Prayer and Spirituality

"Prayer and Spirituality"
National Day of Prayer Breakfast

Navy Hospital Bremerton, Washington
May 3, 2007
Guest speaker: The Reverend Dr. Sandra Bochonok, Assoc./LSSC

Opening prayer
"I pray Thee, O God, that I may be beautiful within." Socrates.

God bless you all. Please know the Little Sisters of Saint Clare and the Bremerton Ministerial Association pray daily for you and your loved ones, and your call to serve in the US Armed Forces as healers. Hospitals in war and peace are sacred places where people, regardless of creed or spiritual orientation, have always prayed in times of joy and sorrow.

Being an Internet pastor, I love the story of a small child reciting the Lord's Prayer who made an innocent mistake. Rather than praying to be delivered from evil, she asked to be delivered from email. So let's begin with a little prayer from my email in-box: "Dear God, so far today I've done pretty good. I haven't gossiped or lost my temper. I haven't been greedy, grumpy, rude, selfish or over-indulgent. I'm very proud of that, thank you. But in a few minutes, God, I'm getting out of bed and from then on, I'm gonna need all the help I can get."

I especially love one prayer overheard on the Oprah Winfrey television show: "God, my heart is open to you. Come sit in my heart." When we invite the Sacred to linger in our hearts, prayer and spirituality can be as natural to us as our breathing.

Love to pray and discover God is wonderful to be with. Prayer has long been recognized as good medicine and declared good for the soul by his Holiness, the Dalai Lama. When Archbishop Desmond Tutu from South Africa fails to begin his day with prayer, he says it's like forgetting to brush his teeth. It's just not right. Saint Benedict, a 6th century monk frequently asked those who came to him for spiritual advice one question: How's your prayer life?

The spiritual life thrives on prayer. Evelyn Underhill, a 20th century Anglican author, described the spiritual life as communion, conversation and cooperation with God.

One does not have to be "religious" to have a spiritual life. When serving as a navy chaplain aboard an ammunition ship, I quickly learned sailors are spiritually attuned. Those who go down to the sea in ships often pray, "O Lord, the sea is so big and my boat is so small."

Sometimes my sailors laughingly sang, "Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition." But afterwards, I would quietly wander down to the cargo hold and place my hands on the bombs in solitude and pray for my sailors and pray for peace.

Our prayers are more powerful than we realize. If we talked with God as much as we talked on our cell phones, we could transform the universe. The greatest gift we can offer others is pray for them. When we care enough to pray, the world becomes a better place. Through prayer, we are equipped and encouraged in every circumstance. My favorite prayer acronym is PUSH: Pray Until Something Happens!

Prayer cultivates the soul, establishing deep intimacy with the Creator. Prayer is a loving awareness, raising mind and heart, body and soul to God. Prayer involves talking and listening, listening and learning, learning and doing, with and without words, sometimes in companionable silence with feelings too deep for words.

Prayer can be as easy as breathing. Consider the common household prayer plant. With clockwork regularity, the plant opens its leaves to the light during the day and reverently folds its leaves towards the sky every evening. Saint Clare of Assisi compared the spiritual life to a tender green plant, requiring watering and cultivation to thrive.

My greatest prayer teacher was my maternal grandmother. Married for seventy-two years, a humble woman with a third grade education, she came to American for a better life. Every night without fail she prayed for her husband, children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, friends, family, church, missionaries, her birth country and new country and world events. Praying from her heart, prayer sustained her in the good times and bad. Grandma's favorite mantra was "one day at a time, dear Lord, one day at a time." Her many decades of faithful praying offers us a profound example of patient, prevailing prayer anyone can follow.

T. S. Elliot once wrote, "We had the experience but missed the meaning." Prayer helps us listen to our lives and distill meaning through the most ordinary of events, conversations and experiences.

Religious or irreligious, we are pregnant with holy longings. Our human condition searches for the sacred and when we pray, we experience God closer to us than our very breathing, nearer than our own hands and feet. With Carl Jung, we discover "Bidden or unbidden, God is present." Prayer deepens our spiritual orientation, articulates the yearnings of the heart, and blesses us with divine love, holy courage, sacred persistence and hope beyond the grave.

Practical applications

Five excellent practices recommended by Confucius (The Art of Pilgrimage. The Seeker's Guide to making Travel Sacred, by Phil Cousineau. Page 126) can be practiced anywhere.

Practice the arts of attention and listening. Mary Oliver, a famous poet, wrote: "To pay attention: This is our endless and proper work." Whenever possible, don't be so available to anyone for anything at anytime. Take time to listen to your soul and hear yourself think.

Practice renewing yourself every day. Even 30 seconds to 2 minutes a day can make a difference. Enjoy whatever is sacred in your life: nature, poetry, family, music, a cherished hobby or activity. One can also renew through prayer practices and one excellent resource is The Way We Pray. Prayer Practices from Around the World, by Maggie Oman Shannon.

Practice meandering. A child once said, "If you want to get to know God better, take a walk with God." Prayer walks, slow walks, beach and forest walks, labyrinths and other forms of meditative wanderings help our bodies be more receptive to holy musings.

Practice the ritual of reading sacred texts. My sailors would amaze me by requesting the "p-p-p-psalms" for evening prayer at sea. The Psalms teach us the language of prayer and help people find God in times of joy and sorrow. Real cries to God are as simple as "Help!" One of the best contemporary interpretations is Psalms For Praying. An Invitation to Wholeness, by Nan Merrill, who excels in using tender, intimate, inclusive names for the Holy.

Practice gratitude and praise singing. If thanks is the only prayer you ever pray, that's enough insisted 15th century theologian, Meister Eckhard. If gratitude is hard for you, learn from Oprah Winfrey who started a modern day gratitude movement. And who are we to argue with Saint Augustine? He understood people who sing, pray twice.

However you replenish your spiritual core, love to pray and it will be well with your soul. Your prayers bring healing power into the world. Mae West insisted, "Too much of a good thing is always wonderful." And the next time you brush your teeth, remember to pray!

A benediction

"May you now...receive the spirit of prayer. May it become...the most precious occupation of your life. And may the God of all peace strengthen you, bless you, and give you joy. Amen." (Richard Foster, Prayer. Finding the Heart's True Home. P. 256)

About the author: The Rev. Dr. Sandra Bochonok is a labyrinth retreat and workshop facilitator. She earned her Doctor of Ministry degree at Wesley seminary in Washington, DC, while completing studies at the famous ecumenical Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation in Bethesda, Maryland. She is available for interfaith and ecumenical labyrinth pulpit supply, retreats and workshops. Email: revsandyb@aol.com for more information. Your comments and insights are deeply appreciated.