ABOUT A 28-DAY METTA PRACTICE recently offered for use next month. “You need to lose the prayer rug!” whispered a fellow parishioner. This advice followed a Sunday morning homily in which I literally laid out my current spiritual practice to the congregation. In a similar vein, a staff person privately warned against the homily altogether - “You cannot hold up a prayer rug and use the word enemies in the same talk, and not have people free associate to think Muslims are our enemy!” Two weeks earlier another parishioner wrote angrily at the time of the 5th anniversary of 9/11, "You need to take that reported prayer rug you're using and turn it around and face WEST instead of East!"

These are parishioners whom I love dearly and listen to with great respect. Yet in these troubling times, suddenly I knew firsthand the thankless predicament of Pope Benedict embroiled in a tempest of inferences beyond any intended meaning. Then I remembered the cynical humor the meaning of which had eluded me until now - “No good deed ever goes unpunished!”

The irony of the two controversies - both the personal objections of my little parish and the world event of Muslim offense taken at the Vatican recently - is that the intent in both instances was to engender greater peace, not more violence in thought or word or deed. Consider the spiritual practice I was describing is Metta, "metta" from the ancient Pali word meaning “loving-kindness,” specifically benevolence. Using a prayer rug seemed a natural bridge-building tool. Yet given the depth of emotions that have surfaced in many Christian minds lately, especially from the war against terror, I can now see the minefield into which I blithely walked. Blessed are the peace-makers . . . may they rest in peace!

We press on nonetheless. Metta practice of the kind that I described this past Sunday focuses on the war within each of us, on what Sunday’s New Testament reading from James speaks of as “those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you?” Metta seeks to re-orient the controversies of the heart toward virtue not sin, toward good not evil.

Said in different words by way of a story, recall the American Indian teaching of Two Wolves –

(paraphrase) An old Cherokee tells his grandson about two wolves at war within each soul, the one Evil and the other Good. He then describes at length the characteristics of Evil and Good. The grandchild asks, “Which wolf wins?” The grandfather replies, “The one you feed.”

Metta practice would feed the Good Wolf. It seemed so simple. Show a prayer rug to my parishioners. Describe how I use it in daily Metta practice as a Christian. Stand on the rug with hands upraised in orans position. Invoke the Trinity. Kneel and bow my head to the rug in obeisance position. Ask aloud “May I be free of suffering”. Stand up and meditate on the Christian meaning of freedom and suffering. Give thanks for an answer to my prayer. Then repeat the process three more times, petitioning God with three successive prayers - “May I have physical happiness.” “May I have mental happiness.” “May my heart be at peace.” Again, seeking in each meditation to let Christian tradition inform and transform the prayer.

Having shown the basic order of my private practice, I then invited others to join me in a 28-day discipline of Metta, beginning October 4, the Commemoration of Saint Francis of Assisi and ending November 1, the Feast of All Saints. In the first week we will pray as described above – for our selves. The next week – for a beloved person. The following week – for a neutral person. The last week – for an enemy. Each Sunday during this 28-day discipline participants will gather to share together their several experiences and insights, questions and concerns, all with the goal of spreading loving-kindness or benevolence further out into the world, peace beginning with our selves.

I might make reference at this point to spiritual warfare and how even the simplest good purpose is quickly assaulted by the true enemy, Satan. The Devil loves to use our private confusions and misunderstandings to keep us apart even as the Spirit would move us to seek greater clarity of mind together. This devilishness however is the topic of another practice and conversation for another day. As noted in an earlier blog, too much energy today is spent on what is controversial and strange and polarizing, energy that would better be spent on seeking communion with one another and with the Divine. Metta would do the latter while letting go of the former.

The real work of peace is grounded in such spiritual awareness, single soul by solitary soul developing kind affections out into this sore troubled world. Remember the hymn - "In Christ there is no east or west, In Him no north or south, But one great fellowship of love, throughout the whole wide world." This is the purpose of Metta. This is the necessity of prayer.

Turning a parish’s focus of attention to such spiritual practice - and there are many such practices from different traditions, all readily adaptable to Christian prayer - would seem the better activity in the Episcopal Church today than what has become our usual practice namely, talking at each other from extreme positions of mutually exclusive self-righteousness, judgment and condemnation. If this little spiritual exercise does anything toward moving a few of my parishioners out of themselves and toward a greater and more immediate sense of communion with others: I say alleluia.

As for the several objections within my parish. For the record, I’m not losing the prayer rug in fact I have two of them, both identical, one for the rectory and one for my study in the parish house. With every best wish in mind, if my fellow parishioner is willing to join the Metta exercise next month, I will gladly lend one of them!