Sensory prayers in 2025

Welcome back to our Virtual Prayer Room

Kia ora friends

Welcome back to our Virtual Prayer Room. Thank you for allowing me the space to close the doors for a few weeks. I needed this time and I’m grateful to you for your patience and the lovely messages of support. I’m back and I have a beautiful plan for this year.

I thought I’d start by welcoming you to one of my writing spaces.

I am writing this from my outdoor porch, early on a January morning before it gets too hot. The porch is a sort of outdoor/indoor room. The previous owners of our house, made multiple alterations over many years in the style of the old kiwi bach (holiday house) where building materials were often repurposed and eclectic. This was before the current days of compliance and regulations and I doubt the porch is even on any plans. The house ‘grew like topsy’ as my grandmother used to say. I love this odd indoor/outdoor space with wooden joinery that was likely in the original cottage, collections of things like shells and pine cones gathered from our walks along beaches, a couch, cushions and blankets to get cosy, a cane chest for our beach towels and swimsuits, a table to use as a desk or to sit and enjoy a cup of tea, herbs along the open sills, and artwork reflecting the natural environment of Aotearoa.

So what am I writing and what’s ahead for us this year?

My plan is to curate a safe and inclusive prayer space. Each week in 2025 we will appreciate simple prayers based on a shared monthly theme. The themes take us on a journey of emotional and sensory reactions. The weekly offering will include two prayers each using everyday objects. The prayers invite sensory engagement. They’re tangible, reachable, accessible, inclusive and provide us with a space in which we can connect with our God to react to the world around us and to engage prayerfully with our own contemporary lived experiences.

Our emotions and senses share the same neural pathways in our brain. The sensory information we constantly receive can evoke emotional responses from us, ahead of thoughts or prompting a memory of past experiences. Praying is one way we can integrate our lived experiences and our faith, hence my view is that sensory based prayer, with targetted sensory experiences and focussed attention of thought and emotion, takes this integration to a next level of engagement with our Creator God.

The prayers this year are all newly written for our 2025 journey, although some borrow from objects of previous prayers. I’ve already started work on my writing so I can stay ahead of myself and not run into silent gaps. I’m planning a simpler format this year, mostly so that I can offer sustainable energy to the commitment of bringing you weekly content at a time in my life where my energy is still limited. The prayers will be written for personal use and for use in group worship experiences. I hope they provide an allcomers vibe and are useful in a variety of settings.

I would love to have you join me in 2025 on our sensory prayer journey. The first week of each month will be free for all subscribers, with the remaining weeks of the month behind the paywall. Substack now allows subscription pricing in local currencies so a paid plan is $30NZD a year. You’ll likely see your own currency in the paid plan options below.

This is what the year ahead looks like

February - Peace

March - Compassion

April - Surprise

May - Delight

June - Contentment

July - Amusement

August - Happiness

September - Wonder

October - Satisfaction

November - Hope

December - Celebration

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You’ll see me in a few days with our first post with Peace prayers.

On the journey

Caroline