A Lenten Prayer Experience

Developed by Alan and Leanore Rommelfanger, Wisconsin

Based on: Capacitar Body-Mind-Spirit Practices, Sunday Lenten Readings, and Material to develop a personal mission statement

Introduction

Let us pray. It is with these words that so often we are called to prayer, and what follows is a formula read from a book. Is this the extent of our prayer experience? Is prayer an intellectual activity of the mind, or are there other ways of entering into the presence of the Divine. St Paul tells us in his first letter to the Thessalonians 5:16 to pray constantly giving praise to God in all things. He also instructs us to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice to the Lord (see Romans 12:1). How are we to do this while also living active lives in a busy world? Are there ways to pray that will quiet our minds and heal us in body and spirit so that we can become effective messengers of God to this world in which we live?

This alternative prayer experience presents ways of praying that involve mind, body and spirit. It also explores some large questions in the belief that a good question is worth much more than any answer. Questions carried in the present open us to the Spirit and provide healing, growth and wisdom, which have frequently been blocked by answers received in the past. The questions that we carry and use as the bases for our Lenten reflection are:

Who am I?

What am I?

Why am I here on the planet Earth?

Did Jesus know the answers to these questions?

Each of the sessions has a stated theme. These themes while not developed or elaborated upon, are the integrating principle tying together the individual elements of the session. The themes can be thought of as the plate upon which the meal is served. The various elements of the meal while served on similar plates to all will have differing effects upon each of those partaking in the meal.

This course was based on the experience of a small group who traveled this path of alternative prayer during Lent 2001 at the Newman Center at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. The program consisted of five two-hour sessions. An agenda for each session and reference for the materials covered are included. Refer to the Practices section of this website or the book Trauma Healing and Transformation by Pat Cane for explanation of the practices used.

Session 1 Agenda

(Sunday Readings for 2nd Sunday of Lent: Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18; Philippians 3:17-4:1; Luke 4:21-30)

Introductions

Theme: It is in prayer that we encounter God

Opening Reflection: First Reading

Tai Chi Our bodies as energy systems: Balance flow of energy

Observing our breathing

Alternate Nostril Breathing

Finger holds

Personal Mission Exercise: Focusing Our Desires

Closing Ritual: Form a circle - Read the Gospel - Join hands - Left hand up to receive and right hand down to give - Express one of our desires from life as a petition

Evaluation

Focusing Our Desires

Why am I here on the planet Earth at the beginning of the Third Millennium after Jesus walked the Earth? What is it that I am being called to be? What is it that I am being called to do?

Focusing on our desires can start to give us some insight into the answers to these questions. It is relatively easy to define the things we want to have (possessions, money) and what we want to do (experiences, travel, etc.) but an inside-out approach to life begins with a definition of what we'd like to be (qualities of character). The questions below should serve to clarify your thinking in each of these areas. Legitimate power in our life always originates with the be's.

What I want to have (possess):

What I want to do (experience):

What I want to be (qualities of character):

Carry these questions with you during the coming week and continue to clarify your true desires.

Session 2 Agenda

(Sunday Readings for 3rd Sunday of Lent: Exodus 3:1-8a; 13-15; 1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12; Luke 13: 1-9)

Introductions - Review last week, (Did you have an opportunity to apply what we learned?)

Theme: Will we use our gifts to serve the Lord?

Opening Reflection: First Reading

Tai Chi

Visualization - Finding our quiet place and a spirit guide

Personal Mission Exercise: Discerning Our Gifts

Closing Ritual: Form a circle - Read the Gospel - Join hands - Left hand up to receive and right hand down to give - Express a prayer of thanksgiving or petition involving the gifts that you have been entrusted with.

Evaluation

Discerning Our Gifts

We have all been gifted by God, but these gifts have been given not for our own satisfaction or pleasure, but to be given, in turn to the community, to be used in the building of the kingdom of God. What are the gifts and talents, which the Lord has entrusted to you?

List your gifts of being, those qualities of character that are your strengths:

List your gifts of doing, those talents, abilities, skills that you are called to use on behalf of the community.

Are there any gifts or abilities of doing or being that you feel the Lord may be asking you to accept so that you may be more effective in helping to create his kingdom?

Are there any areas of weakness that could be better developed?

