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Hey Friends,

I’m beavering away behind the scenes today getting ready for the launch of the new Contemplative at Home website. Keep an eye out for more on this in the coming weeks.

For some reason, in my back room organising, an episode that had missed its release date last August was inadvertently released. It wasn’t my intention to send it to you today, but out it has gone, so do enjoy when you have a moment.

My apologies for busy-ing your inbox.

All blessings on your Holy Week and Easter observances.

Warmly

Lissy

A Good Friday Meditation – The Passion of Christ – John’s Gospel

A 19-minute audio guided meditation in John’s Gospel, John 19:13-42, using Lectio Divina.

I am struck by two key invitations as we meditate on the suffering of Jesus in Holy Week.

The first invitation is to see how fully and completely Jesus offered himself in love.

And the second invitation is to attend to pain, to difficult emotions and circumstances. Our public and private lives give us more than enough pain to come to terms with and it is often easiest to ignore or numb in the face of it all. But at the cross Jesus seems to suggest that the only way is through (as the adventurer in the children’s rhyme “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” knew so well). The only way to resurrection and eternal life is through the grave. The only way to wholeness is through the heart centre of all that is broken. The only way to healing is through the pain.

May you have the grace to open yourself more fully to this mystery this week.

This meditation covers several moments in the crucifixion and death of Christ, and each section is read just one time. If you’d like to repeat a particular section or the entirety of the passage you will find the relevant times below.

6:24 Pilate hands Jesus over to the Jews – John 19:13-16

8:11 Jesus is put on the cross – John 19:17-25

11:09 At the foot of the cross “Here is your son, here is your mother” – John 19:25-27

12:13 Sour wine and “it is finished” – John 19:28-30

13:27 Jesus side is pierced – John 19:31-37

15:17 Jesus is buried – John 19:38-42

In this meditation on John’s Gospel, I invite you to join me in taking a ‘long, loving look’ at the passion of Christ, beholding the words as living, shimmering, life-giving containers which hold endless layers of wisdom, mystery, beauty and truth.

Just for these few minutes, I invite you to leave your dogma, your creed, your thoughts, and your rational mind aside, and become present to your deeper self, your true self or essential self. I invite you to a way of unknowing, a place of deep being. 

Contemplative at Home offers guided meditative prayer – space to slow down and listen to the truth that is being born out of God’s love for you today – drawing on Ignatian spirituality and at times, Lectio Divina.

Sign up for Lissy’s newsletter “The Contemplative Window” or join our Facebook group here

You can support the show by sharing it with a friend, rating it on your preferred podcast platform, making a one-off donation or becoming a member. Thank you so much!

All music by Pete Hatch

Lectio Divina – Jesus is Handed Over – Holy Week meditation – John 19

A 17-minute audio guided meditation in John’s Gospel, John 19:1-9, using Lectio Divina.

In this Holy Week meditation on John’s Gospel, I invite you to join me in taking a ‘long, loving look’ at Jesus as he endures these grim moments of his arrest, ‘trial’, and conviction to crucifixion. Notice the way he remains present and attentive even while circumstances become frayed and harried around him.

Just for these few minutes, I invite you to leave your dogma, your creed, your thoughts, and your rational mind aside, and become present to your deeper self, your true self or essential self. I invite you to a way of unknowing, a place of deep being. 

Contemplative at Home offers guided meditative prayer – space to slow down and listen to the truth that is being born out of God’s love for you today – drawing on Ignatian spirituality and at times, Lectio Divina.

Sign up for Lissy’s newsletter “The Contemplative Window” or join our Facebook group here

You can support the show by sharing it with a friend, rating it on your preferred podcast platform, making a one-off donation or becoming a member. Thank you so much!

All music by Pete Hatch

Lectio Divina – Jesus Before Pilate – John 18

A 22-minute audio guided meditation on John’s Gospel, John 18:33-40 using Lectio Divina.

James Tissot . Jesus Before Pilate, Second Interview (Jésus devant Pilate. Deuxième entretien), 1886-1894

In this meditation on John’s Gospel, I invite you to join me in taking a ‘long, loving look’ at a few verses of text, beholding the words as living, shimmering, life-giving containers which hold endless layers of wisdom, mystery, beauty and truth.

