Young people will get tired; strapping young men will stumble 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. Complementary, 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 possible. 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 of- ten 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 consciousness. I trust that listening and observing with nonattachment helps me release conscious and unconscious


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.


conditioned thought patterns permeated by a human sense of self.” Through meditative listening, he hopes to release everything rather than receive anything, accepting that everyone is equipped and able to be open to, witness 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 Center- ing Prayer Circle in Stockton, Califor- nia. 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


natural awakenings December 2015 31


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