Honest to God Prayer

Kent Ira Groff

Description

Maybe you're praying and you don’t even know it.

In this unique and encouraging guide to prayer, Kent Ira Groff, a longtime retreat leader and inspiring writer-poet, explores how to engage in spirituality that blesses your soul—and the world. Whether you’re advanced or just starting on your spiritual path, this practical prayer path breaker will lure you in with its novel combination of touching, real-life stories, pithy thoughts and inspiring prayer practices.

For those turned off by shopworn religious language, it offers innovative ways to pray in four metaphorical movements that parallel both Native American traditions and Ignatian spirituality:

• East—Morning / Prayer as Awareness
  Waking up to reality—opening
• South—Noon / Prayer as Empowerment
  Embracing your dreams and possibilities—expanding
• West—Afternoon / Prayer as Relinquishment
  Letting go of attachments—emptying
• North—Night / Prayer as Paradox
  Uniting the opposites of life—integrating

Prayer practices for each of the four "movements" provide for personal and group enrichment at home and work, in formal programs and informal friendships. They interweave the author’s own experience to say: “This is honest to God spirituality and I’m seeing myself.”

Index of Prayer Practices vii
Orientation ix
Prologue
Integrating Native American and
Ignatian Spiritual Streams xvii

Theme I Prayer as Awareness: Opening
Chapter One. Waking Up to Reality
The Grounding for Awareness 3
Chapter Two. Living Awake to What Is
The Process of Awareness 13
Practices for Cultivating Awareness 27

Theme II Prayer as Empowerment: Expanding
Chapter Three. Claiming Possibilities
The Grounding for Empowerment 33
Chapter Four. Embracing Dreams
The Process of Empowerment 51
Practices for Cultivating Empowerment 65

Theme III Prayer as Relinquishment: Emptying
Chapter Five. Negative Capability
The Grounding for Relinquishment 73
Chapter Six. Shedding Attachments
The Process of Relinquishment 85
Practices for Cultivating Relinquishment 101

Theme IV Prayer as Paradox: Integrating
Chapter Seven. Rediscovering Mystery
The Grounding for Paradox 107
Chapter Eight. The Active Contemplative Life
The Process of Paradox 123
Practices for Cultivating Paradox 141

Bring It All Together
Morning Prayer in Four Directions 145
Acknowledgments 151
Notes 153
Resources for Further Reading 157

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Native American religion
• Native Americans
• Prayer
• Religion

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 25 octobre 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781594734922
• Langue: English

Extrait

Praise for Honest to God Prayer: Spirituality as Awareness, Empowerment, Relinquishment and Paradox
Groff blurs the line between the folks who are religious and folks who claim spirituality by mining truths in a variety of traditions and offering them to us in story, insight and poetry. Honest to God ... I love it!
- Nancy Corcoran, CSJ , author, Secrets of Prayer: A Multifaith Guide to Creating Personal Prayer in Your Life ; Catholic chaplain, Wellesley College
Will enrich people active in their faith traditions as well as the growing number of people describing themselves as spiritual but not religious. Helps you see God in all things and all things in God.
- Bruce Epperly , author, Tending to the Holy: The Practice of the Presence of God in Ministry and Holy Adventure: 41 Days of Audacious Living
Remind[s] us that prayer has its own movement and rhythm which we can learn to follow…. Weaves together the wisdom to be learned from the seasons of the day, Ignatian prayer and Native American spirituality in ways that respect the integrity of each, but where each is enriched by the other…. Offers the reader a multiplicity of concrete ways to pray that are both ancient and fresh, [and] an enlivening vision in a sometimes tired field of spirituality volumes.
- Christine Valters Paintner, PhD , author, Desert Fathers and Mothers: Early Christian Wisdom Sayings-Annotated & Explained and Lectio Divina-The Sacred Art: Transforming Words & Images into Heart-Centered Prayer
A most excellent presentation of prayer as a wholly different mind and a renewed heart, much more than mere verbal recitations or formulas…. Offers you a truly larger house to live in, and a house that will not confine you, but one filled with doors and windows-and plenty of skylight.
- Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM , Center for Action and Contemplation, Albuquerque, New Mexico; author, Falling Upward and The Naked Now
A rich and in-depth exploration of the ongoing expression of prayer in our spiritual journeys [and] an extraordinary resource for all seekers-from those who have well-established prayer practices to those for whom prayer is something new-who are spiritual but not religious. Easy to read yet filled with profound insights that inspire a deeper relationship with Source.
- Kay Lindahl , founder of The Listening Center; author, The Sacred Art of Listening: Forty Reflections for Cultivating a Spiritual Practice ; and other books
A sublime spiritual companion on the path toward a life of empowered, authentic prayer. Shares from the wisdom of a variety of faith traditions [and] equips us to embrace a truly awakened spiritual life-the kind we ve always dreamed of and prayed for.
- The Rev. Peter M. Wallace , host of Day1; author, The Passionate Jesus: What We Can Learn from Jesus about Love, Fear, Grief, Joy and Living Authentically
[A] wonderful trailbreaker on the spiritual life…. If you pray for stuff, don t read this book. If you pray for wisdom, read it twice.
- Rabbi Rami Shapiro , author, The Sacred Art of Lovingkindness: Preparing to Practice ; and other books
If you yearn for real-life spiritual renewal, this book is for you! Wherever you open these pages, you will find resources, guidance, grace and honest companionship for your own prayerful journey.
- Heidi Neumark , Lutheran pastor; author, Breathing Space: A Spiritual Journey in the South Bronx
Opens the curtains on a new perspective, enabling the sunlight of a new way to break in…. Rubs the eyes of tired ecclesia and provides plentiful resources toward discarding unnecessary angst. Here is a holistic guidebook for prayer, particularly for those who haven t got a prayer.
- Scott Burton , minister of St. Matthew s Church, Perth, Scotland; author, Holy Whitewater: Reflections on the Spirituality of Kayaking
Lively and packed with wisdom from many traditions…. Offers a rich feast of possibilities for weaving prayer through daily life. I found myself marking page after page with a resounding, Yes!
- Nancy L. Biebe r, author, Decision Making & Spiritual Discernment: The Sacred Art of Finding Your Way


