Roy’s Sunday Letter For September 21, 2025
THOUGTHS AND WRITINGS ON PRAYER AND MEDITATION
Most of us, perhaps all of us, seek the best way to live our lives with wisdom, kindness, and joy. Two widely accepted practices to do so are prayer and meditation. Each bring us closer to God, the Divine within our Souls, our family and friends and our wider society.
There are prayers of surrender, petition, confession, and thanksgiving. Prayers can focus on an individual or group, health and wellness or be a community prayer following a tragedy such as the twenty-seven Camp Mystic deaths on July 4th. I was taught early about prayer at meals, Sunday School, and football games. My 2025 prayers are more private, prayers of persons, thought and reflection.
Meditation and calming breath may reduce stress, anxiety, fears and promote physical, emotional, or spiritual healing and wellbeing. Meditation, like prayer, can be an individual practice, or within the collective energy of a together experience. Beth and I attend a Tuesday meditation group. We each have own meditations whether early, late, or while slow walking in the neighborhood, My dear friend Marg writes, “Meditation is that quiet time when the spirit takes over my life to give me the energy needed to live a life of kindness, sensitivity, honesty, and love.” Thank you Marg!
Both prayer and meditation promote a deepening of our spirits as we experience the mysteries of the sacred. These powerful ways of authentic living contribute creative solutions to face the challenges of our past and our fears of the future.
Of course, prayer or meditation may not be your heritage or tradition. What are choices and preferences you have made that are helpful to you, and your family?
What have been your experiences of prayer and meditation? Are both included in your faith and spiritual practice? Do you prefer individual prayer and meditation or mixed with others in a broader group? In what ways have different cultures influenced your prayer and meditation experience?
Roy, being still, feeling my breath.
Prayer was part of my family growing up in a Southern Baptist household. We prayed before each meal and certainly during crisis situations but I have learned as an adult that prayer can be a fairly simple thing not something that takes hours to formulate just a quiet” thank you “or “I need your help.” My prayers are more of a conversation with a friend. My daughter Stacey, meditates in order to handle the stresses of life. She has started studying Buddhism and finds their meditation practices to be helpful when everyday life gets to be too much. I think ,whatever we as individuals can do to face each challenge in life, that should be your jam. I am a firm believer in “ to each it’s own “
A strong Yes to your developed practice of prayer. We each hopefully find our way as you have.
My prayers are now more about friends or causes.
My prayers are about health and wellbeing for and with all.
Helpful words & thank you…..
As Italian Catholics we always had blessings before our meals. And of course church with all its traditions, at the time in Latin. For the past 40 years I have listened to guided meditations each night as I go to sleep. I pray at the start of my day. I ask for guidance. I receive it. I have attended many different types of worship and enjoyed the way that people find their spirituality. This is a quality I learned from my enlightened Mom, who with her best friend attended many different cultural and religious gatherings. You, Roy, inspire us with this beautiful Sunday letter to take a pause, to embrace mindfulness, to be aware that kindness and hope can change us and fill the field with more goodness. You Beth, my deep and beloved friend, is masterful and has saved more life several times over these years. Here’s to both of you. Wisdom Keepers. X/O Linda M
Friend Linda….
Heart words, spirit words, sacred words
You have long practice, each experience building on the one before.
We 3 need 3 hours + to get out what we still hide from ourselves
I am grateful to have you in my world…..you make me better. Roy
Roy, your thoughts and words are very close to my own regarding meditation and prayer. My prayers are my private communications with God as I navigate my path. In meditation, I can commune with a community that can help me define and find direction and perhaps find peace as I/We travel along together or on our own or separate journey. A community of kindness, truth, love, healing, and understanding can certainly smooth our own path or perhaps a shared path. Science seems to confirm that in a healthy, caring, and nurturing community we can physically and emotionally enjoy a more healthy and bountiful existence.
Friend Peter……
Your wisdom
Your kindness make me a better person and person of faith.
Your writing intimate and personal.
Thank you taking time to Comment…..well done in all ways. Roy
Prayer has been a part of my upbringing in a home with single parent and five siblings. My Mom always praises God for his goodness and all that He has brought our family through the good and bad times.
My prayers consist of gratefulness, health and well being for others, and of how may I be a blessing to some one.
well worded for you, mom, and all of family.
The key would be the consistent practice of prayer, the unbroken indeed a blessing for Beth and I.
We continue on together…….Roy
Roy once again you have helped us slow down and examine ourselves. And we examine with open and courageous hearts because your kind example is so disarming.
Thank you for the reminder that we have a capacity for connecting with goodness and energy beyond ourselves. May we be willing to invest time and intentionality in ourselves.
Brother Ron……whatever we do and ne, we do and be together.
We learn best face to face
We have all become more comfortable with digital world.
Nor intimate but doing what we can.
I am a Believer
We continue on….