chris erdman

The Shadow of the Reformation :: A Short Series on Why Protestants Have Trouble With Prayer

Part Four

All this changed in the sixteenth century with the advent of the Protestant Reformation. The change had been coming for centuries; medieval scholasticism was no stranger to abstract ideas and words, books and debates. But the Reformation turned the corner abruptly, leaving the legacy of interior prayer behind. For most of the last four hundred years the practice largely disappeared . . . until recently.

There is no question that the Protestant Reformation was not only a great gift to the Church but also to society—the democratic reforms arising from the Lutherans, Presbyterians, Anglicans, Anabaptists, and much later, even the Pentecostals, have deeply influenced movements for justice and peace around the world and shaped political ideologies and structures. They also influenced important reforms within the Roman Catholic Church. However, there is a shadow to the Protestant Reformation, and as a Reformed Christian I know this shadow intimately—not only its effect on my own spiritual life, but also its legacy in the lives of those Protestants I’ve taught to pray over the last quarter century, and those who, having grown up in Protestant churches, lost their faith and walked away.

To be continued . . .

The Shadow of the Reformation :: A Short Series on Why Protestants Have Trouble With Prayer

Part Three

From earliest days, Christians were taught to relinquish their ideas about God in order to embrace (and be embraced) by the one thing mere thoughts can’t give them. This doesn’t mean that Christianity shunned the intellect; it simply means that in the end, the mind stands dumb before its Maker, and the only way to the Heart of God is through the human heart—that is, through love. So prayer, especially wordless, interior prayer, was the ultimate expression of prayer for most Christians for most of Christian history. And even if Christians didn’t all practice some form of the prayer of the heart, its value was rarely questioned, and its practice always had teachers.

To be continued . . .

The Shadow of the Reformation :: A Short Series on Why Protestants Have Trouble With Prayer

Part Two

The anonymous author of the fourteenth century spiritual classic, The Cloud of Unknowing, and probably an English Christian monk, sums up the mainstream teaching this way: “We can know so many things. Through God’s grace, our minds can explore, understand, and reflect on creation and even on God’s own works, but we can’t think our way to God. That’s why I’m willing to abandon everything I know, to love the one thing I cannot think. He can be loved, but not thought. By love, God can be embraced and held, but not by thinking” (Carmen Butcher, trans., p. 21).

To be continued . . .

Prayer is listening, resonating, participating in the fulness of God and creation.

In this TED talk, percussionist Evelyn Glennie explores music as more than mere notes on a page. Rather, as an expression of the human experience. Playing with sensitivity and nuance informed by a soul-deep understanding of and connection to music, she talks about a music that is more than sound waves perceived by the human ear.

I wonder in what way(s) prayer is the resonance of sound, the sensation of something deep, even eternal…a participation in the eternal song of the Trinity.

If the Eternal Word was made flesh, that is, a human being in what way are we human beings invited to participate in the Word of Eternity, the deep music of the cosmos?

In what ways are our very bodies, offered in prayer, a “resonating chamber” for the deep music of God as Trinity and of the angels, saints, and drumming of the creation?

GOD hasn’t stop speaking, it’s just that most of us don’t know how to listen. Sometimes we don’t trust what we’re hearing to be the voice of GOD. That’s understandable–you don’t want to listen to your own thoughts and ideas and tell yourself it’s GOD speaking. Wackos who’ve deluded themselves into believing what they hear in their own troubled or demented minds have done some pretty rotten things.

Just because some have made grave mistakes assuming they’ve heard GOD doesn’t mean you ought to dismiss the art of learning to listen to GOD interiorly.

Throughout history, one of the most time-testing ways to check your own thoughts and listen instead for the still, small voice of GOD (1 Kings 19.12) is to sit still with Holy Scripture, yield yourself to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and listen for what may come to you. The historic practice of Lectio Divina, long neglected, is now making a come back. You can read more about the practice here (Tony Jones, a Protestant) and here (Thelma Hall, a Catholic).

Below I briefly outline 25 things to keep in mind when you do this. I know, 25 is a lot to keep in mind. But you’ll see from the list that they’re quite simple, and repetitive. You may even find them predictable. I do that on purpose, to reinforce these simple ways.

