The "Here I Am" Prayer

This prayer was developed by the late Russian Orthodox Bishop Anthony Bloom in 1970 to help people who wanted to begin contemplative prayer but found it hard to settle into the silence. It is found in his book "Beginning to Pray," and this meditation leads you through the three simple steps with 3 minutes of silence for each step. Many people who find centering prayer daunting warm up to this gentle way of easing into contemplation.

Transcript

If you're a beginner to contemplative prayer,

Or if you just want to get back to basics,

There's no better place to start than with this simple prayer adapted from Anthony Bloom's classic book,

Beginning to Pray.

Bloom was a Russian Orthodox Archbishop who died in 2003,

And he wrote this short book in 1970,

And it continues to be an inspiration to seekers today.

In his chapter,

Managing Time,

Bloom describes this prayer exercise in narrative form.

I've broken it down into steps,

And it's so simple and short it can be used daily as a prelude to other prayer practices.

Our intention is to be here now in prayer.

So let's resolve to be in prayer for about 10 minutes.

Don't answer the phone or allow yourself to be distracted from your goal.

Take a seat,

Relax,

And say to yourself,

Here I am seated doing nothing.

I'll do nothing for three minutes,

Or longer if you want to pause the audio.

Begin noticing your own bodily presence.

Notice how your body feels next to the chair,

How your feet feel against the floor.

Relax your body.

Notice what you feel inside,

And we'll now take three minutes in silence,

Being present to ourselves.

You you you you now notice the presence of all that is around you say to yourself here I am in the presence of the room or it could be the garden chapel wherever you are be aware of what's around you furniture walls any pets or people in the room just be present and silent in your environment and relax even more we'll take three minutes of silence now being present to our surroundings you you you you you you you third and final step is to say to yourself here I am in the presence of God now you may want to use a name for God that's most comfortable for you or you may want to rest in the presence of mystery repeat silently here I am and bask in the presence of the divine for the next three minutes you you you you you I'm in now just a note feel free to move these steps around you may want to start by noticing God's presence the progression could also move from your environment to your body to God's presence I just find I usually need to settle my body down first in order to be still enough to be present to God I thank you for sharing this time with me I'm Teresa Blythe and you'll find this prayer practice and 49 others in my book 50 ways to pray I wish you the peace that comes from practicing the presence you

Reviews

That was lovely Teresa, very grounding. Thank you 🙏💙

A lovely gentle settling into presence of self and the Great Unknown at the end of the day🙏🏻🙏🏻

I really like this teaching on how to pray in silence. It's amazing how being still and quiet can help relax the mind. Blessings to you.

Short simple into the point very effective Namaste

Thank you so much!

Thank you, this was very helpful.

Love this. Thank you!

Fantastic. Simple route to God’s presence

Thanks for sharing very gentle yet powerful

I love this prayer meditation, thank you!

🙌❤🙏👼🏼👼🏿👼❤🙏

First time I've prayed in a long time.... I really liked this prayer many thanks. I will be using again. Namaste 🙏

Thank you. I love it. 🙏

Thank you🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

A pleasant, simple guidance. Thank you.🙏

Beautiful ! I love this! I have been practicing being present throughout my day. Thank you for sharing your gift 😊🙏❤