Meditation: Litany for Mary

On Sunday New Zealand celebrates its national Feast Day: the Assumption of Mary.

His mother said to him,
“Son, why have you treated us like this?
Your father and I have been
anxiously searching for you.” Luke 2:48

   Leader: Mary, mother of mothers
   Response: pray for us.

Mary is the human mother of a human child. She
fed him, guided him, picked him up and kissed him
better when he fell. She comforted him when 
he was ill, and stood by him when he was alone.

   Leader: While we are growing
   Response: Pray for us
   Leader: When we we fall
   Response: Pray for us
   Leader: In our moments of shame
   Response: Pray for us
  
Like many women through the ages, bright 

but without influence, Mary accepted life and set

about being the best she could be: a model 
of trust, acceptance, courage and integrity.

   Leader: Mary, model of prayer, model of assent
   Response: Pray for us
   Leader: Mary, beacon of hope
   Response: Pray for us
   Leader: Mary, bearer of pain
   Response: Pray for us

You stood by your son in his pain, when he was
naked before the world and not able to protect
himself. You took him from his place of suffering 
to a place of rest. You carried on through your pain.

   Leader: Mary, patient listener, faithful to
     your call
   Response: Pray for us
   Leader: Help us as we, like you, watch for
     God in our lives
   Response: Pray for us
   Leader: When we too are called to stand at
     the foot of our crosses
   Response: Pray for us

God called to Mary throughout her life, and she listened to hear the gentle breeze as well as the 
clear inner voice. She helped her son, a son of man, 
hear and accept and follow the God in him.

   Leader: Mary, model of prayer
   Response: Pray for us
   Leader: You gave hope to the Apostles in
     their dark moments; give hope to us too
   Response: Pray for us
   Leader: You said "yes" to hope, to love, to God
   Response: Pray for us

Mary too heard and accepted the God in her. 
This human being came to see that she too was 
created in the image of that God, and when
her time came, undoubtedly faced the transition
with the same peace and love and acceptance 
as she faced the other crises of her life.

   Leader: Mary, you stood by your son at the
     foot of the cross. At the hour of our death
   Response: Pray for us
   Leader: As we walk our individual paths home
   Response: Pray for us
   Leader: When we stumble on our path
   Response: Pray for us
   Leader: When we are distracted and turn away
   Response: Pray for us
   Leader: And, at the hour of our deaths
   Response: Pray for us

Suggestions for meditation

Always begin by offering your time to God and asking for the grace to grow closer: something like "My loving God, I love you with my whole heart and above all things. I give you this time as I reach out to you, and ask that you guide me now, and each day, closer to you".

The exact words of the prayer are not important but you do need a firm intention to ask for God's help and to open yourself to God's input. We cannot do this on our own.

Read the mediation over slowly a couple of times.

Listen for the personal message for you. There will always be one word or phrase that will reach into your heart. Think of it as the personal meaning God has for you alone!

If you would prefer a more authoritative reading to focus your meditation try Luke 1: 46-49 from today's Mass in New Zealand (tomorrow's Mass in the rest of the world) ... 

And Mary said:
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me
and holy is his Name."

Re-read the passage or the meditation - maybe read it slowly aloud.

Is there a word or phrase that jumps out to speak to you?

Why? Try to put yourself into those words. Maybe imagine Jesus speaking, and reply.

Then spend 5, or 10, or 15 minutes with your word from Jesus, or the word LOVE or BLESSED.

You need a clear intention to empty your mind of random thoughts (you won't be entirely successful but you need the intention).

You might want to begin the meditation using the breathing exercise I suggest in We have two minds.

After a minute or two focused on your breathing, move your focus to the word/s you have chosen.

Each time your attention moves away from the word/s, push the distraction gently aside and return to the word ("without the intervention of analytical thought" as The Cloud of Unknowing puts it).

You may need a countdown clock.

At the end thank God, and return to your day.

Meditation: Be ready

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Ka au, ka au, ka awatea.
(It is light. It is light. It is dawn.)






For where your treasure is, 
there also will your heart be.
Luke 12:34

My God:
I know you are everywhere and are everything.
I know that you are in me always
and are my life.

Help me to become more aware of this:
   to recognise what I see,
   to truly and deeply love what I recognise,
   to sing with joy each moment as you touch me with your love.

