Journal of Sacred Work

Days 125-129 – Private Prayers

"Prayer is an egg./ Hatch out the total helplessness inside." – Rumi (1207-1273)

   Across childhood, my night's sleep was preceded by a ceremony you may have practiced yourself. Kneeling by my bed, my father towering above me, I spoke the old refrain: "Now I lay me down to sleep…"

   When my daugther was a child she would end with a catch-all sentence. Sweeping her hand in a wide arc she would intone: "God bless everyone in the whole wide world."

  Woman in the woods 1  If "prayer is an egg," can you hatch it by reciting words drained of meaning by repetition? What are the truest prayers that walk through your heart in your most private moments? 

    What prayers rise up on their own – so powerful that they travel through you like an unstoppable wind?

    Carol Ann Duffy described this wind when she wrote: "Some days, although we cannot pray, a prayer/ utters itself. So, a woman will lift/ her head from the sieve of her hands and stare/ at the minims sung by a tree, a sudden gift."

   What is the difference between your inner and outer prayer life? What sermons do you preach to yourself and how do they affect your life?

   Jesus warned against public prayers spoken to impress others. As my understanding of God has changed so have my private prayers. If, as Jesus says, God already knows your prayers then you can offer gratitude.

   Rumi wrote "Hatch out the total helplessness inside." It is your humility that awakens Love's energy. 

   That is why my prayers include the hope that you and I, in our ministering, will first acknowledge our own wounds. In this way we honor that Love will reach her healing hands into our vulnerability. Only then can we truly help others. 

-Reverend Erie Chapman

Photograph: Erie Chapman

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6 responses to “Days 125-129 – Private Prayers”

  1. julie laverdiere Avatar
    julie laverdiere

    Thank you for your thoughts. As I have grown older, I realize life is a prayer, uttered either out loud or in the quiet voice. Both are heard, but the quiet contemplation is the one that is the one where my wounds are quite apparent, then quiet reassurance is given. Grace comes, and the next instructions are given to share that grace.

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  2. Cheri Cancelliere Avatar
    Cheri Cancelliere

    There is a certain reality that we cannot give away what we do not have, yet Jeanne Guyon spoke of a “prayer of the heart” that pours from our very depths in expressions beyond words to heal both our own wounds and those of the world. Thank you, Erie, for affirming the power of coinherence when our prayers of the heart become our prayers for the world and our healing becomes both a gift and a testimony.

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  3. ~liz Wessel Avatar
    ~liz Wessel

    I believe your daughter had it right when she reached out to bless everyone; for that in itself is an insightful prayer. Our greatest vulnerability is in mistakenly seeing ourselves as separate from one another and Love. I am thankful to friends who reflect back to me my mistaken perceptions by allowing their expression no matter if irrational and somewhat embarrassing to reveal. Yet, enough safety has been cultivated to openly share our mutual vulnerability in an atmosphere of trust, acceptance and non-judgment. To me, that is truly an answered prayer.
    You have a marvelous way of expressing truth with your illustrations in word and image. Thank you for today’s profound prayer that once shared cannot help but to extend outwards to bless others as well, which is already evident in the lovely comments of Julie and Cheri. This is the gift of remembering what we are in God and in one another. Thank you for this blessing, Erie.

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  4. Teresa Reynolds Avatar
    Teresa Reynolds

    “What prayers rise up on their own…?” Prayer is often the response that arises when I’m confronted by the explosive beauty of lupine and lilacs in a field. The mere question lifts my heart and mind toward the skies. Prayer seems to be that split second, middle distance between the dreaming and the coming true; between glimpses of glory and eventual gratitude. Whether we are begging for a loved one’s safety, petitioning for our heart’s desire or lifting words of “thank you”, prayer rises up as a response to the grand experience of being alive. I love today’s journal.

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  5. sbeng Avatar
    sbeng

    “What a Friend we have in Jesus All our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer.” We acknowledge that we are wounded souls and Christ posses The healing Balm of Gilead. As we acknowledge His mercy and compassion for us we try our level best to minister to the needs of others. His Grace is sufficient to meet our own needs as we continue to meet the needs of others.
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  6. Terry Chapman Avatar
    Terry Chapman

    Prayer, a word that I do not fully understand and yet I work at it. Some days I can say the 103rd Psalm and feel warming grace and another day nothing. But I recall a priest that was my friend in Missouri years ago who when I said to him that at least part of my life had spiritual content, replied,”Terry, your entire life is spiritual.” What an incredibly faithful thing to say! My entire life? At age 73 I am living into perhaps a reality that the priest already understood at his young age of 40. And prayer? I do know that early on a summer morning, when I am standing up to my hips in cold, running river water, fishing for trout, and I see the sun rising up and bringing heat to my body and warmth to my heart, that the moment when I live it, is in fact a prayer of gratitude for Planet Earth and all that radiates from its being and mine.

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