Pilgrimage to Easter: Day 4. Alternative meditation.

Meditation for Saturday 13 February
Second thoughts ...

... from the readings of the day:

Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post. He said to him, “Follow me.” And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him.

Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were at table with them.  

Luke 5:27-28

Levi's story

I had a great job. Everyone says so. My mother boasts about me to her friends. 

Can't say I am popular - but not many bureaucrats are. Well paid - and with the ability to supplement my income if I want to push the boundaries a bit. Know what I mean? 

Plenty of good middle class friends - good social life. My wife seems happy and is popular with our friends. Kids have a good teacher. Seem happy, if a bit isolated from the rough kids. Always thought that was a good thing.

So I should have been happier. But I kept thinking that I wasn't making a difference. Perhaps I should be a teacher or a priest or a social worker - maybe a writer who will change people's lives. Something more worthwhile than tax collector.

Then, this morning, I was at work and this ragged preacher turned up. Follower of John's I think. Dirty - smelly - you know how they are: bit wild-eyed and too preoccupied with God-things to worry about tidiness.

Talked about changing our lives. I didn't want to get involved - but he was saying exactly what I was thinking. It was very strange.

As he finished he looked at me. Me! "Come with me" he said. "Leave all your stuff" he said. "Got a new job for you" he said.

This is crazy, I thought - but I find myself leaving the queue of people waiting for me with money in their hands, and going. Feeling younger than I had in years. 

Invited him home to meet the family - still thinking maybe I should make some excuse. But you know, I really wanted to go with him - despite the fact that it was the craziest thing I ever heard of!

Next thing I am inviting a few friends we met on the way and before you know it we're organising a party - a party! at my place. Tonight!

I don't know how I am going to tell my wife. 

Maybe I'll wait until after she's met 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 this from one of today's readings, Luke 5:27-32

Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post. He said to him, “Follow me.” And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him.  

Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were at table with them. 

The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”  

Jesus said to them in reply, “Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.”

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 CALLED. 

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 4

Meditation for Saturday 13 February

... from the readings of the day:

Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post. He said to him, “Follow me.” And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him.

Luke 5:27

Jesus called ordinary flawed people like me,
people touched by sin and disapproval. 
His message was not for the career religious 
(who he always seems to disapprove of). 
It was for us. The ordinary. 

We are called to ...

... intimacy
   Called to be intimate with our Creator
     to know and love God 
     more than we know about God. 

... listen
   Called to hear the Spirit in our lives: 

     we are called to learn to listen.

     The Spirit is always with us.

... joy

   We are called to be people of joy

     and people who share joy.

     Not people of anger or judgment.

... heal

   Jesus is our inspiration, 
     teaching us to

     love, forgive, heal, reach out.

... share

   We are called to party, 
     to share food and company

     and joy and all our blessings.

... bless

   We are light: called to bless ourselves, 
     others, and each thing in Creation. 
     We see God everywhere.

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, Luke 5:27-32

Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post. He said to him, “Follow me.” And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him.  

Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were at table with them. 

The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”  

Jesus said to them in reply, “Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.”

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 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.