I’ll be honest. When I first learned about welcoming prayer, it sounded like a New Age philosophy to me. I imagine my initial resistance was similar to those who think that spiritual disciplines and spiritual formation aren’t Christian but rather some sort of Eastern philosophy.
Inspired by Jesuit Priest Jean Pierre de Caussade’s book, Abandonment to Divine Providence, Mary Mrozowski forged the Welcoming Prayer method, and Fr. Thomas Keating further developed it.
We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature[d] a slave to the law of sin.
Here, he recognizes he doesn’t do the good he wants to do and instead does that which he doesn’t want to do. He welcomes the fact that doing what he doesn’t want to do confirms that he knows the law and delights in it because his actions are contrary to his desires. So, he lets go and lets Jesus deliver him.
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
Notice how we deceive ourselves with claims to be perfect, blameless. Welcome them because Paul says when we confess them, Jesus forgives us. If we don’t welcome them then we won’t recognize that we need God to set us free. Then we release them and ourselves for God to purify us from our unrighteousness.
Welcoming prayer is about observation, acceptance, and release. Recognizing and accepting the good, bad, and ugly opens us up for healing. During anorexia recovery, I was weight-restored long before I was mentally recovered. It took me a long time to be okay with feeling my feelings. After years of numbing myself, allowing myself to feel the feelings was excruciating. But I didn’t have a choice. It was either restrict, numb out my feelings, and disappear (eventually through death) or not restrict, feel my feelings, and learn how to accept them and myself. This was important for my healing. So how did I get there?
The most recent time I battled anorexia, my eating disorder counselor at the center had told me she wanted me to express to her my real emotions when I was feeling them. So, one day I finally unleashed them in an email to her. It wasn’t pretty. That’s what welcoming prayer is all about. I noticed and allowed my thoughts, feelings, and reactions. I accepted them, which is a welcoming. And then I let go. I released them to someone who was looking for me to do just that. It was a safe environment. Though at the time, I wasn’t really sure I was safe. I didn’t know how she would respond, so I had to test the waters to see if she could handle me. Was she safe? I worried she would drop me as a client, but at that moment in time, I had no one else to whom I could turn. By proving herself trustworthy, I made a breakthrough in my recovery journey. She was proud of me because I acknowledged and expressed where I was at, I was honest, and I got it out. She said, “That’s what doing the work looks like.”
The whole point of Welcoming Prayer is to recognize our thoughts, emotions, and motivations without judgment so that we can release them and ourselves into the arms of a loving mothering God.
"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!"
When we notice the hard things as well as the sin in our lives, we can welcome its presence because we know that we can release it for God to use it for our good, as iron sharpens iron.
Do not be anxious about anything [you are noticing], but in everything [bid them welcome so that] by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving [you can] let your requests be made known to God. And [through this surrender,] the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
