Prayer. Simple.

Many years ago, as a volunteer with the Taize Community, I asked its founder, Brother Roger about prayer. During each of the common prayers (thrice daily) there was a substantial amount of silent prayer - around 7-10 minutes worth in one block. At the age of 18/19 I really wasn't sure what to do with this time. I'd never been coached in the art of silent prayer, being much more used to rather formulaic prayer, prayer out loud - and even when praying on my own it wasn't for any real length of time.

Brother Roger reassured me. He told me that it didn't matter if I used the time to just rest; even fall asleep (which I sometimes did, waking with pins and needles as a result of the position of my body with my legs tucked under me)!

In his book 'Living for Love: Selected Texts' there is a prayer which chimes with me: 'Holy Spirit, consoling Spirit, when we remain in your presence, silent, at peace, that is already prayer. You understand everything about us, and at times even a simple sigh can be a prayer.' Such simplicity in those words and reassurance for me over the years when I feel that I have struggled to pray.

During this time of sabbatical, I've not found it particularly difficult to pray. A lot of outside distractions have been removed. Generally, I don't know what's going on in the parish having removed my work email from the various devices that I have. It doesn't mean to say that I've forgotton it or people - I most certainly haven't and the joy of being taken away from distractions is that my prayer can be a little more focused and less hurried. One joy has been engaging with various forms of daily office (morning and evening prayer and other prayer during the day). I've used the Taize Office as well as the Missal and the Benedictine offices too. However, the one thing that I've turned to most has been the Church of England's Daily Prayer app because it offers a recording of Morning and Evening Prayer - in listening and joining the recording I feel as if I am joining with others. I've said morning and evening prayer besides the motorhome, on a beach (more than once), on a walk - you get my drift. In the beauty of the countryside that has given me much more of a sense of closeness to God; closeness to the Holy Spirit. When I am home I must make sure that I carve out more time for the daily offices.

There are times, however, when I do find it difficult to pray and connect with God. However much I remind myself of the words of Brother Roger and in particular that prayer above, my connection seems to be dull, lacking signal and I struggle to get through. I don't think there's any particular reason for it - perhaps I'm just not in the 'zone' or right frame of mind. Either way, it can be a struggle. I was at a church recently (not my own parish) where, during the intercessions it felt as if we prayed for absolutely everything - at least once - and again! It was a shopping list......I found thwat difficult as well as distracting and I have to confess that I longed for it to end. I was certainly not connecting with God that time. There have been other times, though, during a service's intercessions that I've found something that has really chimed and I have connected.

During this time of sabbatical, I've found more connection - the scenery and isolation has helped and I really have no excuses! There are no distractions! Being part of a congregation as a visitor has also been a joy.

Music: I've also listened to a lot of music on my travels. On longer journeys I've flitted from podcasts, spoken radio and music just to mix things up a bit. I've not really, up until now, been a Christian music sort of person. I'm not sure what it is but there's often been something that I've not liked in some form or another. But with the joy of Spotify's 'smart shuffle' I've put my trust in the algorithm to choose some music for me as well as the stuff on my playlist. I can't remember a lot of it but generally the algorythm has come up trumps. A couple of Christian singer/songwriters I have listened to for a while are Lauren Daigle, Audrey Assad and Matt Maher (the latter sang 'Lord I need you' at a Roman Catholic youth gathering with Pope Francis at Benediction which I find incredibly moving - see HERE).

Music has always accompanied me - I tend to have music on at home whilst I work, I put it on in the car and it will depend what sort of mood I'm in in terms of what I listen to. My pride and joy in the study is my Rega Planar turntable and collection of vinyl which is an eclectic mix. There's something about the sound from a record that one doesn't get from anything else. That and the need to get up every 20 minutes or so to turn the record over or change adds to the experience.

It seems to me that whilst we have music put into categories, there's plenty of music out there from contemporary artists that have a spiritual tone to them. Mumford & Sons, Coldplay, Kate Rusby and the like all write songs that have what feels like a spiritual connection with them. Coldplay's recent 'We Pray' is self-explanatory (link HERE to the full song):-

'I pray that I don't give up, pray that I do my best

Pray that I can lift up, pray my brother is blessed

Prayin' for enough, pray Virgilio wins

Pray I judge nobody and forgive me my sins

I pray we make it, pray my friend will pull through

Pray as I take it unto others, I do

Prayin' on your love, we pray with every breath

Though I'm in the valley of the shadow of death

And so we pray for someone to come and show me the way

And so we pray for some shelter and some records to play

And so we pray, we'll be singin' "Baraye"

Pray that we make it to the end of the day'

Generally, over the years, I've connected more, from a faith and worship perspective outside of a church service with secular music. I'm not entirely sure why - perhaps it's the very style of music that doesn't chime with me, sometimes it is the words that challenge me theologically or I just plain disagree with. However, saying that, I'm listening to more music from the definitive 'Christian Music' genre (as defined by Spotify).

I have written a bit about music as it often helps me pray. It certainly helps me connect with God. Some of it (music) might be loud and shouty but more often than not it's the quieter more contemplative music that enables that connection. It might be classical but more often than not it's contemporary.

Here are two pieces - one from Lauren Daigle (most definitely in that Christian Music genre) and one from Kate Rusby.

Thank God I do - Lauren Daigle

Today again - Kate Rusby