The Spiritual Practice of Prayer
God is not something to experience second-hand, by only reading about God in a book, or hearing about some other “holy” person who has experienced God, rather we must experience God for ourselves.
Universalist Christianity is not about “believing” a set of ideas, but about experiencing the Divine and experiencing a way of life rooted in the Divine. There are many ways to experience God's universal love. And other religious paths have all developed their own ways of knowing God. But for Universalist Christians God is known in the different activities that we label “prayer”.
Many people get the idea of prayer wrong. They think it is almost the same thing as “wishing”. They think it is asking God for things as if you are reading a shopping list. Although we might sometimes express our desires and needs to God, that's not really what prayer is about.
Prayer is simply the practice of being in the presence of God. Of course God is always present so it's really about opening ourselves to the reality of God's presence. Prayer is the name we give to a number of different practices that allow us to directly experience God's love.
The easiest way to start to do this is to simply speak within your mind as if someone were listening. This may feel silly, but it is worth sticking with. By simply naming your fears, your hopes, your worries it is possible to begin to experience some peace and clarity. After a while it might feel like there really is some Presence listening. It may take a while, but in time you can learn to trust this.
There are times when words run out and there is nothing more to say. This is good. At this point we begin to approach the deeper silence of God. Listen to God. God speaks in the silence. This does not mean that there is some supernatural magic that you experience. It means that you begin to sense in a very quiet, simple way, that your deepest self is connected to a greater mystery that reaches out to you with love.
There are many different ways to pray. It's worth trying to find the way that works for you.
Universalist Christianity is not about “believing” a set of ideas, but about experiencing the Divine and experiencing a way of life rooted in the Divine. There are many ways to experience God's universal love. And other religious paths have all developed their own ways of knowing God. But for Universalist Christians God is known in the different activities that we label “prayer”.
Many people get the idea of prayer wrong. They think it is almost the same thing as “wishing”. They think it is asking God for things as if you are reading a shopping list. Although we might sometimes express our desires and needs to God, that's not really what prayer is about.
Prayer is simply the practice of being in the presence of God. Of course God is always present so it's really about opening ourselves to the reality of God's presence. Prayer is the name we give to a number of different practices that allow us to directly experience God's love.
The easiest way to start to do this is to simply speak within your mind as if someone were listening. This may feel silly, but it is worth sticking with. By simply naming your fears, your hopes, your worries it is possible to begin to experience some peace and clarity. After a while it might feel like there really is some Presence listening. It may take a while, but in time you can learn to trust this.
There are times when words run out and there is nothing more to say. This is good. At this point we begin to approach the deeper silence of God. Listen to God. God speaks in the silence. This does not mean that there is some supernatural magic that you experience. It means that you begin to sense in a very quiet, simple way, that your deepest self is connected to a greater mystery that reaches out to you with love.
There are many different ways to pray. It's worth trying to find the way that works for you.
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