Contemplative at Home

A Meditation with Matthew 20:20-23

What is it that you want?

The mother of James and John has come to ask that her children might sit at the right and left hands of Jesus in his kingdom. But what is it that she most deeply wants? Power? Security? Honour? Status? Love? Which of her wounds propels her to make this request? And does she understand what Jesus’ kingdom will look like?

May this story help to reveal your own story, may this question become a question for you.

Grace and peace ??

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 weekly newsletter “The Contemplative Window” or join our Facebook group here

Support the show by sharing it with a friend, rating it on your preferred podcast platform, or by becoming a member for just a few $ or £ per month. Thank you so much!

Further details www.contemplativeathome.com.

All music by Pete Hatch.

We continue our series of meditations on questions Jesus asked, this time in the feeding of the 4000 (Matthew 15:32-37).

I find this one to be quite rich! Hope you do too, and every blessing as you pray ??

Lissy

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 weekly newsletter “The Contemplative Window” or join our Facebook group here

Support the show by sharing it with a friend, rating it on your preferred podcast platform, or by becoming a member for just a few $ or £ per month. Thank you so much!

Further details www.contemplativeathome.com.

All music by Pete Hatch.

What did you go out into the wilderness to see? Jesus asks his followers, asks us, in Matthew 11:2-11. John the Baptist, imprisoned, has just sent his own disciples to ask Jesus: “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”

This interesting passage explores a number of the questions we have already prayed with, including the identity and character of Jesus as we explored in Matthew 16 who do you say that I am? as well as Jesus’ question what are you seeking? In John 1.

What did you go out into the wilderness to see?

The latest trend? Trappings of wealth? Or a prophet? One to speak truth to power and hope to despair, one who re-energises the imagination of the people of God?

“The task of prophetic ministry is to nurture, nourish, and evoke a consciousness and perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture around us.” ― Walter Brueggemann,The Prophetic Imagination

I invite you to be open, even playful, and curious, setting all preconceived notions aside as you are present to these words, listening for something new on the breeze of the Spirit.

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 weekly newsletter “The Contemplative Window” or join our Facebook group here

Support the show by sharing it with a friend, rating it on your preferred podcast platform, or by becoming a member for just a few $ or £ per month. Thank you so much!

Further details www.contemplativeathome.com.

All music by Pete Hatch.

I’m so pleased to be sharing this meditation from Mark 4:35-41 with you today: “Come, let us go across to the other side of the lake” Almost every single phrase is full of potential meaning. Having said that, I invite you not to force or expect a particular insight, but to simply open yourself to recieve.

May you see Jesus look at you as he asks “Why are you afraid?”

Love and blessings

Lissy

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 weekly newsletter “The Contemplative Window” or join our Facebook group here

Support the show by sharing it with a friend, rating it on your preferred podcast platform, or by becoming a member for just a few $ or £ per month. Thank you so much!

Further details www.contemplativeathome.com.

All music by Pete Hatch.

Matthew 7:1-5

Hey Friends–

In this meditation, we meet Jesus as he teaches in the Sermon on the Mount. Here he asks us the question: why do you see the speck in your neighbours eye and do not notice the log in your own eye?

Why is it so much easier to notice other people’s faults and grievances than our own?

This makes me think of Freud’s iceberg theory, the proposal that we have many instincts, motivations and drives functioning at a subconcious level within us. May our contemplative practice reveal to us new awareness of what may be happening within. 

Blessings and love 

Lissy

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 weekly newsletter “The Contemplative Window” or join our Facebook group here

Support the show by sharing it with a friend, rating it on your preferred podcast platform, or by becoming a member for just a few $ or £ per month. Thank you so much!

Further details www.contemplativeathome.com.

All music by Pete Hatch.

In this meditation we pray with an encounter between Jesus and his friends, who have journeyed up towards the base of Mount Hermon (in the Golon Heights), to a place where there is an ancient temple to the Greek god Pan. (Matthew 16:13-16). 

Here he speaks to his friends about his own identity, first asking who are people saying that I am? 

