"laestadian, apostolic, gay, lgbtq, ex-oalc, ex-llc, llc, oalc, bunner" LEARNING TO LIVE FREE: Centering Prayer

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Centering Prayer

I've dabbled in contemplative practices like Centering Prayer a bit over the years, and thought I'd share this short video which does a great job of describing Centering Prayer, what it is and what it does with a minimal amount of fuss and technical jargon. After seeing this video you know enough to try it if you want to.



Some biblical verses Centering Prayer practitioners point to are listed below. I think it's interesting that Pentecostals (and maybe even Laestadians who experience "the movement") also point to the first one.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. -Romans 8:26

and

Be still and know that I am God. -Psalm 46:10

One quote from the video that resonated with me as a former Laestadian was, "Centering Prayer can give you an awareness of how much God loves you." This really struck me because as a Laestadian the awareness of God I received was that God was angry, upset, ready to find fault and announce the verdict "Guilty!"

Any practice that can help me find a more gracious God is helpful in this context. :-)

SEE ALSO: Open Mind, Open Heart: The Contemplative Dimension of the Gospel, by Thomas Keating.

Centering Prayer: New Testament Scriptural and Theological Inspirations from Contemplative Outreach

3 comments:

  1. Sorry to barge in on your topic here - I am brand new to this forum (new to blogspot too) and would like to post a new topic, but how do I? Looks to me like commenting others' topics is the only option...

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  2. Hi, fretoot! Welcome to the blog. You are correct --there is no way to post a new topic unless you are the blog owner, or someone who the blog owner has authorized. Anyone can comment, though. :-)

    Another thing you can do is create your own blog on blogspot, and post new topics to it.

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  3. That's quite similar to the Jesus prayer practiced in the Orthodox Church by all monastics and a high percentage of non-monastic Orthodox Christians.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Prayer

    ReplyDelete