Spiritual Energy for Others

I made two stops on my way into work today in order to find my sugar free Rockstar. I drink an energy drink most days these days. My reason is the same that my former colleague in the Redemptorists, Greg Meyers, gave for putting STP in his gas tank: "It feels good to do it." I believe this applies to spiritual energy as well. Like many others, I've personally experienced the benefits of others directing their "spiritual energy" (more commonly called "prayers") in my direction. The most significant event of this in my life was the consequence of an accident I experienced in 1964 at the age of 20. I was riding on top of a hay truck at 35 miles an hour when a low branch over the highway swept me head first onto the pavement. The result was a concussion, fractured skull, and separated shoulder when I landed on my head and right shoulder. I was unconscious when they rushed me to the first hospital but came to on the way to the second. The next day the doctors were concerned enough about me to summon my parents from a city 500 miles away. But Monday the neurologist treating me walked in and said, "I've never seen anyone improve so much over a weekend." What happened? I didn't receive any drugs or treatment. I was only medically observed. But I did have a large number of believing people praying for me continuously over that weekend. The technical name for this kind of prayer in "intercessory prayer". That's the name of what we're doing when we pray for others. This is one of two prayer practices that fueled the start and incredible growth of the YMCA movement. Luke 22:31-32 details Jesus' intercessory prayer for Peter and the other disciples. In praying for others, we follow the example of our Teacher. Up in the top left hand corner you see my visual version of intercessory prayer I just completed for strengthening the "C" in our greater Omaha YMCA. This "doodle prayer" is explained in the book Praying in Color by Sybil MacBeth. MacBeth describes this as a visual way to be more faithful to our promise to pray for others.

1. Put yourself in God's presence.


2. Draw a shape or letter on the page.


3. Put a name inside the shape of a person, event that you are praying for.


4. Add details.


5. Color.


6. Hold this person, event, etc. in your mind's eye as you hold yourself in God's presence.


7. Perhaps add words of prayer intention to your doodle.

MacBeth suggests that a way to bring ourselves back to our intercessory prayer and back to God's loving presence throughout the day is to carry that drawing with us or put it on our desk.

Prayer can be fun! We need only remember how our Teacher, Jesus, welcomes children in Matthew 19:13-15.

Another visual prayer practice is putting these doodles or pictures of individuals we want to pray for in one of the small 4"x6" photo booklets and referring to it in this same way throughout a day or number of days. (For gadget nuts like me you might put them on your phone or IPad).

Back to where I started with energy drinks. My real motivation for drinking energy drinks almost every day comes from my sister-in-law, Marilyn, a professional nutritionist. Without knowing I occasionally drank energy drinks, she did a nutritional assessment with me and, believe it or not, recommended one of the main ingredients in energy drinks, taurine, as a daily nutritional supplement. Intercessory prayer, like taurine at a chemical level, will energize.

Morning Watch

George Williams was 23 years old when he started the YMCA. At 73 he was knighted by Queen Victoria. Another young man in the YMCA movement, John R. Mott, was, at age 30, one of the founders of the World Christian Student Federation. At 81 he received the Nobel Peace Prize.

George and John both had a prayer practice that in part powered their success. That practice was the foundational practice that started the YMCA movement. John Mott wrote of that practice in a short pamphlet entitled The Morning Watch.

Simply stated, the morning watch is 1/2 hour at the start of the day in prayer and Bible study. It is amazingly similar to the ancient Christian spirituality practice called Lectio Divina, Sacred (or Holy) Reading.

Here's what Mott says about this practice:

The keeping of the morning watch is the secret of largest and most enduring achievement in life and in service.

The morning watch prepares us for the day's conflict.

Many persons begin with a few moments of prayer, follow this with a season of Bible study, then spend some time in meditation, and close with special prayer.

After praying and during Bible study it is well to pause and listen to what the Lord shall say.

