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.

Meditation: Nothing worthwhile is easy, 2 - Struggle to Grow

"You will look, but not perceive" 
Isaiah 6:9 and Mark 4:12

God did not make us for an easy life.
We are born in pain and limited by our senses, 
subject to scarcity and disease and age,
made to learn most effectively by hard experience!

God did not make us for an easy life;
allowed us a mind able to think, 
but a mind almost entirely subject to our 
appetites and feelings and fears and hormones.

God did not make us for an easy life.
Born separate from our God: we are in time -  
God is not. We live a mainly physical life guided 
by parables we are not ready to understand.

God did not make us for an easy life, but gave us 
prayer and meditation and miracles and community, 
saints and moments of insight hinting at answers
so we will watch for the glow on the horizon.

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 Mark 4: 9-13

    After the parable he said, “Let anyone with ears to hear listen!” 

When he was alone, those who were around him along with the twelve asked him about the parables. And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in parables; in order that

‘they may indeed look, but not perceive, and may indeed listen, but not understand; so that they may not turn again and be forgiven.’”  (see yesterday's Meditation on Isaiah 6: 9-13)

And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables?

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 PERSIST.

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.

Pilgrimage to Easter: Day 24

Meditation for Friday 4 March
... from the readings of the day:

 

Says the LORD,
I will love them freely;
for my wrath is turned away from them.
I will be like the dew for Israel:
he shall blossom like the lily;
He shall strike root like the Lebanon cedar,
and put forth his shoots. 

Hosea 14:5-8

Our God loves us freely.

The Gardener planted carefully after tilling the 
soil and mixing in deeply, year-old manure. The seed 
cracked, the shoot grew to the light and warmth, 
broke through. The Gardener laughed with delight.

Our God loves us freely.

The Gardener watered the soil, weeded to ensure
the path to the light remained open and clear.
The seedling thrived under the Gardener's care
and in the ground chosen. The Gardener smiled.

Our God loves us freely.

The Gardener tended the sapling, always seeing
the final shape. Inward-growing shoots were rubbed 
off, branches crossing others pruned. The Gardener 
sat in the evening light and sighed with satisfaction.

Our God loves us freely.

The simple design established, sapling grew to 
tree, and in many many years to maturity, 
its great flat top spread to the light. The Gardener 
comes often to rest in the shade, to softly touch the trunk.

Our God loves us freely.

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 this from one of today's readings, Mark 12:28-31

One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him,
“Which is the first of all the commandments?”
Jesus replied, “The first is this:
Hear, O Israel!
The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, 
with all your soul, 
with all your mind, 
and with all your strength.
The second is this:
You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”

Focus on a significant word or phrase in this passage or the meditation for a few moments.

Is there a word of 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 phrase 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.

Pilgrimage to Easter: Day 22

Meditation for Wednesday 2 March
... from the readings of the day:

what great nation is there that has gods so close to it as the LORD, our God, is to us whenever we call upon him?
Deuteronomy 4:7

Our God is closer to us than our minds,
moving in our hearts. See. Feel. Share.

The old man is a teacher, sharing his love
of mathematics, but more, his love of life: his 
growing wonder of himself, of the world, 
of his personal growth to being whole.

Our God is closer to us than our minds,
moving in our hearts. Notice. Feel. Share.

The little girl is also a teacher: sharing her joy in being, the wonder of colour and song and new life, the marvel of new words, smiles and loving people: asserting her amazing growth to wholeness.

Our God is closer to us than our minds,
moving in our hearts. Notice. Feel. Share.

The young woman is a mother, sharing her love 
of love and more, her love of life: her growing 
awareness of herself, of goodness, of the world, her 
sudden awed surge of new growth to being whole.

Our God is closer to us than our minds,
moving in our hearts. Notice. Feel. Share.

The child is a boy, sharing his love of moving, his 
joy in life - in shocking people, in learning, his love
of belonging, of surprises, the thrill of risk: of 
each single thing he experiences in becoming whole.

Our God is closer to us than our minds,
moving in our hearts. Notice. Feel. Share.

The old woman is a financial manager, sharing 
her wisdom and her love of life: her growing 
awareness of how God's world should work, and 
her personal journey to being whole.

Our God is closer to us than our minds,
moving in our hearts. Notice. Feel. Share.

Each one of us is a teacher, sharing our love of life,
of living: our growing wonder seeing ourselves in
the world our God has made for us, newly aware
of our own personal growth to being whole.

Our God is closer to us than our minds,
moving in our hearts. Notice. Feel. Share.

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 this from one of today's readings, Deuteronomy 4:9 ...

However, take care and be earnestly on your guard not to forget the things which your own eyes have seen, nor let them slip from your memory as long as you live, but teach them to your children and to your children’s children.

Focus on a significant word or phrase in this passage or the meditation for a few moments.

Is there a word of 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 LEARN or LISTEN.

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.

Pilgrimage to Easter: Day 13

Meditation for Monday 22 February: Feast day of the Chair of Peter
... from the readings of the day:

Tend the flock of God in your midst,
overseeing not by constraint but willingly,
as God would have it, not for shameful profit but eagerly.
1 Peter 5:2

When I went to Rome as our leader
I started a tradition that will last.
Rome was the centre of the world
and I was leader of our Church there. 

Jesus called me his rock - and I really

tried to be. But my failures are well-known.

My fear led me to say I didn't know him.

My self-doubt led me to sink into the waves.

I'm not a learned man: I'm good at fishing.

I try to be a good man. I try to support Jesus.

I try to love and support my people.

I try to set a standard for others who will

follow me in the chair of my cathedral.

I pray that my failures will allow them to make 

the human mistakes too - and be forgiven, 

and to use their sorrow to grow stronger in Christ.

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 this from one of today's readings, Matthew 16:13-17

When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”  

They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 

Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 

Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church.

Focus on a significant word or phrase in this passage or the meditation for a few moments.

What word of phrase 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 CHRIST.

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: Broken, 2

Unless the perfect blossom blushed with pink

shrivels and dies I have no apple, crisp, 
sharp yet sweet juice running down my chin.

   Perfect and broken, both: 
   perfect because made by God to grow;

   broken because I have forgotten that 
   without death there is no life.

Unless the caterpillar eats its fill
is buried and dies, there is no glory 
of fragile flight, splendour suspended on breath of air.

   Perfect and broken, both: 
   perfect because made by God to grow;

   broken because I have forgotten that 
   without struggle there is no life.

Unless the egg so delicate and of the clearest blue
cracks and opens
I have no song outside my window to greet the dawn.

   Perfect and broken, both: 
   perfect because made by God to grow;

   broken because I have forgotten that 
   without destruction there is no life.

Unless the hydrogen gathers and explodes; unless plates groan in glacial grind, I have no place to stand in wonder of creation.

   Perfect and broken, both: 
   perfect because made by God to grow;

   broken because I have forgotten that 
   without tension there is no life.

Unless my perfect skin, tanned and glowing
becomes spotted and creased, I learn nothing 
from my mistakes, and wisdom fails on Earth.

   Perfect and broken, both: 
   perfect because made by God to grow;

   broken because I have forgotten that 
   without decay there is no life.

Suggestions for meditation

Always begin by offering your time to God: something like "My loving God, I love you with my whole heart and above all things. I give you this time when I am reaching out to you" and then a few moments reminding yourself of some of the blessings God has given you - the clear signs of God's love for 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 John 12:24

I assure you and most solemnly say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain. But if it dies, it produces much grain and yields a harvest. 

Focus on this passage or the meditation slowly a couple of times.

What word of phrase 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 20 minutes with your word from Jesus, or the word CHANGE or the word 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.