Today’s post is a part of the Lord Teach Us to Pray series, written by Dr. Preston Pouteaux. Preston is the Director of Discipleship Ministry at Lutheran Church of Our Saviour in Calgary, Alberta and serves with Forge Canada, a missional training network. Preston is a church planter, watercolor artist, and overly enthusiastic beekeeper. Preston’s DMin dissertation is entitled, “From Imago Dei to Missio Dei: An Art Experience as Invitation to Spiritual Transformation.” equip@oursaviourchurch.ca
The Imagination’s Delight: Beholding Prayer
By Preston Pouteaux
As I walked back and around to the Sanctuary of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux in the Bayeux Cathedral in France, I was met by the same sense of reverence I get when I move through these marvelous buildings. It is usually an awe that comes from cold stone and musty incense – the mystery of ancient religion – gray, huge, and daunting. I soon feel strangely aware that my own heart does not know how to engage in prayer in a places like this. I cannot see.
However, this time something was new. The place was still enormous and foreign. But this time, I saw. In the statue of St Thérèse of Lisieux I saw the face of a young woman who was “the little flower,” God’s beloved. In her was the image of Christ which she reflected by simply living the “little way,” a path of hope and simple presence with God. Standing there amongst the tourists, I beheld Jesus and Jesus embraced me.
The seeing extended beyond. Around me were visitors shuffling by, stopping to read about Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, and discovering that they, too, can live simply and lively before Christ. They, too, reflect the image of Christ. They, too, are welcome to participate in the life of Christ and live out God’s mission wherever they are. And soon my eyes were open as I turned around to see. The cathedral was adorned in faces; both sculpted and alive, reflecting a story, a reality, and declaring the immanence and goodness of Christ. I was marvelous. The image of Christ all around me was powerful, my imagination came to life.
David Morgan says, “The power of images, therefore, consist in their ability as extended forms of embodiment to provide the touch and hold of what they (re)present” (Morgan, The Embodied Eye, 33). By seeing, I was entering into reality, I was beholding Jesus, and I was enveloped in a new language of prayer.
Being struck by this wonder, I created a prayer experience at Lutheran Church of Our Saviour in Calgary, Alberta, where I serve. I wanted to see how others could engage Jesus in prayer by seeing themselves and those around them in new ways. So I began to paint portraits of members of my congregation. Children and old men, mothers and grandmothers became the subjects of this prayer experience. I created twelve portraits in all and set them up one Friday night. 80 people came to this makeshift gallery and I asked them to write what they saw. Would simple images offer them a new language of prayer and a renewed imagination?
“It’s like seeing these friends for the first time,” came one reply. “I felt a strange sense of community,” came another. Responses were profoundly open as participants said, “it was as if looking at a precious gift,” and, “I was moved to tears.” One participant said that she saw what seemed like the fire of the Holy Spirit moving back and forth along the wall where the images were mounted. Portraits of ordinary church people became prayers, “I felt like I was just with God,” and, “I was entering a room in God’s heart.” Over and over participants saw and beheld themselves, others, and Jesus in a new way. It was a new language of prayer.
The Imagination is a powerful tool for prayer. In the safe corners of our imaginations we can invite Jesus to meet us, speak with us, and comfort us with his presence. Jesus is present as we speak with our next door neighbour or a difficult client. In our imagination we begin to see Jesus standing beside us and “the other,” foreign as they may be. And if we look just the right way, and squint our imaginations just so, we may even see Jesus reflected in them, too.
This morning I posted this prayer on facebook
God you have called us into freedom,
May we use it to follow you with our whole hearts,
May we use it to serve one another in love,
May we use it to grow your kingdom of peace and wholeness.
It came out of my struggle with the whole concept of Independence Day and our assumption that because we live in America that we are free. To be honest I struggle with the very word Independence because God calls us to interdependence and not independence. Now don’t get me wrong – I don’t see anything wrong in a nation celebrating its independence. It is when Christians celebrate with the same fervour as though independence is a part of our faith that I struggle.
I also struggle with what we mean by freedom. Even in America there are many who have very little freedom.
