Monday, August 16, 2004
Interesting experience while praying
I do not often set aside 'prayer time'. I tend to pray on the hoof, while walking from A to B. I find this unsatisfactory on the whole, it is much better to be able to devote time to prayer for then I can be focused and I feel that I am in God's presence.
This lunchtime I found a quite place with the intention of spending a few minutes in prayer. There were no chairs so I had to kneel on the floor. I normally begin with the Lord's Prayer, up to 'deliver us from evil'. I find that this simple but profound prayer focuses my mind on God, and it is often enough to allow me to feel God's presence. I then brought up a few family names that need God's power, and the rest of my family followed in my mind until I had this sense of my family and it's links by marriage, all united. Without words I pictured wholeness and healing in my family, some parts of which are also in need of reconciliation. I felt a powerful connection with them all, as though my prayer for them had created a unity or created awareness of a unity.
What I then felt was something new. I felt great pulses in my heart, as though my own heart had grown larger. Each pulse was several seconds apart, and with each pulse it felt as though something was going out from me to those who I had prayed for. As I write about it now I think of Jesus' experience when the woman who was haemoraging touched him; he felt power go from him. Of course, whether my prayer has changed anything remains to be seen; though as I got up I felt profoundly confident.
The heart-beat was something new for me, but recently I have had the sense several times of a connection with other people through prayer. During the eucharist service several weeks ago I first had this feeling during the intercessions. I felt as though there was a bond between myself and those being mentioned, despite not knowing the people concerned. Last year I remember writing in this journal about an experience I had one night of feeling myself as part of the body of Christ, with the Holy Spirit flowing through us as if it were blood.
I have mostly ignored intercession the last few years, I had pretty much lost faith in it. I am now beginning to feel once again that there is something in it. My recent experience makes me wonder whether intercession creates a link that unites intercessor, intercessee and God, or opens up a link that already exists. Divine power flows along these links. Of course, my talk of links is a metaphor. The feeling I have is one of unity, so perhaps a better description is that in the unity of intercessor and intercessee with God, God's power is active.
I could be completely mistaken of course.
This lunchtime I found a quite place with the intention of spending a few minutes in prayer. There were no chairs so I had to kneel on the floor. I normally begin with the Lord's Prayer, up to 'deliver us from evil'. I find that this simple but profound prayer focuses my mind on God, and it is often enough to allow me to feel God's presence. I then brought up a few family names that need God's power, and the rest of my family followed in my mind until I had this sense of my family and it's links by marriage, all united. Without words I pictured wholeness and healing in my family, some parts of which are also in need of reconciliation. I felt a powerful connection with them all, as though my prayer for them had created a unity or created awareness of a unity.
What I then felt was something new. I felt great pulses in my heart, as though my own heart had grown larger. Each pulse was several seconds apart, and with each pulse it felt as though something was going out from me to those who I had prayed for. As I write about it now I think of Jesus' experience when the woman who was haemoraging touched him; he felt power go from him. Of course, whether my prayer has changed anything remains to be seen; though as I got up I felt profoundly confident.
The heart-beat was something new for me, but recently I have had the sense several times of a connection with other people through prayer. During the eucharist service several weeks ago I first had this feeling during the intercessions. I felt as though there was a bond between myself and those being mentioned, despite not knowing the people concerned. Last year I remember writing in this journal about an experience I had one night of feeling myself as part of the body of Christ, with the Holy Spirit flowing through us as if it were blood.
I have mostly ignored intercession the last few years, I had pretty much lost faith in it. I am now beginning to feel once again that there is something in it. My recent experience makes me wonder whether intercession creates a link that unites intercessor, intercessee and God, or opens up a link that already exists. Divine power flows along these links. Of course, my talk of links is a metaphor. The feeling I have is one of unity, so perhaps a better description is that in the unity of intercessor and intercessee with God, God's power is active.
I could be completely mistaken of course.
