Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto

Reflection: Contemplative Prayer

Florence Haas
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Palo Alto, CA

I quietly began my practice of meditation, or contemplative prayer, in high school at age 14 when I joined a sodality, a religious group with devotion to Mary. I never spoke about meditation to anyone or had any training other than the small printed sheet provided by the sodality. I continued membership in a sodality in college as well as meditating every day. My practice was to sit quietly and focus on my breath or some word or picture for about five minutes or more, and listen to what my inner voice might have to say to me — some days it didn’t have much to say and some days it had a lot. For guidance I read works including those of St. Francis De Sales, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and Thomas Merton; later Suzuki, Lao Tse, The Buddhist Bible, Evelyn Underhill’s book about Protestant mystics, books linking nature and mysticism by Loren Easley, Lewis Thomas, and Henry Beston, and Marsha Sinetar’s book “Ordinary People As Monks and Mystics.” I was surprised to discover that mystics are very much alike regardless of their religious background. Oh oh! This was eye-opening. It began to dawn on me that I could continue by spiritual practice outside of the Catholic Church!

At age of 33, after about 20 years of practicing meditation, I decided to “try on” this new idea. I sat down in my favorite chair one sunny afternoon [when the children were asleep] and first imagined I had left the Church, and then focused on one leaf on the ivy in the garden. Well, life opened up to me, and I saw in that leaf that everything was connected to everything else — I stayed with that profound feeling of interconnectedness for quite a while [until boys woke up]. This was a life-changing experience for me. The following Sunday I did not go to Mass and explained my decision to my husband, who was fine with it, for which I was grateful. This was a very difficult step for me.

I did not attend any religious services for about a year, and then was introduced to this church. When I heard that “Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part” was one of the UU principles, I was thrilled! I was home — and I’m still here. So meditation actually led me out of my childhood religion, and into every-widening circles of understanding of life, as well as inner peace. So, a warning: when we come in contact with our own inner truth through meditation, it might necessitate some tough decisions or changes in our lives. Here in the UU church where we do not have a creed, we need rely on our own inner voice to guide us, and I feel meditation or contemplative prayer is essential. I’m grateful to be in a church community which supports each of us on our journey through life, and is there for us when we face the tough choices.

Sermon: Keeping a Channel Open by Rev. Amy Zucker Morgenstern