My Furry Four-Legged Prayer Partner

By Anne A. Simpkinson, Director of Communications

Posted on 5/30/2017

Years ago when I lived in New York City, I co-facilitated a Centering Prayer group at St. Bartholomew’s Church. Walking home one evening, my facilitation partner mentioned that each morning when she prayed, her cat joined her. Jealousy stabbed my heart. I had two cats and neither joined me for my morning prayer. What was wrong with me? Was she more spiritual than I was?

I wrestled with a sense of inadequacy for days until, caught up in the stuff of daily life, I forgot about it.

I’ve been practicing Centering Prayer since 1996. Basically, I sit in silence for 20 minutes, eyes closed. When I find that I’ve engaged with a thought, memory or emotion, I silently repeat a sacred word that brings me back to center and interior silence. St. John of the Cross wrote that “Silence is God’s first language,” so for this period of prayer, rather than praising, petitioning or thanking God, I simply sit and listen to the silence.

About a year after the conversation with my Centering Prayer co-facilitator, I was sitting in my overstuffed chair where I pray and one of the cats leapt unbidden onto my lap. The cat walked across my lap one way, then the other, kneaded me for a bit and finally came to rest against my left side, head resting on my thigh. I couldn’t resist cracking one eye open to discover that it was Mimi, my tuxedo cat.

She lay there, completely still and relaxed. I closed my eyes again but couldn’t help but be aware of her gentle rhythmic breathing. She completely surrendered to sleep, her body melding into mine. I noticed then that her stillness seemed to draw me deeper into silence and a peaceful calm.

Since that day, six or seven years ago, Mimi has joined me every morning without fail, and I can’t help but remember a St. Gregory the Great quote in which he described contemplation as “resting in God.” Mimi has given me an experience of what that might feel like: total trust and surrender. What a gift my furry prayer partner brings me every day!

You can “Meet Mimi” in this video I made when working as the online managing editor at Guideposts.