Session 3 Agenda

(Sunday Readings for 4th Sunday of Lent: Joshua 5:9a,10-12; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21; Luke 15:1-3,11-32)

Introductions - review last week (What effect are these sessions having in your daily life?)

Theme: God offers opportunities to learn, do we take the time to understand the lessons of Life?

Opening Reflection: First Reading

Tai Chi

River of Life - What lessons has Life taught me Personal Mission Exercise: Lessons of Our Life

Closing Ritual: Form a circle - Read the Gospel - Join hands - Left up to receive and right down to give - Express a prayer of thanksgiving or petition involving the lessons that Life has taught you

Evaluation

Lessons of Our Life

As we travel through life, we discover, or are taught by the Spirit, guiding principles, which help us to focus our efforts and prioritize our actions. List below the first principles that Life has taught you:

Are there any lessons that Life is teaching you at this time? What principles may they embody?

Are there lessons that you can foresee yourself learning in the future? Are there principles in these lessons that you might learn even now?

Session 4 Agenda

Introductions - Review Last Week

Theme: Is God about something new today?

Opening Reflection: First Reading

What are the Chakras

Chakra - Tai Chi

Personal Mission Exercise: Our Life Roles

Closing Ritual: Form a circle - Read the Gospel - Join hands - Left up to receive and right down to give - Express a prayer related to your life roles

Evaluation

Chakra Theory (Presentation Outline)

Chakra theory may be unfamiliar to many of us. Our purpose for introducing it is to provide another viewpoint from which to understand human development and particularly our own development. Theories provide us with maps. But we always need to remember that although maps are important for any traveler, maps are not the same as the journey.

Chakra - Sanskrit word meaning wheel or vortex of energy

Centers in the body that receive, assimilate, and transmit vital life force energy

Coordinate the network of communication between mind-body-spirit of the person

Seven major chakras that run from the base of the spine to the top of the head

Each chakra expresses a different level and quality of energy manifesting in attitudes, actions, and emotions

Can be thought of as a map of the soul's journey.

Each Chakra represents a spiritual life lesson or challenge common to all human beings.

Each chakra is connected with a specific gland, organ, or part of the body - physical and emotional dysfunction and illness in organs, glands, and different parts of the body are caused by imbalances or blocks in the energy of a chakra.

Energy blocks in the chakras slow down or cut off the vital life force energy that normally flows throughout the body resulting in problems in the body, mind and spirit of the person.

Daily work with the chakras helps to keep energy flowing and balanced.

Can be considered from the viewpoint of the energy that comes into our body-mind-spirit as well as the energy that we give off to others in our environment.

Family, society, physical environment influence the flow of energy into our chakra system.

In some families, cultures, or countries the whole society may be caught or blocked in one or more chakras. For example, in a place where there is great poverty the whole society may be caught in the first chakra or the center of security.

Chakra Tai Chi

Rocking Movement - Bring up the energy of the earth to fill the Root Chakra with security, stability, and nourishment. Feel your interconnection and rootedness with the earth's energy and the color red.

The Offering - The Offering Movement is done at the level of abdomen, circulating the energy of the chakra and the vibration of the color orange. Recognize your sexuality, your desires, and the quality of your relationships in giving and receiving emotionally. Connect with your creativity and fruitfulness as a person.

Circle of Light - Circulate the power of your being - giving and receiving with balance in true partnership and collaboration with others. Shine forth the light of your soul imagining the color yellow.

Giving and Receiving - (push pull) Connect with your heart chakra and any wounds you may carry there. Exhale and breathe out the violence and resentment of the past, transforming the wounds into wisdom with the color green. Breathe in compassionate love, the color rose, for yourself and for all other beings. .

Flying through the air- As you sweep your hands through the air in the flying movement, imagine that you are able to sweep through your energy field around your throat and ears to sweep out all words that no longer serve you, so that you can speak with truth and clarity. Imagine also that you are able to sweep open your ears to hear clearly your own voice and the voice and cries of others.

Shower of Light - The Shower of Light movement is done at the middle of the forehead, with hands sweeping across the brow as if to open the Third Eye. Feel the energy of your Third Eye, shining forth from your forehead, seeing all with intuition and wisdom. Connect with the element of light flooding through your body-mind-spirit opening your Third Eye with the color indigo.