Yesterday I signed up for International Justice Mission’s Recipe for Change initiative which highlights the plight of tomato pickers in Florida. I talked about this last year in a post The Price of Tomatoes – Keeping Slavery Alive in Florida. Then I read this article by Greg Valerio who together with his wife Ruth is a great advocate for fair trade – especially jewelry. Purity of Fair Trade Gold at Risk.
Then I read Chris Smith’s article Let’s Celebrate Interdependence Day
And I rounded it up with watching this video by Micha Bournes – When America Dies
watch?v=3ctXPDwLlwk&feature=player_embedded
These issues make me very aware of the fact that our freedoms are so often dependent on the enslavement or exploitation of others. It made me more than ever aware of the fact that none of us are truly free until all God’s children are free and also that the only true freedom is what we find in our relationship to God. What do you think?
The post for today is part of the Lord Teach Us to Pray series. Today’s contribution is made by Greg Valerio. Greg is a follower of Jesus and explorer of Columban Spirituality. He is a co-founder of the Contemplative Network and is currently studying an MA in Celtic Christianity at Trinity St Davids University of Wales. His day job is as a Jeweller and Activist and one of the principle architects of Fairtrade Gold. He is the Founder of CRED Jewellery and co-founder of Fair Jewellery Action and advocates for human rights and environmental justice.
‘Let your vigils be constant from eve to eve, under the direction of another person’
The Rule of Columba
This year I have begun exploring the practice of vigils. For clarity’s sake my efforts have been a toe in the water, yet as I have continued to explore Columban spirituality and the broader Celtic spirituality in which St. Columba was a leading figure, I have not been able to ignore his expectation that those who seek the heart and mystery of God will take part in vigils.
A vigil is a conscious journey towards GOD set within a specific time frame. It usually takes place at night when people would normally be sleeping. Just as fasting is a deliberate deprivation of food in order to suppress the natural appetite and focus on one’s dependency upon God for sustenance. So a vigil is a deliberate denial of sleep in order to be nourished by God through prayer and mediation.
On 9 June three of us gathered at my tipi retreat space on the South Downs to explore a half night vigil and to explore two practices that were used as disciplines by the early British and Irish church.
- A search for and/or discovery of our mystical name in God
- A search for and/or discovery of our internal prayer
Our setting was outside, within the cradle of creation. John Scottus Eriugena contends ‘Creation is the theophany of God’. Here, exposed to the elements of our landscape, where we can hear the evening birdsong, feel the breath of the wind, the dance of the trees, the warmth of fire, we are drawn into the natural rhythm of creations conversation with the Creator. And to this we can add our voice, our name and our prayerful imagination.
What is your mystical name?
Your name in God is both hidden and revealed. For Columba he had a name Colum cille that means ‘The Dove of the Church’. Yet his name hidden in the spirit was ‘Cul ri Erin’, meaning ‘back turned to Ireland’ as recorded in the poem Columcille fecit. For Columba, a spiritual exile for Christ from his homeland of Ireland, this was his daily reality as a peregrinus. Equally Elijah, which means ‘Yahweh is my God’ was also known as ‘the troubler of Israel’ (1 Kings 18 v18) a mandate he carried exceptional well.
Your mystical name is the name you hold that describes your identity in God. It is the name that best describes you in the intersection between heaven and earth. A name that you carry in your hidden prayers and draws you closest to your intimate relationship with God. Meditating on this fact allowed us to begin the journey towards understanding our true selves, a journey that takes a lifetime that can for those who stop to listen be caught in name.
The Prophets Bed
The Prophets Bed is a derivative of an ancient practice undertaken by Celtic bards and poets to ‘find their poem or story’. Here we used it to listen for our prayer. Prayer takes shape in words, sound, physical motion, posture and expression that facilitate you to be open and transparent before the Creator. This prayer can linked to your name and takes the shape of a blessings, a Lorica or protection prayer; the most famous being Patrick’s Breastplate, and is rooted in your authentic voice before God. God always hears our authentic voice.
If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish and it will be done for you (John 15 v7).
