Beginning Prayer

I'm almost finished with John Killinger's book, Beginning Prayer. It is a 'how to' resource--a fundamntal book, a primer--on prayer. It is about

attitude in prayer

times of day or praying

places for praying

posture for praying

mood for praying

Here is an excerpt from the chapter entitled, The Prayer of Silence.

"Perhaps the best way to begin praying, then, both when we are first learning to pray and long afterwards,

is by coming before God in quietness---by drawing near and waiting in silence, with no anxious straining after words or thought.

We are pragmatic, and silence makes us nervous.

Nothing seems to be on it way to happening.

No matter. Wait.

Prayer is not 'useful' in the sense that certain other things are. We do not arrive at its benefits directly.

We are not dealing, after all, with the butcher or the insurance agent or the pharmacist.

We are waiting before the Creator of the World, the Most High God, the Transcendent One, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the Source of All Holiness.

Viewed in this light, what do we have to say to God?

What can we say?

Reverently, we come into the divine presence and kneel or sit without speaking.

We concentrate only on what we are doing---waiting in the presence

We listen to the silence.

Will the presence speak?

Perhaps.

And if it doesn't?

We listen to the silence.

Without speaking, the presence sifts us.

Our earthly ambitions are recognized as tawdry, our fears as groundless, our resentment as self-paralyzing, and our hurrying as pointless.

Love, joy, peace, patience, gratitude, the fruits of the spirit…these are the things that matter.

These take over again in our lives.

We bless the name of the Holy One…this is what the silence comes to.

We move to other forms of prayer. Or we feel that the praying is over, and we return to our work.

But something is different.

We don't feel so harried.

Our very being s are lighter, more spiritual.

The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Holiness, encradles our own.

Perhaps your heart will beat too fiercely when you try this prayer of silence, and you will wish to stop.

Try breathing deeply, and concentrating on that.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Wait before God.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Wait before God.

You get the rhythm of it."