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| Rev. Tom Ward, workshop leader |
“But
you, when you pray, go into your
inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”—Matthew
6:6
Prayer has been part of my life as long as I
remember. Perhaps I should say that a
certain type of prayer has been part of my life. During a Centering Prayer Workshop led by
Rev. Tom Ward today, I was challenged to reflect on what and how I really
pray. I think most of my prayers have been
based on two words—“please” and “thank you.”
I probably should refer to this as the “Barney the Purple Dinosaur”
approach to prayer. Like most of us, I
politely come to God with a request. If
I perceive that there is a positive response to that request, I express
appreciation. If things don’t work out
the way that I prayed for them to, I assume that I did not ask the right way
or that God was not particularly concerned about my request at that time. This is a pretty one-dimensional approach to
a relationship that is meant to be much more.
Ward suggested another approach to prayer—a
contemplative way. His definition of
contemplation is “responding to God without words in adoration and praise with
an attitude of doing less and less so that God can do more and more.” This basically means surrendering myself to
God so that God can take the initiative in prayer.
Contemplative prayer takes seriously that God
wants to give and will do so freely if we will open our hands and receive what
God offers to us. Certainly the
rewards that God provides are far richer and more appropriate than we can
conceive for ourselves.
Although we practiced this method of prayer
today, I can’t say that I understand it and I certainly am a long way from practicing
it on a regular basis. I must admit
however that it seems to make more sense than the “Barney” approach.
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