“In the early morning, while it was still dark,
Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place,
and was praying there.” Mark 1:35

Hello, Explorations Participants.

I am checking in to see how your first days of June have gone. Did you create an horarium? How successful are you at using it? (See the stmichaelcranford.org Menu option for Summer Prayer. The sample horarium is in Part 2.)
Did you have any “new” personal prayer experiences – something that was different from what happens in your “normal” personal prayer?

If we think that the only daily routines we have to keep true to are the physical routines of keeping our body in order (bathe, eat, brush our teeth, exercise, etc.) and the routines of our work (planning, executing, checking on tasks and results, etc.), we are missing out on developing what should mean the most to us: our evolving selves:  who we are becoming and what impact we are having on those we love and who love us.  What will happen to us and to them, if we do not program into our routines time to grow into a better me and to grow our relationships with those we cherish and who cherish us?

What I have suggested we do this summer is that each of us put in writing our daily schedules, our Horarium (schedule for the hours of the day) and add to it what is not there and should be there. Then try to follow it daily, making sure that it, not only gets us to accomplish the bodily and work-related things we "need" to do, but that following it is building up us and our relationships -- that we are growing into the people and the communities of people that God has made us capable of becoming. And that takes incorporating into our schedules time to pray, to be aware of our ever-present God who knows us better than anyone else. God is the only one that knows who we and others really are. Only God, our creator, knows what we could/should be doing. When was the last time I asked God:  How am I doing?

So, if you haven't created your horarium, get to it! And start using it.  If you do, I think you will find that by September, you will have a more joyful outlook on life.

THE PURPOSE OF THIS SUMMER PRAYER PROJECT

Now I expect that some of you are viewing this summer project as homework which, for years, you have refused to do. But this is something quite different. I want this to be a summer-long experiment and, more than that, a life-changing experience for you. You are the one in the driver’s seat for allowing that to happen! Think of it as a summer vacation excursion for you and God. If you can be consistent in engaging your inner self as you try to follow your own daily schedule dotted with some stop-to-pray moments, I am confident that you will be a more joyful, more genuine you by the end of the summer.

You may be a bit skeptical and, perhaps, even fearful of this. Each of you already has a way of praying and times for praying. You’re comfortable and happy with your prayer. But is the goal of your prayer for you to be happy and comfortable? Or is it for you to be drawn closer to God - for you to be increasingly more appreciative of God, more willing to let God be the One who owns your heart and your soul?

Some of our comfortableness with the way we pray may be more our "enjoying" where we are now. But the goal of prayer isn’t joy. It’s closeness to God and growth into more of our own fulness of being. And that means conversion. And none of us wants to get into the messiness of conversion which happens when we move from a prayer mode that supports and comforts us to one that opens us to see our flaws as God sees them. Think about that, myself included. Do we really want conversion or to stay the way we are?

Next:  Personal Prayer