Help me to empty my mind so I can:
   hear the whisper of your word,
   feel the hush of your movement in me,
   recognise your eternal presence in my brief life.

Suggestions for meditation

Always begin by offering your time to God and asking for the grace to grow closer: something like "My loving God, I love you with my whole heart and above all things. I give you this time as I reach out to you, and ask that you guide me now, and each day, closer to you".

The exact words of the prayer are not important but you do need a firm intention to ask for God's help and to open yourself to God's input. We cannot do this on our own.

Read the mediation over slowly a couple of times.

Listen for the personal message for you. There will always be one word or phrase that will reach into your heart. Think of it as the personal meaning God has for you alone!

If you would prefer a more authoritative reading to focus your meditation try Luke 12:35-40 from today's Mass ... 

Jesus said to his disciples: “Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival.  

Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself, have the servants recline at table, and proceed to wait on them. And should he come in the second or third watchand find them prepared in this way, blessed are those servants.  

Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”

Re-read the passage or the meditation - maybe read it slowly aloud.

Is there a word or phrase that jumps out to speak to you?

Why? Try to put yourself into those words. Maybe imagine Jesus speaking, and reply.

Then spend 5, or 10, or 15 minutes with your word from Jesus, or the word LOVE or GOD.

You need a clear intention to empty your mind of random thoughts (you won't be entirely successful but you need the intention).

You might want to begin the meditation using the breathing exercise I suggest in We have two minds.

After a minute or two focused on your breathing, move your focus to the word/s you have chosen.

Each time your attention moves away from the word/s, push the distraction gently aside and return to the word ("without the intervention of analytical thought" as The Cloud of Unknowing puts it).

You may need a countdown clock.

At the end thank God, and return to your day.

Meditation: God of Love

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

He brought you to life along with him,
having forgiven us all our transgressions ...

Paul's letter to the Colossians 2:13

Despite our awe of God, 

our fear of the unknowable power,

despite all our mind and our church 

telling us that we are not worthy ...

   ... we are, in fact, created individually by God,

   loved and cherished as children by our Parent,

   worthy and destined and forgiven

   by our God who made us, loves us,

   and wants always only the best for us.

We see our God as distant and powerful and just 

a little aloof (having all these children to care for). 

But, in fact, God's love overflows in the moments 
any one of us stretches out and, with the lightest
touch of a single finger, brushes the warm light. 

God reaches out as we dare to knock, hears our voices, individually, as we think to ask,

and shares the joy of any parent when we dare to

reach out - no matter how hesitantly or clumsily.

   We are, in fact, created individually by God,

   loved and cherished as children by our Parent,

   worthy and destined and forgiven

   by our God who made us, loves us, and
   wants always only the best for us.

Suggestions for meditation

Always begin by offering your time to God and asking for the grace to grow closer: something like "My loving God, I love you with my whole heart and above all things. I give you this time as I reach out to you, and ask that you guide me now, and each day, closer to you".

The exact words of the prayer are not important but you do need a firm intention to open yourself to God's input.

Read the mediation over slowly a couple of times.

Listen for the personal message for you. There will always be one word or phrase that will reach into your heart. Think of it as the personal meaning God has for you alone!

If you would prefer a more authoritative reading to focus your meditation try Luke 11:9-13 from today's Mass ... 

And I tell you, ask and you will receive;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives;
and the one who seeks, finds;
and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
What father among you would hand his son a snake
when he asks for a fish?
Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg?
If you then, who are wicked,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will the Father in heaven
give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

Re-read the passage or the meditation - maybe read it slowly aloud.

Is there a word or phrase that jumps out to speak to you?

Why? Try to put yourself into those words. Maybe imagine Jesus speaking, and reply.

Then spend 5, or 10, or 15 minutes with your word from Jesus, or the word LOVE or GOD.

You need a clear intention to empty your mind of random thoughts (you won't be entirely successful but you need the intention).

You might want to begin the meditation using the breathing exercise I suggest in We have two minds.

After a minute or two focused on your breathing, move your focus to the word/s you have chosen.

Each time your attention moves away from the word/s, push the distraction gently aside and return to the word ("without the intervention of analytical thought" as The Cloud of Unknowing puts it).

You may need a countdown clock.

At the end thank God, and return to your day.

