On centering prayer
and other things that don't really work for me
This summer on the Raised Catholic podcast, we’re revisiting an older series all about contemplation with a range of focuses and methods. As I listened to this week’s episode on centering prayer from August of 2022, I was surprised at how much this form of prayer really just did not work for me. And this is to be expected from time to time, right? As we’re all created differently with different personalities and life stories, it makes sense that one style of prayer won’t always work for everyone, and that’s okay. God totally gets it as He’s the One who made us in the first place!
My experience of centering prayer in 2022 generally made me anxious (like even more anxious than I usually am, which is saying something), and I found that prayer while moving, writing, or even singing is really more my jam. But I was glad to have tried centering prayer anyway, because you just never know about anything until you try. Things change, we change, and an open heart toward the possible is always the best and most hopeful stance.
For example, in the 1990s when Michael Jordan and basketball were on the minds of the whole nation, I literally could not have cared less. (I am one of five people my age who never even saw Space Jam!) Yet this week I am absolutely fixated by the Netflix documentary about this era, Last Dance. Also, I remember when the very idea of guacamole made my stomach lurch, but now find a day is always made better by an avocado on pretty much anything. And, truthfully, I was pretty pessimistic about the recent Eucharist conference and the possibility that anything good could come from something that celebrity- and funding- forward. Yet, as I hear more about people’s experiences there, I think - yes, you just never know, especially when the Holy Spirit is involved.
So as we revisit this week’s episode of the Raised Catholic podcast, Summer of Contemplation 2024 - Centering Prayer, I’d be curious about your take, not just on centering prayer, but on the spiritual practices that once did not work for you but now do, or vice versa, or the spiritual (or otherwise) things on which you’ve changed your mind. An openness to changing our minds is a great gift from God as we use our God-given brains and experience to consider and then, to reconsider anew. After all, learning, growth and renewal is what the Christian life is all about. (Even Jesus did it.*)
Listen to Raised Catholic episode 187 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts (or read the transcript) and then come on back here to the comments to tell me a story of when you changed your mind on something like basketball, an avocado, a prayer, or even a person. You know I’d love to see you there.
*Luke 2:52
