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- Centering Prayer and the Noting Technique of Mindfulness
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The image spoke powerfully into my life this week. There are two very different annunciations and the gestation image. Joseph’s annunciation , the arms of the enveloping Spirit as the Spirit whispers ever so softly; gestation, a squishing movement upon movement till ; what is unclear become action. The attached song by Matt Maber: an invitation to come as I am.
I am ready to share the suggested practice #1 The last 6 months or more have been an intensive time where dreaming/liminal/awake times are one circular thread, a continuous morphing from intense dreaming into liminal time of the Welcome Prayer. Though I am not conscious of it I have spent an hour or more liminal time in the WP. When I am finally awake, I do not remember the details of dream. The dream exchange is very real, not in details but in presence/Presence. For a brief minute, I feel the dream-unfolding thumping in my very being, but it is not be be remembered. What is important is my “feeling” evacuation! All my life I have been a collector of feelings, mine and others. I am living through a great sorting through my egoic collection. The dreams I remember point to my “now time”; I am going somewhere but not there, or, someone, usual male, is taking me on a side trip that I must see. Lately I am tolerating the side trip. ” The Welcome Prayer, our <consent on the go>- is a here-and-now way to become present and surrender our desire to change a situation” My more consoling dream is finding myself in a old situation. I am going back to a teaching position one week late at the start of a year. I encounter the principal who is rather inquisitive but not rushing me.
“The Advent mystery is the beginning of the end of all of us, that is not yet Christ.” Thomas Merton.
” Through silence, we prepare a heart that is ready, not for a distant God, but for the Christ within us, as us.”
“Soften my heart, Lord” by David Haas gives “words” to the cry of my heart https://youtu.be/A4t4A5FbR-M?si=7tekwE4LLt6gQVoG
Borderlands are a familiar experience for me. During the Wednesday gathering what came into focus for me is grace is a gift, not a reward! and during the week grace is a “flowering”. Initially on Sunday, the image disturbed me – these black fingers – gradually – I noticed the two ringed fingers on each hand – it is only the index finger that had no ring – this is the finger I often use by pointing…It is this pointing that holds the key to “flowering”. It can be used in judgment ( not seeing reality as it is), or “oh look at the “flowering” of grace. I experience this flowering as joy and gratitude, and sink into the blessing of the moment, even though I have been in the grips of a virus this week.
Breath and body praying through a difficult week; spending time with Hildegard of Bingen, { Sept.17 her feast day this week}, breathing in God’s love….. “ceaseless grace”.
The fledging in the this week’s image is speaking wordless volumes into my life. A new awareness of the Jesus’ list of those to hate includes my triad egoic attachments. Another new awareness: ” divine love overflows from the interior life into our hearts”. The “heart” represents for me my openness to: the part of me that embraces the outpouring of God’s love; “the embracing of this moment just as it is” following the letting go of my trio of detachments.” A meeting I attended this week, a humungous leap into “spaciousness”, another new awareness providing tangible sensation that strain the ribcage of my chest area to contain “this spacious” as I inhale/exhale to accommodate an unbelievable spaciousness.
HUMBLY-GRATEFUL/THANKFUL/BLESSED!
Yesterday during the group C.P./Lectio{viso}/sharing, two words in the chosen text stood out for me: “new light” and “sheer humility”. “New light ” connection was front and centre , many years ago, when John 8:12 was given to me and has shaped my discernment since then; Christ is my light, not my egoic self. This week it was like a consolation and a further dip into “humility”: “what’s mine to do/what is not mine to do”. “Sheer humility” brought to mind Elijah’s experience at the mouth of the cave experience (1Kg:9), “the still small voice= {sheer silence}. In this context. “Sheer humility “can only be received/revealed once our task is completed and our last breath given. As Jesus gave his last breath :” it is completed”. Somehow the image does not speak to me of humility. Humility is not a grasping but a total opening of hands with fruit spilling over as a gesture of blessing…”sheer humility”!
