My dad grew up and lived in the country all his life until about 20 years ago. He is very closely connected to the earth, the weather, the animals, the sky and the wind. He moved into my house in the city about 15 years ago and it was a hard transition. He missed the wide-open country spaces so much. Often, he couldn’t wait to get out on the highway and drive outside the city so he could breathe deeply and not hear any sirens at all. He has become older and is now no longer able to drive but he keeps track of the weather with a steely blue eye by looking out the window, reading the thermometers (we have 2 of them so he can compare the readings) and listening to the local television stations forecasts. He has no reservations about commenting on the weather forecasters’ predictions voicing his agreements, disagreements, or general distrust over their accuracy.

As a man of the earth, I dearly love to hear him pray out loud. He has a way of talking to God that I rarely hear anywhere else. Usually, he begins his prayer by telling God what the weather is like and what the ground is doing. He gives reports about the plants and animals he has noticed during the day. Then he moves on to tell God about how he doesn’t understand the world and its people. Finally, he asks God to look after people he cares about.

My dad is not a Centering Pray-er. In fact, he would be very puzzled by the term contemplative prayer. However, he holds a secret that helps me to understand contemplative prayer: God is God right here, right now – immediate and intimate – caring about what is important to us. When we sit down to practise silent prayer or contemplative prayer such as Centering Prayer, we are opening ourselves to God’s immediate and intimate loving Presence and action within us. With God’s help, we choose to come into the present moment with the help of a sacred word (or sacred breath or sacred gaze) and we connect with the very Ground of our Being on a spiritual level. Centering Prayer is a way of praying that allows God to remove any obstacle that would keep us from “being present to God’s Presence.” (Sr. Catherine Labinowich, OSB) My dad’s prayer practice is an encouragement to us as we move toward a God who is interested in us and in healing us of anything that gets in the way of being found in God’s Love. May it be so.