I want to share a few hints about private prayer expanding to start with on p2-4 of the May Christ Dwell booklet and using part of an interview I did some time back with the Archbishop of Canterbury for Premier Christian Radio.
One of the most important things about our daily prayer is in fact the time we give. Whatever we feel or don't feel at prayer it is the offering of 5, 10, 15 minutes daily that is pivotal.
Archbishop Ramsey's quote – when asked how long he prayed for each day he said about two min but it sometimes took him half an hour to get there.
Time matters. It is also important to offer Our Lord what we might call ‘prime time’.
We will make way for him better when we are most fully ourselves.
Some say the morning is the best, avoiding that burned out feeling at night, and I am one of those who prays in the morning, with more of a nod to God at night.
Time, and then secondly, place. At St Giles we are all privileged to have a church that is open all day and each of us could make more use of this fact. Or we could decide afresh at this time on a prayer space at home.
We need then to be quiet, but perhaps not too quiet so we keep our feet on the ground. In a household there needs to be agreement.
We need perhaps to be comfortable, not so much that we fall asleep.
Prayer invites attentiveness. Some people say a hard backed chair gives you that business like feeling. Myself I use a comfy chair, but try to stand or kneel as well for some of the time.
Then what - now we move onto the real business of prayer and for that we enter on a number of options as starting points. Prayer is a lifting of heart and mind to God and there are many different ‘airports’ for lift off.
Speaking for myself day by day I look to a variety of airports.
Shall I choose a bible passage? Am I so tired it would be better to sit looking at the Cross? Is there a piece of paper with some prayer biddings that I could start from? Or something that struck me in that sermon I heard the other Sunday? Or that spiritual book I’m reading? Shall I get my rosary out? Or say the Jesus Prayer from today’s Gospel – Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner - to empty my mind of distraction? Today I will say Morning Prayer and stop to contemplate wherever the Spirit underlines something. Or - it’s about time I did a thorough self-examination so I’ll get out a sin list or read the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians and see where love, joy, peace and all the rest are growing in my life. There was something terrible on the news this morning so I’ll look up Job 38-40 and think how God is so wonderful and beyond us. I was asked to pray for that lady whose son’s on drugs so I’ll start with them before I forget and see where my intercession leads. Or – what a lovely view through the window this morning – the sun on the leaves. Let’s start there.
I say Let’s – prayer is something we do with God. It’s also a human discipline. This is why it helps to have a decided base for prayer, the airport I’ve called it, as you start your prayer and hope for take off!
It matters to hold yourself to it eg. if you are praying from a bible passage hold the bible for all 20 minutes to keep the focus.
Confession of sin before you pray is also important since the bottom line for prayer is honesty.
That’s enough on how I pray! Now let’s hear how Archbishop Rowan prays! This is part of an interview he gave me in 2004 at Lambeth Palace.
To welcome more of the radiance of Jesus into our hearts involves us in a life-long struggle because of our fallen nature.
Christianity is the gift of Jesus but it involves us in the task of prayerful devotion. Through that devotion, renewed among us this month, may others catch on to what Jesus is doing and be drawn to him through us.
When the church becomes a house of prayer it’s said the whole world will come running!
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