Meditation: The Lavish Lover

Life is all about love.

God is love, and made us to share that love,

made us, caterpillars discovering purpose,

to give love, to accept love, to join the very 
being of God, perfect as our Creator is perfect.

Life is love.

God wants the very best for us.

Half-hearted love, selective love,

is barely half a life - we are made to love wholly

and share love with God and all God created.

Jesus showed us love, the fullness of love;

not selective, half-hearted affection

but bone-deep knowledge that love 

shared with every other person, every created thing, 
is the only meaning of 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 this from one of today's readings, Matthew 5:43-48

   Jesus said to his disciples:
   “You have heard that it was said,
   You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.
   But I say to you, love your enemies
   and pray for those who persecute you,
   that you may be children of your heavenly Father,
   for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good,
   and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
   For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?
   Do not the tax collectors do the same?
   And if you greet your brothers only,
   what is unusual about that?
   Do not the pagans do the same?
   So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

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

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 ONE.

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 2

Meditation for Thursday 11 February

... from the readings of the day: 

... whoever wishes to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for my sake will save it. Luke 9:24

The old man lay dead on the bed,
day old whiskers and flakey skin.
And we will bury him with the usual
words and ceremonies.

No-one seems to have known him well.
No-one wants to speak about his life.
He had outlived friends and died alone.
And he has had two lives.

In one life he had a job, a family
(who had moved away), a mortgage,
a fondness for flannel, a small car.
No-one knew his other, inner, life.

No-one knows where he went quietly and alone.
No-one knows the good he did.
No-one graphed the life he gained 
against the life he lost.

He left records of ownership, little valued
accumulations to be removed from the house,
some small savings in a bank account: 
the record of a life.

He's gone now. 
We cannot know what he took with him.

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 when I am reaching out to you and ask that you guide me 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 9:23-25

Jesus said to his disciples:
“If anyone wishes to come after me, you must deny yourself
and take up your cross daily and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save their life will lose it,
but whoever loses their life for my sake will save it.
What profit is there for one to gain the whole world
yet lose or forfeit yourself?”

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 LIFE. 

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, 1

There is a crack in everything: that's how the light gets in!

Leonard Cohen 1993

The potter made the most beautiful pot,
flawed in the kiln;
but still a pot,
still perfect in the memory of the maker.

Made first to be a work of art - 
an object of wonder
striking awe in its perfection
a reminder of the perfection in each of us.

Made to be displayed, not used,
too perfect for human use.
Now, flawed, but useful still
because of the space enclosed within.

And it works as a pot. Perfectly. Still 
remembering the potter's dream
of perfect form and design and decoration
but now more: useful as well as beautiful,

just as full of awe, just as perfect,
just as full of beauty, but now also 
in daily use. Dusty, worn by handling, yes, 
but still perfect and loved and full of wonder.

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 Isaiah 64,8-9

Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay,

you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.

Do not be angry beyond measure, Lord;

do not remember our sins forever.

Oh, look on us, we pray, for we are all your people.

10 
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 CREATOR or the word LOVE. 

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: Standing alone

Our destiny is unity;
together in God.
This longing now, a pebble in our shoes,
is a nagging reminder of what we were made to be.

We are born for community,
longing to be together, but inevitably 
we live on our own.
In our heads. 
Busy. 
Doing things.

When we think, we are walled in a prison of cranial bone
and even though we try to share our thoughts, inevitably 
we are misunderstood, misinterpreted through the events of our listener's life.
Thinking is a solitary experience.

We hide our aloneness in lively tea parties, 
enthusiastic social contacts, 
passionate Church liturgies, helping sisters and brothers.
But we trick ourselves, sustained by hints of unity, glimpses of common purpose.

Only in our loves can we have a true taste of unity;
in our thoughts we each live alone.
Our thoughts can be original and are always unique,
seeming to define us, nurturing our perception of individual singularity.

But we long to share our insights, to unite with others.
Some of our best thoughts are so infused with passion
that others do indeed follow, but the tyranny of thought
cannot sustain unity: new thoughts intrude and distract.

Love is the difference.
We mostly live alone with our individual thoughts,
savouring our individual rights and entitlements.
Only in our loves may we truly come together. 

Only that love can satisfy.

Only through love:
love of God, love of others, love of creation, love of ourselves,
can we glimpse the unity of eternity: our destiny 
when the sons and daughters of our Creator will be reunited 
in Love as the single body of Christ.

