Guidance for Centering Prayer and other contemplative practices includes letting go of expectations for our prayer. Typically, this detachment from expectations has to do with outcomes — what will happen during or as a result of our prayer. But we could also rightly say that we need to let go of our expectations of ourselves as we enter into prayer periods, or times of rest in God. Cultural conditioning and past experiences (even, sometimes, experiences had in a religious context) may occasionally deceive us into imagining that there are prerequisites for "entering into" God's presence. Maybe we feel too frazzled, too tired, or too distracted to "pray well" or "do it right." Perhaps we feel unworthy, — we imagine, either consciously or unconsciously, that sins, guilt, mistakes, or shame might somehow disqualify us from seeking or encountering God in prayer. We expect ourselves to be properly prepared before praying. We must release these and any other expectations placed upon ourselves which could muddy our intention to be fully surrendered and available to God. Preparation for prayer is good and holy to the extent that it facilitates mindful surrender to God, but any notion that we must meet some standard before we can meet God is automatically a fallacy, since we are always in God’s presence. Furthermore, if we say with conviction that God is a healer, then we must also see that brokenness and woundedness should attract us to Divine Presence, not make us weary of it.
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