St. John's Contemplative Prayer

"We do not find God in the noise and clamor but in the silence of our hearts." — Henry Nouwen

All are welcome to join us for Contemplative Prayer in the St. John's chapel beside the nave on Tuesdays at 5:30. It does not matter what your meditation practice is or even if you are completely new to this kind of prayer, you are welcome; you will find support here. We are a group of about 8 or 9 dedicated folk that have been getting together for about 8 years. We started outside the church in the home of Una Karner. Now we meet year-round at St. John's.

Most of us practice a type of meditation called Centering Prayer. This is essentially wordless prayer; we simply open our hearts and minds to God and rest in God. First, we choose a word such as "God, Yahweh, Jesus, Love, Compassion" or any word that is meaningful to us personally. We come back to the word silently when we are distracted by our own thoughts. We watch our thoughts, but we only see them; we don't react, judge or analyze them. We just simply release them to God. There is a misconception that the aim is to have no thoughts. Not true!And probably not completely possible! Our desire and hope is that over time, and with a diligent practice, we will come to a little experience of "the peace that passes all understanding."