Here is the text for todays meditation, from the NRSV:

John 18:33-40

Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?”  Pilate replied, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?”  Jesus answered, “My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom belonged to this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.”  Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”  Pilate asked him, “What is truth?” After he had said this, he went out to the Jews again and told them, “I find no case against him.  But you have a custom that I release someone for you at the Passover. Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?”  They shouted in reply, “Not this man but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a rebel.

Just for these few minutes, I invite you to leave your dogma, your creed, your thoughts, and your rational mind aside, and become present to your deeper self, your true self or essential self. I invite you to a way of unknowing, a place of deep being. 

Contemplative at Home offers guided meditative prayer – space to slow down and listen to the truth that is being born out of God’s love for you today – drawing on Ignatian spirituality and at times, Lectio Divina.

Sign up for Lissy’s newsletter “The Contemplative Window” or join our Facebook group here

You can support the show by sharing it with a friend, rating it on your preferred podcast platform, making a one-off donation or becoming a member. Thank you so much!

All music by Pete Hatch

Lectio Divina – Peter Denies Jesus

A 22-minute meditation with John 18:12-27, using breath work and Lectio Divina.

A meditation for Lent as Jesus is arrested and interviewed by Annas.

Contemplative at Home offers guided meditative prayer – space to slow down and listen to the truth that is being born out of God’s love for you today – drawing on Ignatian spirituality and at times, Lectio Divina.

Sign up for Lissy’s newsletter “The Contemplative Window” or join our Facebook group here

You can support the show by sharing it with a friend, rating it on your preferred podcast platform, making a one-off donation or becoming a member. Thank you so much!

All music by Pete Hatch

The Truth Will Make You Free – Lectio Divina – John 8

A 16-minute guided audio meditation with John 8:31-36, using breath work and Lectio Divina.

“We have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying ‘You will be made free’?” John 8:33

Jesus invites his followers into an interior freedom. We could devote our entire lives to the exploration of this invitation. You might find it useful to reflect on these questions:

  • Where and when do I feel lack of freedom around my choices or my reactions?
  • When and how do I feel an inability to give and receive love?
  • In what ways do I feel stuck?
  • Am I free to express my needs and opinions with confidence and grace?
  • Where do I feel most alive? Where do I feel least alive?

Every blessing as you reflect and pray.

You are more loved than you can ever imagine. May this be the truth that sets you free.

Contemplative at Home offers guided meditative prayer – space to slow down and listen to the truth that is being born out of God’s love for you today – drawing on Ignatian spirituality and at times, Lectio Divina.

Sign up for Lissy’s newsletter “The Contemplative Window” or join our Facebook group here

You can support the show by sharing it with a friend, rating it on your preferred podcast platform, making a one-off donation or becoming a member. Thank you so much!

All music by Pete Hatch

The Light of the World – Lectio Divina with John 8:12-20

A 22-minute audio guided meditation in John’s Gospel, John 8:12-20, using Lectio Divina.

My invitation to you, always, is to engage with scripture through your creative, non-rational self. Rational engagement with scripture is equally important – we usually call it bible study – and I hope there is a dose of it in your rhythms. But my invitation is to help you engage with this sacred text through the non-thinking parts of yourself. With your intuition, your soul, your inner knowing.

In this passage, there is debate. The pharisees are pushing Jesus, prodding with questions and asking for how he measures to the framework of their law.

You will have your own responses to this, and as you listen I invite you to stay in your deep inner knowing, to allow one word or phrase to open meaning for you, and to let the rest fall away.

I see Jesus here deep in his own inner knowing, profoundly connected with his Source, and focussed wholly on that alone.

May you come close to Jesus as you pray with this text.

All love, all Light, all blessings.

Contemplative at Home offers guided meditative prayer – space to slow down and listen to the truth that is being born out of God’s love for you today – drawing on Ignatian spirituality and at times, Lectio Divina.

Sign up for Lissy’s newsletter “The Contemplative Window” or join our Facebook group here

You can support the show by sharing it with a friend, rating it on your preferred podcast platform, making a one-off donation or becoming a member. Thank you so much!

