As we begin to dive deep - Phenomenology of Prayer.

Matthew Hutchins 9/8/17

I am sitting in class often just captured by the meaningfulness that going on in our class. The ideas that have been shared in class about prayer have simply open my mind to another way of thinking about prayer. I used to see prayer as a communication tool and that is just how we talk to God. Prayer is more than just communication but a way to humble yourself from yourself, a check on your ego. It takes on a whole new meaning when action is put upon yourself instead of just expecting God to do something for you. I have been able to reflect on this through my practice in prayer and it has really changed the way I start my prayer. It gives me some context as to why I pray and opens my practice into a new freedom. In the book one of my favorite quotes in the first chapter is when the author says that prayer is not a detachment of the self in order to attach to God but rather a detachment from ourselves "in order to see and use things in and for God" (22). I see that as a much richer way of living. We prayer not so that we attach ourselves to other things or God but we pray in order to put ourselves back into the knowing of who we are and where we belong as human being in the system. Simply put it provides freedom in that context, once we start to see ourselves in the way we were designed, we experience more openness to life. This past summer I had a moment where I was 12 miles from the nearest road at the foot of an alpine lake alone. I often come back to this moment because of the strong feeling I had of this is how life is designed. I had hiked there disciplining my body in order to get to a destination, using my body the way it way intended and then allowing myself to exist among the mountains and trees I couldn't get over the feeling inside me that was allowing such natural peace.

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