Read a short passage of Scripture, slowly, letting a word, phrase, or image in the text gather your attention, then . . .

1. Sit still and straight. Feet on the floor. Your body relaxed.

2. Invoke the Trinity with a simple prayer.

3. Relax your mind, let it drift a bit, like a boat without an anchor.

4. Don’t hurry.

5. Sit with the word, phrase, or image that’s invited your attention.

6. Give yourself some inner space, that is, open up.

7. Relax your mind. Baptize your thoughts by drawing them down into your heart where Christ dwells (Eph. 3.17).

8. When you mind wanders, come back to the word, phrase, or image.

9. Trust the Holy Spirit as guide.

10. Listen.

11. Let the mind graze freely within the pasture of this text; keep it inside the borders of the passage.

12. Embrace what comes to you; relinquish judgment.

13. Abandon any attempt at Bible study.

14. Arouse your senses, allow different parts of your self to interact with the text.

15. Pray for wisdom.

16. Don’t judge what’s happening.

17. Don’t try to create a spiritual experience.

18. Did I say, listen?

19. Avoid working at this: rest in GOD.

20. Smile gentle to yourself.

21. Straighten your back again; it keeps you alert.

22. Freely associate mentally until something seems to hook you.

23. Inquire of GOD: “GOD, I’m listening. What are you communicating to me?”

24. Rest with whatever comes to you, as subtle or astonishing it might be.

25. Give thanks to GOD.

“When you pray,” it has been wisely said by an Orthodox writer in Finland, “you yourself must be silent. . . . You must be silent; let the prayer speak.”  To achieve silence: this is of all things the hardest and the most decisive in the art of prayer.

So begins Bishop Kallistos Ware’s little booklet on the Jesus Prayer.  A theologian at Oxford University, Ware insightful draws the ancient Christian practice into the modern world.  I’ve written often about the Jesus Prayer or Prayer of the Heart, and commend the little book to you.

Continued from a previous series of posts on the stages of spiritual growth . . .

These stages certainly can be thought of and experienced as an upward path. But there are dangers in viewing the spiritual life as an ascent. In our world, people tend to scratch and claw over each other to get the top of the corporate ladder, or look down with a sense of superiority over those below them. Spiritual growth does require disciple and courage, but exertion and effort and self-will nearly always end in spiritual disaster. Remember, the effort to reach the heavens with the Tower of Babel was a colossal mistake of human hubris (Genesis 11).

If Christ teaches us anything, it’s that the way up is down, the way to greatness is through humility, the way to possess All is to let go of everything.

Stage six, what I call, “abiding in love,” is the end point in the journey, the goal of the spiritual quest. When you arrive here, you realize that you’ve not been traveling up but in, to the depths of your being; you’ve been traveling down, into the fullness of your humanity. You’ve become a fully integrated person.

To be continued . . .

“Moment by Moment: Contemplation for Active People”

PRE-REGISTER NOW! Call 559.439.8807

Living an alert spiritual life is demanding, and we need helpful models to show us how to live it well. Contemplation is sometimes dismissed as escapist or elitist. But in fact, the opposite is true. Contemplation is about learning to live your life more fully aware of life around you: more productive, more focused, more spiritually alive, more happy. Our teaching this year will focus on four ordinary people from various walks of life who lived remarkably active and meaningful lives because of their contemplative practice: Elizabeth of Hungary, Dorothy Day, Teilhard de Cardin, and Howard Thurman. In addition to the taught sessions, the retreat will provide you with several intentional contemplative periods for prayer. Spiritual guides will be available during those times for those who may wish to speak with a spiritual guide for companioning and perspective.

Speakers: Dr. Karen Crozier, Fr. Robert Hale, Cindy Correia, Dr. Chris Neufeld-Erdman

Begins Friday evening February 10th, 7pm

Saturday morning through mid-afternoon the 11th

$35 includes lunch; please pre-register to help us plan for lunch ($45 fee at the door). Mail your check by February 1st to University Presbyterian Church, 1776 E. Roberts Ave. Fresno, CA 93710.

Contact the church office at 559.439.8807 for more information and to register.

PDF brochure available, click here.  Please forward to friends!

