Podcast Episode Five: Centering Prayer

SEASON TWO - EPISODE FIVE: CENTERING PRAYER

Nothing can make me fall asleep quicker than being forced to do Centering Prayer for 20 minutes after lunch, during prime nap time, when you’re in graduate school and constantly exhausted. Yet, the first time I tried Centering Prayer, this is what happened. After 20 minutes, I awoke to drool streaming down my chin.

After this experience, I didn’t try this ancient practice again. It wasn’t until over a decade later that I tried Centering Prayer and this time I found it had become a profound practice for my soul that leads me into greater peace and calm, centers my soul, and allows me the space to listen for God. It’s been a game changer in my spiritual life. It was revived my soul and lead me into deeper awareness.

At it’s basic, Centering prayer is a type of silent prayer in which we center ourselves upon God’s presence.

This is why it is also one of the most difficult spiritual practices. It’s a practice where I can’t do anything, really. I don’t check things off my list. Instead, it forces me to be rather than to do. In Centering Prayer, I just am as I am. It’s just me and my thoughts, which can become quite noisy when sitting in silence.

But this is also why Centering Prayer is an essential practice.

Instead of me trying to achieve or do something, Centering Prayer becomes about me being present, as I am, to the Divine One who is always present to me. It becomes this centered place where I’m not working on my own soul, but God is working on my own soul. Through it, God does a transforming work in me and I am simply opening myself up to the One who does such good work.

Centering prayer allows us to be in union with God, to be aware of God, and to be as close to God as your very breath. It is a holy act, where we don't have to worry about doing, but instead settle into simply being.

Catholic Priest, Basil Pennington gives the following framework for Centering Prayer:

Be With God.

Stay With God.

Return to God.

In this episode, I share more about Centering Prayer, but I also give instructions on how to do a sit as well as end the episode with silence to experience Centering Prayer. As I mention in the podcast, a few resources I recommend are: Centering Prayer, by Basil Pennington; Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening, by Cynthia Bourgeault; and Centering Prayer in Daily Life and Ministry.

As you learn to center yourself through silent prayer, as you learn to be with God, stay with God, and return to God, may you have peace, may you have calm, and may you have happiness.

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Podcast Episode Three: Solitude

SEASON TWO - EPISODE THREE: SOLITUDE

Solitude. I know, it sounds boring, doesn’t it? Unless you're an extreme introvert and your probably rejoicing- “this is the best thing ever!”

I’m a bit of an extrovert, so for a long time solitude was torturous for me. I hated it. But, as an extrovert, I have learned that solitude isn’t torturous, it is actually essential to my spiritual transformation and my personal well-being.

As Henri Nouwen has stated, “without solitude it is virtually impossible to have a spiritual life.”

As a spiritual practice, solitude is more than getting away from people, untethering ourselves from technology. Solitude is an opportunity to turn away from other people, technology, and other ways we can be interrupted in order to turn toward and be present to God who is always present to us.

Solitude is the place where we encounter God as we are and we leave that place transformed and renewed because we were with God. It could be said that in solitude, we not only spend time with the Divine, but we also discover our true self, who we are truly meant to be in God’s presence.

As Ruth Haley Barton says in her book, Invitation to Solitude and Silence, that in solitude and silence the love of the Divine comes to us, but it also begins to flow out of us to others. So, solitude can be an avenue for God to transform us into healed, compassionate, and loving people who not only reflect the Divine, but also love others in the same way as the Divine.

I had always thought that being alone was simply a way to become quickly lonely or an opportunity to get away from those friends that you could only handle in small doses. But it is so much more than that. It is a proven way to be with God and hear the still small voice of God.

In this episode, I am going to challenge you to start exploring solitude. But don’t worry, I set the bar low; really low. If you want some resources, I recommend: Thoughts in Solitude, by Thomas Merton; Invitation to Solitude and Silence, by Ruth Haley Barton; The Way of the Heart, by Henri Nouwen. Be sure to share this episode and, if you could, write a review on iTunes.

And in the solitude, may you have peace, may you have calm, may you have happiness.

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Podcast Episode One: When Faith Stops Working

SEASON TWO - EPISODE ONE: WHEN FAITH STOPS WORKING

I never thought I’d be the pastor who would find himself laying on the floor, under his desk, with noise-canceling headphones on, crying.

But within a few years of actually being in full-time ministry, within a few years of actually working for churches, within a few years of actually preaching, and pastoring, and creating programs, I found myself so overwhelmed with life and work that there I was, just chilling under my desk.

At the time, I found myself burnt out. I felt overworked, completely unprepared for ministry, and my soul was aching for something I wasn’t sure was even worth it, longing for something more. My faith wasn’t working the way it once had.

I realized that I needed something new. And what I learned was that the something new I needed was actually something quite old; ancient actually.

And so, from meditation to monasteries, silence to solitude, contemplative practices to centering prayer these ancient spiritual practices changed everything for me. They literally revived my soul and saved my faith. It wasn’t as if I pursued contemplative spiritual practice, it was as if I fell into them, discovering them by human accident but divine purpose.

Contemplative spiritual practices are ways that open me up to God’s presence, ways to be with God rather than things to do for God, and they’re practices that allow God to do things in me while I am simply learning to be; be present and still.

In this episode of the podcast, I share how these ancient practices revived my faith, healed my soul, and allowed me to hear the Divine. Take a listen and be sure to leave a review on iTunes Apple Podcasts.

If you’re looking for more resources, check out: The Emotionally Healthy Leader, by Pete Scazzero; Just This, by Richard Rohr; New Seeds of Contemplation, by Thomas Merton; Concerning the Inner Life, by Evelyn Underhill

Until then, may you have peace, may you have calm, may you have happiness.

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