“To guide us toward the love that we most desire, we must be taken where we could not and would not go on our own” Today is a special anniversary for me; some call it diamond, others sapphire; I prefer sapphire. Looking back Gerald May’s phrase rings so true. ‘The narrow gate”, we get it in small doses; every CP sit is me before the narrow gate; the gift of consenting is like the image; without my knowing, the pulsating movements carry me, breath by breath, dad by day, year by year to today – bowing THANKFUL/GRATEFUL/BLESSED – I sit in the movement of the image, obscure is okay!
“Is there a time in your life when you felt it necessary to move against the expectations of someone close to you? What do you sense was lost or gained?” I have done so several times. I am engaging in such an experience. For me the image says it all. A significant part of me is in the crucible; just to the left of the torch is my little flame. Another part of me is to the right, an owl perched on a pair of glasses, oh, not just a pair of glasses but successive pairs; just beneath is a lion, whose face is behind the left lens. The latter is ego letting go in stages of penetrating the depts of “seeing” and the courage signified by the roaring of the lion. Without my knowing past struggles in similar situations, there is the me that has been chosen and that chooses the “fire pit of life” ={The Christ is here}, Jesus, me, and a host of others. I rest truly grateful and blessed in my moth-ness.
Addendum: July 17, 1965: Jn 13, Be Washers of Feet/Sieger Koder painting.
Certain physical places can have a unique resonance in our personal history, setting off a kind of vibration that suggests a meeting-point of earth and heaven. These may not necessarily be places of grandeur or even of beauty, but simply places where we feel the engulfing presence of the Mystery of God in our lives, perhaps because of a person, an event, an insight.
My thin places, as revealed this week: The cloud formations/prairie winds of my childhood {spirit/SPIRIT}; prairie willows, whispering{SPIRIT/spirit} aspen poplars are a prairie slough ( a small collection of water from spring run off usually dry by late summer { my God, a giant willow; me, a very small willow so close to the giant willow}; heavy fog along the Elbow River in AB, the meow of a cat as the fog slowly lifted, then I knew: John 8:12; on the south side of the church of the Transfiguration, Israel, the panorama view {BELOVED/beloved ,<chosen>- suffering}. These are my anchor “thins spaces” that popped up this week because they are faithful companions, my spontaneous go-to spaces. BLESSED/THANKFUL/GRATEFUL wrapped in JOY!
On my exit door I posted a sticker “Christ is here”. In my comings and goings this week what was surprisingly exposed is my holding back compassion for a small specific group { who don’t think like me}. I entrust my re-aligning to the indwelling Spirit… willingly consenting…..
We wait patiently; in silence, openness, and quiet attentiveness; motionless within and without. We surrender to the attraction to be still, to be loved, just to be.” As I begin this week I sit at the very bottom ( at least in my current perception) consenting to the surrender of the attraction……at best i am willing. (barely willing).
I lived through a very difficult situation ( the thorn Paul Talks about) this week; grateful for the image. The blue sky with fluffy white clouds. My attraction to these clouds/sky/wind go way back to my first awareness of being alive. How many times have they comforted me, encouraged me, gave me the strength to go way I would rather not go; touched my inner most soul-ness! The gentle ripping of the summer fields. Growing up on the bald prairie. So NO thorn removal. YES to the enough-ness of God’s GRACE and Mercy.
We wait patiently; in silence, openness, and quiet attentiveness; motionless within and without. We surrender to the attraction to be still, to be loved, just to be.” As I begin this week I sit at the very bottom ( at least in my current perception) consenting to the surrender of the attraction……at best i am willing. (barely willing).
Visio Divina of the image by He Qi this week has provided a rich source of plumbing the depths this week’s theme. The robin egg blue of the left eye of the Christ down the left side of the nose, showing up between the nose and lips – now in my ripening years I see this as the path from intention to heart presence/action; my breath ( the Hebrew Ruah, my spirit{ true self} and the Holy Spirit) the connection to the “one thing necessary). My breath allows me to name the fear, the anxiety (Welcome Prayer) to the “better part”. Earlier in the week, it was Jesus’ hand upper right, like the stop sign, then to the right of the hand consenting to the Spirit to descend to the depths of my self. I used to fear plumbing these depths, but now I trust the Holy Spirit. The Guard of Heart this week: Ps. 63: 2-9) the word. line chosen for me as my day/night unfold. The similarity and intense red of the lips of Martha, Jesus, Mary, one LOVE radiating.