Blessing of Life - As you raise your hands over your head feel the grace and light of the heavens shining down on you, filling you with abundance and renewed life. Open your Crown Chakra like a lotus flower over your head. Feel your connection with All Being.

Passing Clouds - As your arms circle with the movement of Passing Clouds, imagine the color of light moving up your spine connecting all of your chakras: red, orange, yellow, green/rose, blue, indigo, violet. All the colors form a rainbow of light around you. This is the unique vibration of your energy field, shining out to all being.

Window of Eternity and Namasté Bow

Life's Roles

Explain the life role work sheet and have the participants fill out the first two columns of the work sheet.

The third column of the work sheet is fil1ed out as a part of a visualization exercise. Invite the participants to relax their bodies as in the visualization in Session 2.

Now visualize yourself at a time near the end of your life, a retirement party or the celebration of your 85 or 100th birthday, or possibly at your wake just following your death. If you choose to visualize your wake, you can stand in the back of the room and watch all of the mourners as your body lies in the coffin at the front of the room. Invite each of the persons that you named to come forward and make a remark summarizing how you lived out that particular role. After visualizing each person's remarks, take a moment to write their comments on your worksheet, and then return to the visualization and invite the next person to come forward.

Our Life Roles

We live our life in roles - not in the sense of role-playing, but in the authentic categories of life that we have chosen to implement. You may have roles in work, family, and community organizations as well as in other areas of your life. These roles can provide a natural framework in helping you to define what you want to be.

Your relationship to God and the community of the faithful may define several of your life roles. Your profession or work life may contain several roles. For example, you may have one role in administration, one in marketing, one as a manager, and still another in long range planning. You may define your family role as simply "family member," or you may choose to divide it into roles such as "wife" and "mother."

Write your roles in the boxes provided below. Next, identify a key person related to each role. Then project yourself forward in time towards the end of you life and write a brief statement describing this person's feelings and thoughts as you would want to be described in that particular role.

Roles Worksheet Roles.............Key Person............Statement

Session 5 Agenda

(Sunday Readings for Passion Sunday: Isaiah 50:4-7; Philippians 2:6-11; Luke 19: 28-40)

Review Last Week

Theme: Did Jesus know why he was on the planet Earth?

Opening Reflection: First Reading

Chakra - Tai Chi

Seated Massage

Personal Mission Exercise: Our Life Mission

Closing Reflection: Second Reading

Closing Ritual: Form a circle - Join hands - Left up to receive and right down to give - Express a prayer related to our life purpose

Evaluation- Covering all sessions

Mission Visualization

Using the materials we have developed in our Personal Mission Exercises, we could work at developing a personal mission statement for our life. However, if you have ever worked on a mission statement for a business or an organization you know that it can be hard work.

A personal mission statement is not so much a statement we develop for ourselves, as it is a statement, which reflects our understanding of a call we have heard or are hearing. With this in mind, we will use the visualization process we have been learning in these sessions and visit with our wise guide. We can ask our guide for a word of wisdom to help us understand our personal mission.

See the visualization in Session 2.

Once in the presence of the wise guide, spend some time reflecting on the exercises we have done.

1. Our Desires - What do we want from life?
2. Our Gifts - What do we have to give?
3. Our Life thus far - What lessons have we learned?
4. Our Roles - The framework in which we are living our lives.

Ask your wise guide if s/he has anything to tell you about your purpose here on the planet earth.

Our Life Mission

"We don't invent our mission; we detect it. " - Victor Frankl

When you have an accurate idea of how your roles and gifts contribute to the qualities of character you'd like to strengthen or acquire, write a rough draft of your Personal Mission Statement. You may find it helpful to do this exercise as a prayer response after spending some time in prayerful reflection with the Lord. Carry this draft with you and make notes, additions, and deletions before you attempt to make another draft.

Remember a personal mission statement is never finished. It, like the life that we are living, is a work in process. Its purpose is to help us develop a deeper understanding of our purpose. It needs to be carried, reviewed and revised as we grow in understanding.

Consider the following when developing or reviewing your personal mission statement:

Have I been comprehensive?

Is it really me?

Is it practical?

Is it idealistic?

Does it utilize my collective wisdom?

Does it provide guidance and help me?

Does it inspire me?

Does it express my vision and values?

Is it principle-centered?