Emotions
SAVIO RODRIGUES SJ
We often look for externals to base our prayer upon. We look for a passage from scriptures, a saying, or an episode, etc to help focus our prayer upon. We hardly ever pay attention to our personal emotions, and much less believe that they can be used as an excellent matter for prayer. As a matter of fact praying with our emotions is a combination of centering, meditation and contemplation forms of prayer, all in one. Personally I believe it should be the first method of prayer we all should indulge in. It is the easiest to understand and to experiment with.
To begin, one must first quiet oneself. Slow down all your daily activities gradually. Stop all the planning for the day. Shelve the problems to be solved.
Choose a proper place, that is quiet, and where nothing will disturb you. Take a position that is relaxing, but not one that will encourage you to fall off to sleep.
Choosing the right time of the day is also very important. It should be a time when your mind is most at peace, with least preoccupations and worries.
Now try and quiet yourself interiorly. Gradually shut off the noise around you and within you. Very gently settle, in your mind, all your tensions, commitments, excitements and worries.
Do not COMPEL yourself to BLOT out all your distractions. If you get caught up in the struggle of wanting to pray perfectly, you will get entangled in your own anxiety and never get to praying at all. Let the world come along with you — you do not invite it, nor do you deliberately entertain it. Just ignore it when you realise they are gatecrashers.
When you feel you are sufficiently settled, try to listen to the sounds around you. Feel God’s presence in those sounds. Enjoy them, even if they are harsh sounds. Relish them. Accept them as though Jesus were offering them to you to be enjoyed.
Now slowly feel the sounds, movements, feelings, emotions, aches, longings, joys, sorrows, etc. within you. Take them as they come; do not go shopping for them. They will surface to the conscious mind as they please and when they please. You cannot make them happen as you cannot make prayer happen.
Now as you BECOME conscious of these emotions within you, be conscious too of God’s love within you. Begin to thank God for this love and feel and relish this love as something very tangible and real.
Soon you will be able to say and feel that God’s love and your love is one and the same. That God is totally present in your emotions.
Do not be in any hurry to move ahead to some other emotion or feeling. Do not be greedy for more. Stay as long as you feel God is present with you in that feeling. LISTEN to what God is saying to you through that feeling. God speaks to us THROUGH our emotions, WITH emotions.
When your emotions tell you something is happening, stop and listen. Be happy. Just be. Be in God’s presence.
If you are struggling with a feeling or emotion, keep at it, even though it may seem painful or a distraction.
Your emotions may reveal something new — a new or hidden dimension to your life. Stay with it and relish it.
Your emotions may prompt you to reach out to someone or something in love. This would be an extension of your prayer experience.
Do not get frustrated if nothing seems to happen. Prayer is a gift, and it will be given to you in due time — when you least expect it. Most of all, learn to RELAX and wait.
When your assigned prayer time is about to end, spend at least five minutes in speaking to Jesus/God about your prayer time. Speak about what you received, what you would have loved to receive from Him, how you feel right now.
End the prayer with a short vocal prayer.
A REVIEW after every prayer is very important.
The Prayer Method on this page has been provided with permission from the book Pray: How? by Savio Rodrigues SJ