Taize and Teresa ... Praying with Prayer Beads

Since ancient times, people have been praying in some way with prayers beads ... they may not have been strung together, they may have just been used as a symbol for counting prayers.  Desert Mothers and Fathers are said to have carried pebbles in their pockets.  Roman Catholics pray with the Rosary and many, if not all, religions have their own style of prayers beads.  I been drawn to Anglican Prayer beads, I really like their rhythm.  It has become a prayer practice for me to make prayer beads for others and for myself.  It is creative, contemplative, and calming.  Here is the set of beads I am using this week as I am immersed in the writings of Teresa of Avila and am contemplating the Interior Castle within. 

If you want to know more about formal praying with beads, you can google Anglican Prayer beads and find all the information that you want.  I don't always use the formal words that are used to describe the set of prayer beads, I use words that work for me.  

My invitation is to read just until you are full. Buy a book on Praying with Prayer Beads if you must.  Here is a good book: A Bead and a Prayer.  They also have a simple website.  Here is their "basics" page:  http://abeadnaprayer.com/prayer-bead-basics/

And then ... just pray and allow your prayer to form you.  As your prayers form you, you will form your prayers.  Here is my prayer for now ...

Cross: Prayer of Teresa

Let nothing disturb you,
Let nothing frighten you,
All things are passing away:
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things
Whoever has God lacks nothing;
God alone suffices.

Bead of Invitation (to prayer) Psalm 46:10

Be still and know that I am God

Cruciform:  2 Corinthians 12:9

My Grace is sufficient for you.

Beads: a Taize chant (spoken or sung)

Holy Spirit, Come to us

Repeat Cruciform prayer and 7 beads 3 more times or continue around the beads as many times as you want and can ... before you emerge up from prayer and out into the world.  The refrain I am using "Holy Spirit, Come to us," is the chanting refrain that is sung underneath Veni Sanctu Spiritu, which means "Come Holy Spirit."

Prayer of Gathering of the Bead of Invitation (to the world) Psalm 46:10

Be still and know that I am God

Cross:  Prayer of Teresa

Let nothing disturb you,
Let nothing frighten you,
All things are passing away:
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things
Whoever has God lacks nothing;
God alone suffices.  Amen.

So ... this is my process.  May God bless you as your own process unfolds in your prayer practice. 

Your own way of praying with prayer beads will unfold over time.   Here I have shared the way I have taken praying with beads and made it my own practice, one that fits me and my lifestyle as a praying person.  

Sometimes ... I will take prayer beads with me and simply use the refrain (what I'm praying on the bead prayer) while holding them ... suddenly I realize that I am not praying the prayer, the prayer is praying me.  

Holy Spirit, Come to Us

Holy Spirit, Come to Us is a short Taize refrain that is chanted or sung underneath solos or longer refrains.   If you take this clip you will hear the way I hear when I am praying, except at a much slower pace in my prayers:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2ZFlmzWcws

You will hear much the same music in the more popular Come, Holy Spirit which in Latin is Veni, Sancte Spiritus.  Take this clip to hear it beautifully done, the icons are stunning as well:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmxXwAgkhWQ

So ... I hear the words in my prayers to the music and style and pace of Come, Holy Spirit :)

Reflections on Silence: Coming Home

Everybody has their own way of looking at their lives 

as some kind of pilgrimage ... Mine, I suppose, is to know myself.

~Eric Clapton

Is my life a pilgrimage?   Certainly, I feel that I am coming to know myself.  At least I have begun the journey, I think.  And I am finding that is not necessarily comfortable.  As I come closer to my-self, I find things that I like and things that I don't.  I am finding a desire to change some of those things that are keeping me from being who I truly am.  And ... I am finding that is not necessarily comfortable!

For me, silence is the most important aspect of my spiritual life.  I need time to hear the whispers of my soul ... to hear the whispers of God within my soul.  I need the silence to wake up, to become aware.  Silence increases my awareness, not just of God's presence, but of all of creation and my space in the web of nature.  

Wanderer, your footsteps are
the road, and nothing more;
wanderer, there is no road,
the way is made by walking.
By walking one makes the road,
and upon glancing behind
one sees the path
that never will be trod again.
Wanderer, there is no road–
Only wakes upon the sea.

~Antonio Machado

Since I've returned home from the Monastery and a couple of working retreats, I am spending more time in meditation and reflection, wondering how my experience changed me, transforming me from the inside out into the world. I'm taking long walks on trails close to my home and I'm breathing in God's presence through the nature that I find in my world. I even signed up for Yoga just for ME.

And I continue to develop my personal rhythm in the silence:

walking ... praying ...  returning ... resting

At the monastery, it was the resting into which my soul came home to herself.  Laying down on my bed, my head resting upon the green prayer shawl in the the window of the monastery, gazing out upon the trees, I felt twinges of the familiar deep in my little girl soul.  And yet I am filled with wonder because I was such a fearful child ... driving with my parents down those dark gravel roads in Arkansas, visions of monsters lurking along the edge of the roads, filling my dreams, and making me tremble.  Looking up into the trees, dark leafy silhouettes against the night sky, reflecting a quality of light born only of moonlight and stars.  Suddenly, I remember the soft voices of my parents and the warmth of my mother's welcoming lap as I laid my head down and fell asleep to the subtle roar of the truck engine.  I am safe.  I am loved.  I am only, ever ... me. 

Listen ... this year

I have planted my feet

on this ground

and am practicing

growing up 

out of my legs

like a tree.

~ Linda Lancione Moyer, Women Prayers