Meditation: Christ in you: the hope for glory

 

Readings for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Bringing to completion for you
the word of God, the mystery hidden
from generations past: it is
Christ in you, the hope for glory.

Colossians 1:25-27

  
We all know the story of Martha and Mary

and most of us struggle much of our lives

to find the meaning: to reach the balance.

Our early lives are full of business ...

   But Mary chose the better part: sitting, touching 

   the teacher, looking up through her eyes of Christ 

   to see God looking down in her friend Jesus.

Martha was busy - today it is preparing food,

yesterday cleaning, tomorrow helping her brother with his business. Busy - busy - busy and

secure in that, knowing she does all she can.

   But Mary chose the better part: sitting, touching 

   the teacher, looking up through her eyes of Christ 

   to see God looking down in her friend Jesus.

No rest for Martha - following the rules, maybe

a little house-proud. No weed dared show itself 

in her garden, no dust settled. Maybe even a little 

superior comparing herself to her dreamer sister!

   But Mary chose the better part: sitting, touching 

   the teacher, looking up through her eyes of Christ 

   to see God looking down in her friend Jesus.

So we rush through our lives, being significant, 

leaving our world a little better - until the day 

we grow to know that we too need to rest 

with Jesus: to listen, see, breathe, and know.

   For Mary chose the better part: sitting, touching 

   the teacher, looking up through her eyes of Christ 

   to see God looking down in her friend Jesus.

Suggestions for meditation

Always begin by offering your time to God and asking for the grace to grow closer: something like "My loving God, I love you with my whole heart and above all things. I give you this time as I reach out to you, and ask that you guide me now, and each day, closer to you".

The exact words of the prayer are not important but you do need a firm intention to open yourself to God's input.

Read the mediation over slowly a couple of times.

Listen for the personal message for you. There will always be one word or phrase that will reach into your heart. Think of it as the personal meaning God has for you alone!

If you would prefer a more authoritative reading to focus your meditation try Luke 10:38-42 from today's Mass ...

Jesus entered a village
where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him.
She had a sister named Mary
who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak.
Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said,
“Lord, do you not care
that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving?
Tell her to help me.”
The Lord said to her in reply,
“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.
There is need of only one thing.
Mary has chosen the better part
and it will not be taken from her.”

Re-read the passage or the meditation - maybe read it slowly aloud.

Is there a word or phrase that jumps out to speak to you?

Why? Try to put yourself into those words. Maybe imagine Jesus speaking, and reply.

Then spend 5, or 10, or 15 minutes with your word from Jesus, or the word LOVE or GOD.

You need a clear intention to empty your mind of random thoughts (you won't be entirely successful but you need the intention).

You might want to begin the meditation using the breathing exercise I suggest in We have two minds.

After a minute or two focused on your breathing, move your focus to the word/s you have chosen.

Each time your attention moves away from the word/s, push the distraction gently aside and return to the word ("without the intervention of analytical thought" as The Cloud of Unknowing puts it).

You may need a countdown clock.

At the end thank God, and return to your day.

Meditation: The big secret

It is easy: follow the Way God has shown us - or die.
And where is this Way? Is it in a distant place? 
Is it in a recently discovered archeological site? 
Is it too difficult for a human being to understand?

   The message of life is printed on your heart and 
   in your soul. God built it into your genetic coding.

Is this Way hidden in the heavens waiting for us? 
Is it hidden in books written in strange languages?
Is it the work of a lifetime to discover just a glimpse? 
Find the Way as you pray and read and live your life.

   The message of life is printed on your heart and 
   in your soul, built into your thoughts and intuitions 
   and the very cycle of your life.

Choose each day to follow the Way God has shown.

I have today set before you life and good - or

death and evil if your heart turns away to worship your possessions and your own strength.

   Love God. 
   Love each other one. 
   Live the life God gave you. Use your ears to 
   hear it and eyes to see it and mind to know it. 

   Then you will have life and know life.

Suggestions for meditation

Always begin by offering your time to God and asking for the grace to grow closer: something like "My loving God, I love you with my whole heart and above all things. I give you this time as I reach out to you, and ask that you guide me now, and each day, closer to you".

The exact words of the prayer are not important but you do need a firm intention to open yourself to God's input.

Read the mediation over slowly a couple of times.

Listen for the personal message for you. There will always be one word or phrase that will reach into your heart. Think of it as the personal meaning God has for you alone!

