Category:

Praying without ceasing

6/3/2023

Lists over the years!

"Pray without ceasing," from Paul' first letter to the Thessalonians (5:17) is one of the most quoted messages from his letters (I Corinthians 13:1 undoubtedly gets first place.) For me, pray without ceasing the one that pops into my mind more than any other.
How do I pray without ceasing without going crazy or without appearing craze to others? My answer today is that praying without ceasing is about keeping love, the message of 1 Corinthians 13, with me at all times. In practical terms it means stopping throughout the day to pray by giving God thanks and by praying 'The List,' which is a little post-it note on which I write the names of ten people or situations to pray for throughout the day.
Today, this is how I express praying without ceasing. Tomorrow it may be different, but today is today. What is praying without ceasing for you today, the only day you have right now?

Beyond joys and concerns

7/6/2019

I sit here in my lovely yard enjoying the flora and my family. I could write about that.
     Or…
   I sit here in my lovely yard worrying about the racism that has a grip on our president and so many in our country. I could write about that.
     But…
     Neither of those scenarios help me, a person who God keeps calling to another way of living that is beyond enjoying or worrying. At church we lift up joys and concerns because that is where we are settled in our lives. But then we are asked to soar above them, to let them go, to stop allowing them to take over. We are asked not to think them away but to pray them away.
     Again and again I return to Paul’s plea in 1 Thessalonians: pray without ceasing. When I pray the Jesus Prayer, Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me, my dependence on the joys and concerns of life lose their power and the peace of God that passes all understanding takes over. Of course I have to keep practicing this, but the results keep me at it.

It is all grace~

1/28/2018

Throughout most of my waking hours I think about prayer, faith, and God, and find myself praying without ceasing. This ‘pattern of behavior’ began in earnest approximately twenty years go when I stopped teaching and began divinity school. It was nothing I consciously chose, it just evolved. In fact, this very unconscious obsession about God is the best proof I have for God’s existence and presence in my life; never could I have decided on my own to pursue God.
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11).
I believe God has plans for every human being, and I don’t have an answer to why some hear God’s call, and other don’t. I know and have come to believe with certainty that being called by God has nothing to do with my behavior, good, bad or in between. The only answer is grace, which is a miracle. So, I leave it at that and think about prayer, faith, and God, and continue to pray without ceasing.

Pray without ceasing~

10/24/2017

      This Wednesday at “The Well” at church our topic will be ‘pray without ceasing,’ that short little phrase that Paul sneaks into his First Letter to the Thessalonians.What does it mean to pray without ceasing? How could you ever do that? Well, through the centuries holy people have grappled with the idea.
     The Jesus Prayer, Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me, a sinner which has been embraced for centuries by the Eastern Church, gives one answer. The Philoklia, a book of writings on prayer, offers numerous commentaries from hesychasts, individuals from the mystical tradition of prayer who practicedthe Jesus prayer. The 19th century book, “The Way of A Pilgrim,” follows the journey of a pilgrim in Russia searching to understanding what it means to pray without ceasing.
     I love this prayer. It starts with praise for God and ends with humility on the part of the human being. It is about humility; it is about mercy; it is about opening my heart.
     “The Prayer of the Heart is considered to be the Unceasing Prayer that the apostle Paul advocates in the New Testament.[1] St. Theophan the Recluse regarded the Jesus' Prayer stronger than all other prayers by virtue of the power of the Holy Name of Jesu. (Wikipedia)

Pray the Jesus Prayer with out ceasing. Here’s how it goes.
1. The oral prayer (the prayer of the lips) is a simple recitation, still external to the practitioner.
2. The focused prayer, when "the mind is focused upon the words" of the prayer, "speaking them as if they were our own."
3. The prayer of the heart itself, when the prayer is no longer something we do but who we are.

Give thanks in all circumstances~

12/26/2016

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of Christ Jesus for you (1 Thess 5:17-18).

I love this scripture. In fact, pray without ceasing is my favorite. What intrigues me is the little preposition in, and the little adjective all. Give thanks in all circumstance.
It’s not easy to do that. Do I even want to in the midst of horrendous situations? Can I even remember at those difficult moments? My answer is no and no, but I am called to keep trying. That’s why I practice gratitude during the good times. Hopefully the habit will stay with me when things get tough.

