FRIDAY FAVORITES FOR PRAYER AND WRITING

Posted on by Lisa Deam

We’re back with Friday Favorites! I hope you enjoy this selection of links I’ve found around the web.

Do you have someone else’s article or post to share? Join the Contemplative Writers Facebook group, comment on today’s post on my Facebook page, or follow me on Twitter (@LisaKDeam) to nominate your favorite articles, blog posts, and books by Thursday at noon each week.

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Living Wholeheartedly Today via Alia Joy (living with faithfulness in the here and now)

Sacred Interruptions via Lisa Deam (this is my article for the Redbud Post on learning about parenting from a medieval mystic)

Living Is Part Of the Writing Process via Lyndsay Knowles (could a short break help your writing process?)

The Spiritual Journey of Self-Publishing :: Writing as an Act of Worship via Kris Camealy (writing, refining, self-publishing, and obedience)

So You’re an Author Without a Social Media Presence: Now What? via Jane Friedman (the pros and cons of social media plus links to other helpful articles)

The death of reading is threatening the soul via Philip Yancey (fortunately we’re all readers here, right?)

 

WEEKLY PRAYER

Posted on by Lisa Deam

A prayer from Clement of Alexandria (c. 150 – 215):

O Educator, be gracious to thy children, O Educator, Father, Guide of Israel, Son and Father, both one, Lord. Give to us, who follow thy command, to fulfill the likeness of thy image, and to see, according to our strength, the God who is both a good God and a Judge who is not harsh. Do thou thyself bestow all things on us who dwell in thy peace, who have been placed in thy city, who sail the sea of sin unruffled, that we may be made tranquil and supported by the Holy Spirit, the unutterable Wisdom, by night and day, unto the perfect day, to sing eternal thanksgiving to the one only Father and Son, Son and Father, Educator and Teacher with the Holy Spirit.

Source

BOOK OF THE MONTH: THE ILLUMINED HEART

Posted on by Lisa Deam

Week Four: The Jesus Prayer

Illumined Heart cover

This month we’ve been reading The Illumined Heart: Capture the Vibrant Faith of Ancient Christians. In this short book, Frederica Mathewes-Green explores the wisdom and practices of the early Church to guide us on our walk of faith today. Our previous posts looked at repentance and fasting. Today, we’ll examine the Jesus Prayer.

The Jesus Prayer arose in the early centuries of eastern Christianity. The prayer involves repeating a single phrase: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.”

Mathewes-Green explains the rationale behind this prayer:

The Jesus Prayer arose as a way to practice unceasing prayer. It offered a short and simple form that can be repeated in an unhurried way no matter what else a person is doing. Since the prayer is silent and interior, it can be kept going in all situations.

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Why ask Jesus for mercy?

We keep lapsing into ideas of self-sufficiency, or get impressed with our niceness, and so we lose our humility. Asking for mercy reminds us that we are still poor and needy, and fall short of the glory of God. Those who do not ask do not receive, because they don’t know their own need.

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What about when we just can’t do it?

Do not cease praying when prayer comes hard, for fear of doing it imperfectly. If you cease praying when you can’t do it right, the devil gets a victory. So keep offering a broken prayer, and remember that you are only an unworthy servant, and yet Jesus wants you.

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Read more.

For Reflection:

Mathewes-Green week 4

CONTEMPLATIVE PROFILE: ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM ON PRAYER

Posted on by Lisa Deam

In last week’s contemplative profile, we looked at two sources on the Jesus Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner. Historically, this prayer has been thought to be a response to Paul’s instructions to “pray continually.”

St. John Chrysostom also advises the Christian to pray constantly because prayer vanquishes our enemy. The Jesus Prayer sounds so gentle; yet many of the Church Fathers speak of prayer as a weapon. In fact, they often use a violent imagery that has mostly fallen out of favor today. If nothing else, this imagery impresses on us the efficacy of prayer in our lives. Chrysostom says:

Prayer is the cause of salvation, the source of immortality, the indestructible wall of the Church, the unassailable fortress, which terrifies the demons and protects us in the work of righteousness… Prayer is a great weapon, a great protection. Zealous prayer is the light of mind and soul, a constant, inextinguishable light. Therefore during prayer our bitter enemy floods our mind and drenches our soul with a measureless filth of thoughts and collects together qualities of things which had never entered our heads…

And:

By this remembrance (the Jesus Prayer) a soul forcing itself to this practice can discover everything which is within, both good and bad. First it will see within, in the heart, what is bad — and later — what is good. This remembrance is for rousing the serpent, and this remembrance is for subduing it. This remembrance can reveal the sin living is us, and this remembrance can destroy it. This remembrance can arouse all the enemy hosts in the heart, and little by little this remembrance can conquer and uproot them. The name of the Lord Jesus Christ, descending into the depths of the heart, will subdue the serpent holding sway over the pastures of the heart, and will save our soul and bring it to life. Thus abide constantly with the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, so that the heart swallows the Lord and the Lord the heart, and the two become one.

Read more.

Reflection: Have you ever thought of prayer in the forceful and passionate terms of St. John Chrysostom?

