Prayer can be as natural as breathing, and occur at any time in any place. Prayer can be something that you did as a child, with prescribed words, and that has no real meaning to you as an adult. Perhaps you have been praying for many years, and your prayer is changing—either becoming rich and evocative as you move into deeper relationship with the Beloved. Or, perhaps the prayers that at one time were so full of life and vigor are now empty and arid and this is confusing. Maybe you wonder how to pray—where to begin.

Prayer is, quite simply, a cry of the heart. It can be of gratitude and thanksgiving, longing, desire, need, absolute angst, compassion, deep stillness -whatever moves you. Henri Nouwen offers an insightful explanation:

“There are as many ways to pray as there are moments in life. Sometimes we seek out a quiet spot and want to be alone, sometimes we look for a friend and want to be together. Sometimes we like a book, sometimes we prefer music. Sometimes we want to sing out with hundreds, sometimes only whisper with a few. Sometimes we want to say it with words, sometimes in deep silence.  In all these moments, we gradually make our lives more of a prayer and we open our hands to be led by God even to places we would rather not go.”

Perhaps the current economic crisis has created a new awareness of the need to ask for help. Losing a job, discovering a life changing medical condition, caring for parents, children or a spouse who is ill, grappling with world poverty and justice issues requires extraordinary strength and inner fortitude. Prayer is one way to strengthen spiritual connections, recharging our worn out batteries.
 
Meeting with a spiritual director for individual or group spiritual direction is a place to share the story of what is happening – or not happening – in your spiritual life. Do you want to make your life more of a prayer? Who accompanies you in this process of ongoing growth and transformation or in the beginning steps when you respond to an inner prompting?

How do you pray? What are the little, very personal, and even ordinary things you do to connect with God, a Higher Power, the Sacred … that you may never talk to anyone else about, yet? 

Please share your comments.