Experiments in Christian Spirituality

'No phone zone' baskets are cropping up in restaurants, family homes and at young peoples's get togethers. In many of these instances people are voluntarily putting their phones aside for a period because they can see the benefits of doing so. I've already written a post on putting phones and other distractions aside at meal times so that we can focus on those we are eating with or talk to God while eating. One popular place to put a 'no phone zone' basket is the place where you eat. Is that something you could try out once? Another popular 'no phone zone' area is the bedroom. Many people try to make their bedrooms a phone free area as they feel it helps them have a better quality of life and sleep better. Some people have a 'no phone zone' basket just inside their bedroom door that they drop their phone in when they enter the room and only pick up on their way out. Depending on your living arrangements and what other space you have ava...

Using our bodies in our worship and prayer helps us to enter into that worship and prayer all the more deeply. You may be familiar with Christians of various traditions making the sign of the cross on themselves by touching their forehead then their chest then their shoulders. There's another form of making the sign of the cross that involves making three little crosses on yourself in three different places. Have you come across it? In more catholic Anglican churches, when the priest prepares to read the Gospel passage in the Holy Communion service, several of the worshippers might use their thumb to mark a tiny cross shape on their forehead, then their lips, then their chest before they hear the passage read out to them. This gesture-prayer is a way of praying, "May Christ be in my thinking and in my speaking and in my heart and motives." It's a beautiful little prayer than encompasses all of life. In fact, this little gesture prayer needn't only be used i...

Have you ever experimented with keeping a journal? A spiritual journal is a journal that helps you focus on your personal relationship with God. There are no rules when it comes to keeping one. You can just enjoy experimenting with what helps you. There are a couple of things that a spiritual journal isn't . Some Christians have notebooks for notes they make from Bible studies and sermons. That can be another thing to experiment with if you feel it might be helpful to you. A spiritual journal is a bit different though. It's not so much for studying and learning as it is for helping you notice what's going on in your own life and helping you notice what God's doing in your life. A spiritual journal isn't a diary either. It's not somewhere you have to write down an account of each day (unless you want to!) or an account 'what happened' each prayer time. It's not something you have to write in each day. There's no pressure with it at all. ...

Many Anglicans believe that Jesus is present in a special way in the Holy Communion bread and wine that have been prayed over by a priest (the "Blessed Sacrament"). For centuries there's been a tradition of keeping some Blessed Sacrament bread aside, particularly so that it can be taken to those who are ill or house-bound. In this context it is called "Reserved Sacrament" because some has been kept aside after a Holy Communion service. Reserved Sacrament is considered so special that it needs to be kept somewhere secure. It's also felt that it needs to be kept somewhere fittingly special. For that reason it's usually locked inside a little cupboard in the church wall called an aumbry. (Aumbry simply means 'closet' or 'chest'.) In some buildings the aumbry sticks out from the wall, and in others it fits into an alcove within the wall. Sometimes in Church of England church buildings it;s covered by a tiny curtain. Just like the roy...

One of the things that all the classical spiritual writers stressed was the importance of not skipping or shortening your prayer time. Of all the well known spiritual writers who have written about the depths of prayer and intimacy with God, many have stressed that the first stage of this spiritual growth lies in faithfully sticking to your prayer time(s) day in and day out, and not giving in to the temptation to shorten them. Many spiritual writers have advised that you choose how long your 'prayer session' will be each day (and at what time) then you turn up at that time and stay put for that length of time come what may. In a sense, the turning up every day and the staying put for the set length of time is more important than anything that you sense happening during the prayer time. There are two temptations we need to resist. One is the temptation to skip our prayer time because we don't feel like it or because we feel we have too much to do. The other is the tem...

Have you heard of 'greater silence'? It's very common in religious communities for 'greater silence' to be kept over the final hours of the day and the first hours of the following day.  'Greater silence' usually begins around 8:00pm or 9:00pm, and ends around 9:00am the next day. During this time nobody speaks or watches TV or plays music etc so that everyone can give more attention to God during these particularly special times of day. The night-time service, called Compline, marks a transition. It formally marks the end of the day's work, tasks and conversations. It puts everything and everyone into God's hands, and it signifies the beginning of this profound 'quiet time with God'. When those in religious communities come out of Compline they walk out in silence. This last part of their day (and the first part of the next day) is reserved for conversation with God. Not speaking during these hours works for monks and nuns but would...

This is another 'noticing' experiment. How do you spend the last hour or two before you go to sleep each night? And what do you in the first hour that you're awake in the morning?  Stopping to notice what you do in these last and first hours might reveal to you something of your priorities, your desires, the people most important to you, the things that most 'suck you in', or something of your well-being in general. Do you like how you spend your last and first hour of each day?

