32 – Breath Prayer – Intention on the Spiritual Journey

Breathing is not only the most natural thing to do, it sustains life.  Breath prayer for many is a prime sustainer of life.

In breath prayer we repeat a short, repetitive prayer phrase to the rhythm of our breathing.  As we breathe in we repeat the first words or phrase of the prayer; then as we breathe out we repeat the second phrase of the prayer.  Typical phrases used in breath prayer are –

Breath of life; breath on me

O Lord; baptize me with love

Father; teach me gentleness

Lord Jesus Christ; have mercy on me

 In the examples above the first phrase is a name or image of God and serves to remind us that we are in God’s presence and is said as we breathe in.  The second phrase expresses a God-given desire and is said as we exhale, releasing not only our breath but the words of the prayer to God.  As we repeatably breathe, so we repeat the prayer again and again.

Why not give yourself five minutes sometime today to try the breath prayer.  First, select one of the phrases above or a similar phrase.  Next, sit comfortably and begin to notice your breathing.  Then, as you are ready, start repeating the prayer to the rhythm of your breathing.  Maybe you will want to come back to the pattern at different times during the day.

You can find more on the breath prayer in the following –

Spiritual Disciplines Handbook (by Adele Ahlberg Calhoun) pp 204-206

Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home (by Richard Foster) pp 122-124

Soul Feast (by Marjorie J Thompson) pp 48-49

Companions in Christ (by Gerritt Scott Dawson, et al) pp 296-297

Exploring the Way (by Marjoirie J Thompson) p 46.

31 – Simple Prayer – Intention on the Spiritual Journey

The first chapter of Richard Foster’s Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home is entitled “Simple Prayer.”  He writes,

” … we are brought to the most basic, the most primary form of prayer: Simple Prayer … we bring ourselves before God just as we are, warts and all.  Like children before a loving father, we open our hearts and make our requests. We do not try to sort things out … We simply and unpretentiously share out concerns and make our petitions.” (p 9)

The first time I looked into this book I was surprised by to find this as the  first chapter. Maybe I was looking for something more spiritual, more profound, dare I say deeper.  That may be even more the reason I need to hear how truly deep simple prayer is.  It does after all arise from our heart of hearts; our deepest desires, hopes and fears.

Simple prayer is honest and real.  And it is who we are.

There is principle of prayer I have heard many times and it rings more and more true, “Pray as you can, not as you cannot.”

 

30 – Prayer – Intention on the Spiritual Journey

Over the next several weeks I would like us to think together about the different forms our prayers can take.  But before we look at different prayer practices, I would ask us to keep in mind two things.

First, keep in mind the words of Robert Mulholldand we have shared over the past three weeks.  He has reminded us that silence, solitude and prayer are not to seen just as spiritual practices along side other practices but form “the inner dynamics of how we engage in the disciplines, the deep inner posture of being we bring to the disciplines”  (Robert Mullholland, Invitation to a Journey, p 136).

Second, even while we speak of the “discipline of prayer” we must never reduce prayer to mere discipline, rules or obligation.  Flora Slosson Wuellner writes,

“The most direct response to [God’s love], the widest door we can open, is through the relationship we call prayer.  For it is a relationship and not primarily a discipline. Most of our problems with prayer arise from our tendency to turn spiritual growing into a set of laws or a gymnastic exercise….  It is best to have some deliberate opening each day, but we need not be troubled if the form or expression change.  That is as it should be.  God’s love is a growing personal relatedness in which we are loved and challenged to love without limit.”  (From Exploring the Way: An Introduction to the Spiritual Journey by Marjorie J. Thompson, p 41)

We must not let the “practice” become more important than the relationship.  The “form” to so take our attention that we seek perfection of the “form” and fail to seek God.

At the same time, Wuellner and others tell us we should be “deliberate” in opening ourselves to God.

That will be our challenge –  To find what in our life deliberately opens us to God’s relationship to us without mistaking that thing for the relationship itself.

29 – Prayer – Intention on the Spiritual Journey

Robert Mulholland speaks of prayer as the third “inner dynamic of our disciplines.”

“Prayer … becomes the offering of who we are to God: the giving of that broken, grasping, manipulative self to God for the work of God’s grace in our lives.  This is a yearning, hungering, wrestling prayer that enters into the painful struggle between what we are and the crucifying desire to become what God wants us to be.  This kind of prayer struggles with what we have been with others and hungers to be what God intends us to be for them.  This kind of prayer agonizes with what we have allowed others to be in our lives and yearns to allow others to be what God means for them to be for us.”

From Invitation to a Journey: A Road Map for Spiritual Formation by M Robert Mulholland Jr, p 140.

28 – Solitude – Intention on the Spiritual Journey

Robert Mulholland calls silence the first “inner dynamic of our disciplines” and he calls solitude the second.

