About Me

Hello friends!

I’m Lissy, and Contemplative at Home is my passion project, work which fills me with gratitude and joy.

As you’ll hear in my accent, I call many places home: I grew up primarily in California, my husband is from Northern Ireland and together we are raising our children in England.

As well as making this podcast each week, I work as a spiritual director, facilitate retreats and teach yoga.

I have always been part of the Protestant community (currently Anglican) but am profoundly grateful for much input from the Jesuits over the years.

My desire in all things is to facilitate a deepening interior sense of wholeness, freedom and abundance of life. May you experience some of this as you encounter the Lord’s gracious love through these podcasts.

Thanks again for stopping by, again, it is truly a privilege to share the journey with you.

– Lissy

contemplative spirit2

And thank you to the many others whose support makes this podcast possible… Hanna for management consulting, my brother petehatch.com who provides all the music and graphics, Victoria for particularly inspiring and cheerleading, Rachel for praying, the anonymous donor in January 2015 and to Paul. And thank you, so much, to Fr Finbarr Lynch SJ, who taught me to pray in this way. 

56 Comments on “About Me

  1. I just discovered your podcast. I’ve been participating in a prayer workshop at our church for the past six months. In was not a prayerful person prior to this. After discovering Contemplative prayer I’m so sorry it took me this long to experience it. Your podcasts are wonderful and I’m recommending them to the other folks in my prayer group.
    Ken

  2. Hello my friend,
    I truly hope you will begin to issue new podcasts. They have been a real pleasure to listen to. They have strengthened my prayer life emensely.

  3. Hello again Ken! Thanks for these kinds words and for your encouragement!

  4. Lissy, I often visit your site and glean wisdom for my Lectio Divina groups. And I’m always eager to pass you along to others…honored to be your auntie! XO Linny

  5. Thank you dear Lissy! I’ve been so blessed this morning by your guided prayer time, and will be sharing this with my Lectio group and others. The Lord is with you in your ministry ❤️
    Annie

  6. I just found your site online and I’m so glad because it makes meditative prayer more accessible to me. Yesterday, my 9 year old got up with the sun so we could sit and pray together using your audio. It was a beautiful experience. We both heard from the Lord. Thank you for the work you are doing!

  7. Amazing, thank you so much for letting me know. So precious!!

  8. I appreciate so very much that you do a podcast. I find guided practice is so much better for me and you are such a gift in this area. Additionally, I can confidently send others to your podcast if they are new to the idea of contemplative prayer. Thanks for everything you do.

  9. Thank you for your gracious words Leslie, its lovely to hear from you. I often need to be guided myself, which is part of why I do this. Thank you for entrusting other to this space too, that is an honour.

  10. Thank you Lissy for helping me to slow down. I appreciate each podcast!

  11. Hi Lissy, I wish to thank you so much for your ministry. I just discovered Contemplative at Home last week as I searched the internet for a good imaginative contemplation audio, and your podcasts are just what I have been looking for. I am a busy pastor and I often find it difficult to make space for real quality time alone with God. Imaginative contemplation really works for me but only if I am listening to someone else reading and leading me. So thank you and be encouraged.

  12. Bless you Kev, so glad to provide a space of refuge and ministry to you. May you continue to prioritise your own spiritual nourishment and wellness in the balance of all that you do.Thanks for your encouragement.

  13. Dear Lissy.

    I found your “Contemplative at Home” podcast a few months ago while searching for ways to “shake up” my prayer life a bit. As a cradle Catholic, my prayer life had started to become too routine and even a bit boring at times. Jesuit Father James Martin, editor-at-large for America Magazine and author of several books, introduced me to contemplative prayer through Ignatian spirituality and The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius which I began to incorporate into my prayer. Then I found “Contemplative at Home”. Your podcast and ministry are such a blessing and precious gift that I look forward to every morning. I’m writing today to encourage you to never stop doing what you do. Your gift and ministry are helping me to grow deeper in faith and love for the Lord, and I have no doubt that there are many others who feel the same. Please know that God is using you to make a difference.

    Many blessings to you.

