The Pocket Prayers Summer Series

an introduction.

Hello friends!

Welcome to my July mini-series! Read on to find out more and check out the audio chat with a special guest.

I started developing ‘Pocket Prayers’ in the first year of my studies with the Ignatian Spirituality Centre. I wanted to share these short, simple practices and prayers and invite others in to them. Summer feels like a good time to return to these prayers, and offer them to play with and try on for size.

Our Pocket Prayers for this month are: breath prayers, the prayer of examen, and praying with our emotions. As I have shifted, softened and changed in my faith, I have found these practices sustaining. When prayer has felt complicated they have given me a touchpoint to connect with God. So as well as offering the practices, I also wanted to include a chance to reflect on how we found it

This series is for you if:

• prayer feels complicated or stale

• your faith has shifted and you’re wondering how to connect with God in this new place

• or you’re looking for a gentle way to pause and connect with God this summer.

And perhaps this conversation on prayer is not for you, if so you can go to your Substack Settings and opt out of the Pocket Prayers posts, but still receive my other posts.

Recording Pocket Prayers in Fiona’s Podcast Booth

Throughout the rest of July I will post twice per week in this ‘Pocket Prayers’ Section of my Substack newsletter:

Each Monday you will receive a post and audio of a simple prayer practice, then on Saturdays paid subscribers will receive a follow up discussion and reflection on the practice recorded with Paul, my husband. Paul and I have both shifted in our faith over the past while, but have not always been in the same place, so while I trained to walk alongside people in their life with the divine, at the same time Paul was often finding it uncomfortable to be in church. This difference is where I think the value is in talking about and reflecting together about our experiences of these prayer practices. 

We have both found practices helpful to posture us in openness to the divine, as you’ll hear us discuss in this introductory audio episode. We also both appreciate the accountability that a shared aim gives us. In our conversation we’ll talk about what we find helpful/unhelpful in our own shifting faith journeys. This is not going to be a shiny or high production venture¹, but it will hopefully be authentic (Paul is sometimes more honest than I’d like) and maybe even fun.

So are you in?

Would you like to follow along and try out these three practices over the next few weeks? Look out for the Monday audio and description of the practice each week.

Or would you like to go a little deeper and join our discussion? The Saturday discussion episode will be for paid subscribers only to allow a depth to the conversation. If you’d like to join us then subscribe for the month for £4, then set yourself a reminder to cancel your subscription before next month! If the money is an issue but you’d still like listen in to our Saturday chats, just email me(*) and I’ll sort you out.

Leave a comment and let me know if you’re joining us for this July mini-series.

Thanks for reading and I’m excited and curious as to where this July journey will lead us individually and together,

Debbie

1. Although I do have to thank my lovely friend Fiona Stewart of Foolproof Arts for her audio tech assistance and podcast booth!