God has taught me a contemplative form of prayer which I practice every morning, and during brief periods of the day. I call it “Abiding Prayer,” and it is based Jesus’ directing us to: “Abide in me as I abide in you…. Abide in my love” (John 15:4,9). Abiding prayer is less something you do, and more something you permit to happen. That means, Abiding Prayer is God’s prayer in and with you.
The focus of Abiding Prayer is on Christ and entering into a heart-to-Heart mutual life with Christ during the prayer itself. Abiding Prayer offers a pathway toward attaining what Christ fervently prays for all disciples: “that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one” (John 17:22-23).
Abiding prayer seeks to act on Jesus Christ’s direct invitation to abide in Him through the Holy Spirit. The center around which abiding prayer revolves is Christ: His person, presence, power and love. It is Christ who says: “Abide in me as I abide in you. Abide in my love.” To abide in Christ and His love includes abiding in the Holy Spirit, and in the Trinity as such.
To use an analogy: two magnets and a magnetic field. When a positive and negative magnet become proximate to each other, a magnetic field is generated between them. The two poles seek to unify as one. Just so, your heart will become as a magnet when God draws near; it will stir as a spiritual field is generated between you and God. To abide means to remain in that field between your heart and Christ’s heart. That field is the Holy Spirit of God’s love.
What is sought in Abiding Prayer is beyond words or images: it is pure presence and togetherness with and in God. You may begin with words and images, but during the silent time of mutual life, when the field has come to exist between you and God, you will sense God with you. You will not likely sense God’s approach, but when your heart begins to stir, God is there.
Here is the process of Abiding Prayer (which is an adaptation of Centering Prayer):
1. Begin by granting permission for God’s presence and action within you.
2. Sit comfortably in a straight-back chair, with both feet on the ground, arms on thighs and your eyes closed (although if you prefer, you may keep your eyes open).
3. Imagine Jesus being with you, perhaps sitting right across from you. Hear Him calmly address you, repeatedly: “Abide in me as I abide in you. Abide in my love.” Rather than you initiating the prayer, imagine that you are instead hearing and responding to Christ’s words of invitation to intimacy and love. Give Jesus time to make this real and sensed for you. You may in time come to reduce Christ’s address to a single word, which will convey the substance of Christ’s invitation and your heart-felt acceptance: “abide.”
4. Hold on to the word “abide” as if issuing between you and Christ. Let your heart’s raw desire for God and union with Christ propel you toward and keep you invested in, attaining and remaining with and in Christ. You can let this become a breath prayer around the word “abide.” If so, simply breathe in “Abide in Me,” and breathe out “As I abide in you.”
5. When thoughts, feelings, images or desires distract you, ever so gently return your attention to Jesus and His inviting words: “Abide in me as I abide in you…. Abide in my love.” Do not get upset with yourself about these distractions, as they come to us all. Learn to let them pass without resisting them, and then return to abiding.
6. After about twenty minutes of prayer, ask Christ to continue abiding with and in you and you with Christ. Following a time of calm reflection, open your eyes.
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