Learning the prayer is easy.  Discovering its ample graces occurs with regular practice.  Both learning and regular practice is best done with the support of a small prayer group in your church or religious community.

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Seek a small group experience

 

Do not try to learn the prayer by reading all about it on this website.  The best way to learn the prayer is by joining a Companioned Prayer group or forming one in your church or religious community.  Attend a presentation of your church's Companioned Prayer ministry if you can, and then sign up for a series of four introductory prayer sessions.  Then continue to participate in a Companioned Prayer group, typically meeting weekly.  All meetings only take about an hour-and-a-half.  After four to six prayer group meetings following the introductory prayer sessions, you will want to participate in a one- or two-day Companioned Prayer retreat, as soon as one is available.

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This CPCF website is available for churches and religious communities to list their Companioned Prayer ministries on the Ministry Groups page.  If there is no Companioned Prayer small group ministry near you, simply get together with a friend or two in your church or religious community, and with the support of your pastor, start practicing the prayer using the Basic Handouts on the Resources page.  Then you have started a prayer group!  For questions, encouragement and assistance, email the CPCF at info@CompanionedPrayer.org.  Also see the FAQs page.

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Discovering the graces of the prayer over time

 

Learning the prayer never really stops.  With regular practice over months, you will not only continue to discover the subtleties and depths of the prayer, you will also discover the rich graces and presence of God in your life.  Therefore, the prayer is not something to be tried just a few times with the idea that then we know what it is.

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This prayer is not just something that we do; it is time we spend being open to, and nurturing of, our awareness of God as the prime mover and shaper of our lives.  And when we do that consciously and regularly, we find that we are carried forward in his hands by his love, in ways beyond our knowing, that guides us and transforms our understanding of ourselves as children of him who loves us deeply.

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So in faith we turn to God in prayer and give our self to him over and over again.  While it is easy to become familiar with the steps of Companioned Prayer with a friend or in a group, experiencing what the prayer truly offers is a process of growth.  It takes time because it is real; it happens within you as you grow and as your faith and experience deepen in response to God’s love.

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Because the prayer experiences are subtle, it can be easy to initially dismiss their value and the value of the prayer.  This seems to be true whether the initial experiences are profoundly personally meaningful or are of a more simple nature.  The key to experiencing the personal growth of our formation in Christ is to understand that while individual prayer experiences gift us with God’s intimate mercy, the greater gift is his real presence to us.  This is a presence of being in a personal relationship with our Lord, a presence and relationship that unfolds and develops over time as our awareness of him is nurtured through our many Companioned Prayer experiences.

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Disclaimer

 

In Companioned Prayer, we experience Jesus as our true Companion.  The prayer is offered and practiced as a Christian, interactive, contemplative prayer.  The prayer experience is between the person praying and God, and requires an active faith relationship with Him or a searching for that relationship.  Companioned Prayer includes the role of a prayer companion who reads text and accompanies the person who is praying.  Neither the companion nor the person praying should view the role of the companion, or the prayer practice or prayer experience, as a substitute for professional therapy or treatment.  Companioned Prayer is not a form of therapeutic treatment.  Neither is it spiritual direction nor spiritual or pastoral counseling.  It is a private, personal prayer with the assistance and companionship of another person.  Your prayer companions, the sponsoring or hosting organization and the Companioned Prayer Christian Fellowship (CPCF), their officers, members, employees and volunteers, and the authors of Companioned Prayer and other material offered by the CPCF, are not responsible for your prayer experience or the results thereof.  Each church, organization, or individual that offers or practices Companioned Prayer is responsible to determine the suitability of the prayer or the offered material for their own programs and purposes.  The prayer and material are offered "as is" and may not be suitable for all individuals or programs.  If you have related questions or concerns about Companioned Prayer, discuss them with your professional therapist, doctor and/or priest before beginning or engaging in any further practice of the prayer.  You should not practice any prayer with which you are not comfortable.  However, Companioned Prayer when practiced with faith and in community can offer us God’s personal tender mercy and love, felt and known within us in a way that is unique to each person.  See additional information here.