Prayer & Meditation

Prayer is talking to God. Meditation is listening to God.

A Google search didn't clearly reveal the source of this quote. I've seen several variations, but the source matters less than the message being so succinct in its simplicity. Some people like to pray. Some people like to meditate. Some people do both. I pray before I meditate, asking for guidance. I pray after I meditate, expressing gratitude. I teach meditation. I am a student of meditation. I teach prayer. I am a student of prayer.

As a teacher of prayer (volunteer leader of children's liturgy at the Catholic church for many years), we recite, and by repetition, memorize certain prayers: Hail Mary, Our Father, Glory Be, Act of Contrition, Apostles' Creed, Hail Holy Queen, the Rosary, dinner prayers. bedtime prayers. I've recited the same prayers my whole life. I've taught them to my children and many other people's children. Prayers I am supposed to recite.

I had a Christian friend sit with me one day and ask if he could pray over me. I shrugged and said okay. He went on and on and on and on- calling in this angel and that angel and it flowed from his mouth so freely with this effortless eloquence. Our mutual friend (also Catholic) sitting in, observing, made eye contact with me. We both raised our eyebrows to one another in awe. He finished and we both asked, "How did you learn to pray like that?" I've been practicing ever since. I've learned in connecting with Spirit that we have to ask in order to receive.

As a teacher of meditation, I find many people are intimidated by meditation because they hold the false belief that they are to clear their mind of all thoughts. "I suck at meditation" is a phrase I have heard countless times. You don't pick up your first book and read it cover to cover. You have to learn the letters to build the sounds that build the words, that combine to create the sentences of the paragraphs of the chapters, to the end.

In meditation, you learn to follow the breath (learning your ABCs), follow the thoughts (learning the words), follow the pattern of thoughts (sentences), shift the thoughts (meaning of sentences), shift the patterns of thought (paragraphs and chapters), come back to the breath (completion of the book). It's a learning (sometimes unlearning) process. When you learn to quiet the chatter or patterns of thoughts, you can get quiet enough to receive.

There isn't a right way or wrong way to do either one. The more ways you can experience prayer and meditation, the more variety you have to choose what resonates most within you in the asking/giving and receiving.

"Once we've asked for the change, we stand in vibrational alignment by focusing upon what we are looking for, not what we are pushing against, so that we can be the receivers of the thoughts, so that we can be the receivers of the perfect timing, so that we can say the right words, so that we can stand at the right place and the right time."  - Abraham Hicks