    Kevin John Smith

  14. Thank you so much for these generous and encouraging words! I’m humbled and grateful to know this work has been of service to you. May you continue know deepening freedom and life… Warmly, Lissy

  15. I too grew up protestant and have recently experienced a “rebirth for my jaded faith” within the Anglican Church and The Spiritual Disciplines of St. Ignatius. I’m now in a Spirirual Formation course which is taking me to an even deeper level in my life with Christ. We have been learning and applying the practice of Lectio Divina. When I found your podcast it was one more confirmation that Jesus is inviting me to be still in Him. I’ve since sent your link to my entire cohort and am praying that they too will benefit from your podcasts. Thank you, from the bottom of my recovering heart. Karen Clark-Elliott

  16. Hi Karen, its lovely to hear your message, thank you so much for being in touch. As I’m involved in the Spiritual Formation course we offer here in the Coventry Diocese I’d be interested to hear more about the Spiritual Formation course where you are. Thank you again for being in touch, and every blessing on your deepening journey. Lissy

  17. Just discovered your podcast though Spotify. I shared it on my Facebook page. What a delightful experience, thank you!

  18. Welcome, Tony! So pleased it has been of benefit for you. Lovely to have you here.

  19. Hello, Lissy, I just wanted to take a moment to thank you in the name of our Lord Jesus for the blessing of this podcast. The peace it brings at whatever time of day I choose to listen is immeasurable. Your ministry matters and I my spirit is deeply affected each time I pause to reflect with you.
    God bless you Lissy!

  20. Thank you so much Todd!! What an encouraging message, I really appreciate it. Your typo was hilariously awesome!!! I took the liberty of correcting it here 🙂 🙂 Thanks again and every blessing to you as well.

  21. So glad you took the liberty!!
    I also wanted to say that your journey with the podcast has been interesting to notice. Where your voice started and is now is noticeable. Your slower more quiet passing in the more recent episodes has been what is piercing me. Not sure thank you is appropriate for that, but I will just say your voice in all it’s beautiful stillness has been really powerfully reaching me with the Word!!
    So…thank you.

  22. Thanks Todd, I’m very conscious of the development over time. Its been a journey! Glad its a blessing to you.

  23. Do you ever write out the Lectios. Love the podcasts but when in print I can go thru it and contemplate longer.

  24. Hi Terri, I’m afraid I don’t, but feel free to use the Pause button as you listen!

  25. Hi Lissy, I recently discovered your podcast. It’s exactly the type of thing I’ve been looking for. All the best and thanks again for your work. Matthew from Australia.

  26. Delighted to have you here Matthew. Welcome and thanks for saying hello.

  27. Thank you so much Lissy. I have been so blessed by you and what the Lord is doing through you. With love in Christ from Lily Elizabeth (Australia/Wales/NewZealand)

  28. How lovely to hear from you Lily! Thank you for saying hello, and every blessing.

  29. Thank you so much for your contemplations. They open me up to hear and receive from God.
    It’s a beautiful, nourishing space you are creating for us all.
    Bless you, your family and all your work and resting.
    Louise in Selkirk, Scotland

  30. I’ve been listening for about a year and been a huge fan however the last meditation about the mountain walk really helped me. I’m currently trying to move home from another country during Covidtide and my anxiety’s been off the chart but this meditation was so amazingly helpful and comforting to me. The Lord’s got this! Keep doing what you’re doing and thank you so much.

  31. Oh Rory thanks for sharing how this has blessed you. Grace and Peace as you make this big transition. As Julian of Norwich said: All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well (And she lived through a pandemic too, may have even lost her husband and children to it!). If anyone is reading these comments I ask you to say a short prayer for Rory just now. Blessings!

  32. Louise its lovely to have you here, thanks for your message! Grace and Peace!

  33. There is Nothing more beautiful than when someone/ something is Exactly what it was created to be. I celebrated this in nature yesterday.

    Lissy you clearly are being all you were created to be … and the result? … we are blessed Beyond Measure ? Beyond Measure!!!
    Thank you … deep, deep thanks x

  34. Bless you Janine and thank you for this very encouraging word!! Grace and peace.

  35. Sounds we have a lot in common: I am a spiritual director, trained in the Exercises by the Jesuits, and I teach Pilates! I also hang out with a bunch of UK (and Anglican) people through the Order of the Mustard Seed. Blessings!

