In a hermeneutic of generosity, I suspect Patrick wanted to baptize his former captors because he could see how the chains of enslavement bind even its purported victors into sin. Slavery binds even the “masters” into submission to evil. Slavery denies the God-bearing image inherent to all people; should you see in the eyes of the ones you oppress your own salvation, you might know you have no freedom at all.

Becoming alert to our dominant thinking—a barrier to listening to God—is generating a way into new freedoms. Contemplative praying encourages a gracious and compassionate approach to uncovering—gently and patiently removing the obstacles to God’s way for our inner life and for our public life.

I thought that there were two ways to go through life – toiling hard to be good (and being perpetually exhausted), or giving up and being selfish. I thought that life was fight, flight, or freeze. I am learning that the way of Jesus is neither toiling and spinning, nor giving up.

Praying together helps me see how God has already torn open the heavens through Christ’s death and resurrection, and is alive and actively working to bring hope where we thought it a lost cause and to topple all the would-be gods and emperors with a love stronger than any evil and a life stronger than death.

We were early adopters of the Pray Without Ceasing (PWC) ministry opportunity. When I suggested PWC, some shared that praying for thirty whole minutes seemed like a very large hill to climb. Folks were nervous, asking, “What will we do for thirty minutes? Will there be awkward silence? Is this even Lutheran?”

This book is for anyone ready and willing to dig deeper into their personal and communal stories to unearth the healing wisdom that waits for us all.

I wrote this book as voice, as consolation and encouragement, as vision and dreaming, as truth telling, as healing.

God is good and everything God created is good. Take some time to connect with the stories of those you are in community with.

The “Our Father,” 

The “Lord’s Prayer,” 

“The words that Jesus taught us to pray.”

They have been prayed

Millions,

And millions,

And millions of times.

Erin Weber-Johnson gives us a prayer for retaining a spirit of love in the face of political controversy and indignation.

Prayer seeks the good and well-being of others. It is an act and expression of love as we lift someone or some circumstances before the God whom the Bible says is love. And that is not only a matter of expression. It leads to and undergirds outward action.