The Prayer Phrase and Praying Without Ceasing

 

What longing there is in wanting to pray without ceasing! We stumble on that boulder-filled road forgetting, remembering, forgetting and remembering again.

Contemplative tradition tells us that help can come from a prayer phrase repeated so often that it says itself and more likely so if it is carried by a melody. Haven’t we all known how an unbidden song can repeat itself in our minds even if it is a jingle from a commercial? Prayer phrases that are just right for us are treasures of the heart and are a deep support for our soul journeys.

My friend, Frank Pendola, who is a commissioned presenter of Centering Prayer, and I have shared a morning a week of Centering Prayer for some years now. Prayer phrases would sometimes come to me as gifts and Frank who has music in his very being set them to music. They were recorded and now there is Song and Silence, a Centering tool, we want to share. Here is the link: https://gunillanorris.com/chants/. We hope you will find this offering useful. Please click on the essay that I wrote for the program. We hope it will lure you into taking a look and a listen.

– offered by Gunilla Norris and Frank Pendola