If you would prefer a more authoritative reading to focus your meditation try Deuteronomy 30:10-14 from today's Mass ...

Moses said to the people: "If only you would heed the voice of the LORD, your God, and keep his commandments and statutesthat are written in this book of the law, when you return to the LORD, your God, with all your heart and all your soul. 

"For this command that I enjoin on you today is not too mysterious and remote for you. It is not up in the sky, that you should say, 'Who will go up in the sky to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?' Nor is it across the sea, that you should say, 'Who will cross the sea to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?' 

No, it is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts; you have only to carry it out."

Re-read the passage or the meditation - maybe read it slowly aloud.

Is there a word or phrase that jumps out to speak to you?

Why? Try to put yourself into those words. Maybe imagine Jesus speaking, and reply.

Then spend 5, or 10, or 15 minutes with your word from Jesus, or the word LOVE or GOD.

You need a clear intention to empty your mind of random thoughts (you won't be entirely successful but you need the intention).

You might want to begin the meditation using the breathing exercise I suggest in We have two minds.

After a minute or two focused on your breathing, move your focus to the word/s you have chosen.

Each time your attention moves away from the word/s, push the distraction gently aside and return to the word ("without the intervention of analytical thought" as The Cloud of Unknowing puts it).

You may need a countdown clock.

At the end thank God, and return to your day.

Meditation: Where does peace begin?

News report Friday 1 July

"Around 66,000 children are at family violence incidents attended by police each year.  

Many of those children will not receive counselling or other support, despite the long-term problems witnessing such violence and distress is known to cause.  

Starting today, a new family violence pilot in Christchurch will handle police referrals, and focus on all family members - perpetrators and victims, including children who may not be physically abused.  

The roughly 175 reports of family violence each week in the city will be responded to by an inter-agency team, operating seven days a week."

The little girl
It starts as fun. 
My Momma and Daddy drinking,
playing, teasing, tickling 
but then Daddy gets angry. 
I back away, staring, not wanting to see 
but eyes so wide I have to see. 
I feel my hands ball up 
as I scream STOP inside my head.

Mother
It always ends up like this. 
Starts as fun, but anger is always near, 
fear always close by. 
I wasn't much good at school  
but always strong in sports: 
I could hit back 
but that makes it worse. 
And the worst is: I know he loves us.

Father
She always says something stupid 
when she's drinking. 
She's always drinking. 
That gets me started. 
Too many people already look down on me: can't read, 
a few minutes late, 
don't like my language. 
Tell me off - talk down to me.
Can't control that. 
But at home I will have respect!

Me
Watching from the safe glass window of my imagination: 
not my problem, able to inspect the situation, 
not daring to think that I might be the same 
with the same background. 
There is no-thing I can do to help brothers and sisters of the same Father. 

But I also know ...
only I can bring peace:
peace in everything I do
everything I say
everything I think.

My ripples of peace touching each person, every thing,
because ripples go out from every human contact
every prayer, every touch, every feeling;
every act of love, of faith, of trust, 
each time we forgive, love, feel joy.

It is not my place to know where my ripples touch: 
God's hand upon the world.

Suggestions for meditation

Always begin by offering your time to God and asking for the grace to grow closer: something like "My loving God, I love you with my whole heart and above all things. I give you this time as I reach out to you, and ask that you guide me now, and each day, closer to you".

The exact words of the prayer are not important but you do need a firm intention to open yourself to God's input.

Read the mediation over slowly a couple of times.

Listen for the personal message for you. There will always be one word or phrase that will reach into your heart. Think of it as the personal meaning God has for you alone!

If you would prefer a more authoritative reading to focus your meditation try Isaiah 55:8-9

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.

"As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

or these famous words of Teresa of Avila

Christ has no body now on earth but yours,
no hands but yours,
no feet but yours,
yours are the eyes through which Christ's compassion
is to look out to the earth,
yours are the feet by which He is to go about doing good
and yours are the hands by which He is to bless us now.

or even the words of an earlier meditation on ripples from me: http://meditations-insights.blogspot.co.nz/2015/09/meditation-ripples.html 

Re-read the passage or the meditation - maybe read it slowly aloud.

Is there a word or phrase that jumps out to speak to you?

Why? Try to put yourself into those words. Maybe imagine Jesus speaking, and reply.         