Monastery Bookstore with books, candles, icons, and other handcrafts from around the world.

This conference is open to the community, so please invite a friend and spread the word.

University Presbyterian Church of Fresno
1776 E. Roberts Ave, Fresno, CA 93710

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Below is an email exchange with a reader. He’s given permission to post these notes. I thought it would be helpful for you to hear about another reader’s journey into the prayer of the heart . . .

Dear Chris;

I write to say “thank you” for the encouragement I have received from your honest reflections in the downloadable eBook Returning to the Center. I sincerely hope that part 2 is available before too long. Is the entire book available anywhere? I have, so far, been unsuccessful in my web-searches I arrived at your website, and the above eBook, after reading comments about you and your work in Alan Roxburgh’s book Missional Map-Making and found that your writing spoke directly to the kind of journey I seem to be making at present. It is a journey into prayer of the heart – and I am experiencing all the many distractions, of which you speak.

Kind Regards

Peter

Dear Peter;

Thank you for your thoughtful note. Alas, part two is on hold for quite awhile. I’m working on another book on prayer now. Part two of my memoir requires some maturing before I can write honestly about the years since the first part ended. It’ll be out someday, but not soon enough for you. My advice is to simply practice the Jesus Prayer. That sounds so terribly unhelpful, I realize. There are several books that you might find helpful. Here’s a little list: Prayer in the Cave of the Heart, Cyprian Consiglio; Word Into Silence, John Main; The Cloud of Unknowing with the Book of Privy Counsel, a new translation by Carmen Aceveo Butcher (soooo excellent!); John Main: The Expanding Vision, ed. by Laurence Freeman and Stefan Reynolds, Prayer, Abhishiktananda.

The key is to simply practice what you know. Too many of us spend too much time reading and casting around for help when the help is as near as the beating of our hearts, close as our next breath. The ego doesn’t want to admit that though and will keep disturbing you. Your chief work is to simply learn to step around the ego through contemplative practice. It’ll learn to relax and “stand down” eventually. But it must learn, first that your serious and second, that stepping around it (the ego) isn’t about its destruction, but its salvation. The recitation of the Name, along with the breath, will bath your ego in love and over the long haul it’ll learn to trust that it doesn’t always have to be in charge [smile].

Blessings your life and ministry, brother.

Chris

Dear Chris;

I have simply devoured your eBook. In my imagination, and feeling similarly spread rather too thinly like butter over toast (wonderful metaphor!), I accompanied you to the Wadi Natroun, to Iona, and finally Oxford; each places of great significance and interest to me. I have not yet read Merton, though I am aware of him through other writers. I am learning from your journey that the spiritual journey is a shared one, even though the physical one may never be a reality for me. You reiterated in your email that the key was realizing that the answers were as close as “the beating of our hearts, close as our next breath.” And you are so right about the ego, with its clamouring voices, as one intentionally sets about cultivating contemplative practices. This is precisely my experience too.

Regards, and God bless you.

Peter

Continued from a previous series of posts on the stages of spiritual growth . . .

You’re sitting quietly, resting, waiting, being in the presence of God.

And now . . . when something draws you away again—and it will (for these moments of pure prayer, absolute awareness of nothing but God, are fleeting)—simply take note that you were drawn away temporarily and return to the Beloved. Open your heart to love. Become drunk with love, full of light. Your untamed thoughts and feelings will become disoriented when they encounter a soul aflame with love; they’ll recede, I promise. You’re forgetting all but Love, and Love will tame the wild beasts inside you—your mind, your commands, and your will cannot.

Wait, wait, wait in stillness until you reach the silence which is the voice of the Beloved, then on the inhale, speak inwardly, “Jesus,” and on the exhale, “Mercy,” or some other simple prayer. The grace of God will come to you on the wings of this humble, interior prayer. These words, once planted in your heart, will become the seeds of unceasing prayer. Repeat them, following your uncontrolled breath as you rest in God.

When you’ve come to the end of the time you’ve allotted for this exercise (you might use a quiet alarm so you don’t have to keep looking at the clock), simply bring your soul to an awareness of the external world outside you. Thank the beloved Trinity and re-enter the day.

To be continued . . .