You may be familiar with fans of meditation or followers of Buddhism talking about their daily 'sitting practice'. Christians can have a daily sitting practice too. In fact it's a very important and healthy part of our prayer life. Jesus commended Mary for taking time to simply sit at his feet (Luke 10:38-42). That's all we're doing in Christian contemplative prayer. Do you have a practice of sitting in silence in Jesus' presence? Some Christians find it helpful to make this a regular daily thing. Some Christians find that 15-20 minutes each day works well for them. I know several Christians who spend 30 minutes a day in this kind of wordless prayer. Those who promote Centering Prayer, which is one way of describing this kind of prayer, suggest a daily practice of 20 mins in the morning and 20 mins in the evening. You don't need to sit in the lotus position or cross legged for this kind of prayer. You could kneel on a prayer stool or sit...

Do you ever find that you're reading Bible passages or saying prayers quickly? Do you ever find that you rush into your prayer time, or that you go from one activity to the next without any space or 'gathering yourself together' in between? Jesus was busy but he made sure to live at a slowed down pace and to pause between activities. He wasn't even in a rush when one of his best friends, Lazarus, was dying. Many of us need to learn to slow down and to pause. When monks and nuns pray together in chapel they practise slowing down and pausing. They enter chapel 5-10mins early so that they have time to find the pages they need in their books and so that they can sit silently recollecting themselves before the service begins. Once their service (Office) begins, they say their prayers at an unrushed speed and they pause half way through each sentence. Doing this a few times a day helps them in the unrushed and recollected way of life that we see in Jesus. There...

We just took down our Christmas cards and decorations (except for a few Epiphany things) and several people commented on what a stilling effect it had. Our surroundings have a huge impact on us physically, mentally and spiritually. It's well known that cluttered surroundings can cause stress, depression and tiredness. On the flip side, uncluttered surroundings help us sleep better, help us feel more rested and peaceful, help us stress less because we can find things easily, help us think more clearly, feel more alert, and keep us in a more positive mood. It can be difficult to keep every room in the house clutter free if you have children or live with a very messy person but millions of people testify to the fact that doing what you can where you can to declutter has a hugely positive effect on our physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing. Spiritually speaking, an uncluttered room helps us avoid distractions and helps us enter into prayer more easily. A lot o...

Here's a very simple 'noticing' exercise to try out. What do you hear when you stop everything for a few moments? Perhaps you can try this right now. Can you stop and be still for 3 minutes? What do you hear outside yourself? Do you hear traffic? A plane? Children? People working? Birds? A bee? Wind or rain? A clock? Buzzing coming from an electronic device? What do you hear inside yourself? Chances are that if you try to be silent for a few minutes you will notice how noisy your mind is! What is it you notice going round your mind? A conversation you had earlier? Thoughts or plans about things you need to do? A daydream about something? This is just a noticing exercise. You don't need to do anything other than become acquainted with the noises around and inside you. If you try this little exercise a few times it will help you grow in attentiveness. You might find a recurring theme or two in the things your mind is 'noisy' or preoccupied with. What ...

I recently heard that the restaurant Frankie & Benny's has introduced a phone ban in its UK branches. Parents are offered free meals for their children if they put their phones in a box in the middle of the table for the duration of the meal. It seems Frankie & Benny's are concerned about the extent to which mobile phones distract us from relating to each other. A lot of people are becoming increasingly concerned about this. As awareness for the need for this kind of 'phones away' discipline is growing, phone ban boxes such as the one in the photo above are appearing on the scene in restaurants, cafes and people's own homes. God made us to be in relationship with God and with each other. Across cultures and centuries, meal times have traditionally been an especially important time for putting distractions aside and connecting with each other. Even in the monastic tradition of silent meals together, the meal time is a time for connecting with God...

It's the new year. Time to make some resolutions to live life more fully and intentionally! Jesus said he came that we might enjoy a deep relationship with God and have abundant life. It's that time of year when people are making resolutions or trying to get their life in better shape. Something that can be really helpful for helping get our spiritual lives in better shape is a habit tracker. Habit trackers can be useful to our spiritual lives in two ways. If we need help with self-discipline in our prayer lives or Christian living a habit tracker can be a great accountability partner. They say it takes three or four weeks to develop a habit. It can be difficult to stay faithful to setting aside time for prayer each day. For people who struggle with sticking with reading the Bible or praying every day, a habit tracker might help them stick at it long enough for it to become a habit. Others might already be in the habit of reading the Bible and praying each day but ...

