A Prayer Retreat with Community
Often we don't leave enough room for prayer in our lives. We know we need to commune with God through his Spirit and Word, but we get busy. It's easy to leave prayer as a quick, routine thing we do before meal times. But what about setting aside time for extended prayer, not because we have an agenda for God, but simply because we want to enjoy his presence?
This is where the beauty of community comes in. A community - even just two or three people gathered - can make a world of difference when it comes to practicing the ways of Jesus. Prayer was one of his ways. Even Jesus had a small group that he sometimes prayed with. The gospels show that Jesus asked Peter, James, and John to join him more than once to pray. If Jesus needed a small group to join him in prayer at times, then so do we. But how do we do this?
Recently, I experienced a meaningful time of prayer with my team who met for a morning prayer retreat. Our teammate, David Legge, gave us the following 3-part guidelines to follow for our time: Lectio Divina, Sharing and Prayer, and Reflective Prayer. This simple format offers a helpful framework for communing with God and with others. Here are the guidelines, including the specific Scripture we read and the poem we reflected on.
Part One - Lectio Divina (around 30 minutes) with Psalm 24
David explained that the term Lectio Divina, which means “divine reading” is really just a way to read Scripture with your ear tuned in to hear what the Holy Spirit might say to us. It’s a way to invite God to speak through reading Scripture.
Our team (the four of us) read Psalm 24 out loud, several times in a row, inviting the living Word to transform our minds and hearts. Reading slowly allows time for the words to sink in, and to consider how we want to respond in prayer. After hearing the Psalm read aloud 3 times, we took 5-10 minutes of silence to meditate on it. We were asking the Spirit to reveal any particular word or phrase he might want us to notice. Then we responded with prayers of gratitude, thanking God for who he is according to this Psalm, and thanking the Spirit for highlighting any specific words or phrases.
Starting off a time of prayer in Scripture is significant because it immediately orients our minds and thoughts in worship of God. You hear one another read the same Scripture aloud. Then you hear each others' responses of praise to God for who he is according to the Scripture. There is no need to try to come up with fancy phrases or prayers because you are just praying back the Scripture to God. You are in awe of who God is, together. (You could choose any passage of Scripture to read for part 1.)
Part 2 - Sharing and Prayer for each other (around 30 minutes)
In part two, we each took a few minutes to share, in conversation, our personal highs and lows of life and work. This was so that we could know how to pray for one another specifically. We did not get off track with going into too much detail or offering advice because we wanted to keep prayer the focus of our time. After each person shared briefly, we prayed for one another.
Part 3 - Reflective Prayer (around 30 minutes) with the words of St. Patrick's Breastplate
The final part of our Prayer Retreat was spent in prayerful reflection on the words of St. Patrick’s Breastplate, included here. They are beautiful, life-giving words. David read the words aloud and gave us 15 minutes of quiet to reflect and journal our thoughts. He asked us to see if a particular phrase might catch our attention and to silently pray it to God. To close our time, we prayed aloud one more time together, thanking God for what he brought to our minds through the truth shared in this poem. (In place of this poem, you could choose the words of a hymn or a liturgy to reflect on and pray through.)
I bind unto myself today
the strong name of the Trinity,
by invocation of the same,
the Three in One and One in Three.
I bind this day to me for ever,
by pow’r of faith, Christ’s incarnation,
his baptism in the Jordan river,
his death on cross for my salvation;
his bursting from the spicéd tomb,
his riding up the heav’nly way,
his coming at the day of doom,
I bind unto myself today.
I bind unto myself today
the virtues of the starlit heaven,
the glorious sun’s life-giving ray,
the whiteness of the moon at even,
the flashing of the lightning free,
the whirling wind’s tempestuous shocks,
the stable earth, the deep salt sea
around the old eternal rocks.
I bind unto myself today
the pow’r of God to hold and lead,
his eye to watch, his might to stay,
his ear to hearken to my need,
the wisdom of my God to teach,
his hand to guide, his shield to ward;
the word of God to give me speech,
his heavenly host to be my guard:
against the demon – snares of sin,
the vice that gives temptation force,
the natural lusts that ward within,
the hostile foes that mar my course;
or few or many, far or nigh,
in every place, and in all hours,
against their fierce hostility,
I bind to me these holy powers:
against all Satan’s spells and wiles,
against false words of heresy,
against the knowledge that defiles,
against the heart’s idolatry,
against the wizard's evil craft,
against the death-wound and the burning,
the choking wave, the poisoned shaft,
protect me, Christ, till thy returning.
Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.
I bind unto myself the name,
the strong name of the Trinity,
by invocation of the same,
the Three in One and One in Three;
of whom all nature hath creation,
eternal Father, Spirit, Word.
Praise to the Lord of my salvation:
Salvation is of Christ the Lord.
AMEN
We need the community of fellow Christ followers to grow in prayer, just as we need community to grow in every way spiritually. Jesus showed us how he asked a few friends to pray with him. Let's do the same.
