, and experience. The image of God you hold will determine how you pray and what you pray for. As you seek to grow in prayer and your relationship with God, however, practice praying with those images that invite intimacy, give comfort, challenge you to new ways of prayer, and encourage you to pray without ceasing."
— A Praying Congregation
Praying By Gaze
"Gazing at icons and the created world, seeing others and being seen through the eyes of Christ are all forms of prayer. Praying by gaze can be practiced in community as in the Eastern Orthodox tradition where icons fill churches and are part of the liturgy. We can also pray alone in front of a painting or by gazing at the created world in the midst of our busy lives. Gazing helps us attend to the holy that surrounds us in art, nature, and other people. Like other methods of prayer, gazing brings us into a deeper and more intimate relationship with God and opens the possibility of union with our Maker, the ultimate goal of the Christian spiritual life."
— The Way of Prayer