When we read about the lives of the saints and other exemplary Christians, we realise that they were the extraordinary people they were because of their deep friendship with Jesus. They frequently spent quality time with Jesus. They stayed close to Jesus throughout the day. They weren't in this relationship just for what they could get out of it. They had a two way genuine friendship with Jesus. Their prayer lives included both talking and listening. They talked to God about what was on their heart and they listened to what was on God's heart. There are lots of ways of praying and you might say there are different depths of prayer. Some of the most familiar forms of prayer are praying set words, singing songs to God, thanking God, praying for others (intercession) and praying for ourselves (petition). There are deeper ways of praying too. There is listening prayer where you sit in silence listening to what God might be saying to you. There is meditation where you me...

We can try to fit God around ourselves, or we can live in a way that teaches us to fit ourselves around God. For years people thought that the sun revolved around the earth, but actually the sun is the centre of our universe. The earth revolves around the sun, not the other way round. What would our days look like if we structured them around God? One of the things that has greatly helped many Christians over the centuries to revolve around God is fixed time prayer. Let's look at what fixed time prayer is... Many Christians 'frame' their day with prayer: they pray in some way first thing, and before meals, and some time before bed. One step deeper than that, many Christians have 'semi-fixed' times of prayer. As well as praying informally throughout the day, they might have a slightly more formal prayer time 'when they wake up' or 'after breakfast' or 'on their lunch break' or 'when they get home from work' or 'before ...

I was once staying with a friend who was trying to teach her children the difference between 'treat food' and 'every day food'. She was explaining to them that 'treat foods' such as cake were for special occasions not 'every day eating'. She was also explaining to them that keeping special foods for special days helped keep those foods and those days all the more special. In our current world of abundance and continuous indulgence we've lost something of the 'special foods only on special occasions' experience that was part of the pattern of peoples' lives in previous decades and centuries. Christmas used to be a time for eating foods you were unlikely to eat during the rest of the year. Sunday dinner would involve food that was more special and expensive than what would be eaten during the rest of the week. In our current lives in richer western countries, meat, cake, nice puddings and biscuits, chocolate, alcohol, eating out etc ...

Chances are that on a typical day you drink at least four cups of tea or coffee. What are you doing while you're drinking them? In our fast paced multi-tasking lives, it's important that we find moments in our day to quieten down, slow down and be more attentive to the present moment. This might commonly be called 'mindfulness'. In Christianity we might call it 'practising the presence of God', or more accurately 'becoming more attentive to the presence of God'. "Be still and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10) If you can spare ten minutes, how about trying having one of your cups of coffee / tea / hot chocolate in silence. You might be able to do this early in the morning or on your lunch break or later in the day. This little challenge isn't just about silence but also about not doing anything else while you enjoy your drink. No phone. No newspaper. No Sudoku. No reading the Bible even. Simply sitting with your mug and with...

Prayer is about real encounter with the living God, not about nice ambience and warm fuzzy experience, but we're human and our surroundings can help (or hinder us) with prayer.  'Hygge' has been very popular the last few years, and there are ways that I feel some of the principles and ways of hygge can help our spiritual lives. Pronounced 'hoo-ga', the Danish concept is somehow about cosiness, slowing down, enjoying the simple things in life, and enjoying the company of those we love.  How often do we set aside quality time to enjoy God's company? How many of us have a set meeting place where we look forward to encountering God regularly? A lot of Christians find it helpful to have a certain prayer corner or a certain chair or spot that they pray in. Over the winter you might like to have fun creating a warm inviting prayer spot in a hygge style. Candles are part of the hygge aesthetic and they also help many Christians focus during their pr...

Did you know that St Francis of Assisi, who lived in the 13th Century, is credited with 'inventing' the nativity set? He found a trip to Bethlehem so powerful that he wanted to create a way of really entering into the story of Jesus' birth himself. He set up an empty manger in a cave in Italy and stationed a live ox and donkey next to it. He wanted to use these visual aids and this life size experience to appreciate more fully the poverty and simplicity into which Jesus was born. This visual exercise had an extremely powerful affect on Francis, and he invited the local villagers to experience it for themselves. They also found it very powerful and the spiritual exercise caught on and spread throughout Europe. The spiritual exercise Francis of Assisi was engaging in here is very similar to a way of praying with the Bible called "Gospel Contemplation". In Gospel Contemplation we take a story from one of the Gospels but rather than creating the scene phy...

A simplified Christmas helps us to focus on what Christmas is really about. I wonder if a lot of the things we do at Christmas are because we feel we need to meet others' expectations when it might be that they would find a more simplified Christmas refreshing and all the more meaningful. Thousands of people have been finding ways of simplifying their Christmas celebrations over recent years and their well-being and bank accounts have greatly benefited. You can search the internet for hundreds of their ideas. Here are just a few: Don't go overboard with decorations or wrapping. Simple can be even more effective. Don't try to buy presents for too many people. Only spend a modest amount on each present and just keep presents to one meaningful item per person. Don't feel you have to say yes to every invitation or event. Jesus said no at times and you're allowed to too. Don't let tradition become a burden. Just because you've done something every ye...