Contemplative Practice: Prayer of the Heart Intro

Gregg’s Reflection

On the Thinker/Feeler scale, I’m way over on the Thinker side. It took two years of intentional work to begin to get in touch with my feelings. So, I struggle when I hear the ancients say, “Put the mind in the heart…..Put the mind in the heart…..Stand before the Lord with the mind in the heart.”

Meditation was my first experience of silence and stillness. I found on rare occasions, there would be a crack between my thoughts, and I would experience what my Spiritual Director calls nanoseconds of grace. He calls them that because when you realize it is happening, it slips away. God cannot be grasped and held.

For twenty years, Genie and I spent spring and fall in Atlanta, in the midst of frenetic work and life. For summer and winter, we came to our off grid home in the mountains of Colorado. In Atlanta we would walk through the park every day, and in Colorado we are immersed in nature. Silence and solitude are our natural environs out here.

For five years, we have been in Colorado full time. I am now nearly ten years into a regular morning contemplative sit. This is where I sit.

I find sitting in silent contemplation allows me to move from my mind to my heart. Slowly, I am learning to live much nearer to the cave of the heart. Wade into this ancient practice. To wade deeper, find the rest of this post here.

Scripture

A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

Ezekiel 36:26

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Matthew 5:8

My spirit is praying but my mind is left barren.

1 Corinthians 14:14

Ancient Writings

My heart was deafened by the din of my mind.

St. Augustine

God may be reached and held close by love, but by means of thought never.

Cloud of Unknowing, Ira Progoff, p. 72

Sit down alone and in silence. Lower your head, shut your eyes, breathe out gently and imagine yourself looking into your own heart. Carry your mind, your thoughts, from your head to your heart. As you breathe that say: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.“ Say it moving your lips gently, or say it in your mind. Try to put all other thought aside. Be calm, be patient and repeat the process very frequently.

Symeon the New Theologian, The Way of a Pilgrim, p. 10

Modern Writings

The concentration of attention in the heart—this is the starting point of all true prayer.

St. Theophan the Recluse (1815–1894), a Russian monk, bishop, and mystic. CAC Morning Devotion, 2/21/20

One must descend with the mind into the heart, and there stand before the face of the Lord, ever present, all seeing within you. The prayer takes a firm and steadfast hold, when a small fire begins to burn in the heart. Try not to quench this fire, and it will become established in such a way that the prayer repeats itself; and then you will have within you a small murmuring stream.

Theophan the Recluse, The Art of Prayer, p. 110

The mystery of the spiritual life is that Jesus desires to meet us in the seclusion of our own heart, to make his love known to us there, to free us from our fears, and to make our own deepest self known to us. In the privacy of our heart, therefore, we can learn not only to know Jesus but, through Jesus, ourselves as well.

Henri Nouwen, Nouwen Society Daily Devotion, 4/17/21

In Centering Prayer, anything that draws us away from our open consent, our resting in God, we call a “thought”. “Thoughts” can include strong emotions and body sensations as well as mental stories and images. Any of these things may be present during our Centering Prayer – they are normal aspects of our human nature. But when we find that they divert our attention, that we find ourselves engaging them instead of abiding with God, we let them go.

Centering Prayer is a practice of trust. As we let go, we trust that we let go to God’s loving arms. We let go of the notion that we need to “do” anything, or change anything about who we are: God loves us into being, and continues to love us exactly as we are. In this abiding trust we enter interior silence; however briefly, whether noticed or unnoticed (dropping from mind to heart). And remember, even if you find yourself letting go over and over again of your efforts, or of anything else, this is not a sign that you are failing – it is the heart of the practice.

You are learning a new way: letting go to God. You will find (or perhaps your loved ones will notice first!) that this new way begins to permeate your life and your way of being in the world, bearing the fruits of the spirit mentioned in Galatians 5: love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, and self-control. As we let go to God, God brings blessings into the world through us.

Joy Andrews Hayter, Contemplative Outreach November ‘20 Newsletter

Your Heart is the Center of your being. It is the very core of our being, the spiritual center. Solitude and silence are ways to get to the heart, because the heart is the place where God speaks to us, where we hear the voice that calls us beloved. In the famous story, Elijah was standing in front of the cave. God was not in the storm, God was not in the fire and not in the earthquake, but God was in that soft little voice (see 1 Kings 19: 11–12). That soft little voice ... speaks to the heart. Prayer and solitude are ways to listen to the voice that speaks to our heart, in the center of our being.

Henri Nouwen, Nouwen Society Daily Devotion, 1/3/21