Sunday, March 23

by Martha Isaacs
Focus for the Week: Centering Prayer and Meditation

Centering prayer, along with Christian meditation, Lectio Divina, and solitude are spiritual practices that help develop our awareness beyond what our senses and mind allow us to experience. In our western 21st century culture of busyness, speed, and noise, these ancient practices are more needed than ever. Centering prayer is one way to practice being totally open to God. As one of my teachers has said, “Totally available, all the way down to that innermost point of your being; deeper than your thinking, deeper than your feelings, deeper than your memories and desires, deeper than your usual psychological sense of yourself – even deeper than your presence! …where, in the words of the well-loved monastic formula, your life is ‘hidden with Christ in God.’” Simply put, it is a way of quieting the heart in order to rest in God alone.

In the 1960s and 1970s three Trappist monks (Thomas Keating, Basil Pennington and William Meninger) sought to revive this ancient meditative, silent prayer practice. Unlike eastern meditation that attempts to clear the mind of all thoughts, centering prayer assumes that the person praying will have thoughts. Through the use of a “sacred word” thoughts are gently released into the hands of God allowing one to return to the prayer. Centering prayer is sitting in the presence of God, giving God our love and attention; surrendering our thoughts as they arise. The discipline is in the “showing up,” ideally twice daily for sits of 20 minutes each. It is similar to observing Sabbath rest: surrendering our calendars, agendas, plans and thoughts to express our intention to be totally available to the One who created us and loves us.

The method is remarkably simple and yet requires discipline to practice.

•  Sit in a comfortable position on a chair, mat or cushion.
•  Choose your sacred word that symbolizes your intention to receive God’s presence and action with an open heart.  (For example, love, peace, shepherd, grace, breath. There is no wrong choice.)
•  Set a timer for 20 minutes. Using a timer allows total surrender without having to keep checking a clock. There are smart phone apps available with meditation timers. I use Insight Timer, but a kitchen timer works fine also.
•  Closing your eyes is helpful. Picture yourself as a young child crawling up onto your parent’s lap and laying your head on your parent’s chest. You don’t ask for anything. All you want is to rest in the closeness and love of your parent.
• Take time to quiet yourself. Practice surrendering by letting your thoughts go by quietly as you think your sacred word.
•  Don’t become agitated if you have to say your sacred word several times, or even more than several times. If all you did in 20 minutes was continually express your desire to be closer to God, that would not be a bad thing!
•  When the timer chimes after 20 minutes you can gently come out of your silence by saying the Lord’s Prayer.

Many practitioners of centering prayer sit with a group of people sometime during the week. There is a very strong bond formed in a centering prayer circle. It also helps with accountability if you know others are expecting you. There is a very active contemplative outreach group in Charlotte and you can learn more, or find a group on the website www.cpcharlotte.org. Two groups meet at Covenant in the parlor on Tuesdays at 12:00 noon till 12:30 and Thursday mornings at 7:15 am until 7:45 am. Comprising members of Covenant and other churches throughout Charlotte, these groups welcome people exploring or new to the practice as well as long-time practitioners.

The fruits of centering prayer (love and peace) are not immediately evident. The inner transformation accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit takes place gradually over time. Usually it is other people who notice the change. So why would anyone want to take on such a rigorous practice that doesn’t have an immediate result? The contemplative tradition has much to offer to our fractious world. And if you have ever observed someone for whom the practice is a part of their everyday life, you would say to yourself as I did years ago, “I want to be like that! I want to live and love like that!”

The CP Charlotte website states it like this: “While we are formed by our respective denominations, we are united in our common search for God and the experience of the living Christ through centering prayer. We affirm our solidarity with the contemplative dimension of other religions and sacred traditions, with the needs and rights of the whole human family, and with all creation.” While centering prayer seems like a very private practice, it is truly global in its vision and timeless in its call to faithfulness.

Lift in prayer today

Government officials in Charlotte and in North Carolina

Saturday, March 22

by Elizabeth Cooper

What brings me peace?

When asked the question, multiple things come to mind. My family, my friends, the mountains, the beach, Covenant on Christmas Eve … etc., etc.

There are so many things within our world today that can bring joy and peace if we just open our hearts and look for them. But that’s the key … opening our heart {completely} and looking for them, and I mean really looking.

