Today’s blog
Lynn Murphy Mark
The joy of learning
May has been a busy learning month for me, mostly because I took training in how to become a prayer chaplain “trainer”. In Unity churches everywhere, there are people who answer a call to pray with congregants when they are troubled, or joyful, or unsure of what to do next. I think I’m starting my 6th year as one of the prayer chaplains at my church. It has been such a spiritual growth experience for me that I wanted to be a part of training both established and prospective people with an interest in a deeper prayer life. The training was eye opening in that I now have so many more resources to use in my own practice, and a depth of knowledge about prayer that I did not have before.
Throughout the class, there was an emphasis on the gift of listening – not just listening, but lovingly listening. When someone brings a prayer request, the words they speak are so important to them that they are willing to share them with someone they may not know at all. Their words set the intention for a prayer, and intention cannot be known without very careful listening.
This made me think of how noisy the world is. There is something going on 24/7/365 that comes to us through our media sources. Thankfully, we can turn them off, but pure silence is a rare phenomenon. So when someone speaks, the greatest gift I have is to listen with an open heart, attentively and respectfully. I hope being a good listener is one of my traits. My brain is full of snippets of conversations and stories that I’ve heard over the years. I might not remember what I did 15 minutes ago, but if you told me a good story 10 years ago, I’ll remember something about it.
In the training there was a lot of work on listening. Also, emphasis was placed on aligning our spirit by taking a “journey” from our head to our heart space. This is where God’s whispers are revealed. This is where the words of a prayer are born. In my experience, the words rise effortlessly to my consciousness, so that I may give them to another person. In Unity, we use affirmative prayer. The intention is to help the congregant draw upon the strengths that they carry within.
That class is over, but next week starts another series of lessons. Rose put me on to a zoom session with Douglas Neil-Klotz. That led me to sign up for a series of lectures on his specialty – understanding the words of Jesus as he spoke them in his Aramaic language. Douglas has spent decades studying this language and translating into English the much softer, more inclusive words of Aramaic. What we read now in our Bibles is the work of centuries of re-writing, first in Greek, then in Latin, then in King James’ English. It’s kind of like that old game of telephone where what comes out in the end of the line is not what started the line.
There are seven weekly sessions to this class. I will miss some of the in-person sessions, but they will be recorded for review later. We have already gotten the homework to study the Lord’s Prayer as it represented in Aramaic. It is so different, using references to the natural world, aligning our hearts with God’s presence. In this prayer, “Give us our daily bread” becomes, “Humanly create each day’s bread and insight, enough for what our daily needs reveal.” I can relate to that easily. I am looking forward to the first session next Wednesday.
In June I’m attending a week’s conference at Unity Village, outside of Kansas City. That promises to be a fruitful experience as well. People who have been to Unity Village talk about the spiritual nature of the grounds. There are 1,200 acres that feature a fountain display, an award winning rose garden, walking trails, a labyrinth, and a building where prayers are said 24/7/365. It is called “Silent Unity” and gives feet to the emphasis on prayer that characterizes the Unity faith. A person can call Silent Unity any time of day or night and receive confidential prayer support. This has been happening – constant prayer – since 1929. One of the things I will most look forward to is their open house during the conference.
Today I am grateful for so many opportunities to keep learning new and important stuff.