Meditation Moment in Lent ~ Day 17: Give Up, Take On, Pray '24

March 4, 2024 ~ 3^rd Monday in Lent

Prayer is a nonlocative, nongeographic space that one enters at one's own peril,

 for it houses God during those few moments of one's presence there, 

and what is there will most surely change everything that comes into it...

Ever traveling as we travel, moving as we move, prayer grips like home, until

 the heart belongs nowhere else and the body can scarcely function apart from them both. 

Prayer is dangerous and the entrance way to wholeness.

~ Phyllis Tickle* 1934-2015

    How do you pray?  There are many ways ~ some use formally constructed prayers written by others, some pray spontaneously in a group.  Some pray in silence and alone. What are the reasons for your prayers: intercessory (on behalf of others), thanksgiving (for blessings in life), petition (request for yourself), penitence (you're sorry for something as in what I say in traffic), to give praise to God without asking or expecting a return? What really is prayer? It's a conversation with God, Jesus, and/or the Holy Spirit. Step one: Dear God... or the ever-popular Oh God!

Dear God,

       Sometimes I find it difficult to know what to say to You even though I don't seem to have a problem talking to anyone else. What words are best? What should I be saying? Do the words matter? Do I always need words since You know my conscious and unconscious thoughts? 

       For today, I will give up trying to pray the way I think is correct and take on speaking to You from my heart as I do to a very close friend. I will pray to share sacred house-space with You, more often. Is it true that my heart, mind, and soul can be transformed by engaging with You regularly? That does feel a little dangerous, but, since You are God, what better danger can there be?  amen.

*An Episcopal lay woman, Phyllis Tickle was an accomplished author and lecturer whose focus was primarily religion and spirituality. She served as a teacher, professor, an academic dean, and as an editor for St. Luke's Press, Peachtree Publishers, and Publishers Weekly. Her best known works are The Great Emergence - How Christianity is Changing and Why and her series on The Divine Hours. The opening quote is from Phyllis Tickle: Essential Spiritual Writings (Jon Sweeney, ed., Church Publishing, 2018)

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