One of the biggest take-aways from being a People in Mission intern last summer was being told at the beginning of the summer to keep our eyes open to see the things we wouldn’t normally see and listen for the things that we wouldn’t normally hear. Over the past six months I have done just that. Wherever I am and whatever I am doing, I have been able to truly look for the small things. And this, this is where I feel most at peace. Peace knowing that I am not the only one in this world going through the same thing. Or peace that there is still good to be found and heard in our society today. Lastly, peace knowing that you have a lot more in common with the person standing behind you in line at Starbucks {or in my case, the Loaves & Fishes pantry this past summer} than you may have thought.  Through looking through my “different set of eyes” these past six months I’ve come to realize that we all bring some sort of peace to the world.

Don’t get me wrong: mountain tops, the sound of the ocean and the chills that I always have on Christmas Eve definitely top the list.  However, the one that takes the cake is having peace in knowing that God is with us, for us and never against us in each trial, act and moment that we face in our day-to-day lives. Knowing that in God’s eyes we are no different than the stranger standing next to us in Starbucks or the homeless person waiting outside. I challenge you to look, and really look, for the peace that surrounds you and that you can be blessed with each day. 

Lift in prayer today

Compassion to Act, seeking an end to human trafficking

Friday, March 21

by Elizabeth Wright

As someone with an anxiety disorder, I often find peace to be very far away. Sometimes it feels like peace is found only in the shape of certain, perfect moments: a year ago, lying on a sailboat in the Caribbean sun; a recent Sunday, with a Gospel Choir singing a song from my childhood. Peace feels like a set of uncontrollable variables, coming together for a brief time, then gone forever.
And that’s one definition, certainly. But peace is also a process.

Peace is coming to terms with yourself and your emotions, striking a balance between acceptance and change. It’s not just the victory parade after the war – it’s discovering what post-war life is like. It’s learning to breathe.

I can’t spend all my time on mountaintop trails or an acupuncturist’s table. I will never feel at peace all the time, because life doesn’t work that way. I will always have to find a balance between what I want to do and what I can do. But I’m not a hostage to peace.
I’m part of the process.

Lift in prayer today

Urban Ministry Center,  the central hub providing necessary services

for the homeless such as housing, laundry, bus passes

Thursday, March 20

by Mary Parrish Coley

He will keep in perfect peace all those who trust in him.  –Isaiah 56:3

Trust, obedience and peace seem to go hand in hand in my life. For many years I participated in a community Bible study, and occasionally we sang an old hymn titled “Trust and Obey.” I loved the very simple but wise lyrics. They reminded me just how easy it can be to obtain a measure of peace when I’m willing to trust God and obey his word.

When I give my worries and concerns to God in prayer, it’s a great relief to know that God, who loves us and has everyone’s best interest at heart, is present and at work in this world. As well, I believe there is power in naming the worry or concern and being honest with God. He wants me to engage with him and my relationship with him is strengthened every time I approach him. Finally, when I take the time to read God’s word, I almost always find some words of comfort or wisdom that encourage and inspire me. God provides peace of mind and heart as only he can because he knows me so well.

Why then do I so often continue to worry? Or worse yet, why do I not take these matters that so fill my day and thoughts to God more frequently? I wonder if we Americans, who are constantly striving for better and more, have somehow been programmed over the years to think everything is within our grasp if we work hard enough. It’s simply not within my nature to pass along a concern or a task to another and relinquish all responsibility. This ingrained behavior appears to make me my own worst enemy when it comes to seeking peace and contentment in my life.

I know now that my most fervent prayer should be that God remove any thought of mine to “assist” him in working through my worries and concerns and instead seek to live within his will for my life. As verse three of the following hymn relates, his joy, favor and love bless those who trust and obey.

Trust and Obey

When we walk with the Lord in the light of his word,
    what a glory he sheds on our way!
While we do his good will, he abides with us still,
    and with all who will trust and obey.

Refrain: Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
    to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

Not a burden we bear, not a sorrow we share,
    but our toil he doth richly repay;
Not a grief or a loss, not a frown or a cross,
    but is blest if we trust and obey.  (Refrain)

But we never can prove the delights of his love
    until all on the altar we lay;
For the favor he shows, for the joy he bestows,
    are for them who will trust and obey.  (Refrain)

Then in fellowship sweet we will sit at his feet,
    or we’ll walk by his side in the way;
What he says we will do, where he sends we will go;
    never fear, only trust and obey.  (Refrain)

Lift in prayer today

Young adults participating in the Urban Plunge mission trip

Wednesday, March 19

by Alex Coffin

In the Book of Common Prayer it says, “Heaviness may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”

But is that so for us? We have been let down by political leaders, religious leaders, institutions, perhaps even members of our families. We have all been frustrated to one degree or another. We’ve heard it before – from Yeats in “The Second Coming”: “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.”
We need to hear words of comfort. Yet, wait, the center does hold! In the beginning, God! And God is still there. Still here.

