Unceasing Prayer

St. Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians asked them to “pray without ceasing”. A popular book, The Way of the Pilgrim, told how a man set out across Russia in order to learn how to live a life of ceaseless prayer. Taking only a knapsack with some dried bread and beans, he found an old monk who taught him how to pray a simple prayer to Jesus. Eventually, he was able to repeat this prayer 12,000 times a day. I am pretty sure none of you will be heading for Russia to find this holy man and to consume yourself in this practice. I do hope I can inspire you to consider some less drastic steps to make your daily life into a kind of unceasing prayer.

Fred Muir, our minister here at UUCA, gave me a simple piece of advice during our first supervision meeting. He said, “Take risks! The more risks the better! You’ll learn a lot more that way”. Well, I’ve taken some risks here. I’ve preached some gutsy sermons and I’ve confronted some issues headlong, but I have hesitated to tell you about my theology. I realized that I could not say anything authentic about prayer without telling you something about my theology and why prayer is so important to me.

Many of you know that I was raised in the Methodist church, but later became a minister of yoga. I didn’t find my home in Unitarian Universalism for a number of years. Though my roots are Christian, I have explored many religions, and my meditation practice is now centered in Chinese qigong. All of my spiritual practices and my prayer life are grounded in a belief in a personal God. That does not mean I think we all need to have common ideas about God, the spirit of life, or prayer. Sometimes, I imagine God as a loving father, encircling me in his arms. At the ocean or near the water, I always feel the presence of the divine mother, ever moving and powerful, the mother that always returns to her beloved shore. Homeless people or someone ill in the hospital remind me that all are my sisters and brothers. I can read about Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, Lao Tsu, or the Hindu gods like Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva—the list is endless. They all are my teachers. They all bear witness to how we might live a more whole and justice-filled life. But God is a steady presence in my life and sustains me through times of joy and times of great despair. And I direct my prayers to that spirit that I find all around and through us.

Prayer became central to my spiritual practice when I attended several different Unitarian Universalist prayer workshops. We divided into pairs. One person spoke about areas of growth and challenge in his or her life while the other listened attentively. After each of us had a chance to speak and listen, we joined the larger group and prayed for our prayer buddy. We could use words, poems, song, dance, ritual—express our prayers to God, community or our prayer partner. The experience was phenomenal in both cases—I still feel a connection to those two individuals in a very real and tangible way. That experience is just one of many that convince me of the benefits of prayer.

Many of you may not have a regular prayer life. You may wonder what place prayer could possibly have in your life. When I went to General Assembly this year, I found an excellent practical book on prayer by Helene Ciaravino entitled How to Pray Tapping into the Power of Divine Communication. She gives many definitions of prayer and includes a section on what prayer is not. She goes on to describe prayer as often reflected in the Jewish, Christian, Islamic, and Buddhist traditions. She concludes with a section on how we can make each day a prayer—how we can essentially pray without ceasing.

A. Powell Davies, a famous Unitarian minister of All Souls’ Church in Washington, D.C., wrote these words about the use of prayer: “Should there not be a time, each day, for looking at life [sic] from a higher level? To look back over the day and judge it—judge it, first of all, severely. The things we said, the truths we didn’t speak, the wasted moments of resentment or of foolish pride…And then, let us see what there was of good in the day, and how we could have kept on friendlier terms not only with the world but with ourselves. Whether we turn this thinking toward God or just meditate in our own hearts, this is prayer, and the power of God is in it. The nobler voice will be said by some of us—myself, for instance—to be the voice of God. Not literally, of course, but in source and spiritual vitality. Others of us will call it our better nature. But no matter what it be called, its presence is a firm reality” (Without Apology, 87-88). Through prayer, Ciaravino says, we participate in the world and endeavor to transform it and our own lives.

How can life be lived as a constant prayer? Ciaravino mentions a number of concepts that can help us live a prayerful life. There are four that I find particularly compelling. These concepts may supplement other kinds of regular prayer practice, meditation or concentration.

First, in order to live life as a prayer, we must live in the here and now. Ciaravino quotes Chief Tom Porter of the Mohawk tribe who envisions prayer as a greeting to life all around us. When we rise in the morning, we can be grateful for the new day—noticing the color of the sky, the bright sun that shines or the clouds that provide us shade. Walking to church, we might send out salutations to all the trees and plants that decorate the walkway. We acknowledge the squirrels, birds, insects—all part of our “here and now” world. As Neale Donald Walsch wrote, “Our prayer begins with the moment of our birth in this particular life. And at our death, this particular version of our prayer ends. But at no time between our birth and our death do we cease our prayer.”

Second, we are caught up rushing from one activity to another. We seldom take time to listen to the still small voice within. Zen Buddhism reminds us that we can still ourselves, even in the midst of doing our jobs, cleaning our houses, or sitting in deep meditation or quiet reflection.

A third aspect of living a prayerful life is to bless others. There is a beautiful concept in mystical Judaism known as Tikkun Olam. It refers to every person’s responsibility to restore justice to our world. To the mystic Jews, the Divine was scattered into the world and therefore, God is located everywhere and in everything. When I begin my day, I sit in prayer after my meditation practice, and I include people that are grieving or going through some transition. I think about them and I feel our connection and my heart goes out to them. When I was in a covenant group at Wesley, we also included the religious leaders of our church, all parents and children, and our political leaders in our prayers. This practice became so ingrained that I still practice it. It provides a sense of continuity and balance.

A fourth practice is to repeat “thank you”, out loud or silently throughout the day. Think about all the people who contributed to this service—imagine the manufacturer of this piano, Brian’s hands that lovingly play the keys, the sound system bought by this church so that all can hear, the people in the sound booth, those that decorate the table with flowers, the volunteers and staff that print and fold the bulletin, the people who make coffee and bring goodies, the ushers and greeters, and Rebecca and the volunteers who teach our children. And this service is only a tiny part of our life experience. Saying a verbal or silent thank you leads to living a life of ceaseless prayer.

I want to end with these words from the Lebanese poet, Kahlil Gibran, who wrote The Prophet: “You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might pray also in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.” Could we not pray when all seems right with our world and again when all goes amuck. Let us be here now. Let us bless one another and remember one another. Let us say hundreds and thousands of “thank you’s” for all that we receive and all that we can offer back. May we live all our days in unceasing prayer. Amen and blessings be.

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