Matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers – Tuesday, September 1, 2015
Day One, Centering Prayer
I sort of knew this day would come. The day I started Centering Prayer for one month. I’ve done contemplative prayer before. I’ve used Centering Prayer before. However, I never made the commitment to practice Centering Prayer each day, for one solid month.
Since I am by nature so focused on words and on text, I couldn’t just do wordless prayer—not for a whole month. I know myself, and I couldn’t hack it. I knew I wanted to try to do Centering Prayer, though, in my year of praying every day. So, I found a way to manage it, pretty well. And, I am taking my instructions from a wonderful instructor: Fr. Thomas Keating.
For the month of September, I will take a name of God found in the Bible, and use that for my word of the day. Since I am urged to choose a word (or, Name) as the symbol of my “intention to consent to God’s presence and action within,” [1] I thought that a help like that would assist me in my prayer. Hey, I need all the help I can get.
My word—Name of God for today is Abba. Daddy, or Papa. The intimate name for God, the Heavenly Father. In both letters to the Romans and to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul mentions “Abba, Father!” In the Gospel of Mark, chapter 14, Jesus refers in prayer to “Abba, Father!”
I could not get very far today, in centering myself. Sorry, God. I tried. I hope for better things tomorrow. You said You honor faithfulness. I was that. I strove to be faithful. Thanks for being there with me. I know You were.
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[1] http://www.cpt.org/files/WS%20-%20Centering%20Prayer.pdf
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