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- Sunday April 2: Emptying and Listening
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To Practice: Reflect again on Simone Weil’s words, “Above all our thought should be empty, waiting, not seeking anything, but ready to receive, in its naked truth, the object that is to penetrate it.” From this one might compose an active prayer sentence such as “Not seeking anything, ready to receive.” Use this or create your own active prayer sentence from any passage in today’s reflection and pray it regularly this week. This practice helps us to empty and listen in a new and deeper way.
You may wish to re-read this week’s reflection here: https://mailchi.mp/coutreach/word-of-the-week-april2
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Not trying, allowing.
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Self emptying, letting go, leads to the great transformation.
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Sunday April 2: Emptying and Listening
I am drawn to Beverly Lanzetta’s sentence “Self-emptying is not an absolute state but the practice of letting go.” From this my active prayer sentence this coming week will be “empty self; let go.” <3 linda
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May I let go of my self identity and my privilege , at least for a moment, that I might hear the bigger truth spoken by those whose voices society has silenced.
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Today I am holding in my heart two people who died on this day – one in 2022 and the other in 2020. In 2022, a mass shooting in downtown Sacramento killed six people. The location of the shooting was at 10th and K Streets – both a center of nightclub life and of the unhoused who oft3n hid in doorways and alleys. One of the dead was Melinda, known only to service providers and a few friends. Her name became public only when she became a statistic. Betsy was a homeless woman who could neither read nor write. She was abandoned by her family and with the help of Interfaith Shelter was able to qualify for benefits and rent a studio apartment. Betsy had a deep wisdom and a trust in the goodness of life. She was one of my best teachers.
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Susan, those dear ones you remember….somehow , though it is incredibly sad, they are alive for you and blessing you. I believe God can transform so much though the facts and even the feelings are the same.
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“Christ awakens in our own hearts saying, ‘You are my body. You are my blood.’…”
Thomas Keating – Journey to the Center.
Today this stops me in my tracks. I have read and heard this before, never has it hit me so profoundly; any other words fail – staying with this in obedience – turning in the direction & listening.
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It is so hard for me to let go of the myth of self reliance, particularly as I age. In a meditation chapel, someone said, “We grieve our way into awakening”. I will let this thought simmer today.
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what a beautiful prayer time today. Pamela, I loved how you waited before calling on people, to let the previous sharing sink in. It was so full of life – each sharing. And Helen, please accept my sympathy for the loss of your son. My prayers surround you.
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Years ago I had a first glimpse of what this obedience meant but it was a kind of mindless passivity that invited me to simply flow with the breezes of life. Sounds not so great but it worked. Then at a certain point, when I was facing major surgery and had just discovered Centering Prayer, that mindless passivity evolved into an invitation to mindful receptivity. This has been evolving for 20+ years, very slowly and happily. The sentence “Nos seeking anything, ready to receive” seems to sum it up.
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On inhale SURRENDERING – on exhale EMPTYING
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At our local Oblete Retreat Centre, the C.P group meets Mondays at 7 pm. After our “sit” we have been listening to Father Keating’s: Hope & Redemption part one, very timely for Lent 2023. For the first time consciously, I am sensing the presence of Christ’s descent into the deep dark abyss of human suffering, of the human condition, his cry God, why have you abandoned me! He doesn’t cry out to the Father, the one who called him beloved. In his human condition, he dared to face the total alienation, abandonment from this God. Now I know he broke the barrier of total annilation. My experiences of the dark abyss have been onesof “being saved” of never having to go behind the barrier. But there has been this lingering of “what if”. I am experiencing a wordless sense of being in the Christ of the Resurrection with all at each “sit” surrounded by all in the group or in all the groups world wide. The price of my/our “what ifs” have been paid in full. Living my “give-back” years is taking on a new meaning. Jesus lived into the depths of humility/humiliation to rise is the presence of affirmation. My affirmation statement surrendering is my part, while empting is taken care of by the Indwelling Spirit.
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Jesus is brought to the lowest place, that place where the all-loving God seems infinitely distant. He enters a universe of utter solitude, meaninglessness, and fragmentation. Like the prophet Jonah, he is overwhelmed by chaos.
—Brother John of TaizéThis is “tomb time” day for me, where Jesus and I sit side by side in the tomb.
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To continue Adeline’s reflection….knowing that Jesus experienced this and it being such a human experience…how can I ever whine again about my feelings of lostness, forsakenness , heartbreak? why not welcome it so I can sit with Him and with my brothers and sisters through time and space, who felt and feel such devastation.
welcome, welcome, welcome…
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This evening I was drawn into the Easter Vigil into a new liminal dimension. Spending my day in the tomb continued unconsciously until the second reading when the Father said to Abraham: “….because you have not withheld your son , your only son….” I was envelopped by a Presence – the One who went down into the toomb was there beside me in the liminality of the place ‘The Lord will provide’. And so…. Easter 2o23 begins…… with you Kathleen, Cathy, Linda, Susan, Marlene, and each of you the Word of the Week Community.
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