There is a deep need in every one of us to be close to God. Experiencing God is something to be sought after and not avoided. While we base our theology on God's Word, our experiences with God make it all come alive. The Bible is a book recording the experiences of men and women throughout several millennia of history whose lives were changed through divine encounters. Your life, too, will be changed as you encounter Him. To "soak" in God's presence is to rest in His love rather than to "strive" in prayer. Someone has likened this experience to making pickles. When making pickles, first the raw cucumber is dipped in boiling water to sterilize it.  Then it is immersed in the pickling solution for several weeks. During this soaking time the pickling solution soaks deep into the flesh of the cucumber until it takes on the flavor of the pickling solution and it no longer tastes like a raw cucumber. In soaking prayer we "marinate" in the divine presence, and begin to take on the flavor of God.

        We gather on the first Wednesday of each month (excepting the times of Advent and Lent). You may wish to come early (6:15-7:00 p.m. in Pastor's office) to experience God's mercy and forgiveness in Private Confession and Absolution. If not, we begin at 7:00 p.m. in the Parlor. This is a time to quiet down enough to hear the words of life God wishes to whisper to us. There is no program, no performance, no wrong or right thing to do, no expectations placed on you by others. Our practice is to soak while listening to intimate worship music with meaningful words that quiet the soul and help us draw near to God. It usually takes about fifteen minutes to quiet the business of life and enter into rest, but you can't force or hurry this so we often go longer.  As we soak in God's presence and listen to the appointed scriptures or selections from the Psalms, the Lord often begins to draw our attention to some particular passage of Scripture or provide impressions or pictures in the mind's eye. Of course, the idea is not to "get something" but to "be with someone," so we take a good bit of time just to be with Him and to love Him and let Him love us. We then  have a brief time to share any thoughts with the group.  We return to quiet music or simply wait in silence and meditate upon what we have heard. 

        As we rest expectantly in God's presence, often the Holy Spirit reveals more of God's love for us and renews and repairs damaged areas of our life. There are often areas of past wounding where we are very reluctant to go. That is often the very place that the Lord wants you to revisit so that He can bring freedom and healing to areas of fear and pain. Most evenings, a few people are present who want healing prayer or would like to receive a fuller release of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. In prayer for physical healing you may experience an electric like tingling or a warm sensation going through you. Our Prayer Team is an experienced group of people who can love you through whatever God chooses to do with you and help reassure you. Experiencing God's presence will help you to stand before the Lord in silence with your mind in your heart and to hear with the ear of the soul.      

  

        Centering Prayer is a method of prayer, which prepares us to receive the gift of God's presence, traditionally called contemplative prayer. Centering Prayer facilitates the movement from more active modes of prayer - verbal, mental or affective prayer - into a receptive prayer of resting in God.  We take up a simple phrase (such as "Jesus - Lord"), coordinated with slow and deep breathing by which one clears the mind of distracting thoughts and quiets oneself down to the Presence of the Lord who dwells within. Some Christians, especially those in the Eastern church, use the longer phrase, "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior, have mercy on me, a sinner." This is the traditional "Jesus Prayer."  In Greek, the initials of this phrase spell out the Greek word for "fish," hence the fish is an early symbol for Christianity.

        As Pr. Stutz teaches this method of prayer, he draws from ancient prayer practices of the Christian contemplative heritage, notably the Fathers and Mothers of the Desert, Lectio Divina, (praying the scriptures), The Cloud of Unknowing, St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila.  He also relies on the wonderful simple method of centering prayer introduced in the 1970's by three Trappist monks, Fr. William Meninger, Fr. Basil Pennington and Abbot Thomas Keating at the Trappist Abbey, St. Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts.  A workshop on centering prayer and contemplation can be as little as an hour, or as long as three hours.