Prayer Retreat

This past Saturday, I had the privilege of leading a Prayer Retreat with Rev. Roberta Egli. We had nine people that attended for some or all of the day. We spent time learning new ways to pray all ways, as scripture urges us to do. We used our imaginations, our body and all of our senses in prayer. God provided us with such a beautiful day that many of us were able to walk outside and notice the beauty all around us.

We don't often use our eyes in praise of God. Instead we use them to see violence on TV or in the movies or to watch each other with an attitude of suspicion or mistrust. When we pray in church or at home, we typically shut our eyes. While this might help us to shut out distractions when we are trying to get in touch with God within our soul, at other times it is very appropriate to leave our eyes open when we pray. This is because prayer is just a form of communication between the Creator and the created. And when we talk with other people we keep our eyes open, don't we?

Edward Hayes, a Catholic priest and prolific author, writes about using all our our senses in his book, Pray All Ways. In this book he writes about praying with our eyes. He states that we need to learn how to let what we see become a way into devotion rather than distraction. When we are in church, we can notice all the symbols around us and let them lead us into prayer. We can notice the rituals that are being done, the colors of the banners, the flowers on the altar and allow them to encourage words of praise to our Creator for the wondrous things that have been created. He states

In this way our eyes can be of great value as instruments of communion and gratitude. We can use them to drink in the sights that meet our eyes and, in silence, to absorb the light that shines within them. We could take our time to truly look at someone we love or at a tree or sunset...not saying anything butsimpling looking and beholding and so being in communion.

Next time you are out for a walk or look at your window at the flowers that are just starting to bloom, let your heart be filled with all the beauty that you see. You might even comment out loud to yourself on what you see so that you will use your ears also to hear the beauty around you. Let both of these senses take you into communion with your Creator and give thanks for the little things that bless us each and every day.

Attitude

"Do everything without complaining and arguing, so that no one can criticize you.  Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people." (Philippians 2:14-15) 

I walked into the room and looked around.  There were several people already present, getting ready for the meeting.  It was my first time there and I felt out of place.  As I scanned the crowd, I didn't see anyone who looked at all like me.  I just knew it was going to be a long evening.  I wasn't going to learn anything new and it was going to be a waste of my time.  As I became more aware of my self-talk and the attitude that I was bringing into the room, I realized that nothing was going to be helpful if I continued with this mode of thinking.  I needed to check my judgmental attitude at the door or it was going to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Sure enough, when I was able to let go of the internal dialogue of complaint and just listen, I was able to see that these people were, in fact, just like me.  Only then was I able to learn many helpful ideas from the people who at the start I had judged so poorly.

Attitude can influence how we experience events around us.  An attitude of complaint and bitterness can cause us to see only those things that are annoying or not just exactly the way we want them. We can start to focus on small minute details that we magnify to be large irritants.  We only see the problems with a situation rather than the blessings that are also there.  We adopt a negative filter for everything that comes our way and then ooze that feeling into our relationships.  If this continues we can develop the reputation of being a whiner and complainer by all with whom we come into contact.  Rather than being a shining light for all to see we become a real downer and someone to be avoided at all cost.

Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, encourages us to do everything without complaint and arguing.  He says that this will help us to avoid criticism.  I am not sure that I agree with him totally on this point, as we cannot control what others think about us.  Even if we do everything cheerfully, there will be some who will find fault with us.  However, if we become more aware of our attitude and strive to experience life from a position of gratefulness and optimism, I believe we will find less to criticize in ourselves.  We will begin to look forward to the day and the tasks we have on our schedules.  We will be able to tackle the harder or less desirable responsibilities from an attitude of openness to the lesson to be learned from them. We will begin to reflect a lightness of heart and this light will attract others to us. They will notice the lightness in our step and our ability to grow, even through difficult times.

It is hard to keep a positive attitude in a world that is full of violence, greed and other ways humanity demonstrates the crooked and perverse nature Paul mentions in the scripture above.  Sometimes the evening news is so full of disaster and devastation that it is hard not to grieve and become hopeless.  Yet, each day, each moment we have the choice to focus on what we lack or what we have--to focus on what is going well or what needs to be improved.  If we get lost in the hopelessness, our attitude adds to the problem.  If we can choose to focus on the possibilities, we have a chance to become part of the hope shining in the world. Let us do everything without complaining or arguing but rather with the attitude of hope and love shining forth to all we meet.

A New Beginning

Welcome to the blog of Living Tree Counseling Services.  This is a first attempt to use a new media to get out the word about the services we offer.  From time to time, we will be uploading articles written by Rev. Dr. Denise McGuiness or Rev. Roberta Egli.  We are hoping that these articles might be helpful to you on your spiritual journey.  We welcome any comments and suggestions of future issues you would like to see address.  We will also use this website to post information about upcoming events.  We are excited to begin on this new adventure in using the internet to communicate.  Blessings, Denise