A rainy morning, a day off, warm enough to sit on the porch and listen to the rain. It makes for contemplation.

I have found myself thinking and praying about the type of prayer that the prayer study group has now entered into: "apophatic" prayer, the prayer of emptiness, of nothingness. This type of prayer invites us to empty ourselves of all desires because they keep us self-centered and prevent us from knowing God. This type of prayer invites us to know nothing (intellectual) about God, because we can only come to know God when we get beyond our concepts which so limit our perception of God. This type of prayer invites us to get beneath the noise (inner and outer) of daily life, because it is in the silence underneath that we come to know God.

All very mystical. All very difficult for Lutherans, with our compulsion to control, and to achieve intellectual understanding with clarity!

The prayer of nothingness can only be "described" with images -- which are unsatisfying to us Lutherans, because they don't nail down with clarity. Instead, they open up possible wider and larger meaning. To many that's frightening!(Interesting that Jesus taught, nearly all the time, using images ...)

Another image for this kind of prayer came to my mind this morning, thanks to Mary Oliver's poem, "The Waterfall": the image of gravity. Gravity, which we rarely think about, which is always there. To think of our weight, in the chair, during prayer. Sinking into the presence of God. And, there, emptying ourselves so that we can be filled by God's self.