Five-step Prayer

THE FIVE-STEP PRAYER EXERCISE 1. Seek silence...Enter into it...It heals you... Re-live in your imagination an experience of being loved and appreciated... 2. Speaking in the first person affirm your good qualities... 3. In the way of mantra prayer repeat "I am lovable. I am O.K." 4. Meet Jesus in your imagination and listen to him expressing His love and appreciation for you... 5. Dwell silently in the awareness of your experience in God's presence... Read Isaiah 43:1-5 Personalize this verse... "You are precious in my eyes and I love you" Hear these words from a) God b) Jesus c) A friend d) Yourself e) The whole of the universe enveloping you... Amen...Silence... silence... silence...Amen.

Story Meditation 3

Read the following story… Quitely breath in and breath out … Create a quiet space within you… Experience the healing power of silence within you… Let the story speak to your inner self… not to your brain… Let it reveal to you its interior depth and meaning. A meaning beyond words and reflections… Carry the story around with you all day… Enjoy the inner freedom that emerges from within. Whisper a prayer of blessing on the whole human race!… Amen “DROP YOUR NOTHING” “He thought it was of vital importance to be poor and austere. It had never dawned on him that the vitally important thing was to drop his ego; that the ego fattens on holiness just as much as on worldliness, on poverty as on riches, on austerity as on luxury. There is nothing the ego will not seize upon to inflate itself.” “Disciple: I have come to you with nothing in my hands. Master: The drop it at once! Disciple: But how can I drop it? I t is nothing. Master: Then Carry it around with you!” “You can make a possession of your nothing. And carry your renunciation around you like a trophy. Don’t drop your possessions. Drop your ego.” ****** Anthony de Mello S.J., The Song of the Bird (Anand, India, Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, 1982), pp. 130-131 E-Mail: vmalpan@gmail.com