New Ways to Encounter God

Silence and Centering Prayer

At one point in my life, I was REALLY bored with my prayer life. I got tired of hearing myself doing the talking. I never paused, I never listened, and it seemed I had a laundry list of prayer needs and wants. Luckily, God never wastes anything. Instead, he allowed that boredom to introduce me to new ways of spending time with him.

Silence

Before I could understand the value of different prayer practices, I had to understand the value of silence. I’ve already talked about how I was introduced to silence at Green Bough House of Prayer, but I needed to learn how to incorporate silence into my life.

At home I could barely find time to sit down, much less find silence so trying to find a place and time for silence was not an easy task. In the beginning I wasn’t sure what to do in silence. I usually filled the silence with my prayers, but that wasn’t silence. Like I said, I felt discontent in my prayer life so that was not very fulfilling.

As I was trying to find a time and place for silence, I was still going to Green Bough frequently. Each time I went, I would learn a little more about silence and what to do with it. I went on walks, journaled, listened to music, walked the prayer labyrinth, listened to the birds, and more; but I always filled the silence with internal chatter. How could I stop the chatter?

Centering Prayer

That was when I was introduced to centering prayer. Green Bough offered a nine month centering prayer class. It was a big commitment because my children were young, but I wanted to breathe life into my prayer life, and I felt a pull from God to do it. So I did.

Even though centering prayer is like meditation, it is not meditation. Meditation focuses on self; whereas, centering prayer focuses on God and draws us closer to God.

How To Practice Centering Prayer

To begin, I find a comfortable position. The best position is in a chair so I can sit up straight but have support for my back. I place both feet on the ground, rest my hands on my thighs, and close my eyes.

I determine a sacred word or phrase to repeat in my mind. To determine a sacred word, I pray and ask God what his desire is for me, what he would like me to know, or what my focus should be. Examples of words or phrases are: love, listen, peace, be still, Father, Lord, Abba.

I begin repeating my word or phrase in my mind. I usually have a sacred phrase so I inhale with one word and exhale with another. As my mind relaxes, I release my phrase; but when thoughts occur, I return to my phrase.

A centering prayer practice usually lasts twenty minutes. In the beginning I started with shorter times but tried to push myself beyond what I thought I could do. If I thought I could do five minutes, I tried seven minutes. To keep the time, I use the timer on my phone or the centering prayer app from Contemplative Outreach.

Once the time is up, I remain with my eyes closed for as long as it takes for me to feel ready to open my eyes and slowly re-enter the world.

It seems strange to say that sitting in silence changed me, but it did. Next week, I’ll share a little more about that change.