  36. Nice to meet you Carol Ann!! Off to check out the Order of the Mustard Seed now! So glad you found Contemplative at Home — blessings.

  37. Thank you for the podcast. I get you through Spotify. I listen to them one at a time as they come out, sometimes I get a bit behind (as I am now). The episode I just listened to, you mentioned a virtual retreat about a month ago (again, I am behind). I would have loved to participate. Could you please add me to your email list (if you have one). Also I would love to support your ministry financially, is there a membership or something? If not please email me a paypal, or venmo username or similar link. Thank you for your efforts, your guided meditations/prayers have been very helpful to me. I pray for God’s abundant blessings on you.

  38. Hi Lissy, I found your podcast a little while ago and I have been so blessed by it. I particularly love the imaginative contemplation style, I find it really helps me to engage with the story in a new way and can feel the Holy Spirit speaking to me as I contemplate. I also love the guided meditations you did a while ago (beach, forest etc) I often listen to them at night to help me go to sleep. Thank you for being faithful to use the gifting God has given you! Grace and peace to you, from Hannah in New Zealand

  39. Hey Hannah, its lovely to hear from you and so delightful to hear that this has connected with you, thank you for letting me know!! Blessings on you! Lissy

  40. Just stumbled upon your podcast…wow! Truly grateful, like finding an oasis in the desert. Thank you for all you do.

  41. Hello, Lissy
    I’m a busy pastor’s wife and I just found you on Spotify last week as I was looking for a way to be slow down and be guided in prayer. It’s new to me. I’m also an artist so the encouragement to visualize is like life water for me. Thank you for what you have built here. I will reach back into previous sessions to drink from the well. And I’m going to follow your newsletter. May Jesus bless you abundantly with a greater measure of the Spirit.

  42. Hi Shawne, may you indeed by nourished as you slow down and drink deep. Every blessing on you and your community. Lovely to have you here ??

  43. I’m signed up for your advent program and wonder if I can get access to the recordings since I’m in California and the time is off for morning and evenings here. Blessings

  44. Hi Kathy, I’m going to email you directly now but yes, I will send you morning and evening practice recordings each week! Thank you ??

  45. Your guided meditations have been such a blessing to me as work to heal from trauma. Thank you for shining God’s light for me in the darkness.

  46. Hi Lissy. I just discovered your podcast yesterday evening and listened to your Guiding Star Meditation after a very long week of work. It was such a blessing to come to union with the Lord in that moment, to imagine the wonder and awe and curiosity in seeking the Lord as a magi. I’m a visual person, so walking through this meditation gave me a profound emotional and spiritual experience and brought me to tears. When you described the Lord living inside of us, as we are taught, I visualized myself as a child living inside of my own heart. A child that is living in the shadows and darkness of my false self that seeks identity outside of Christ. I envisioned Christ coming into my heart where my false self reigns and is often lost, and taking the hand of myself as a child, my truest self, and welcoming her back to the place that she belongs, there with Him. Thank you for the work you put into this podcast. You are so gifted and I am thankful to have discovered you. I will be following and listening more. ❤️

  47. Mallori, what a precious gift. Im so honoured to have played a tiny part in this precious scene. Thanks for letting me know! Delighted to have you here and wishing you every blessing. Lissy

  48. Blessings on your healing journey Stacy, I’m so honoured to play a small role in your work. Peace and grace 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽

  49. A big thank you again Lissy – your podcasts are like gifts that I look forward to opening whenever they come online😀😀 Please remind me how is an send a donation.

  50. Literally stumbled onto your website while searching for contemplative approach to John 4:1-42. Super! Thank you for your good work.

  51. Love it, Jack! Great to have you here. Blessings.

  52. Hi Lissy – I love your Contemplative at Home reflections and have been praying with them for some time now. I just listened to Father Son and noticed some background noise (talking in a different language) it could be static or interference at my end, but you may want to double check your site for any hacking on your channel. I would have sent this to you privately, but I don’t see an email address for you anywhere.

  53. Thank you for your comment, I am looking into this! I appreciate the feedback. Lissy

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