“We tend to think of solitude as simply being alone…. however, solitude is, in the silence of release, beginning to face the deep inner dynamics of our being that make us that grasping, controlling, manipulative person; beginning to face our brokenness, our distortion, our darkness; and beginning to offer ourselves to God at those points.  This is part of solitude.  But more than this, it is being who we are with God and acknowledging who we are to ourselves and to God.”

From Invitation to a Journey: A Road Map for Spiritual Formation by M Robert Mulholland Jr, p 138.

27 – Silence – Intention on the Spiritual Journey

Do you know what silence is?  Consider Robert Mulholland’s suggestion –

“We tend to think of silence as simply being still…. The practice of silence is the radical reversal of our cultural tendencies.  Silence is bringing ourselves to the point of relinquishing to God our control of our relationship with God.  Silence is a reversal of the whole processing, controlling, grasping dynamic of trying to maintain control of our own existence.  Silence is the inner act of letting go.”

From Invitation to a Journey: A Road Map for Spiritual Formation by M Robert Mulholland Jr, pp 136-137.

26 – Worship – Intention on the Spiritual Journey

” … unto you is born this day … Christ the Lord.”  Luke 2:11

This past Sunday evening our choir’s Christmas cantata ended with the word “joy.”  No, it is more accurate to say it ended with the shout, “JOY!” A shout that echoed through the auditorium and through each person.  That lead me to wonder what are the spiritual disciplines that Advent and Christmas call forth in us.  That evening I could think of no better response, no better practice, than worship.

I offer today a much repeated quote from William Temple that suggests the inherent power of worship,

“Worship is the submission of all of our nature to God.  It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness,  Nourishment of mind by His truth,  Purifying of imagination by His beauty,  Opening of the heart to His love,  And submission of will to his purpose.  And all this gathered up in adoration is the greatest of human expressions of which we are capable.”

25 – Spiritual Disciplines – Intention on the Spiritual Journey

As a follow up to Robert Mulholland’s definition of spiritual formation it is good to hear his counsel regarding spiritual disciplines.

“Let me clarify the nature of a spiritual discipline, because here our cultural shaping distorts our understanding.  We tend to think of spiritual disciplines as something that we are doing to transform ourselves….  If we’re thinking we are changing ourselves by offering the spiritual discipline, we are deluding ourselves….  A genuine spiritual discipline is a discipline of loving obedience offered to God with no strings attached.  We put no conditions on it.  We put no time limits on it.  We add no expectation of how we want God to change us through it.  We simply offer the discipline to God, and keep on offering it for as long as God wants us to keep on….  When we continue to offer the discipline, that discipline becomes a means of grace through which God works and moves to transform that dead portion of our body into life in the image of Christ.  One morning you wake up and discover, often to your amazement, that the discipline is no longer a discipline; it is now the natural outflow of a being that has risen to new life in Christ….  You did not do it.  God did it.  But God did it through the discipline you offered.”

from Invitation to a Journey: A Road Map for Spiritual Formation by M. Robert Mulholland, Jr, pp 131-133.

24 – Spiritual Formation — Intention on the Spiritual Journey

In preparation for a retreat I recently attended I read Invitation to a Journey: A Road Map for Spiritual Formation by M. Robert Mulholland, Jr.  He defines spiritual formation as “a process of being conformed to the image of Christ for the sake of others” (p 15).  He goes on to add, “There can be no wholeness in the image of Christ which is not incarnate in our relationships with others, both in the body of Christ and in the world” (p 17}.

Thinking about Mulholland’s description of spiritual formation along side Foster’s seeing spiritual disciplines as inward, outward and corporate and combined with Willard’s thoughts on disciplines of abstinence and engagement, should help us not to see formation and disciplines as a private matter concerned with only “my personal relationship to God” and “my personal growth.”

23 – Spiritual Disciplines of Engagement – Intention on the Spiritual Journey

In turning his attention to the spiritual disciplines of engagement (study, worship, celebration, service, prayer, fellowship, confession, and submission), Dallas Willard writes,

“The disciplines of abstinence must be counterbalanced and supplemented by the disciplines of engagement.  Abstinence and engagement are the outbreathing and inbreathing of our spiritual lives, and we require disciplines for both movements.  Roughly speaking, the disciplines of abstinence counteract the sins of commission and the disciplines of engagement counteract tendencies to sins of omission.  Life … does not derive its power of growth and development from withdrawal but from action – and engagement. Abstinence, then, makes way for engagement….  If the places in our souls that are be indwelt by God and his service are occupied by food, sex, and society, we die and languish for lack of God and right relation to his creatures.  A proper abstinence actually breaks the hold of improper engagements so that the soul can be properly engaged in and by God.”

from  The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives, pp 175 – 176.