Christian Life 18 - On Continuance

I have developed a taste for my 30 minutes of prayer and mediation with my morning coffee, have moved beyond forcing myself to do it to looking forward to the exercise.  I now bounce out of bed and rush to get through my toilette, starting the coffee and getting the animals fed so that I can quickly find my cushion and spend my half-hour with God before the rest of the family starts rousing.

And then the day begins, and the prayer and mediation is all but forgotten in the busyness that is my normal day.  Occasionally, a quick "flash prayer" will zip through my mind as I encounter a homeless person or witness an auto collision, but that peace and assurance of the morning dedication are left back on the cushion, not to be experienced again until tomorrow.  This hardly seems to be "prayer without ceasing."

Here are a few tricks I've started using to move my morning dedication through the rest of the day:

1. My bride helped me with this one: we took the beaded chain off an old, broken lamp and looped it around my wrist.  It was just long enough to fit loosely without slipping off over my palm.  I added a pewter Celtic Circle that I'd had in a desk drawer for several decades to add some weight to the chain.  Now, the whole thing slaps my forearm or wrist with nearly every movement I make.  I'm training myself to use each minor annoyance as a reminder to pray.  It seems to be helping; at least until I grow accustomed to it and start ignoring the gentle slaps.

2. Turn off the electronics.  As a recent retiree, most of my days are now filled with errand-running, both for myself and all of my friends and family who are either too old to drive themselves or young enough to still work 40-hours and find it convenient to have a retiree capable of serving as a "gopher."  As a result, I spend a large portion of my days standing in queues and/or "hurrying to wait."  Heretofore, I often used these moments as time to catch up with my news or social media feeds.  I now have a new rule - when I grab for my phone, I stop and use those moments for prayer.  It only takes a few moments, costs nothing, and makes me feel A LOT better than Facebook or CNN would do.

3. I also meet a lot of people: widows I'm visiting, healthcare providers, church people, etc.  I've started a new habit of saying a quick prayer whenever I'm in a parking lot and unhooking my seat belt: "Lord, I have no idea what so-and-so will need to hear right now, so, if it's alright with you, I'll just stay here in the car while you go in and visit.  Even if they look at my face, please let them see Jesus.  I'm sure he's much better looking."

These seem to be helping.  I seem to be getting a lot further through my day before the ogre of Self starts to come out.  I'm hoping for more progress in the coming weeks.


Pax

P.S. I recently read an online article written by a Catholic bishop against the concept of Centering Prayer (a concept first developed by Trappist monks in the 1980's and based on the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of using a single sound or word to help discipline the monkey mind).  His single greatest argument against it seemed to focus on it being a form of self-hypnosis.  I had two thoughts almost immediately: (1) No, it isn't.  These techniques, when used properly, heighten one's sense of awareness to oneself and one's surroundings, not numb it, and (2) how typically Western.  Want to numb your sense through drugs, alcohol or blind obedience to the church?  No problem.  Wanna do it for yourself without any side effects or downsides?   Blasphemy!

I found the whole thing absolutely hysterical and had a really great laugh about it.

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