In the Coracle

Silence…Desert…Prayer (Thoughts from Poustinia)

April 4th, 2009, 2 Comments

Thoughts from the outstanding book “Poustinia: Christian Spirituality of the East for Western Man” (Catherine de Hueck Doherty)

If we are to witness to Christ in today’s marketplaces, where there are constant demands on our whole person, we need silence. if we are to be always available, not only physically, but by empathy, sympathy, friendship, understanding [...]

… to Pray Constantly

March 22nd, 2009, No Comments

Abbot Christopher Jamison of Worth Abbey, which was the home from the BBC documentary called The Monastery, writes:

Christian prayer is the simple act of addressing God as “you.”
The great aim of the monastic life by Benedict was as simple as it was demanding: the aim was to pray constantly, in the general sense of keeping [...]

A Celtic Prayer for a Musician (by Christine Sine)

March 19th, 2009, 1 Comment

I’m selling a guitar and the new buyer is a 15-year-old who was inspired to learn the instrument at church camp last summer. Over Twitter, I asked the lovely and wise Christine Sine to help me with a Celtic blessing to send along with the guitar when pack it for shipment tonight. Her response was [...]

What Is Your Prayer?

December 9th, 2008, No Comments

Do you have a theme in your prayers this Advent season?
How are you relating to God these days? What are you saying, what are you asking for, who is God to you at this moment?
(Yes, this is just an excuse to post a video clip of one of the most profound prayers in recent American [...]

St. Patrick’s Breastplate Wordle

October 15th, 2008, 2 Comments

I’ve blogged before about the prayer known as St. Patrick’s Breastplate or Patrick’s Lorica. Here’s the text of this lovely piece of spirituality.
Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. The bigger a [...]

The Practice of Becoming Silent

September 30th, 2008, No Comments

More tidbits from Anthony Bloom, a Russian Orthodox doctor/priest/monk in Great Britain and Ireland. This comes from page 94 of “Beginning to Pray” (Anthony Bloom).

[This sense of the presence of God] can be reached only if we learn a certain amount of silence. Begin with the silence of the lips, with the silence of the [...]

Preparation for Silence

September 29th, 2008, No Comments

More tidbits from Anthony Bloom, a Russian Orthodox doctor/priest/monk in Great Britain and Ireland. This comes from page 91-2 of “Beginning to Pray” (Anthony Bloom).

Real silence is something extremely intense, it has density and it is really alive.
[When preparing to pray] It is essential to be alert and alive, and at the same time still [...]

Prayer Is…

September 27th, 2008, No Comments

More tidbits from Anthony Bloom, a Russian Orthodox doctor/priest/monk in Great Britain and Ireland. This comes from page 31-32 of “Beginning to Pray” (Anthony Bloom).

What we must start with, if we wish to pray, is the certainty that we are sinners in need of salvation, that we are cut off from God and that we [...]

Prayer is (Rohr)

September 12th, 2008, No Comments

I love this, via Mike Todd at Waving or Drowning:
Prayer is sitting in the silence until it silences us, choosing gratitude until we are grateful, and praising God until we ourselves are an act of praise.
(Richard Rohr, The Great Themes of Scripture)

A Celtic Prayer for Recovery of Corrupted Data

September 8th, 2008, 3 Comments

I photographed a wedding this past weekend, and one of my five CF data cards is apparently corrupt – or at least, empty.  It’s time for another entry into the Celtic Prayer series.
Sacred Trinity,
Together you breathe a world pure, holy, life-filled
Together you restore that which is broken
Together you find that which is lost
Together you [...]