One Minute Prayer

We live in a very fast-paced world right now, due to technology and all of the changes that are occurring. Oceans no longer separate us. We are all part of a global community, because we can all communicate with each other so quickly. We care a lot more about what is happening on the other side of the world, because it is right in front of us on television.

We live in a culture of activity, of busyness. We're judged by how many projects we are juggling at any one time. Commercials on television change their images every one 1/2 seconds to keep the atten-tion of the preoccupied mind. We define success by how busy we are – how many projects we have going, how many clubs we belong to, how many things we are doing with our time. It’s an exciting, energetic culture, and it can be distracting. How do we main-tain this connection to the Christ through all this distraction?

One way is to pray and meditate. It’s the most powerful tool. But it’s also counter to everything taught in society – because it encourages us to slow down and stop.

I know we've all heard this before and probably saying to yourself, "Yes, I should pray and meditate more, but I don't have time. I’m not really very good at meditating. Maybe there's something else I can do." Or you may be saying, "I really want to pray and meditate, but the kitchen has to be cleaned first. Then I will get around to it."

If thinking about prayer and meditation makes us feel guilty, or if we beat ourselves up because we need to do it more but we don't, what are we going to do? If we don't feel that we do it very well –We are going to not do it. Yet, that quiet is the way we feel the Christ. It helps us to be many times more effective in our busy days.

There are many ways to pray and meditate. We don't have to just sit and try to be still when our bodies want to move. And we don't have to do it in large blocks of time.

We have a belief in this culture that more is better. So, if we pray and meditate for 10 minutes, then we would be a better meditator if we did it for 20 minutes. But time is relative; it,s a human concept more than a spiritual concept. The interesting thing about prayer work is that if we spend a moment saying, "God is with me right now, this moment," that can be as valuable as spending 20 minutes saying it. It depends on the depth that the spiritual seed is planted in our consciousness.

In God, there is no time or space; there is only presence. So we meditate and pray for a moment, if that is all the time we have, or if that is all the focus time we have. When we invoke the presence of God, God is with us in our awareness, as we go about our daily living.

Sometimes we get a little off-center and it is difficult to remember that God’s help is at hand. We try, but we get distracted. Then we get down on ourselves for that feeling of separateness. We do not have to do that! Life is much more pleasant, and the world is much more loving than that.

If we feel far from God, we need to know that God did not move – we did. God is waiting and the reconnection is so sweet. Time is relative, so one minute of prayer and meditation can be as good as 20, especially if we do it twenty times during the day. Prayer and meditation is a skill. The more we do it, the more skillful we become at it. The more miracles we see in our life because of it, we will move its importance from the back burner to the forefront.<.p>

When we meditate, we are really observing the activity of God at work, in us and around us. A minute spent with God allowing God to smile at us can change our life.

We need to reinforce prayer and meditation, because what we don't like or what we think we do poorly, we tend not to do as much. So let's try it right now for one minute... close your eyes and take a moment in prayer and meditation. Breathe naturally with no force. This isn't anything we have to do; it's just being in the presence of God. Feel the thoughts of mind and set them aside. This is the moment to observe the in and out of the breath. That's all; just feel the Holy presence of God. If a thought comes you say, "Oh, there goes that thought,” and you go back to your prayer. It's so good. Just be. Thoughts come and they go by like clouds, or schools of tiny fish. In this gap there is Christ. The Christ light is here in this moment. Now, open your eyes. Congratulations! You just did your minute of meditation and prayer.

Remember, meditation and prayer is your gift from God, and opening it is your gift to yourself. You want to do it - whenever you can. It doesn't matter how long you do it. What matters is that you give it to yourself.

God Bless you! Fr. Bob