Whenever I present a seminar introducing the Prayer of the Lamb in a congregation, only a certain selection of people from the whole congregation turns out for it. The fact is that the number of people coming intentionally to learn about a meditation prayer practice is a relatively small percentage of the entire membership. There are many people for whom this is not a spiritual practice they could envision for themselves, such is this culture’s general understanding of what meditation is. But there are also many for whom the discovery of a meditational intercessory prayer practice is exactly what they need in order to enter the whole realm of meditation which they never would have considered otherwise. Often I hear people tell me that they considered the Prayer of the Lamb because it had the focus of offering intercessions, so it didn’t seem quite like “wasting time” or “being too focused on self.”
Certainly in this culture, in which we are constantly encouraged to be busy and productive, or to multi-task, or to fill every waking moment with sound, intentionally sitting still in silence totally unemployed in activity, or even thought, is a radical way of behavior; it is just not “normal.” But then again, neither was Jesus “normal.” What he presented as good news liberating persons from all the ways in which they are bound is radical beyond comprehension. He confronted the power structures of the world at that time with the more powerful reality of ruling by serving. He exhibited in every word he said, every action he performed, every breath and every once of his being a love that far surpasses what this culture thinks of as love, a love so comprehensive that it turns death into life, a love that permeates all being and unites all being.
For those who do sit down and devote time each day to this simple meditational prayer, this time of silence becomes healing, reconciling, enlivening, transforming, enlightening, not only for self but for everyone in our vicinity. Meditational intercessory prayer instigates a stealth sabotage of the culture of the world we live in. I think about that each morning as I sit down to offer my intentional intercessions before beginning the first meditation practice of the day, there in that apartment building on Capitol Hill. I am surrounded by forty apartments where people of various ages and ethnic backgrounds live. There are students and retired people, health care professionals and IT techies, musicians and artists. There is probably little awareness that they are going about their day swimming through an ocean of love, but I sit there awake offering this “waste” of time ecologically for the whole unlikely community of this hive of an apartment building and neighborhood.
What would it be like if every congregation had a group, no matter how small, of those who would intentionally offer the Prayer of the Lamb as an ecological intervention in each faith community and its neighborhood? Imagine the subtle benefit and blessing that even a handful can convey within the community. It is not that we who sit in meditation are accomplishing anything, but that we are so many different places where intercession is occurring, so many different channels through which the Holy Spirit wind is lively in awareness, so many different reflections of the radiance of the Transfigured One ever in our midst, too often unseen. Imagine each gathering of the faithful for the Eucharist, the Supper of the Lamb, as a liturgy offered for the needs of the whole of creation, in faithful response to the total self-offering of Yeshua, Jesus. What each of us does in engaging in a meditation and prayer practice is not for each of our own benefit alone. It is a ministry of outreach for the whole of creation. What we offer in meditation supports and upholds the many other ministries flowing from that congregation. What we offer in meditation brings increasing awareness into the whole, enlivens the space for us all.
Keep meditating.
Blessings in the Lamb,
Beverly
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