Home & Blog | Lynne Baab

Christian meditation and prayer

Lynne Baab • Tuesday August 15 2023

I’m in my late 30s, and I’m talking with a Christian man I know slightly. He’s telling me about his pattern of meditation. He says he begins by emptying his mind of all his concerns so he can focus on a sacred word or verse from the Bible. I argue with him a little. I tell him I can’t empty my mind just like that. Instead, when I try to engage in Christian meditation, I try to identify the things on my mind and give them over to God, perhaps by using some imagery like putting them in Jesus’s hands or...

Read full article »

Prayer and the purpose of Christian meditation

Lynne Baab • Tuesday August 8 2023

I’m going to give you a quotation with words deleted in two places. I’ve marked those two places with X and Y. As you read the quotation, think about what you would put in place of X and Y.

“Christian meditation is the filling of the mind for the purpose of X. It is a means of learning by repeated exposure to the same ideas. It involves study, reflection, and rumination. . . . Christian meditation sees understanding as the product of thinking on whatsoever is virtuous (Phil. 4:8). Christian meditation is not an end in itself but is intended to Y.” —Jen...

Read full article »

Silence and prayer

Lynne Baab • Tuesday August 1 2023

When you think of praying in silence, what comes to mind? Walking in a beautiful park? The dark, quiet hours in the middle of the night? Reading a passage from the Bible and praying in response to what you read? Praying a written prayer like the one at the end of this blog post or a prayer from the Book of Common Prayer or another collection of prayers?

A month ago, when I started pondering the spiritual practices of silence and solitude as they relate to prayer, I saw silence and solitude as practices with a lot of overlap, but I wasn’t...

Read full article »

Prayer in solitude

Lynne Baab • Tuesday July 25 2023

I learned to pray in communal settings. As a child, the majestic and eloquent prayers I heard in the Episcopal worship services I attended with my family moved me. One of them helped the congregation approach God, and despite the old fashioned language, I loved the words as a child, and only as an adult did I realize the prayer evokes Jesus's interaction with the Syrophoenican woman in Mark 7:24-30: "Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that...

Read full article »

<< Newer | Older >>