As Frederick Buechner has written: “By grace, we see what we see. To have faith is to respond to what we see by longing for it the rest of our days; by trying to live up to it and toward it through all the wonderful and terrible days; by breathing it in like air and growing strong on it; by looking to see it again and see it better.”

I  remember once sitting in my office early one cold winter morning and thinking I was abandoned and saw no way out of a very tough professional predicament. Then, the answer came clearly as I stared across my desk – “I am with you. Just as I was when I served manna to the Israelites. I may not get you out of the desert, but I am with you. You WILL get through it. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

It wasn’t the sweet “Jesus Loves You,” but a more honest “Amazing Grace.” “‘Tis grace has brought me safe thus far and grace will lead me home.”

“If God is for us, who is against us? … Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? …For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Peace.

Lift in prayer today

People who are exhausted

Tuesday, March 18

by Perrin Tribble
"Practice Makes Permanent"

I have had the privilege of coaching two middle school girls’ basketball teams this season, and I have learned two very important lessons from my players: patience is a virtue of the saints, and practice makes permanent. I have enjoyed every minute of coaching this season, but I do not want you think this story has anything to do with my finding the peace of Christ on the basketball court, because I have not. This is a story of how accepting the peace of Christ takes practice and practice makes permanent. 

Growing up, I was convinced that receiving peace was tolerating the elderly ladies of the congregation kissing my cheek each week – it was something I cautiously avoided. I have fortunately grown into a new understanding, one that holds much more truth. A couple of years ago, two friends and I set out on a quick kayak trip across the North Edisto River to Botany Bay Plantation. The plan was to catch the sunset on the beach that houses a forest of petrified trees.  Botany Bay has become one of my favorite places to go and just “be.”  When we arrived, my friends and I spaced out, climbed on the limbs of different trees, and most importantly put away our phones.  As I settled in, with my feet dangling just above the water, I took a few deep breaths and when exhaling, I could feel every pressure I placed on myself lifting. I was in awe of the sunset and soothed by the sounds of the tide turning below me. I quickly realized that the pressures were lifted because I was opening myself to the peace that Christ offers when we seek him.

I seek his peace and his presence most often in nature and at times when I am without distractions. It just seems to come more easily to me in those settings. As I continue to practice accepting peace, I have found I am able to receive it throughout busy weeks and in crowded, distracting environments. I was even able to breathe in his peace while sitting on the floor of my parents’ overcrowded house Christmas morning, while my four-year-old niece played her new guitar. It has been a gift to learn that when I allow myself to accept the peace of Christ, I am then equipped to share that peace with others. The Holy Spirit is at work in spite of us and will reveal the peace Christ longs to offer us. Sometimes, it just takes a little practice.

Lift in prayer today

Women in Transition, a YWCA program

providing affordable housing and foundational living skills for women

Monday, March 17

by Susan Lawson

"Continuing to Seek Peace"

Recently my small group began a discussion about finding stillness and peace. As we went around the table, it was clear that all of us struggle to find everyday moments of peace and stillness. A few of the ways some of us were able to find peace were through a tough yoga class or a workout that drained us to the point of shutting our minds off. If we were awake, we were “on.”

At the end of our time, we talked about practices or ways to find stillness and peace to listen for God. So, that evening I came home, downloaded a meditation app on my iPhone (an irony not lost on me) and set out on my first ten minutes of meditation. Within three minutes I was checking the clock.

The next evening, it was five minutes before I checked.

And by my fourth attempt, I made it through ten minutes without opening my eyes.

While this is still new and I can barely call it a habit or practice, I have to say when I am settling in for the evening, I have begun to look forward to this ten-minute time out.

I don’t know that I have entirely found peace through these meditations, but during this Lenten season, I am hopeful that with some dedication to the practice, peace will find me. Further, I hope the experience will deepen my relationship with God as I take intentional time to listen for him.

Lift in prayer today

Community Culinary School of Charlotte, providing training in culinary skills for those with barriers to employment