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Material for a workshop on ways of praying

The material on pp. 18–19 has been used in many different ways: as the basis for a day, an evening, a Lent course, and for a retreat. The intention is to broaden people’s understanding of prayer, to give them space to explore different ways of praying, and to have the opportunity to talk about their own prayer life, its joys and difficulties, in a way that we don’t often have the chance to do.

No one comes to this subject as an expert, but we all have experience, and it is helpful to share it – if only because it is such a relief to find that other people’s experience is often uncannily like our own.

It is helpful to begin by asking people to talk to their neighbour for a few minutes, identifying what they hope to get out of the event. After that, it is easier to have a general discussion in the group, and list any points people want to raise.

Often, an inability to concentrate is high on the list. It is worth dealing with that problem early in the proceedings. We don’t concentrate on anything for very long – mostly we have a lot of things on our minds, and we juggle with them to prioritize. We don’t suddenly change when we decide to spend time in prayer! But we also know that sometimes we get caught up in something, and don’t know where the time has gone. Setting aside time for prayer means that we put ourselves where God can catch our attention, and then we can leave the prayer to God. For prayer is always a gift, it is God who prays in us and transforms us, rather than we who achieve great heights of devotion. We don’t have to beat ourselves up about the fact that we are creatures with a short attention span – when we find our thoughts wandering off, we can gently bring ourselves back to God. And the more we practise doing that, the more natural it becomes to find ourselves aware of God’s presence.

How much time we can give to consideration of the various ways of praying depends on the nature of the event, but it is always important to give people time to explore for themselves, and have a time for comments and questions. We don’t have to do everything on one occasion – an introduction to what is possible may lead fruitfully to follow-up sessions.

The ways of praying illustrated are arranged on the sheet so that those around the edges are methods which require some time to be set aside. Between them are the ideas we can put into practice as we go about daily life. The candle stands for Christ at the centre, and reminds us that prayer is the expression of our relationship with God as we have been shown him in Jesus, and in God we have all. Much has already been written about the ways of praying illustrated, but ideas about exploring some of them further follow the illustration.