From the Rev. Garrett Yates: Centering Prayer at St. Paul’s
Have you ever noticed how noisy our lives are?
From the excited voices of The Today Show (why are they always so peppy?) to the more cultured sounds of NPR, my day begins. The sounds and noises rumble along through the day as conversations are had, the phone rings, a Facebook notification dings, all until I am back to listening to my NPR on the drive home.
It’s not just external noise either. My mind is filled with the chatter of the day’s to-do-list; I prepare for upcoming meetings and soon-to-be-had conversations; I read books, even say my daily prayers, and think about what’s for dinner.
I wish it were only good external noise: when my glass gets really full, I feel anxious; I then tell myself stories about my anxiety, to the point that I will google what I am worried about to make sure that I am not going insane. Or dying. I am only slightly exaggerating.
One of the spiritual practices that has sustained me throughout the last several years, and all the myriad noises and anxieties of my life, is a practice known as Centering Prayer. Centering Prayer is an ancient way of praying, going back to some of the earliest Christians, which involves sustained periods of silence. That’s mainly what it is, sitting in silence, or as one of my favorite Christian writers refers to it, “loving awareness,” and simply noting in a non-judgmental way all the sounds and noises in one’s spirit.
The theology behind this practice is straightforward: as we position ourselves to become aware of all the busyness and anxiety in our lives and in our world, we learn to be present to it in love. And we also learn that it is possible (!) for everything to be borne by a loving awareness, not just in our prayer time, but throughout our entire day.
Most importantly, centering prayer has taught me that my life – from the peppy sounds of the Today Show to the more alarming feelings of anxiety - is forever accompanied not just by my own loving awareness, but God’s: that loving awareness before whom “all desires are known and no secrets are hid.”
This is an experience that has been important to me, and one that I would love to begin to practice with a group of people at St. Paul’s. Are you interested in learning more, or potentially joining? Read about our upcoming series "Taste and See: a Lenten Sampling", which will include a Sunday Adult Forum on Centering Prayer. If you would like to talk more about Centering Prayer, please email me (garrett@stpaulspgh.org), or get in touch with me before or after service to see if we can coordinate a time that may work.
We would gather for no more than 45 minutes.
Tags: Messenger January 2016