Silence and Prayer

Silence is God's first language.
Everything else is just a poor translation - Thomas Keating

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Prayer and Imagination

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We live in a rational, left brain world... Yet as human beings, our soul is still fired by colour and imagination. Our minds are storehouses of images and memories and through them God works in our hearts. Praying with our imaginations can create a deeper and more personal intimacy with Jesus, Mary, the disciples and others written about in the scripture. We can take the familiar stories we know and let them flow through our own imagination and see where the Lord guides it.

Using the imagination in prayer has been a treasured tradition in prayer for centuries. It prompted St Francis of Assisi to encourage people to create nativity scenes at Christmas, to imagine the Holy Family as people like we are. four hundred years later, St Ignatius of Loyola used imaginative prayer as a key of his life-transforming Spiritual Exercises...

See more here

http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/Imagination/Intro.html

 

Taize

A street in the village of Taize

The Taize Community is an ecumenical Christian monastic order in Taize, Burgundy, France. It is composed of about 100 brothers who come from Protestant and Catholic traditions. The brothers come from about 30 countries across the world. The monastic order has a strong devotion to peace and justice through prayer and meditation. It was founded in 1940 by Brother Roger Schutz.

The community has become one of the world's most important sites of Christian pilgrimage. Over 100,000 young people from around the world make pilgrimages to Taize each year for prayer, Bible study, sharing, and communal work. Through the community's ecumenical outlook, they are encouraged to live in the spirit of kindness, simplicity and reconciliation.

Dare to Pray

Dare to pray. Christ prays in you more than you imagine - Brother Roger

Hospitality

Hospitality is about keeping the door of our hearts open.
It happens, therefore, at close range.
Disappoints, heartache and the like,
these (if we let them),
shut and bolt
our hearts
tight.

If and
when this happens,
I pray that God would
shove God's foot into your door...

And from the other side,
God will whisper,

‘Don’t be afraid.
In love there is always
so much more’.

Patiently, God will wait.

But you, and only you,

will have to muster up the courage

to open your heart’s door.

For in God's design,

the key is always placed

in your pocket

Woman at the Well

Thank you
for meeting us
in the ordinary, the practical
and the mundane;
At the height or
depth of our lives

Thank you, that in
Jesus, you listen to us
regardless of who we are

In Jesus, you care
enough to break
cultural and stereotypical
restraints

In Jesus,
you listen to
what we say in words
and beyond our words

Help us to
move from isolation
towards others;
To put aside our quickness
to judge or box.
To see in other
our sisters and brothers,
fathers and mothers

Jesus
our life and way,
thank you for
acknowledging
what every heart
has to say

Teach us How to Pray

The Bible says two vital things about prayer. Firstly, that we must pray and secondly, that we must be taught how to pray. See how, in her simple prayer, Mother Teresa remains evergreen, always a student, sitting at the feet of her beloved rabbi and teacher, Jesus of Nazareth:

Jesus

come into my heart,

Pray with me,

Pray in me -

that I may learn from thee

How to pray