Our destiny is unity;
together in God.
This longing now, a pebble in our shoes,
is a nagging reminder of what we were made to be.

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.

Read the mediation over slowly a couple of times.

Listen for Jesus' personal message for you.

If you would prefer a Bible reading I suggest 1 John 4:7-8,16-21

Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Whoever loves is a child of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 

God is love, and those who live in love live in union with God and God lives in union with them. Love is made perfect in us in order that we may have courage on the Judgement Day; and we will have it because our life in this world is the same as Christ's. There is no fear in love; perfect love drives out all fear. So then, love has not been made perfect in anyone who is afraid, because fear has to do with punishment.

We love because God first loved us. If we say we love God, but hate others, we are liars. For we cannot love God, whom we have not seen, if we do not love others, whom we have seen. The command that Christ has given us is this: whoever loves God must love others also.

Read 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 those words, or the word LOVE. 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: Gift of time

What is more precious than anything in the world?
Time!
And what do we waste uselessly and without being sorry?

Time!
What do we not value and what do we disregard more than anything?
Time!

When we waste time, we lose ourselves … Time is given by God to use correctly for the salvation of the soul and the acquisition of the life to come … The Lord will call us to account for having stolen time for our own whims, and for not using it for God and our souls.

Sebastian of Optina Monastery

O God, you are my God,

but I live separate from you.

When I was young

I saw our separation as an issue of place,

but now I know that it is an issue of time.

You have gifted me a seemingly unlimited

number of moments to know you in myself.

You are there with me each moment,

but because I live in time and not in your eternal moment

I fail to notice you as I look to my next moment.

Created in your image and with your kingdom in me,

I taste hints of your presence in

moments of prayer,

moments of beauty,

moments of insight.

But when I reach to prolong the moment

I have moved away and you have not. 

I lose time when I distract myself with foolish entertainment,

when I stop being alive because I am "waiting until",

or when my best plan fails and I frustrate myself,

ignoring the new opportunity not of my making.

My Creator, you have given me 
time - to discover,

time - to grow in your image.

Moment by moment you guide me; but

moment by moment I surrender to distraction and frustration.

Your kingdom is within me, and I just don't notice when

I entertain my whims, or to resent the thwarting of my plans.

O God, you are my God. You live within me,

but I live separate from you.

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.

Read the mediation over slowly a couple of times.

Listen for Jesus' personal message for you.

If you would prefer a Bible reading I suggest John 17,20-23 - Jesus' prayer ...

My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

1. Read this passage or the meditation slowly a couple of times.
2. What word of phrase jumps out to speak to you?
3. Why? Try to put yourself into those words. Maybe imagine Jesus speaking, and reply.
4. Then spend 5, or 10, or 20 minutes with those words, or the word ONE or UNITY. 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: Don't build here

The members of the early Church were hugely enthusiastic about sharing the message of Jesus - and many travelled to share the good word. There is plenty of evidence that Thomas made it to India, where he seems to have been martyred. So India is a very early outpost of the new Church. There was an archway in Northern India that had this message inscribed on it.

                   This world is only a bridge. 

Cross over it, but do not build your house on it! 

We think we are builders - so few days 
to establish so much: career, relationships, 
house and legacy all to build,

immortality through our children.
So much fear that no-one 
will remember or care! 

My life here is a journey:
born with nothing - leave 
with nothing but my loves 

the lessons I have learned in
my heart. I can carry no more 
across the bridge to my home.

My path seems not straight and 
sometimes I do not see 
the milestones until I look back!

But your constant love lights my way
and the other side, my destination, 
obscured by mist, is not entirely hidden.

My God, guard my lamp always.
Walk with me. Help me walk each day 
one step on my path home to you.


Suggestions for meditations
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.
Read the mediation over slowly a couple of times.
We all have moments when we seem adrift, when our lives seem without purpose or direction (and sometimes without hope). I love that we are on a bridge, maybe a wide bridge, maybe a Japanese garden bridge with gaps so the evil spirits cannot cross to our home. But a bridge, in the end, is quite simple: it begins on one side and has a destination on the other. We may feel lost, but the other side is always there!
If you would prefer a Bible reading I suggest Matthew 6, 19-21 and/or 22-24.
You can begin the meditation using the breathing exercise I suggest in We have two minds.
Then spend 5, or 10, or 20 minutes with the word Journey. Every time you drift off the word, gently remind yourself and come back to it ("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.