WEEKLY PRAYER

Posted on by Lisa Deam

Today’s prayer is from the Canticle of the Sun by St. Francis of Assisi (1181/1182 – 1226):

Be praised, my Lord,
For all your creatures,
And first for brother sun,
Who makes the day bright and luminous.
He is beautiful and radiant
With great splendor,
He is the image of You,
Most high.

Be praised, my Lord,
For sister moon and the stars.
You placed them in the sky,
So bright and twinkling.

Source

FRIDAY FAVORITES FOR PRAYER AND WRITING

Posted on by Lisa Deam

Each Friday I share some of my favorite finds related to praying or writing. If I think it could help you pray or write better, or just “be” better, I’ll include it below.

Do you have someone else’s article or post to share? Join the Contemplative Writers Facebook group, comment on today’s post on my Facebook page, or follow me on Twitter (@LisaKDeam) to nominate your favorite articles, blog posts, and books by Thursday at noon each week.

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Exit Through the Wilderness via Zach Hoag (a guest post on grace and giving up at Shawn Smucker’s website)

Daily Riches: The Practice of Waiting via William Britton (we all have to wait sometimes- how can we wait well?)

What You Can Learn From Declaring a Mystery via Tania Lombrozo (on learning from unexplainability)

Before you can be with others, first learn to be alone via Jennifer Stitt (in case you’re still not convinced of the benefits of solitude!)

7 Slippery-Slope Reasons Writers Shouldn’t Blog via Leslie Leyland Fields (so interesting considering just about everyone I know still has a blog)

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Hey y’all, I wanted to let you know that Friday Favorites will be taking a break next week. We’ll see you on July 28!

 

CONTEMPLATIVE PROFILE: TWO SOURCES ON THE JESUS PRAYER

Posted on by Lisa Deam

Most of you are probably familiar with the words of the Jesus Prayer:

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

This prayer originated with the Desert Fathers and Mothers as a form of unceasing prayer, as Paul urges in 1 Thess 5:17.

How does one pray the Jesus Prayer? Have you ever tried it? St Gregory of Sinai (1260s-1346), an Eastern Orthodox monk, gives many instructions, including these:

Sitting in your cell, remain patiently in prayer, according to the precept of the Apostle Paul. Collect your mind into your heart and send out thence your mental cry to our Lord Jesus, calling for His help and saying: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy upon me’ until you are tired. When tired, transfer your mind to the second half and say: ‘Jesus, Son of God, have mercy upon me!’ Having many times repeated this appeal, pass once more to the first half.

Centuries earlier, the Church Father John Chrysostom (c. 349 – 407) indicated that this prayer was to be said not just while sitting quietly but also while going about the many tasks of monastic and daily life. It is to be repeated until it becomes part of one’s very being:

I implore you, brethren, never to break or despise the rule of this prayer… A monk when he eats, drinks, sits, officiates, travels or does any other thing must continually cry: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy upon me!’ so that the name of the Lord Jesus, descending into the depths of the heart, should subdue the serpent ruling over the inner pastures and bring life and salvation to the soul. He should always live with the name of the Lord Jesus, so that the heart absorbs the Lord and the Lord the heart, and the two become one…

Read more about the Jesus Prayer at orthodoxytoday.org and Orthodox Mysticism.

Reflection: Do you pray the Jesus Prayer? How has it shaped your spiritual life?

WEEKLY PRAYER

Posted on by Lisa Deam

A prayer from St. Augustine:

Great are you, O Lord, and greatly to be praised. Great is your power; your wisdom is infinite. All people, as part of your creation, desire to praise you; all people, who carry the signs of mortality and sin, desire to praise you still. You provoke us toward that delight, for you have created us for yourself, and our hearts cannot be quieted until they find rest in you . . . You will I seek, O Lord, calling upon you; you will I call, believing in you.

Source

FRIDAY FAVORITES FOR PRAYER AND WRITING

Posted on by Lisa Deam

Each Friday I share some of my favorite finds related to praying or writing. If I think it could help you pray or write better, or just “be” better, I’ll include it below.

Do you have someone else’s article or post to share? Join the Contemplative Writers Facebook group, comment on today’s post on my Facebook page, or follow me on Twitter (@LisaKDeam) to nominate your favorite articles, blog posts, and books by Thursday at noon each week.

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Keep Not Quitting via Sarah Bessey (perhaps you, like me, really need to hear this message)

When You Don’t Have It All Together: How to Live a Flourishing Life via Jamin Goggin and Kyle Strobel (a guest post for Ann Voskamp)

3-Minute Retreat: Living in Freedom via Loyola Press (take a 3-minute guided online retreat)

The Spirituality of Imperfection via Clint Sabom (this is a spirituality I can wholeheartedly embrace!)

What the Enneagram Can Teach Us About Beloved Community via David Potter

7 Things to Do When You Want To Give Up (Instead of Giving Up) via Brian A. Klems (practical advice from Writer’s Digest)

11 Brutal Truths About Creativity that No One Wants to Talk About via Benjamin Earl Evans (very thought-provoking and myth-busting)

Books by Christian Authors of Color via Deidra Riggs (check out this awesome reading list!)