Spiritual Practices That Carry Me Through
As we mark this week of Thanksgiving… I’d like to share that I’m thankful for… my morning practices. Everyday for the last decade or more, I get up before everyone else in my home. It has gotten earlier and earlier as my family’s schedule has changed… and at the moment I’m up at 5am to start my practices.
Over the years, the practices themselves have evolved. It started initially with a meditation practice that transformed my quite unhinged life at the time (if I’m honest).It started with a minute or two and grew and grew and grew to an average of 20 minutes a day. There are some days when I need to shorten it and occasional others where I lengthen it. I know I’ve mentioned before - Headspace is my chosen meditation platform. I’ve found it incredibly helpful over the years.
This morning ritual expanded to include a Bible reading plan. YouVersion has been my preferred app for this activity - and yes, I use an app because it curates it all for me and keeps me on track. Over the years, I’ve read through the whole Bible a few times, sometimes just the New Testament, or some themed reading plans on occasion.
Within YouVersion, I’ve found The Bible Project to be my go-to for reading plans. I love their video content! And as an auditory learner, I also appreciate a Bible version that is narrated. Currently, I’m using the Contemporary English Version UK. It even has multiple voices to add dramatic effect. Unfortunately, it is only available as an audio version for the New Testament but I’m certainly grateful for the work that they did in creating these resource.
There was a season where I added time for micro-reading. Another app that would offer short summaries of books helped curate things for me. I changed that up into deciding to read an extra long book over a longer period by committing to reading 10 minutes every morning as a part of my morning practice. The final iteration of this was when I decided to read the Quran. Yup, I used an app to track my daily reading plan.
And then over the years, I added a time for prayer as well. Something, like we’ve shared often with the Ministry Forum community, that maybe surprisingly, isn’t a common practice for those ‘professional prayers.’
It just wasn’t something that I had done naturally over my many years of following Jesus. It was always in fits and starts as they say. But once I added it more formally to my morning practice - it has become an essential part of my day. And yes, not surprisingly, I now have an app that helps me as I pray.
The Lectio 365 app from the good people of 24/7 Prayer has become my prayer companion on these early mornings.
So, I start the day in meditation, Bible reading, and prayer and have done every day for years and years now.
But over the summer, I took a course on Contemplative Spirituality from Columbia Theological Seminary. I told you when I started this role - that I am a voracious lifelong learner myself.
I’d always wanted to explore the practice of Centering Prayer - and maybe this next statement will be one of hope for you, Dear Reader. When I say I’d always wanted to make space for the practice of Centering Prayer, I can remember looking into this program offered by Columbia (and at the time in collaboration with Pittsburgh Seminary) shortly after graduating from Knox College in 2000.
It has taken me 25 years to FINALLY engage in this practice… and I’m so glad I did but so disappointed that it took me this long to experience what I can only describe in the first few months of adding it to my life as transformational in my walk with The Divine.
And yes, there’s an app found on the Contemplation Outreach website - you can also find many more resources on the practice there.
I was so grateful for this new to me practice that I shared what I’d learned in Chapel at Knox College as we engaged in a Taizé flavoured centering prayer appetizer a few weeks ago.
I invited the gathering to hold a time of silence with me for only seven minutes as opposed to the full 20. It was a powerful and moving service - if I do say so myself, and certainly many others spoke of it being a meaningful experience.
The Spirit moves in mysterious ways and I was delighted to get to know a colleague in ministry better this summer - The Rev. Paul Kang is the minister of Leaside Presbyterian Church, Toronto and he was telling me that he leads a weekly online experience of centering prayer for his congregation. What a beautiful Spirit led coincidence. There is also another ministry leader at Leaside who offers a weekly meditation practice virtually. If you are interested, you can learn more at their website. I was able to join Paul’s Wednesday morning group recently and was so grateful to share some time in silence and meditation with some lovely people from Paul’s congregation and the wider community. What a fantastic and different form of outreach with such an ancient grounding in our Christian tradition.
Well, that’s a lot about my morning… that also includes some overnight oats and a cup of tea. What about you, Ministry Forum? Are their daily practices that you’ve found helpful, game changing, or essential for you? They don’t need to happen in the morning specifically. Whatever works best for your life rhythm. We’d love to hear from you on this so we can share some of what you all do with our wider community for inspiration and encouragement. If you haven’t seen me mention it before - I’m most grateful for you, Ministry Forum Community. Thanks for the gift of being in service to and with you.