In the darkness we allowed our minds to focus on God alone. By relaxing in the arms of creation, you are relaxing in the arms of the Father creator. Doing this in the darkness is important as God dwells in original darkness , the uncreated light of God, and from this darkness the great conversation of creation and Word of Light emerged (Gen 1 v1-2). In the stillness we allowed our prayer to emerge in feeling, expectation and the presence of God. It is here we begin to travel along the edges of time. It is here the eternal voice of the Father and our voice find unity in prayer and conversation. As this conversation emerged we wrote it down or acted it out. We did this in isolation, with no pressure to feedback or explain the encounter. These moments are sacred prophetic times and need maturing and distillation, not instant regurgitation.
The Bards and Poets of Ireland would often lie down and fast during this time. To avoid falling asleep they would place a stone under their heads or on their chest. Columba was trained as a bard by the aged Master Bard Gemman from Leinster. Indeed it seems Columba kept this practice up throughout his life as he reputedly slept on a stone pillow throughout his life.
I finish with a quote from one of us,
“The isolated location was great and certainly helped. In addition I was surprised at how helpful the darkness and isolation was to the second meditation, connecting with the environment and Gods essence within. I did have to fight falling asleep, but that I guess is part of the process”.
Sarah Bessey is currently running a series of posts on Ten Books A Day for a Week. I particularly enjoyed her Sunday post Ten Books That Changed my Faith. Sarah and I have obviously been influenced by some of the same books but I thought that I would put together my own list. To be honest it would be easier to list 10 authors that have influenced me because choosing one book from people such as Wlater Brueggemann, C.S. Lewis, John Stott and Henri Nouwen is impossible. However I have done my best.
Living Towards a Vision: Biblical reflections on Shalom. Walter Brueggemann. I love all of Bruggemann’s books but this was the one that started me grappling with a faith that not only embraced all of life for me as an individual but also God’s concern for the renewal and restoration of all creation.
Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster. As for so many other evangelical Christians, this was the first book that opened my eyes to a rich array of spiritual disciplines that i had never encountered before.
Rich Christians In An Age of Hunger by Ron Sider. I read the original version of this book just after I had worked in the refugee camps on the Thai Cambodian border in 1985. I had been exposed to depths of poverty I never realized existed. it turned my faith upside down. This book helped turn it right side up again challenging me to put concern for others and particularly the marginalized at the centre of my faith.
Compassion: A Reflection on the Christian Life by Henri Nouwen, Donald McNeill and Douglas Morrison. This was the first Nouwen book that I read, this time after working with Haitian refugees in the Dominican Republic. It is not always easy to act compassionately we we work with people in need. This book helped shape my responses.
One Thousand Gifts: by Ann Voskamp. The power of gratitude is a revolutionary discovery that has transformed my life over the last few of years and this is the book that has most helped me learn that perspective.
Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. This is a Christian classic that was very influential in shaping my faith in my early days as a Christian.
Basic Christianity by John Stott. This was another of the classic books that shaped my early faith giving me a solid foundation in scripture and the principles of faith.
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. This may seem like a strange book to have shaped my Christian faith but I read it in the mid 1960s not long after I became a Christian and the concerns it raised about pesticides and pollution radically impacted me and initiated my concerns for the environment which gradually became an important part of my Christian world view and advocacy.
What’s Right with Feminism by Elaine Storkey. This was the first book I read that made me feel that being a Christian woman did not make me a second class citizen. It gave me the confidence to pursue what God had called me to be and to do.
Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church by N.T. Wright. Again here is an author who has deeply influenced my life and it is hard to choose which book has influenced me the most, but I think this one is at the top of the list. So I thought that I would end with a quote from the book
Our task as image-bearing, God-loving, Christ-shaped, Spirit-filled Christians, following Christ and shaping our world, is to announce redemption to a world that has discovered its fallenness, to announce healing to a world that has discovered its brokenness, to proclaim love and trust to a world that knows only exploitation, fear and suspicion…
Over the last few days I have had several messages from friends who are struggling with their faith, feel far from God, confused about who and where God is. How is it that the God is omniscient and omnipresent can seem so hard to find?
1. Problem number one is that we don’t always seek God with our whole heart, – with everything that is within us. We are not willing to give up the pursuit of everything else in our lives in order to seek God with urgency, boldness and enduring perseverance. We allow busyness to distract us, sacrificing closeness to God for our career or social ambitions. Even our work for God can absorb our time in such a way that it leaves little space for drawing close to the eternal creator of our universe. How many of us when we feel far from God are willing to set everything else aside to seek after God until we once more feel the intimacy of the divine presence?
