The Oratory: A space to seek God
"Americans, of course, have made of God a casual circumstance. We have prayer meetings with coffee cups in our hands and listen to psalmody with our legs crossed and our arms spread eagled on the back of our pews. We avoid churches and say that since God is everywhere, any place is good enough. All of which is true, at one level. But Benedictine spirituality says also that to know God in time and space we must regularly seek to find God in one time and space that enables us to recognize God more easily in every other one." - Joan Chittister, "Rule of St. Benedict: A Spirituality for the 21st Century
When I was nineteen years old, attending college in a small town in southern Illinois, I learned how to meditate. Transcendental Meditation was a new thing in those days, and disciples of TM were in town proselytizing and recruiting followers. I followed. I remember the instructions clearly and even the mantra they gave me. Meditate twice a day for 20 minutes. Use the mantra because it is a two syllable sound that will follow your breath. Breath in with the first syllable, breath out with the second. Allow your thoughts to reside as just background noise, use your mantra to focus your mind. In the beginning practicing was just the process of developing a habit. Over time the habit became a practice and then the practice became a meaningful discipline.
Christianity found me again when I was in my late twenties. However, it took me several more years to work up the courage to walk into a church and try to attend again. I was literally terrified of organized religion. I was terrified that all the work I had done to develop whatever small sense of self I had would be subsumed under the dogma of religion. Don't think for yourself and, you must believe this in order to be faithful and be saved. I wanted both - I wanted to be able to think for myself, to understand how I knew God and what I believed BUT within the context of a faith tradition that would provide a framework. I did not want to make up my own belief system, I wanted to be fully me within a belief system. My experience with Christianity up to the point in time informed me that this was not possible. So, I returned to church as a skeptic, yet one that was clearly being called back and could not deny that call.
That I was encouraged to check out the Episcopal church was no accident. The ministry who married my husband and me, who journeyed with us through six months of deeply insightful premarital counseling, talked to us about the Episcopal church. She said that it would fit my husband's Roman Catholic upbringing, and it would allow plenty of space for me to wonder and ask questions. She helped me realize that not all Christian traditions and churches were the same, and maybe I could find a place to learn and grow.
As I came to understand faith and Christianity through the lens of the Episcopal Church, I found I also had to reconcile my daily practice of meditation. It took me awhile to understand that TM and centering prayer were similar, and that TM and the kind of contemplative prayer that Theresa of Avila engaged in where also similar. TM's purpose was to create the space in one's head for silence and in that silence to know one's self more fully. TM encouraged a deeper connection to self and therefore the world. Christian contemplative prayer invites silence as a way to listen to God by making room in one's head for silence and listening. Hearing God in contemplative prayer does not mean, necessarily, that God actually says something in that time of silence. It does mean that all the rest of the day one is more present to the possibility that God is speaking in and through the circumstances of the day.
Joan Chittister, in today's reflection on the rule of Benedict, encourages one to have a consistent place to go where one can be present to the possibility of God. She encourages this place to be a church, or in the Benedictine monastic tradition, the Oratory. the chapel. Churches today are the only place in our world, our lives, dedicated solely to prayer. A weekly practice of coming to church invites one into a space, where through silence, song, and words, one makes room inside of one's self to be present to God. This is a practice of the person. No one worship service will automatically do this for anyone. Each person needs to take on the responsibility for making room inside of one's self to be present for how God is with you on any given day. No priest, no choir, no prayer will necessarily do that. No mantra in TM will lead one to silence. Only my willingness to try, to be open to possibility, to avail myself to God, will increase in me the capacity to see God in that space and then in other ways throughout my life. It is a daily, life long practice.
When I was nineteen years old, attending college in a small town in southern Illinois, I learned how to meditate. Transcendental Meditation was a new thing in those days, and disciples of TM were in town proselytizing and recruiting followers. I followed. I remember the instructions clearly and even the mantra they gave me. Meditate twice a day for 20 minutes. Use the mantra because it is a two syllable sound that will follow your breath. Breath in with the first syllable, breath out with the second. Allow your thoughts to reside as just background noise, use your mantra to focus your mind. In the beginning practicing was just the process of developing a habit. Over time the habit became a practice and then the practice became a meaningful discipline.
Christianity found me again when I was in my late twenties. However, it took me several more years to work up the courage to walk into a church and try to attend again. I was literally terrified of organized religion. I was terrified that all the work I had done to develop whatever small sense of self I had would be subsumed under the dogma of religion. Don't think for yourself and, you must believe this in order to be faithful and be saved. I wanted both - I wanted to be able to think for myself, to understand how I knew God and what I believed BUT within the context of a faith tradition that would provide a framework. I did not want to make up my own belief system, I wanted to be fully me within a belief system. My experience with Christianity up to the point in time informed me that this was not possible. So, I returned to church as a skeptic, yet one that was clearly being called back and could not deny that call.
That I was encouraged to check out the Episcopal church was no accident. The ministry who married my husband and me, who journeyed with us through six months of deeply insightful premarital counseling, talked to us about the Episcopal church. She said that it would fit my husband's Roman Catholic upbringing, and it would allow plenty of space for me to wonder and ask questions. She helped me realize that not all Christian traditions and churches were the same, and maybe I could find a place to learn and grow.
As I came to understand faith and Christianity through the lens of the Episcopal Church, I found I also had to reconcile my daily practice of meditation. It took me awhile to understand that TM and centering prayer were similar, and that TM and the kind of contemplative prayer that Theresa of Avila engaged in where also similar. TM's purpose was to create the space in one's head for silence and in that silence to know one's self more fully. TM encouraged a deeper connection to self and therefore the world. Christian contemplative prayer invites silence as a way to listen to God by making room in one's head for silence and listening. Hearing God in contemplative prayer does not mean, necessarily, that God actually says something in that time of silence. It does mean that all the rest of the day one is more present to the possibility that God is speaking in and through the circumstances of the day.
Joan Chittister, in today's reflection on the rule of Benedict, encourages one to have a consistent place to go where one can be present to the possibility of God. She encourages this place to be a church, or in the Benedictine monastic tradition, the Oratory. the chapel. Churches today are the only place in our world, our lives, dedicated solely to prayer. A weekly practice of coming to church invites one into a space, where through silence, song, and words, one makes room inside of one's self to be present to God. This is a practice of the person. No one worship service will automatically do this for anyone. Each person needs to take on the responsibility for making room inside of one's self to be present for how God is with you on any given day. No priest, no choir, no prayer will necessarily do that. No mantra in TM will lead one to silence. Only my willingness to try, to be open to possibility, to avail myself to God, will increase in me the capacity to see God in that space and then in other ways throughout my life. It is a daily, life long practice.
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