Anglican Prayer Bead Confirmation Experience

I sat on the beach at Tenby making knotted Anglican Prayer Cords for our
Confirmation Group - there are two adults (63 yrs and 38 yrs) and 3 young
people (12yrs). On our last session before the service, we had a practice and
then spent some time with God.

We started with an explanation and then we sang. We said the Lord's prayer on
the Cross, 'May the words of my mouth' etc on the invitatory bead, 'Jesus Lamb
of God, have mercy on me, a sinner' on the single beads - they repeated after me
rather than have it on a bit of paper, then on each group of seven beads, we prayed in
turn for the world, the church - worldwide, our parish, congregation, the
people that had told us about God; our family and friends - the people who
loved us, we loved, who encouraged us to be here; ourselves - our journey with
God, the service; and then back to the invitatory and Lord's Prayer. We
finished with anointing and another song.

It was a really good time together with God - there was that quiet and stillness
and unwillingness to move or break the silence which comes from having been in
the presence of God. Chandy

How to tie an Orthodox Prayer Rope

If you're feeling adventurous, I'm grateful to Brett, who sent me his link on How to tie an Orthodox Prayer Rope.

The Convent

Iona arrives - 'The Convent': Wednesday 14th June BBC2 9pm
Last year's ground-breaking 'The Monastery' made riveting viewing as we watched the journey of 5 ordinary men who spent 40 days in Worth Abbey with life-changing results.  This year's series about four women promises to be no less intriguing.  Visit the Poor Clares mini site on the series. Andrew

MP3 Prayer - iPod Prayer

Downloadable MP3/iPod prayer possibilities are emerging, and I've been experimenting with them; it's easy to listen to them in the car or as you're going along. Came across these iPray Lent movie clip prayer sessions too late for Lent, but there's another site offering daily iPod/MP3 prayer downloads which started as a Lent trial, but has now been extended due to overwhelming demand after a quarter of a million downloads. It's pray-as-you-go.org and you can download mp3 or WMA files or subscribe in iTunes to play on your MP3 player or iPod. The music tracks for the sessions (each session lasts 10 or 12 minutes - I found it helpful to pause from time to time) are listed here if you want to follow them up - they tend to be contemplative chant or meditation music. If you'd like to try out Ignatian Spirituality, (using your imagination to encounter Jesus) then pray-as-you-go might be a place to start. Enjoy! Andrew

to answer my question...

...does the gathering have to be physically together, or can it be spiritual and from a distance? I came across the Focolare movement years ago, and they opened my eyes to the reality that you can be 'gathered' in the intention and attitude of the presence of Jesus, of being 'in his name' with someone with whom you are not physically present. It can be a source of great strength... Andrew

getting mechanical

Been really busy leading up to Easter time - sorry for not being around to post. Just recently I found myself praying the Jesus Prayer quite fast and mechanically - it wasn't a prayer of my heart - I was just 'saying' it. What helped me was to slow down, take two or three words with each breath in and out, and focus on what I was saying and what it meant. I wonder too, how hard it is to pray the prayer on your own - Jesus promises: 'For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.' Now does the gathering have to be physically together, or can it be spiritual and from a distance? Andrew

focus

Maybe the strength of the Jesus Prayer is that it focusses on Jesus; it continually draws you to relate to Him, to consider Him, to believe in Him, to experience His compassion for yourself and ask it for others. The witness John wrote that Jesus said these words: "Believe in God, believe also in me.' (John 14:1)