Then spend 5, or 10, or 15 minutes with your word from Jesus, or the word PEACE or TOUCH.

You need a clear intention to empty your mind of random thoughts (you won't be entirely successful but you need the intention).

You might want to begin the meditation using the breathing exercise I suggest in We have two minds.

After a minute or two focused on your breathing, move your focus to the word/s you have chosen.

Each time your attention moves away from the word/s, push the distraction gently aside and return to the word ("without the intervention of analytical thought" as The Cloud of Unknowing puts it).

You may need a countdown clock.

At the end thank God, and return to your day.

Meditation: Nothing worthwhile is easy, 3 - Growth

The holy seed is the stump of the felled tree.
Isaiah 6:13


Growth requires change

The thin stalk holding the seed dried and died, and the acorn fell from the living tree, bounced once, rolled a foot and settled, to be covered with mulch. As autumn moved into winter, the seed swelled and split along with many others, all gathered under the shade of the ancient oak. 

Soon a single shoot appeared and began the struggle for light.

Tiny roots quested out - radiating into the rotting leaves - anchoring the shoot, carrying dissolved minerals and the juices of composting leaves, bird droppings and Spring rains.

Over the next century the sapling grew into a stout and strong tree, and when strong winds uprooted its parent tree, the smaller tree was ready to take its place in the sunfed canopy.

Like the parent tree, the new tree flourished in its patch of light - but also like the parent, was blasted and scarred by lightning, lost branches to the winds, and fought the bracket fungus sending filaments from these wounds into its heart.

Through the days, seasons, decades and centuries the roots lengthened and thickened, growing out past the ever-widening circle where rain water dripped from leaf to leaf and out to the edge of the circle of its canopy.

The branches, and new branches, quested out for light, building an ever-larger sail, until the day of the gale when lightning and wind caught the sail and cracked that stout trunk to its buttress.

The branches all died, and burned that summer in yet another lightning strike, but the buttress of half a millennium remained, and the following Spring buds formed all around the stump, new shoots growing from living wood. 

The tree began a new stage of life as a pollarded tree, the single trunk replaced by 13 strong branches, all grasping up to the new gap for light, all anchored by roots centuries old, all fed through a net of fine threads grown to sustain a much taller and wider tree.

Suggestions for meditation

Always begin by offering your time to God and asking for the grace to grow closer: something like "My loving God, I love you with my whole heart and above all things. I give you this time as I reach out to you, and ask that you guide me now, and each day, closer to you".

The exact words of the prayer are not important but you do need a firm intention to open yourself to God's input.

Read the mediation over slowly a couple of times.

Listen for the personal message for you. There will always be one word or phrase that will reach into your heart. Think of it as the personal meaning God has for you alone!

If you would prefer a more authoritative reading to focus your meditation, try Isaiah 6:9-13

And God said to Isaiah, “Go and say to this people:

‘Keep listening, but do not comprehend;
keep looking, but do not understand.’ 

Make the mind of this people dull,
and stop their ears,
and shut their eyes,
so that they may not look with their eyes,
and listen with their ears,
and comprehend with their minds,
and turn and be healed.” 

Then I said, “How long, O Lord?” And he said:
“Until cities lie waste
without inhabitant,
and houses without people,
and the land is utterly desolate;
until the Lord sends everyone far away,
and vast is the emptiness in the midst of the land. 

Even if a tenth part remain in it,
it will be burned again,
like a turpentine tree, or an oak
whose stump remains standing
when it is felled.” 

The holy seed is its stump.

Re-read the passage or the meditation - maybe read it slowly aloud.

Is there a word or phrase that jumps out to speak to you?

Why? Try to put yourself into those words. Maybe imagine Jesus speaking, and reply.         

Then spend 5, or 10, or 15 minutes with your word from Jesus, or the word STRUGGLE or GROW.

You need a clear intention to empty your mind of random thoughts (you won't be entirely successful but you need the intention).

You might want to begin the meditation using the breathing exercise I suggest in We have two minds.

After a minute or two focused on your breathing, move your focus to the word/s you have chosen.

Each time your attention moves away from the word/s, push the distraction gently aside and return to the word ("without the intervention of analytical thought" as The Cloud of Unknowing puts it).

You may need a countdown clock.

At the end thank God, and return to your day.