Prayer, part 1

I describe prayer as communion, a "being with" that is transformative.

The vehicle of prayer is a growing attentiveness, a waking up that draws us into a deeper and deeper communion with the One at the center of life.

In prayer -- real communion as speaking and listening -- we attend ever more deeply to God, self, others, and the world.

In prayer, because we are changed, our relationships are transformed; that is, how we relate to God, others, the created world, and yes, even our selves is made new.

That's a shift in thinking for me. For years, even as a pastor, I didn't pray much. The Church taught me that prayer was talking to God. Those who prayed best, at least from my experience, were those who had a lot to say to God that sounded very pious. I learned that there were certain words God liked and other words God didn't like. If you used the right words in the right order with the right intonation, you would probably get what you asked for.

It was always implied that what you said to God needed to be prettied-up and acceptable to God. Honesty wasn't allowed. So because my life wasn't very clean, I didn't pray much . . . only when in trouble, or desperate, or called on to offer a public prayer.

Thus, when the stuff started hitting the fan for me about 16 years ago, I went back and began to get honest with God. It took time. At first I couldn't really believe it was prayer, but a lot of what I was reading in the Hebrew Psalms sounded just like what I was feeling, so I tried it.

Now, these years later, my prayer continues to evolve. I have yet to explore the final frontier. I feel very much like a beginner in prayer. Every time I settle into a new routine or pattern for my prayer, thinking it is the final stopping place for me, I'm led into a new landscape for prayer. It's a pretty amazing experience!