In her latest video, Bishop Hope Morgan Ward gives you a glimpse into her prayer life and encourages you to renew your life of prayer as you take time to speak to and listen to God.
Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus Christ. It is our great privilege to hear the invitation of God; to set apart time every day for personal prayer.
There’s a lovely spot in the episcopal residence that you provide for Mike and me. I have set this aside as a prayer closet. Light streams in through the window in the early morning, the journal is on the table, and there is a comfortable chair. In these early morning moments, it gives me great joy to write in that journal, to record prayer requests and impressions, to also record my thanksgivings each day.
Another way to enter into prayer is to use prayer beads. Prayer beads are used by God’s people in many places and ways. Holding the prayer beads and moving bead by bead, petition by petition helps us to focus and helps us to have the holy continuity in prayer that is fruitful in our spiritual lives.
You have cultivated other ways to live prayerfully with God, praying as you walk, praying as you jog, praying as you drive. In all of these ways, we offer ourselves anew to God. In these months of summer, it is my prayer that you will be renewed in your life of prayer, in the communion that you feel as you take time apart in solitude to speak to God and even more important to listen.
I have a book in my prayer closet, the chair by the window that I described earlier. It’s a prayer from the early fathers and mothers of the church. One of the desert parents wrote, “Go into your cell, and your cell will teach you everything.” I meditate on that invitation day by day and find that is the pathway to blessing. May it be true for you as well.