With any effort we undertake, especially when the effort involves something new or unfamiliar, we will always be tempted to ask ourselves, “Am I doing it right?” This is especially true when it comes to contemplative practices like Centering Prayer, where the essence of the practice is nothing more or less than pure presence and receptivity – simple, but typically unfamiliar is a culture (and even, at times, a Church) that too often measures value on performance principles. Our need for affirmation has roots in this too, making us believe that we must perform prayer properly to be worthy of relationship. We worry that our efforts at stillness night be inadequate as we recognize the ebb and flow of thoughts which we struggle to welcome and release, and the great irony of that fear is not that it is false, but that it is precisely true: We never fully succeed in being free from thoughts and available to God on this side of eternity, and in that sense, all our prayer is inadequate, regardless of how practiced one might be. Yet, paradoxically, this ensures that all our efforts to be present to God are also successful, inasmuch as God is not looking for us to achieve a superhuman level of welcoming and detachment, but rather attention, perseverance, availability, and surrender. The “success” for God is in our persistent return to our relationship with God in spite of ourselves. We must learn to accept ourselves as inadequate, and accept God as God.
Submitted by Andy Dapron, with inspiration from Bob Smerek