Pray Without Ceasing Series

March 15, 2023

Rev. Mary Erickson

Hope Lutheran Church

1 Thess. 5:16-18

Pray without Ceasing

Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.

St. Paul encourages us to pray without ceasing. It’s something that’s impossible to do. We cannot literally pray without ever ceasing. We’re just not built for it. We sleep, we’re easily distracted, just too many things prevent it. But there are things we do to create a more continuous prayerful life.

Christian writer Henri Nouwen wrote about the prayerful life as walking in the Lord’s presence:

“To walk in the presence of the Lord means to move forward in life in such a way that all our desires, thoughts, and actions are constantly guided by him. When we walk in the Lord’s presence, everything we see, hear, touch, or taste reminds us of him. This is what is meant by a prayerful life. It is not a life in which we say many prayers, but a life in which nothing, absolutely nothing, is done, said, or understood independently of him who is the origin and purpose of our existence.”

So, towards that aim of developing the prayerful life, tonight let’s explore two prayer techniques. They’re meant to journey with us through the day. They’re small ways we can practice divine mindfulness.

These are small prayers, very tiny. The point of their power is in their volume. It’s like an ant who moves a single grain of sand, goes back and gets another, over and over. But in the end, he’s moved a mountain. These tiny, prayerful moments work to change us from the inside out. Slowly they move the destructive tapes that get implanted within us and generate new ones.

The first technique is the Welcoming Prayer. It’s a way of embracing, “welcoming” the many moments that come our way throughout the day.

We’re quick to welcome in the pleasant things that fill our day. But what do we do with the not so pleasant? For these, we pull the shades, kill the lights and pretend that nobody’s home.

But every moment in life has something to reveal to us, something to teach us. What if we were to welcome all the things that are presented to us, good and bad? We welcome them into God’s divine presence with us.

The Persian mystical poet Rumi wrote a poem called The Guest House. In it, he encourages us to welcome all emotions as if they were guests coming to our front door:

This being human is a guest house.

Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,

Some momentary awareness comes

as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,

who violently sweep your house

empty of its furniture,

still, treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out

for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice.

Meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.

Be grateful for whatever comes.

Because each has been sent

as a guide from beyond.

Here’s how the Welcoming Prayer works. Start with something small. Waiting for your computer to boot up, getting interrupted, when you’re behind a pokey driver. All you do is be mindful of this moment and that God is with you right now. Welcome the moment. Commend it to God’s presence. Embrace the moment for what it is, give away the need for control.

As we practice welcoming these little things, we gain capacity for addressing the bigger things that come our way. Even these small things carry all the weight of our hidden false self. A small fragment of the wounds of a lifetime are embedded in them. In the welcoming prayer, we welcome them to step into the presence of the Holy Spirit’s light, to just be in God’s presence.

So that’s the Welcoming Prayer. The second prayer technique is called the Active Prayer Practice. This prayer is something of a mantra which we can call to mind during the idle moments of your day. It’s a short, biblical phrase. Some examples are on your handout. Let’s say you take that first phrase: “Abide in my love.”

Whenever you have a spare moment, an idling moment, you just repeat the phrase: abide in my love. When you wake up: abide in my love; while you’re brushing your teeth: abide in my love; while you’re walking from your car into a building: abide in my love. Just go over the phrase in these spare moments: abide in my love.

You don’t have to make a big deal out of it. It’s meant to be simple, not difficult. And if you forget to use it, don’t guilt yourself over it. Just start it up again.