"Pray without ceasing," and "Rejoice always."

11/10/2016

     One step at a time. That’s how I’m moving two days after the election. How to lead my life without the safety net that I live in a country that accepts, cares about, helps, honors—I could go on, and of course you have your own list--all people.
     Jesus tells us to pray for our enemies, a challenge for me right now, and yet I know that is what I am called to do as a Christian. I, who have had very few enemies in my life, now have millions (everyone who didn’t vote as I did). I’m being a little dramatic here, but admitting and naming millions helps me welcome the truth of how I feel.
     When I woke up yesterday I asked God what God wanted me to do. My mind jabbered on and on. And then I heard God’s small voice telling me to pray, pray without ceasing as Paul suggests in 1 Thessalonians 5:17. That’s it. No long conversation. I’m doing the best I can, but it sure is hard to stop all the chatter, analysis, judgments that I do so well as a human being.
Oh, 1 Thessalonians 5:16, in the verse just prior, Paul tells us: rejoice always.

Remembering to pray without ceasing~

6/8/2016

“Remember, remember, remember,” I tell myself. ‘Pray the Jesus Prayer throughout the day, pray without ceasing.” Pray it not only as reminder that God is with me all the time but as a way to be present to the Holy Spirit. I pray it as I go about my daily activities; I pray it as a meditation. Sometimes I am conscious; sometimes it becomes a prayer of the heart.

Praying the way of a pilgrim~

5/14/2016

I’ve been praying the Jesus Prayer with more intention lately. Maybe it has to do with delightful spring walks. Maybe because I am a member of ‘St. Symeon the New Theologian - Prayer of the Heart Monastery’ (an affiliate of www.monasteriesoftheheart.org) committed to studying and praying the Jesus Prayer. Here is my recent post.

The Pilgrim taught me the Jesus Prayer. My fascination with Paul’s comment in 1 Thessalonians to pray without ceasing lead me to The Way of A Pilgrim. The moment I began reading, I started saying the prayer in my mind as I walked about leading my life. My intention continues: to pray this prayer into my very being, my mental, spiritual and muscle memory, so that it becomes an involuntary attribute of who I am.
I forget and remember, forget and remember, but with commitment and practice I notice the prayer is with me more and more frequently as I carry out household chores, drive in the car or take a walk.

Meeting Christ in the Jesus Prayer

11/16/2015

From time to time I write about the Jesus Prayer (“Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me a sinner”), and my continual intention to pray it without ceasing. No surprise I do better when I have time to pay attention to prayer and meditation, than when I’m busy 24/7 out in the world. I’ve always been drawn to the monks who take the vow of silence, solitude, and thus simplicity, and envy how this offers them time to sit in God’s mystery, which is what they have chosen to do. I couldn’t do this, nor do I want to, but I am striving for some place in between, and yes, I get glimpses of the mystery now and them. I believe that the Jesus Pray is one way that we ‘religious’ out in the world can stay in the mystery.
Currently I am reading Meeting Christ in His Mysteries: A Benedictine Vision of the Spiritual Life, by Gregory Collins OSB, a monk of Glenstal Abbey in Ireland. Although a Benedictine, he speaks generously from the perspective of Eastern Orthodoxy, of which the Jesus Prayer is important.
Collins tells me, “There is nothing selfish about such sustained personal prayer (the Jesus Prayer) for it is really a kind of evangelization of the self,” and with that I am encouraged to keep saying it.

Prayer, the path to humility~

8/5/2015

If you want practice praying with ceasing for a day, just start praying for a friend’s fourteen year old grandson who is in the midst of fourteen hour brain surgery. You just don’t’ stop praying.

Is there such a thing as practicing prayer? Practice implies getting better and maybe even becoming an expert. But prayer isn’t that way. We don’t get better, and I doubt that anyone can be considered an expert in prayer. We just keep praying and then praying some more until it feels like we are praying without ceasing. Prayer is God lead, not human directed. It is a path to humility.