What is prayer?
Prayer is stopping
Prayer is stopping rather than starting
Stopping rather than doing
It is stopping talking
Stopping thinking
Stopping lighting candles
Stopping list-making
Stopping asking
Stopping all attempts at control
Stopping reading
Stopping repressing
Stopping narcissistic worry
Stopping manipulation of the world
Stopping the should and the ought and the latest technique
Prayer is stopping
No more and no less, prayer is stopping
Stopping to listen to the vulnerable truth of your beating heart
To listen to all that your breathing brings to the surface
Breathing in and breathing out, we are stopping to listen
Like Mary, pondering… not solving…
In time, prayer may become many things
But first, the most difficult of callings – beyond thought, beyond words, the letting go, the putting down, the opening up
Yes, first, we must actually….
…stop…the ultimate dare
