I am pretty new to contemplative prayer, but not new to faith. I have spent more than half of my life seeking God and learning about Him. But two years ago I was introduced to contemplative prayer.
To be honest, I struggled with it at first.
I found that there were obstacles in my own heart and mind that got in the way of me embracing solitude, silence, and stillness before God.
A labyrinth is a path which leads, via a circuitous route, to the center of an intricate design and back out again.
We are all on the path... exactly where we need to be. The labyrinth is a model of that path.
The kind of labyrinth we designed looks a lot like a maze, but it has a significant difference. If you stay on the path, you can not get lost. The path takes you to the center and then takes you back again. There are no wrong turns, no blocked paths, and no decisions about which way to go. This type of labyrinth is pilgrimage friendly.
A labyrinth is a right brain task. It involves intuition, creativity, and imagery. With a maze many choices must be made and an active mind is needed to solve the problem of finding the center. With a labyrinth there is only one choice to be made. The choice is to enter or not.
At its most basic level the labyrinth is a metaphor for the journey to the center of your deepest self and back out into the world with a broadened understanding of who you are.
To be honest, I struggled with it at first.
I found that there were obstacles in my own heart and mind that got in the way of me embracing solitude, silence, and stillness before God.
- Fear that I wasn't doing enough, a wrong perception of what I was doing;
- Doubt that there would be any benefit, anxiety wondering what might be stirred up.
- And most of all doubt that with my busy life raising five kids I could make room for this way of spending time with God.
A labyrinth is a path which leads, via a circuitous route, to the center of an intricate design and back out again.
We are all on the path... exactly where we need to be. The labyrinth is a model of that path.
The kind of labyrinth we designed looks a lot like a maze, but it has a significant difference. If you stay on the path, you can not get lost. The path takes you to the center and then takes you back again. There are no wrong turns, no blocked paths, and no decisions about which way to go. This type of labyrinth is pilgrimage friendly.
A labyrinth is a right brain task. It involves intuition, creativity, and imagery. With a maze many choices must be made and an active mind is needed to solve the problem of finding the center. With a labyrinth there is only one choice to be made. The choice is to enter or not.
At its most basic level the labyrinth is a metaphor for the journey to the center of your deepest self and back out into the world with a broadened understanding of who you are.
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