2. We don’t purse God with repentant hearts. Confession and repentance is something that has kind of gone out of fashion. How many of us take time on a regular basis to look into our own hearts and ask the hard question – what is separating me from God? What do I need to repent of and seek forgiveness for? There are many times in my life that I have clung to things that I know God wants me to let go of – possessions, attitudes, emotions that make it impossible for me to draw close to the lover of my soul.
Sometimes I have come to God with anger rather than repentance, or with self justification and arrogance rather than humility. Sometimes I don’t want to let go of my resentments or my anxieties. It is easier to hold onto these than it is to face the God who is love and then I wonder why God seems distant.
3. We are looking for the wrong kind of God. God is loving and patient and kind, slow to anger, quick to show mercy. God is just and righteous but also forgiving. God is generous and compassionate, the provider of abundance, the bringer of peace. And we cannot come close to this God without developing these same characteristics. It is no wonder God seems far away when we constantly ask selfishly for our own advancement, comfort and ease. We we are absorbed in ourselves we cannot recognize God or else the revelation of God is so blindingly magnificent that we cannot cope with it.
4.Our God is too small. Many of us are satisfied with a very small revelation of God. We should never be content to rest in our current knowledge of God. We should always be seeking to learn more of God’s love, absorb more of God’s truth and discover new ways to follow. God is far bigger, greater and more awe inspiring than any of us can imagine.
5. We are looking in the wrong places. How can we looking in the wrong places you might ask when God is everywhere? The trouble is that most of look for God with our heads and not our hearts, with our understanding and not with our imagination, with our reasoning and not our conscience. And we don’t encounter God quickly we get disillusioned and turn our backs.
You cannot meet God face to face and live the Old Testament prophets often proclaimed. God’s greatness passes all comprehension. God’s love and holiness is beyond our imagining. Even a glimpse of who this God really is will have us flat on our faces in awe and repentance.
We must grow like God, become the image of God, be transformed into the people that God intends us to be before we can truly see God and live. Only as we absorb the love of God into the depths of our being and allow the life of God to flow out through every word and action and thought are we able to draw close to the loving eternal God. This obviously is a never ending journey. I hope that you will continue to walk the path with us.
Here is the week’s round up of facebook prayers. Enjoy
Life is a gift from God,
Let us cherish it
Love is the language of God’s kingdom,
Let us practice it,
Jesus is the way to God’s heart,
Let us follow him.
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God of love and compassion,
God of hope and promise,
God of faithfulness and truth,
May we in all things see your face today,
That we might trust and obey.
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God of wonder and might,
God of glory and majesty,
God of joy and faithfulness,
Help us to see, to know, to trust,
That you are the One in whom all life holds secure.
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Jesus you say
Peace, rest in me,
Peace, hold firm to me,
Peace, trust in me.
You are the way the truth and the life,
May we trust in you and never be afraid.
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God your words are truth,
Your ways are life,
Your purposes are eternal,
May we look to you and never be afraid.
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Lead us Lord Jesus Christ into your ways of righteousness.
Let your truth go before us,
Let your justice stand behind us,
Let your love surround us.
Keep us Lord in the places where your presence shines.
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The glory of God’s presence surrounds me
The wonder of Christ’s love holds me close
The comfort of the Spirit makes me strong
God you who are the three in one, the one in three
Be with me forever.
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Teach us to pray O Lord,
Draw us closer to you, to your world , to each other.
Teach us to pray, O Lord,
With compassion and love and forgiveness.
Teach us to pray, O Lord,
Until all that we are and all that we do,
Becomes a gift of prayer to you.
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Today’s post is a contribution for the series Lord Teach Us to Pray, written by Dr. Alex Tang. Alex is a spiritual director, avid social media technocrati, consultant paediatrician in a private hospital, associate professor with Monash University Malaysia, and lay practical theologian and director of Spiritual Formation Institute in Malaysia. He blogs at Random Musings from a Doctor’s Chair <www.draltang01.blogspot.com>, muses at Kairos Spiritual Formation<www.kairos2.com> and hangs out at Facebook <www.facebook.com/dr.alex.tang>. He is also very excited about his granddaughter who arrived at the beginning of this year.
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