Don’t be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
minds so that you can figure out what God’s will is—what is good and pleasing and mature.
Because of the grace that God gave me, I can say to each one of you: don’t think of yourself
more highly than you ought to think… Be happy in your hope, stand your ground when
you’re in trouble, and devote yourselves to prayer. – Romans 12: 2-12

We often have a “cast of characters” living inside our heads that love to carry on endless
conversations–each from their own perspective. The chatter of our minds can sometimes
keep us from a deeper listening and it is often difficult to decipher exactly what constitutes
a mystical connection to God. Getting our True Self into the chairperson’s seat in the
committee meeting does not mean ignoring those voices of pessimism, people-pleasing or
accusation, but instead listening intently to them and not letting them bully us into action
based on fear. Letting them in and letting them go is the prayer of the mystic within.

Wisdom shouts in the street; in the public square she raises her voice. Above the noisy
crowd, she calls out. At the entrances of the city gates, she has her say: “How long will you
clueless people love your naïveté, mockers hold their mocking dear, and fools hate
knowledge? You should respond when I correct you. Look, I’ll pour out my spirit on you. I’ll
reveal my words to you.” – Proverbs 1: 20-23

The Wisdom tradition within Christianity invites us to love knowledge, especially the
self-knowledge that comes from examining ourselves in relationship to the liberating Word of God.
Lectio divina (“divine reading”) is an ancient tradition of mixing the reading of scripture with prayer
and meditation. Rather than an analytical approach to the words of scripture, it is a way for the
words to simply be present and live in us. What will we hear when we let go of what it all is
“supposed to” mean and simply let it reside within us?

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. – Romans 8: 26-30; 38-39

Our sacred texts connect the breath of God with our own aliveness–God blew breath into us at creation and we continue to breathe all of creation in and out of our bodies constantly. The early church also believed that breath and Spirit were one in the same. How might the meditative practice of paying attention to our breath be, in and of itself, a prayer of connection to God? When we embrace our bodies as the holy vessel of God, we become even more our True Selves–which has been there all along.