Curious Christian

Reflections on culture, nature, and spirituality from a Christian perspective

The Art of Prayer: Blending Discipline and Spontaneity

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Matt Stone

2005-11-30

Donna and I are thrilled that we are now the godparents of a lovely little girl named Audrey. She was baptized last Sunday at St. Paul’s Castle Hill, an Anglican church I attended for several years, and where her parents, our dear friends Darren and Kathryn, continue to worship.

This joyous occasion has prompted me to reflect on my current prayer practices. I tend to be spiritually spontaneous—meditating on scripture and praying to God throughout my everyday life. As my spirit ebbs and flows, I draw from the depths of God’s Spirit for guidance and strength, all without much discipline. However, if I want to pray routinely for our godchildren—especially since we’ve also recently become godparents to a little boy named Peter—I realize I need to cultivate more structure in my approach.

I’ve found myself revisiting the ancient practice of the Divine Office. Much of the material out there, while rich in tradition, seems aimed at monks and can feel a bit formulaic for my taste. Still, I appreciate the underlying intention: incorporating prayer into the daily rhythms of life with discipline.

What I’m seeking now is a kind of synergy—an integration of visualization with subtle, heartfelt requests, balancing formal prayers with spontaneous expressions. Many Christians today are rediscovering this ancient form of spiritual discipline, and I’m particularly interested in how they’re adapting it for everyday life, outside of monastic settings.

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6 responses to “The Art of Prayer: Blending Discipline and Spontaneity”

Dana Ames

2005-11-30

In the US, Phyllis Tickle has put together “The Divine Hours”, which has been very well received by emerging types and others. Older (1980s with occasional updates) and with a Celtic flavor is the Daily Office of the Northumbria Community, available online at http://www.northumbriacommunity.org (tab in the left column). Neither one is the full-on monastic prayer, but both are very much rooted in the monastic prayer and contextualized for today.
It’s easy for me to do this as a work-at-home mom, but I hear of people taking a few minutes’ break at work to pray the office.
Dana

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Andii Bowsher

2005-12-01

I relate quite strongly to the ‘spiritually spontaneous’ thing. That said, like you I recognise the need for something a bit more focussed to take care of the less spontaneous things like prayer requests to be honoured.
You may be aware that I have done some work on this using the Lord’s prayer [frustrated that so much daily prayer stuff is ‘monastic’ based rather than ‘cathedral’ and that so little notice is taken of the fact that Jesus gave us this structuring prayer]. You can see some examples at
this page or this one
The former is from the book Praying the Pattern.
In the light of what you wrote about wanting things “that integrate[s] visualization with sub vocalized requests, formal prayers with spontaneous expression.”, then you might notice that the liturgies expressly give space for spontaneous or less wordy prayer. I’ne also been experimenting with the paternoster rosary of late and been finding very fruitful the interplay between scripture, short prayer phrases (in this case from the Lord’s prayer) and the images and situations that come into my mind as I use the paternoster rosary.
Anyway, I guess I’m saying that you might find those things worth exploring further …

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Andii Bowsher

2005-12-01

PS the book also has various other ideas like a scrapbook and body prayer …

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Matt Stone

2005-12-01

If the truth be known, I still have an old rosary I have held onto from my Catholic childhood. It was burried in my memorabelia junk drawer for probably twenty years but I dug it out again last year for some experimentation one night after feeling I needed something tangible to help me focus.
Andii, I had no idea this was connected to the divine office, you’ve prompted me to consider it again and explore its mysteries. I read that three times around equates to 150 prayers – the number of the Psalms.
Incidently, I didn’t realise there was an Anglican varient either. Good symbolism there too. I wonder if any Emergent people have experimented with the Catholic one in that case or do they tend to use Anglican and Orthodox ones exclusively.
Maybe we need to get Andrew Goodman in on this discussion. I note his comments on prayer cords and ‘praying the pattern’ on http://anamchara.org.uk so this would seem to be right up his alley.
PS. Dana, thanks for the Northumbria link. I tried out some of their material at lunchtime today.

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Andrew Goodman

2005-12-01

Matt: ‘I suppose what I am groping towards at the moment is a sort of synergy. One that integrates visualization with sub vocalized requests, formal prayers with spontaneous expression.’
If the visualisation is important, then that sounds more Rosary than Jesus Prayer as a prayer style. With the Jesus Prayer (and of course one can use any short phrase or sacred word) I think one is led into stillness and contemplation ie. no words or visualisation. Except for if you use the knots or beads as a ‘marker’ to spend some time praying for someone like a godchild – in which case the knots are giving a kind of structure or discipline and a particular knot or set of beads can be a reminder too, of the person to pray for.
Rosary brings in visualisation though because the dynamic is that the words become a background to actually imagining yourself in the scene or mystery. This is very powerful because what actually happens is that through the power of the Spirit you become a first-hand witness to that scene and participate in it in the NOW. That opens up endless possibility… Blessings on the Way, Andrew

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Matt Stone

2005-12-01

Andrew,
Thanks for your thoughts. Yes, my interests are more in the direction of prayerful visualization at the moment so I take on board your comments.
It is not that I’m uninterested formless contemplation. Actually it’s quite the opposite. Apart from early experimentation with guided visualizations when I first started out, my primary meditation style has been along more formless lines. However, in engaging with Wiccans I have realized that my practice is lopsided towards the non-visual. I would like to become more proficient in leading groups through Ignatian-style guided meditations and to get there I need to spend more time exploring visual styles of prayer and meditation myself.
Using prayer beads to intersperse prayer requests or meditation on mysteries between more formulaic prayer recitations or chants opens up some intriguing possibilities.
I find some of the mysteries advocated by the Catholic Church to be problematic – not least of which are the assumption and coronation of Mary in the ‘glorious mysteries’ – but then, when have I ever followed that stuff by rote anyway? It would seem to be a tradition that is ripe for some recontextualisation. Have you ever explored the rosary mysteries yourself?

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