Silent Prayer

Prayer is the lifeblood of the faith.   At the very centre of the Christian’s life and the life of the Church is God.   God calls us into a deeper relationship with Him.  At the centre of the soul the Eternal dwells.   The climax of Christian worship is silent prayer:  to sit in stillness in the silence of God.  

There is so much noise and activity within the lives of most of us and we need to learn stillness.   Stillness needs to be practised.   We can, of course, use ‘arrow’ prayers.   These are prayers which are ‘sent up’ in a moment of need and we can alone or in company with others pray to God with all that is on our heart.  But, to borrow the phrase of Dom David Foster, on our spiritual journey we should be trying to move from ‘prayers to prayer,’ from words to silence.   St Augustine said, ‘We may pray most when we say least.’

Before one even begins to practise silent prayer, it is important to find a space in which there are few distractions, such as other people, computers or telephones.   Retreats are a good means of finding such space.   They can help us make more significant progress than we might otherwise be able to do in our regular setting.   Jesus often sought the solitude and isolation of the hilltop.   At their best, church sanctuaries can serve this purpose.   It will take time to achieve a sense of deep and penetrating stillness.  

Once we begin down the road of stillness, our minds can very quickly become filled with distracting or disturbing thoughts.   Our ‘demons’ can scare us:  it is not easy or comfortable to face our failings, shortcomings, mistakes of the past or unpleasant or shameful aspects of our personality.   If we are to reach that deeper stillness, where I believe God wishes us to be, then we should persevere.   In prayer, God is praying through us.   We will get through the ‘demons.’   In fact, it is only once we have faced, or at the very least, acknowledged, our ‘demons’ that we will be able to go deeper into the Beyond.  

The Swiss theologian, Hans Urs von Balthasar wrote of the soul, the sinner and prayer.   He said:

Man (sic) is the being who bears in his heart a mystery greater than himself.   He is like a tabernacle erected round a sacred mystery.....   It is true that, in the sinner, this sanctuary has become neglected and forgotten, overgrown and turned into a sepulchre or a rubbish-heap.   It needs much effort, the effort in fact of contemplative prayer, to clear it out and make it suitable for its heavenly guest.   But the place itself does not have to be built.   It is there already, in the inmost part of man, and always has been.

Stillness needs to be practised.   In the darkness of silent prayer, once we have acknowledged the many aspects of our life and story, we are now ready to listen for the silence of God.   

David Foster writes about the five fingers of prayer.   The five fingers are asking things of God for ourselves, for others, thanking Him, saying sorry to Him and praising Him.   Foster writes:

The weakest fingers were for asking for people or things (me, on the last finger, being shorter than my neighbour on the fourth.)   Thanksgiving was on the middle and longest finger; it was the kind of prayer there should be most of.   The index finger was for pointing, not to blame others but to acknowledge my own fault.   This was the prayer of confession and contrition.   The thumb, which can stand alone from the other fingers, was for God himself, the prayer of adoration and praise.  

 There was a Chinese proverb that we are all born with our hands closed: the whole art of life consists in learning to open them.   In the same way, the five fingers of prayer help us open the palms of our hands to give ourselves as an offering to God and to receive the gifts he wants to give.

Once we are through our ‘prayers’, our words to God, and once we have acknowledged our demons, the pain and any discomfort which is a part of us, we move gently towards silent prayer, the climax of Christian worship.  

It can be a tremendous help to use Scripture as we deepen prayer.   If we are ‘talking’ when we pray, then we are not listening.   Once we have said what we need to say, we can move towards stillness and use sentences of Scripture to re-orientate our praying from speaking to listening.   The Bible is the Word of God; it is a treasure which we hold in our hands.   We should approach our reading of Scripture each time with the expectation of hearing God’s voice speaking to us, Spirit to spirit.   The psalms are ideal for helping us to hear God speak to us.   In meditation, we are to ‘suck every letter,’ as the poet George Herbert says.   Never read too many lines and let each word or phrase suggest itself to you.   From God’s voice in and through Scripture, we move to that deeper intensity and intimacy of silence, to our stillness settled in the silence of the Holy One.  

The Scottish minister and academic, the late H R McIntosh, said:

To collect one’s spirit and pray with energy, with intensity, with persistence, may without exaggeration be called the most absorbing,and in a very real sense the most exhausting action of which the human mind is capable. 

Once tasted, there is no substitute for silent prayer.   A real sense of union with the Divine yields spiritual energy.   It is never irrational, but it is intoxicating.  

Prayers for spiritual growth 

Prayers for spiritual growth   Prayers are to be read meditatively and with sensitivity to each word and phrase.  Allow each word, phrase and silence in-between to settle in your consciousness, to still you, bringing calm and peace.   At their best, prayers are the language of intimacy with the Holy.   The prayers of the Church are spiritual food for our nourishment.

From the Order of Service, 10.45pm, 18.09.11

For the gift of this new day
for waking again from the dreams of the night
for our bodies strengthened and our minds renewed
thanks be to You, O God.
You are the stillness of the night
You are the genesis of the morning
You are the moistness of new conception.
Let there be peace in the human soul
let there be wakings to new consciousness
let there be tears of love.
In the life of the world this day
and in our own hearts
let there be fresh tears of love.
                                       J Philip Newell  from ‘Praying with the Earth’

The sounds of God’s people are around me.   Within me, may I know the stillness and silence of God.   Calm me, O Lord.   May the quietness present in the darkness and depths of my soul envelop my whole being.   Amidst the sounds of God’s people and all the preparations for worship, may I know the silence of Your Spirit in the silence of my soul.   Father, may we be one.   Amen. 

From the Order of Service, 10.45am, 02.10.11

God of all holiness, in baptism we are set apart for You alone.   May the saints in glory be our intercessors as we rejoice in their presence and bless You for their victory over death.   We ask this through Christ our Lord.   Amen.

In 1995, Christine Boden was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease; she was 46 years old.   In her book, Who will I be when I die?, she chronicles her physical, emotional and spiritual journey in the first three years after her diagnosis.   She opens her book by printing the following ‘prayer’:

 I asked God for strength that I might achieve;
 I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.
 I asked for help that I may do greater things;
 I was given infirmity that I might do better things.
 I asked for riches that I might be happy;
 I was given poverty that I might be wise.
 I asked for all things that I might enjoy life;
 I was given life that I might enjoy all things.
 I was given nothing that I asked for;
 But everything that I had hoped for.
 Despite myself, my prayers were answered;
 I am among all (wo)men most richly blessed.