Prayer is an opportunity to commune with God and lay burdens at his feet, and a recent event at Orlando’s Cathedral Church of St. Luke represented this process in a tangible, emotional way. On May 19, the Rev. Canon Patricia Orlando hosted and Dr. Christin Ditchfield Lazo facilitated a guided prayer walk through a labyrinth in which participants had the opportunity to, as Lazo likes to say, “meet God at every turn.”

Orlando, who had prior experience with prayer walks, sought out Lazo, author of more than 80 books and a certified labyrinth facilitator. Approximately two dozen women received instruction in the various aspects of the walk, which included the laying down of burdens.

Dr. Christin Lazo with the portable prayer labyrinth. | Photo: The Rev. Andrew Lazo

“[Dr. Lazo] had a basket of stones, and she said, ‘If you want, before you start your walk, you can pick up this rock, and it can represent your anxiety, any burdens you have, any prayers, whatever is on your heart,'” Orlando explained.

The participants then carried their rocks through the labyrinth until they reached its center, which represented where God was. Lazo invited them to lay their stones there – as if placing them on the throne of God – before making their way back out.

“I could feel the women praying; I could feel their hearts, and I could feel their burdens,” Orlando said. “As the priest, I wanted to be the last, so I went and looked at this pile of rocks, and it just came to me that these are the burdens and prayers of the women who were all around me represented there. I stood there and blessed the rocks before I left.”

Lazo, who first encountered a prayer walk at a retreat where she spoke years ago, has witnessed many spiritual breakthroughs during such experiences. Her family gave her the portable labyrinth she used at St. Luke’s, which her husband, the Rev. Andrew Lazo, apprentice rector at Church of the Messiah, Winter Garden, and Orlando dedicated before the evening’s prayer walk.

“[Walking the prayer labyrinth] is always such a deeply meaningful experience,” Dr. Christin Lazo said. “Some share specific insights – spiritual ‘aha’ moments – that come as they walk and pray. Often there are tears, as participants find themselves releasing worry or fear, processing grief and pain or expressing their gratitude to God for all that he has brought them through, trusting him to lead them step by step through whatever the future holds. And almost everyone says immediately, ‘I want to do this again!’ It’s just such a powerful way to pray, a powerful way to experience the presence of God.”

Lazo said that during her own journey, the labyrinth has become a “profound practice,” one that goes back at least a thousand years and is firmly rooted in scripture. She even designed a series of labyrinth-themed workshops and retreats as her project for her Doctorate of Specialized Ministry.

Canon Patricia Orlando prays as she traverses the labyrinth. | Photo: Michael Orlando

“It’s a spiritual discipline that really helped me through many transitions in my own life, reminding me to trust God and His leading through all life’s twists and turns,” she said. “Lots of people use the labyrinth in lots of different ways, but we use it as a place to encounter the risen Jesus – to walk with him and talk with him (Luke 24:13-35). And like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, we often find our ‘hearts burning within us’ [v. 32] as He meets us there. I was thrilled to have the privilege of sharing it with the women at St. Luke, and I look forward to sharing it with others.”

Orlando, who witnessed how the spiritual exercise affected the women who participated, also mentioned the deep personal impact the walk had on her.

“You get to a point where you don’t know where you’re at, because you’re looking down, and all you can see is the path,” she said. “There are these big green lines, and you don’t really know how long it takes to get to the middle. … I was a little nervous.

“And the Lord spoke to my heart and said, ‘I’m leading you every step of the way, and I’m leading you right to myself,'” she said. “And I took in that when God talks that way, it’s not just on that prayer walk, but in my life. As I shared that, another woman said, ‘Oh, that’s what he was saying to me, too.’ So it was pretty incredible.”