The practice of Lectio Divina was first written about by one of the early Christian fathers, Origen, around the year 185 CE. Guido of Arezzo, a Benedictine monk, identified the four steps of this prayer practice in his short writing, The Monk's Ladder, in 1150 CE. Here are his four steps, the heart of this practice and of Benedictine spirituality, and, seemingly, the same practice John Mott calls "Morning Watch".

Lectio (Reading) - read a passage of the Bible over several times slowly.

Meditatio (Thinking) - reflection on the words or phrases that catch one's attention and what thoughts and feelings are stirred up by those words or phrases.

Oratio (Praying) - talk directly to God in a conversations tone about what has come to mind and heart.

Contemplatio (Contemplating) - rest and listen to God's response in your heart.

The last of the three named Jewish patriarchs, Jacob (of "Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob"), had his name changed to Israel, which means "the one who struggled with God". This it seems to me, is what both John Mott and Guido of Arezzo call each of us to do, to struggle with God at the start of the day. This too, in some way, is perhaps a way to follow in the footsteps of Jesus whom we see struggling in prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, as he faced his most difficult day.

Breath Prayer

Charlie called it a ‘God moment’. I saw it happen. My wife, Nancy, and I were recording a weekly session of “Focus on the C” for KCRO, Omaha’s 660AM Christian radio station. We were talking about “aspirations”, or today what is called “Breath Prayer”. Charlie says, “What would be an example of a breath prayer.” And Nancy says, “A Breath Prayer is just 6 to 8 words or syllables long. A lot of them are taken from the Bible. One example is ‘Not my will but your will be done.”

I can visibly see the words sink into Charlie’s heart. “I just had a God moment,” he says. This is the power of a Breath Prayer or aspiration as they were called in “the old days”. Aspiration comes from a Latin word, aspirare, which means ‘to breath’. Breath Prayers were used by Christians early in the history of the church as a way to have access to Bible passages throughout their day. There were no printing presses. Copies of the gospels and other Bible texts were expensive and rare. So the first believers memorized short passages or phrases, “Son of David, have mercy on me”; “My yoke is sweet, my burden light”; “My Lord and my God”. And they would bring them to mind and repeat them throughout their day.

A particularly famous Breath Prayer is the “Jesus Prayer”, the central theme of the 19th century Russian spiritual classic of the Orthodox tradition, The Way of a Pilgrim (http://tinyurl.com/wayofpilgrim). The story is of a Russian pilgrim wandering through the countryside and towns teaching this Breath Prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me” and the practice of saying it continuously. The scripture text that spiritual writers quote for this practice and that the pilgrim in this classic quotes is 1 Thessalonians 5:17, “Pray always”. Richard Foster in Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home (http://tinyurl.com/prayerfindingtheheartstruehome), and Rick Warren in The Purpose Driven Life (http://tinyurl.com/purposelife) both teach about Breath Prayer.

How to Do the Breath Prayer
1. Find a quiet place.
2. Try starting easily with perhaps a 5 minute daily practice.
3. Pick out a favorite 6-8 word or less phrase from the Bible. Perhaps shorten a favorite passage to a few words that can be said in a single breath.
4. Set a timer for 5 minutes.
5. Perhaps break the phrase in two, thinking one part breathing in and a second breathing out.
6. Attend just to your breath and the prayer.

But back to the “God Moment” recording “Focus on the C”. Here’s how I know how Charlie experienced that moment. You see, my wife, Nancy, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease last July. When the first symptom showed up, the trembling in her left hand, the other changes came almost instantaneously. All of her movement slowed. Her personal “gas tank” suddenly shrunk: her energy almost disappeared. Her left side, trembling all day long, became sore and stiff each night.

You’ve seen Parkinson’s if you watch the news. The late Catholic Pope, John Paul II, died of Parkinson’s. We watched him die, day by day, week after week, year after year, as the disease slowly drained him of his life. So when my wife, Nancy, said, “Not my will, but your will be done”, she was speaking what she had been praying and living for nine months. And she breathed her faith into Charlie.