Living in an Icon

From Living in an Icon: A Program for Growing Closer to Creation and to God, Robert Gottfried & Frederick W. Krueger; used with permission; adapted by Donell L. Seager.

Prayer of Preparation:

Become quiet and relax. Find a quiet spot outside and sit down. Become comfortable. Breathe deeply in and out, on the inhale breathing in God’s light and love and on the exhale breathing out any distractions or obstacles that get in the way of focusing on God’s presence with you right now. Continue to breathe deeply and allow your body to relax. Quiet yourself. Commend this time to God and surrender to the wisdom of Creator’s deep love.

Pray for the presence of Jesus Christ to fill you. Pray for the Holy Spirit to fill you. Continue invoking and being aware of the life of Christ in you.

Sit still and enjoy the blessings of the Lord. Ask the Holy Spirit to overshadow this prayer practice and bring deep change to your thinking and insights. This will enable you to become more receptive and alert to the lessons God has before and around you. Submit your life and your will to God. Continue to relax in the safe, sacred space. Conclude this time with thanksgiving to God for God’s presence now and at all times, and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you as you go out into creation, whether it be the woods or a city street.

Nature Prayer Practice:

Now go outside and take this stillness with you while you spend an hour outdoors. If you get distracted and restless (and you probably will) remind yourself that this is “time off” with God and God’s creation and reorient yourself to what you are doing.

Your only “goal” is to be with God in creation, reorienting yourself and opening yourself to God’s presence in nature. You might want to record what you experienced in your journal.

Going deeper:

Try to spend a few minutes every day practicing reorienting yourself in this way. Journal what you notice or become aware of.

From Living in an Icon: A Program for Growing Closer to Creation and to God, Robert Gottfried & Frederick W. Krueger; used with permission; adapted by Donell L. Seager.

Prayer of Preparation:

Become quiet and relax. Find a quiet spot outside and sit down. Become comfortable. Breathe deeply in and out, on the inhale breathing in God’s light and love and on the exhale breathing out any distractions or obstacles that get in the way of focusing on presence with you right now. Continue to breathe deeply and allow your body to relax. Quiet yourself. Commend this time to God and surrender to the wisdom of Creator’s deep love.

Pray for the presence of Jesus Christ to fill you. Pray for the Holy Spirit to fill you. Continue invoking and being aware of the life of Christ in you.

Sit still and enjoy the blessings of the Lord. Ask the Holy Spirit to overshadow this prayer practice and bring deep change to your thinking and insights. This will enable you to become more receptive and alert to the lessons God has before and around you. Submit your life and your will to God. Continue to relax in the safe, sacred space.

Conclude this time with thanksgiving to God for God’s presence now and at all times, and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you as you go out into creation, whether it be the woods or a city street.

Nature Prayer Practice:

Contemplating nature is fun and enriching, challenging and daunting. Like anything worthwhile it requires effort and discipline … and yields great rewards. Try this simple exercise. Go someplace where you can be quiet and alone. Ask God to help you relax, placing all your concerns at God’s feet. Ask God’s Spirit to calm you and open you to God’s presence. Then go out into the woods or your backyard, any place where there is a bit of nature, and ask the Spirit to guide your steps. Look high and look low, at the big things and the tiny. When something catches your eye (or ear), take time with it. Explore it with all your senses. Get to know its details – how it smells; feels; what it looks like from afar and up close. After you feel this “conversation” has ended, thank whatever it is you spent time with and move on, looking for someone else who would like to converse with you. Try doing this for forty minutes or so. Play. Have a good time. When you have finished, ask yourself how you felt and what you learned. Did God touch you in some way during your time outside? 

You may find that deep emotions emerge as you’re doing this prayer practice of noticing. This is because you’ve opened yourself, to God, yourself, and creation. As you become of emotions, simply acknowledge them. Do not try to engage them. Simply acknowledge their presence and then let them go. Do not get distracted by them and do not dwell on them.

When you return from this practice, capture what you experienced in your journal. You may want to write down what you noticed and what feelings/emotions you experienced. Try to refrain from interpreting your experience.

Going deeper:

Try to spend a few minutes every day practicing noticing, paying becoming aware of what you notice—people, nature, pets, places. Pay attention to how your body feels and your feelings/emotions as you notice your surroundings. Journal your experience.