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Enriching Your Prayer Life through Contemplative Prayer

“Be still and know that I am God,” the Lord tells us. Oh, how I long to follow that directive, but how? Ironically, at a time when we have more conveniences and technological advances than ever, we also have more demands on our time than ever. Do I even know how to be still? Does anyone? Growing up an evangelical protestant, I had a full understanding of  prayer, and I have always gained much peace from my prayer life. But it’s always been  me, talking to God conversationally, as I would to a friend. Is that kind of prayer, called discursive, really being still? God tells us to meditate on his goodness and the psalmist writes, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing unto you, O God.” (more…)

My father is dying. These words are the first thing in my head every morning when I wake up now. Six months ago, I awoke to “my mother is dying” rolling around in my head each morning. In a  short time, I’ll be parentless. I don’t want to say I’ll be an orphan because, really, I won’t be. I think of an orphan as a waif, a helpless child. No, I had 44 years with two amazing parents, and while so many of my friends have told me of sad, loveless, even horrific childhoods, I was so blessed. And even though I’m all grown up, I’m just not ready for that parental blessing in my life to stop.

Forty-four years isn’t enough. Most people my age have parents in their sixties. But mine were already approaching middle age when I was born. My sisters and brother got to have our parents longer — 55, 6o years. But I had them to myself. My siblings had quantity of time, but I had quality of time. By the time I was eight, the youngest of my older sisters had married, and I was suddenly an only child in a very large family. I had the best of both worlds. Unlimited personal time with my parents and center-stage attention from my adult sisters and brother. (more…)

“I don’t know what my purpose is now,” my 83-year-old father told me a few weeks after my mom passed away. Fighting cancer and taking chemo, already in the early stages of dementia, he had managed to hold it together to take care of her for as long as she needed him. And she had needed him for 64 years.

Now, he seems to have let go. The dementia has multiplied exponentially, and there are days we have to tell him Mamma’s gone. It’s like he’s finding out for the first time, and the pain is terrible.  I think alot about that day he sat on my deck and told me he didn’t have a purpose anymore. (more…)