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Contents
Index of Prayer Practices
Orientation
Prologue: Integrating Native American and Ignatian Spiritual Streams
Theme I: Prayer as Awareness: Opening
Chapter One . Waking Up to Realit The Grounding for Awareness
Chapter Two . Living Awake to What Is The Process of Awareness
Practices for Cultivating Awareness
Theme II : Prayer as Empowerment: Expanding
Chapter Three. Claiming Possibilities The Grounding for Empowerment
Chapter Four. Embracing Dreams The Process of Empowerment
Practices for Cultivating Empowerment
Theme III: Prayer as Relinquishment: Emptying
Chapter Five. Negative Capability The Grounding for Relinquishment
Chapter Six. Shedding Attachments The Process of Relinquishment
Practices for Cultivating Relinquishment
Theme IV: Prayer as Paradox: Integrating
Chapter Seven. Rediscovering Mystery The Grounding for Paradox
Chapter Eight. The Active Contemplative Life The Process of Paradox
Practices for Cultivating Paradox
Bring It All Together Morning Prayer in Four Directions
Acknowledgments
Notes
Resources for Further Reading
About the Author
Copyright
Also Available
About SkyLight Paths
Index of Prayer Practices
Theme I: Practices for Cultivating Awareness
Practice 1: Beginning Prayer If You Can t Pray
Practice 2: A Daily Prayer of Reflection and Examen
Practice 3: Expanding Personal Prayer
Practice 4: Centering Prayer as Contemplative Practice
Practice 5: Meditative Thanks with Your Body
Practice 6: Open-Eyed Table Blessing
Theme II: Practices for Cultivating Empowerment
Practice 7: Group Experiment with Focusing Energies
Practice 8: Breathing as Prayer
Practice 9: Kything Prayer
Practice 10: The Lectio Process in All of Life
Practice 11: Your Own Portable Monastery
Practice 12: Designing Your Life Mission
Theme III: Practices for Cultivating Relinquishment
Practice 13: Emptiness as Space for God
Practice 14: An Examen of Liminal Spaces
Practice 15: Table Blessing from Latin America
Practice 16: The Clearness Committee
Practice 17: A Focusing Exercise in Three Gestures
Practice 18: Let It Be
Theme IV: Practices for Cultivating Paradox
Practice 19: Sounds of Technology, Nature-and Silence
Practice 20: Table Blessing with Head, Heart, and Hands
Practice 21: Practicing Questions, Telling Stories
Practice 22: Chalice Prayer
Practice 23: A Radio Station, Book, Movie, or Mundane Tasks as Prayer
Practice 24: Cultivating Paradox: Do Things the Opposite Way
Morning Prayer in Four Directions
Orientation
W hat is prayer? And how does prayer relate to spirituality? Pray can seem like such a religious word that many people may view it as a cliché or dismiss it. So I suggest that to pray is to yearn for something beyond ourselves, and prayer in its many forms is how we express that yearning. I often say, tell me your yearnings and I ll tell you your prayers.
Religiously motivated people, on the other hand, may know how to pray-they may have memorized certain words, patterns, or methods. However, prayer is an ongoing, transforming process, not a technique. And the fruit of genuine praying is to yearn for bits and pieces of passion and compassion in all of life-in its grit and grace.
We have just landed on a beginning definition of spirituality: the fruit of genuine, honest to God prayer expressed in our relationships in all of life.
By honest to God praying I mean cultivating that intentional yearning or longing to discover traces of passion and compassion in the most heart-wrenching suffering, and in the heart-rewarding successes of life. If the goal of prayer is to lead to genuine spirituality in all circumstances, then, as the saying goes, the way there is to practice, practice, practice.
We might say, then, that prayer is the practice route that leads to the fruit of a passionate and compassionate spiritual life. Spirituality is not a thing you can put in your pocket, but a genuine lived experience of giving and receiving love in all the twists and turns of your journey.
How Honest to God Prayer Evolved: Four Themes
What I offer here is a compass with four directional themes to survey varied stages of your journey. The four movements of prayer in this little book have been gestating for two decades: waking up to reality (awareness), claiming gifts (empowerment), practicing detachment in success and failure (relinquishment), and experiencing mystery (paradox). While developing these four themes, I began to see connections to prayer in four directions in Native American tradition and the four movements or weeks in Ignatian spirituality, which I refer to throughout this book (see Prologue and Bring It All Together ).
Awareness marks the beginning movem