All music by Pete Hatch

The Woman Caught – Imaginative Contemplation – John 8

A 23-minute audio meditation with John 8:1-11, using Imaginative Contemplation.

In this meditation on John’s Gospel, I invite you to join me in taking a ‘long, loving look’ at a few verses of text, beholding the words as living, shimmering, life-giving containers which hold endless layers of wisdom, mystery, beauty and truth.

Just for these few minutes, I invite you to leave your dogma, your creed, your thoughts, and your rational mind aside, and become present to your deeper self, your true self or essential self.

In imaginative contemplation we invite the Spirit to speak to us through the faculty of the imagination, allowing the text to come alive as we fill in the sensory details in our minds (eg what do I hear, how does she appear?), as we allow the story to become our own in some way.

As always with guided meditation, keep yourself in a safe emotional space – if you don’t feel comfortable with the experience, gently come back to your breath.

Deepest blessings as you pray here.

Contemplative at Home offers guided meditative prayer – space to slow down and listen to the truth that is being born out of God’s love for you today – drawing on Ignatian spirituality and at times, Lectio Divina.

Sign up for Lissy’s newsletter “The Contemplative Window” or join our Facebook group here

You can support the show by sharing it with a friend, rating it on your preferred podcast platform, making a one-off donation or  becoming a member. Thank you so much!

All music by Pete Hatch

Let Anyone who is Thirsty Come to Me – a meditation

A 16-minute meditation with John 7:37-39, using Lectio Divina and Imaginative Contemplation.

In chapers 7 and 8 of the book of John, politics are whirling and public opinion around Jesus is intensifying. In these choppy political seas – with which we are all familiar in our own way – Jesus speaks these words: “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, “Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.”’ (John 7:37-38 NRSV)

To learn more about the celebratory water drawing festival that Jesus is attending in Jerusalem, and the ritual of the “last, great day” (Jn 7v37) you might find this article interesting.

Blessings as you pray.

Contemplative at Home offers guided meditative prayer – space to slow down and listen to the truth that is being born out of God’s love for you today – drawing on Ignatian spirituality and at times, Lectio Divina.

Sign up for Lissy’s newsletter “The Contemplative Window” or join our Facebook group here

You can support the show by sharing it with a friend, rating it on your preferred podcast platform, making a one-off donation or becoming a member. Thank you so much!

All music by Pete Hatch

Where he is From – A Meditation

A 19 minute audio meditation with John 7, verses 14-18 and 25-31, using Lectio Divina and breath work.

In John 7, the public opinion of the Rabbi Jesus is becoming fraught, with many following, many criticising and others wanting him out of the way.

In todays text Jesus has made his way to Jerusalem for the festival of booths, but has come quietly, on his own, without an entourage or public entrance. In the middle of the festival he stands up and speaks and many are moved by his teaching.

What John reports here is around Jesus’ authority, which is very much under scrutiny by those present (and presumably by those amongst and for whom John was writing, decades later).

Jesus reasserts, as he does throughout the book of John, that he is from and of the Father, that he speaks not his own words but the words of the One who sent him, for the glory of the One who sent him.

I am revisiting Teresa of Ávila at the moment, and her teaching takes us to contemplation of the great mysteries of the Divine indwelling in our deepest selves, and the profound union with God of the soul in its most interior places. I can’t help but read this text with that in mind. Jesus is entirely centred in and confident of the profound one-ness between himself and the Father.

In verse 18 he talks about what is true and false in a person, and Thomas Merton, a modern contemplative teacher, talked about the true self and the false self. To Merton the false self is the ego attachments to success, power and status. The true self is the deep, inner, soul-dimensions of the self where I am free to give and receive love purely, where I experience and rest in my belovedness.

Perhaps these thoughts will enrich your reading of the text. May you receive from this meditation whatever it is our Lord would offer you.

All blessings.

Contemplative at Home offers guided meditative prayer – space to slow down and listen to the truth that is being born out of God’s love for you today – drawing on Ignatian spirituality and at times, Lectio Divina.

Sign up for Lissy’s newsletter “The Contemplative Window” or join our Facebook group here

You can support the show by sharing it with a friend, rating it on your preferred podcast platform, making a one-off donation or becoming a member. Thank you so much!

All music by Pete Hatch