Sabbatical - Hands on Prayer resources

I said I wanted to transition to more hands on stuff this week.  So here's the easy bit.  A couple years back as part of a parish wide look at personal prayer St. Luke's Jamestown produced a very useful booklet called "Lord, Teach Me To Pray".  The book is made up of 5 presentations done as a series of workshops.  They are:

• Ignatian
• Prayer Book
• Contemplative
• Lectio Divina
• Anglican Prayer Beads (Rosary)

The booklet (edited together from the presentation notes by Catherine Way) is a great basic resource and exactly the kind of thing I'm hoping to have pulled together for the final "product" of this sabbatical.  So with the permission of the parish I offer it here for anyone to use.

Lord Teach Me.pdf"

You'll find a solid, easy to read description of the method of prayer, how to get started, various options plus additional resources.  As you can see I was one of the presenters (as was my lady wife).  The methods outlined give you a nice range of options that cover a variety of styles.

Now these are all very "traditional" methods of prayer and personal practice.  Some of them have had a resurgence of interest recently but the reality is that these are practices with long histories.   I know that some folks get very nervous about some of them as well.  There is a perception in some spheres of Christianity that "meditative" prayer is an alien form (and for the really nervous you'll see it referred to as "Satanic").  This is patently wrong.  Sorry to be so blunt (actually my first couple versions of that sentence were even blunter.  Somewhat lacking in charity as well, lol) but there's no two ways around it.  Christians have been using forms of meditation for centuries.  As folks in the Anglican tradition of spirituality we are open to all the historic methods and should be willing to at least examine other methods to test if they are consistent with our belief and traditions.

So what is their place in the "21st Century"?  Same place as always.  Useful, proven tools that can help people find a deeper relationship with and understanding of the Divine.  While they may not work for everyone there's a reason why 1: they've survived until today and 2: we've seen this growth in interest in this day and time.  There's a connection to what has gone before that works for many people.  There's value still to be found in them.

Later this week I will add some additional thoughts on a couple of things.  Some thoughts on Bible Study and two other ideas you could use as a framework for prayer/contemplation.