and fall.


But those who trust in the Eternal One will regain their strength. They will soar on wings as eagles.


They will run—never winded, never weary. They will walk—never tired, never faint.


~Isaiah 40:30-31 (The Voice) She passed her final attempt


with 18 seconds to spare, running on eagles’ wings. So, how can we all discern such


a divine witness to our original au- thentic being amidst loud testimony of all the voices and labels shouting in our head and body, including those imposed by others?


Prayer and Meditation There are two approaches to listening to the voice within, whether we name it God, higher power, Spirit, grace, Eternal One, or divine love or Love. Complemen- tary, rather than mutually exclusive, both approaches require a capacity, gained through patient practice, of quieting the inner and outer chatter and learning to hear that which calls us to be more than what human experience suggests is possi- ble. It’s who we are in the eyes of grace. Sanford C. Wilder, of Grafton, Illi-


nois, author of Listening to Grace, offers personal growth and development pro- grams through EducareUnlearning.com that encourage prayer and meditation that emphasize listening. He practices both approaches and makes distinctions between them. “When I pray, I am directing my


thoughts toward God, listening and often affirming what I know to be divinely true. I am yearning to surrender my will and affections in conscious connection with the divine such that I or another receives a blessing,” shares Wilder. In such prayerful listening, he hopes to gain something, often a new insight and corresponding manifestation. “When I meditate, my intention is to


sacrifice every thought, concept, image and feeling to God, the only conscious- ness. I trust that listening and observing with nonattachment helps me release conscious and unconscious conditioned thought patterns permeated by a human sense of self.” Through meditative listening, he hopes to release everything rather than


To feel Spirit’s presence, we must surrender our own sense of how it will work, its timeline and the impact on our ego or status quo. As with anything


worthwhile, conscientious practice is essential.


receive anything, accepting that everyone is equipped and able to be open to, wit- ness and experience nonstop blessings. Helen Mathis has been an educa- tor in the Philippines and Swaziland as well as the U.S., including an instructor of religion at Principia College, near St. Louis; she is now part of a Centering Prayer Circle in Stockton, California. She explains that centering prayer may be seen as a hybrid that embraces both prayer and meditation, nourishing what’s beneath the preoccupied self to awaken a deeper and vastly more authentic self. Mathis appreciates what Cyn-


thia Bourgeault explores in her book Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening, that, “This confusion between small self and the larger Self… [the] ‘True Self,’ ‘Essential Self’ or ‘Real I’—is the core illusion of the human condition, and penetrating this illusion is what awakening is all about.”


Like Bourgeault, Mathis believes that


it’s not about the absence of thoughts so much as detaching from our thoughts, trusting that we can let go and be safe, consent to surrender human will and forgo personal agendas. Only then can spiritual sense come into play. “The goal is to awaken to, open to


and get in touch with our innermost be- ing and Spirit,” Mathis affirms. “Clearly, centering prayer assumes we each have a spiritual awareness of the divine within us that acts, as Bourgeault puts it, as ‘a kind of interior compass whose magnet- ic north is always fixed on God.’”


Core Shift We often approach a Spirit dimension with the attitude of “what it can do for me.” The higher practice that mystics and other deep thinkers of various faith traditions ultimately arrive at instead centers on transforming our whole self to align with Spirit’s purpose for us, which changes everything. Reverend Dr. Michael Beckwith, founder of the New Thought Agape Spiri- tual Center, in Los Angeles, and a spiritual mentor to Oprah Winfrey, believes, “The relationship we have with the infinite is more about how we are to serve it than it is to serve us.” Beckwith describes three primary stages of realizing the power and purpose of divine Spirit expressed as our spirit. The


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