Pilgrimage to Easter: Day 3

Meditation for Friday 12 February
... from the readings of the day:

Your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your wound shall quickly be healed.
Isaiah 58,8

Spirit am I

animating a body of nerve-endings,
in thrall to a world of instant response
and pleasure, barely aware of my heart.

You too are Spirit:

my brother, my sister, a being of light

invisible to me in the package you wear: 
your wrapping hiding the light inside

disguising your true beauty. 
I must reach past your disguise of difference:
race and class and poverty, to finally see
and touch your light.

Only then will my Spirit begin
to glimmer for others. Only then 
can my light shine. Only then will 
God-in-me be seen on Earth again.

Only then can I be truly whole.

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 this from one of today's readings, Isaiah 58,6-8

This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly,untying the thongs of the yoke; 

Setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; 

Sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; 

Clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own. 

Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your wound shall quickly be healed.

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 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.

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.

Pilgrimage to Easter: Day 1

Meditation for Ash Wednesday 

... from the readings of the day: 

But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
Matthew 6: 6

In the very deepest part of me:
past the electric wonder of my mind, 
through the tangle of my blood,
in a place surgeons will never find,
I have a sturdy secret space I hurry to meet my love.

In my daily life I see that my love walks among us 
   in the beauty of birds
   the laughter of babies 
   the play of light on dew. 

But to meet, we need a space outside time
where I live, 
a cabin on the boundary of the eternal moment 
where my love is
... a secret place where time is made of moments.

We are two - but in this room there are moments we are one
in our intimacy.

In this room, there are moments when
with the the tip of one finger I can, 
sometimes, 
reach out to tap on the door of eternity, 
sometimes,
feel my cheek kissed by the most gentle touch of light

... moments I feel
   the gentle breeze of my love's Spirit
   the whispered voice of my love's Word, 
   the faintest glimmer of my love's Creation.

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 Matthew 6,5-6

When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

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 TOUCH ME. 

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 0

Meditation for Shrove Tuesday
... from the readings of the day:

The Church's Psalm for today is Psalm 84, a song celebrating of our place in God, a song to sing as we walk our ways to Easter.

My soul yearns and pinesfor the courts of the LORD.

   Every thing you created longs to come home

   to the glory and light of your mind.

My deepest desire is to rest in you;

to leave behind my mind's 

angers and envies and pains;

my small glow hidden again in your light.

   Every thing you created longs to come home

   to the glory and light of your mind.

The tiny bird, the huge fish of the sea,

the orchid clinging to forest giant all know

and follow your path. But I must choose,

moment by moment, to make your path my own.

   Every thing you created longs to come home

   to the glory and light of your mind.

I long for the peace that comes only from you,

the quick moments of joy when I know 

that despite all the demands of my life and

this world, you walk my step, breathe my breath.

   Every thing you created longs to come home

   to the glory and light of your mind.

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 to come 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 Psalm 84:3-5, 10-11.

R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
My soul yearns and pines
for the courts of the LORD.
My heart and my flesh
cry out for the living God.
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!

Even the sparrow finds a home,
and the swallow a nest
in which she puts her young—
Your altars, O LORD of hosts,
my king and my God!
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!

Blessed they who dwell in your house!
continually they praise you.
O God, behold our shield,
and look upon the face of your anointed.
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!

I had rather one day in your courts
than a thousand elsewhere;
I had rather lie at the threshold of the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!

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 PEACE. 

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: One body

1 Corinthians 12:12-14, 27
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.
For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body - Jews or Greeks, slaves or free - and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
For the body does not consist of one member but of many.
Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

Alone in my mind, glimpsing in rare moments

the connections I have with others; 

wondering about their lives, their hopes,

their loves and tragedies.

That is my perception: solitary,

single, separate.

Each of us has that perception.

That understanding is the inevitable

consequence of our solitary minds

locked into our singular skulls.

And while we  believe our separation,

we hoard, compete, steal, ignore, hurt, kill.

It is only when we are empty

before God that we again glimpse for a moment

our unity, joined in a single purpose,

alive in our shared godhead.

Our separate cups poured out to make one ocean:
one blood, one thought, one breath, one spirit.

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 to come 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 1 Corinthians 12:12-14, 27

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body - Jews or Greeks, slaves or free - and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

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 20 minutes with your word from Jesus, or the word ONE or the word UNITY. 

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: Offering

I walk alone in a foreign crowd
uncounted people in their own lives,
their own thoughts, own families: separate.
Suddenly confronted
by a single person -
a woman, girl really,
dirty, clearly poor, holding out to me -
to anybody -
her baby, also dirty, wrapped in rags.

   The torrent of people swirled around
   this rock rooted deep in the earth.
   For a moment time slowed, stopped,
   then the current carried me away,
   mother and child absorbed into
   the churning torrent.

Another brother
on a cross, dying, holds out to me,
to all of us,
his self
his mother
his hope for the future.

   The torrent of people swirled around
   this rock rooted deep in the earth.
   For a moment time slowed, stopped,
   then the current carried me away,
   mother and child absorbed into
   the churning torrent.

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 19:25-30

Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.

Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

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 OFFERING or the word HOPE. 

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.