Good morning…
As we met for our final Wednesday afternoon class of the fall semester, we discussed a freeing way to pray.
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Excerpt from page 241 of God’s Joyful Surprise by Sue Monk Kidd
It is like having a room in the very core of your heart where all of the people you pray for gather with you before God.
…Taking other persons into this “compassionate space” simply means I turn to God, saying, “Lord, as I enter Your presence I am bringing these persons with me.” Then by an act of will and creative imagination I open my center to them. They descend from my mind into my heart. I do not even need to list their needs. I am in the place where God’s Spirit prays within me for them. I simply offer a place where God can embrace them with His presence, opening my own reservoir of spiritual energy to God to use on their behalf.
We might think that bringing so many people into our center would make it very crowded. But our compassionate space is ever expanding. There is no limit to the persons who can dwell there. God’s love has no boundaries. He is able to take them all into Himself within us. We do not keep their burdens, pains and needs inside us. We release them into the presence of God. Only the memory and joy of the encounter remains.
Rabbi Mendel used to say that while he silently prayed the Eighteen Benedictions, all the people who had ever asked him to pray to God in their behalf would pass through his mind. Someone asked him how that was possible since there was surely not enough time. The rabbi replied, “The need of every single one leaves a trace in my heart. In the hour of prayer I open my heart and say: ‘Lord of the world, read what is written there.'”
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There are so many needs in our hurting world and a plethora of people to bring into our expanding center. God’s love has no boundaries, and we release people’s burdens, pains and needs into the presence of our Creator. We walk away freed.
We are weak and do not know how to pray, so the Spirit steps in and articulates prayers for us with groaning too profound for words (Romans 8:26b, VOICE).
Might we open our hearts and simply say, “Lord of the world, read the traces of each person silently written there?”
…Sue…
