Labyrinth: It’s Prayer in Motion
Good Friday — March 25, 2016
3:00 – 7:00 pm | Justin Building Gym
The labyrinth is an ancient practice offering Christians a deep sense of the calming presence of God and an awareness of God’s grace. Information and guidance is offered to help you in this experience, if desired.
What is a Labyrinth?
If you’ve never experienced the labyrinth before, this is your next opportunity to discover for yourself the peace and clarity this time-honored practice of Christian contemplative prayer can bring. Guidance and information will be available to help you get started.
The labyrinth is a special prayer path the church has used for many centuries (ours is based on the one built in the 1200s at Chartres Cathedral in France). The practice of walking the labyrinth is designed to help deepen your awareness of God’s presence and guidance.
It is a time-honored and powerful way to slow down and prayerfully listen to heart and soul — and a practice being rediscovered in our fast-paced culture as a healing and life-giving prayer ritual. We invite you to join this re-emerging practice as a way to quiet your mind and soul, and to prayerfully listen for God’s guiding presence — and new life being born in you.
“The first time I saw the labyrinth, I didn’t take it very seriously,” says Mark Burrows, Director of Children’s Ministries. “In fact, my goal was to run the labyrinth in less than a minute. He laughs. “And that’s really hard to do in socks!”
“The second time I saw the labyrinth, I still didn’t take it seriously. The third time — same thing. The fourth time I thought, ‘Alright, Mark. You might as well just give it a chance. Slow down. Settle down. See what happens.’
“It was Ash Wednesday, 2010 — Wesley Hall. I had been in conversations with my buddy Cynthia McElrath about how it would feel if she passed the baton of Children’s Ministries on to me. I walked the labyrinth. In the center there were small tiles with words painted on them. The one I picked had one simple word — ‘yes.’ That was the answer I needed, even wanted, to hear. I actually sat there and cried in the middle of the labyrinth — in my socks.
“A lot of people say you walk the labyrinth in order to ‘lose yourself.’ What if you end up finding yourself? Slow down. Settle down. See what happens.”