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Beyond Experience
To be eirenic is to be aimed at peace, oriented
toward reconciliation. As a centering prayer I have adopted the prayer
attributed to St. Frances, Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. So, that
is why I call my website Eirenicole – a composite of eirenic and Nicole.
For Lent, we are using the book, The
Art of Lent: A Painting a Day From Ash Wednesday to Easter, by Sister Wendy Beckett. This week, the theme is joy. Our
meditation for today is entitled, “Beyond Experience,” and the focus of our
attention will be on the painting, White Clematis, 1887, Claude Monet.
The image is included in the post for this podcast, and accompanies the places
where this is posted. If you do not have access to the photo, but do have
access to internet, you can google “White Clematis, 1887, Claude Monet.”
So as you settle in your space, pay attention
to your breathing.
Notice your breath as it passes in through your
nose, out through your mouth.
Pay attention, slowing your breath a bit.
Welcome the stillness; open to quietness
Settle into your space and invite your senses,
your feelings to sit with you.
Maybe you’re so bored you have no substantial
feelings?
Notice what has taken space in your heart.
Greet it.
Breathe out an acknowledgment of its presence.
Breathe in the grace that God also fills the
space with you.
As you breathe out, exhale a prayer of welcome,
embrace.
Continue breathing in and out, allow the Spirit
to saturate, to fill you with peace.
Pay attention to God’s invitation to be present.
Settle into the peace of Christ as you listen.
Hear the mediation and notice what the spirit of God draws your attention to in
this painting. What is Jesus speaking to you here, now?
“It is inadequate, even misleading, to speak of ‘experiencing joy,’ … for what it makes us recall.”
Sister Wendy Beckett, The Art of LentFor what it makes us recall… Joy, immeasurable,
cannot be confined to a single moment, assigned an isolated incident.
Spills out… effortless, the color, the essence
of joy – goodness, generous, all that is right, comes to us from the Father of –
Source of lights.
We cannot contain it. We can’t even adequately
describe it.
And we know we don’t always recognize joy at its inception.
It is always in presence – noticing,
intentional
until it no longer requires effort
Because with rehearsing a thing, a disposition,
with intention
sustaining that intention, persistent, that the
discipline becomes habit
And then a way of being.
We recognize Monet’s message, not because it is
precise, “accurate.”
We recognize Monet’s communication because leaves
space for the viewer to
perceive through her eyes, understand with his
lens.
The painting may only be a composite of swirls in
various colors of paint on canvas, yet we all can see the beauty in it. That is,
if we pause and remember.
When do you pause? What beauty do you remember
today? Look for it.
May you notice beauty everywhere today, and may
you walk at the pace of grace.
The post Beyond Experience appeared first on Eirenicole.
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By Nicole Oliver Snyder
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To be eirenic is to be aimed at peace, oriented
toward reconciliation. As a centering prayer I have adopted the prayer
attributed to St. Frances, Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. So, that
is why I call my website Eirenicole – a composite of eirenic and Nicole.
For Lent, we are using the book, The
Art of Lent: A Painting a Day From Ash Wednesday to Easter, by Sister Wendy Beckett. This week, the theme is joy. Our
meditation for today is entitled, “Beyond Experience,” and the focus of our
attention will be on the painting, White Clematis, 1887, Claude Monet.
The image is included in the post for this podcast, and accompanies the places
where this is posted. If you do not have access to the photo, but do have
access to internet, you can google “White Clematis, 1887, Claude Monet.”
So as you settle in your space, pay attention
to your breathing.
Notice your breath as it passes in through your
nose, out through your mouth.
Pay attention, slowing your breath a bit.
Welcome the stillness; open to quietness
Settle into your space and invite your senses,
your feelings to sit with you.
Maybe you’re so bored you have no substantial
feelings?
Notice what has taken space in your heart.
Greet it.
Breathe out an acknowledgment of its presence.
Breathe in the grace that God also fills the
space with you.
As you breathe out, exhale a prayer of welcome,
embrace.
Continue breathing in and out, allow the Spirit
to saturate, to fill you with peace.
Pay attention to God’s invitation to be present.
Settle into the peace of Christ as you listen.
Hear the mediation and notice what the spirit of God draws your attention to in
this painting. What is Jesus speaking to you here, now?
“It is inadequate, even misleading, to speak of ‘experiencing joy,’ … for what it makes us recall.”
Sister Wendy Beckett, The Art of LentFor what it makes us recall… Joy, immeasurable,
cannot be confined to a single moment, assigned an isolated incident.
Spills out… effortless, the color, the essence
of joy – goodness, generous, all that is right, comes to us from the Father of –
Source of lights.
We cannot contain it. We can’t even adequately
describe it.
And we know we don’t always recognize joy at its inception.
It is always in presence – noticing,
intentional
until it no longer requires effort
Because with rehearsing a thing, a disposition,
with intention
sustaining that intention, persistent, that the
discipline becomes habit
And then a way of being.
We recognize Monet’s message, not because it is
precise, “accurate.”
We recognize Monet’s communication because leaves
space for the viewer to
perceive through her eyes, understand with his
lens.
The painting may only be a composite of swirls in
various colors of paint on canvas, yet we all can see the beauty in it. That is,
if we pause and remember.
When do you pause? What beauty do you remember
today? Look for it.
May you notice beauty everywhere today, and may
you walk at the pace of grace.
The post Beyond Experience appeared first on Eirenicole.