Whether this is a PR question, or he wants them to ponder this, or he is truly exploring this question for himself, we don’t know. But apparently there has been a lot of buzz because several different answers are offered: some say that you’re Moses, or Jeremiah, John the Baptist or another prophet.

And when Jesus asks “who do you say that I am?” and Peter answers “The Messiah,” I think it is good to bear in mind that Peter has a very deep, rich understanding of what ‘the Messiah’ means.

There is more to this encounter but today we are going to stay with this little bit.

As you reflect on these questions for yourself, I invite you to come to them with your own cultural context and understanding. To come with your perspective on the world at this moment in history, your understanding of God and what you and your people are longing for. 

I also invite you to be very honest with Jesus when he asks: who do you say that I am? There is no point saying, even to yourself, the answer you think you ought to say or the answer you think you’d like to say. Who do you truly think that Jesus is? I invite you to dialogue.

BLESSINGS AS YOU PRAY

With much love,

Lissy

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 weekly newsletter “The Contemplative Window” or join our Facebook group here

Support the show by sharing it with a friend, rating it on your preferred podcast platform, or by becoming a member for just a few $ or £ per month. Thank you so much!

Further details www.contemplativeathome.com.

All music by Pete Hatch.

This week we consider the lilies of the field as Jesus leans in on the anxieties of his friends, inviting them to deeper trust.

Who of you, by worrying, can add a single hour to your life?

Blessings as ever,

Lissy

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 weekly newsletter “The Contemplative Window” or join our Facebook group here

Support the show by sharing it with a friend, rating it on your preferred podcast platform, or by becoming a member for just a few $ or £ per month. Thank you so much!

Further details www.contemplativeathome.com.

All music by Pete Hatch.

In today’s meditaiton we look at Matthew 9:27-30, NIV. 

Two men, who are blind, pursue Jesus, asking for mercy. He asks them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” and then says: “According to your faith, let it be done to you” The two receive their sight.

I’ll be honest and say this is a slightly uncomfortable exchange for me. It raises all sorts of questions about unanswered prayers.

Having said that, it also led me to reflect on the tone of our faith, how we can ‘believe’ or request in prayer with a spirit of control, threat and demand or alternatively with a spirit of surrender, openness and curiosity.

My thoughts are still forming. I will be interested to hear where this meditation takes you.

BLESSINGS AS ALWAYS

L

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 weekly newsletter “The Contemplative Window” or join our Facebook group here

Support the show by sharing it with a friend, rating it on your preferred podcast platform, or by becoming a member for just a few $ or £ per month. Thank you so much!

Further details www.contemplativeathome.com.

All music by Pete Hatch.

Happy September, friends. I hope this finds you well.

I’m really excited for our next series of episodes, exploring Questions Jesus Asked. This series was suggested by my dear Spiritual Companion, Tina Lamb. (You may remember that Tina brought us the Sunday poems during the first pandemic year.)

In this first episode we explore John 1:35-39, When John the Baptist’s disciples follow Jesus, and Jesus asks them “What are you seeking?”

Can you allow Jesus to ask you, “What are you seeking?”

Thank you so much for inviting me into your precious moments of meditation. It is an honour to be here with you.

NB!!! :

My children have a delightful party piece where they imitate me, my eyes half closed and my dreamiest meditation voice crooning “may you open your heart to the peaceful love of God”… then abruptly turn around to shout in a very angry voice “BOYS!! SHUT!! UP!! I’M RECORDING!!!”

This is not entirely accurate. “Shut up” is not something I generally say to anyone… ? However, there was a very animated online game going on downstairs whilst I recorded this (aghhh!) and while I’ve managed to edit most of the outbursts out of the background, there may be one or two which escaped. May they amuse you. And may your meditation be such that ambient noises do not ruffle you. May we grow together!

Blessings, all.

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 weekly newsletter “The Contemplative Window” or join our Facebook group here.

Support the show by sharing it with a friend, rating it on your preferred podcast platform, or by becoming a member for just a few $ or £ per month. Thank you so much!

Further details www.contemplativeathome.com.

All music by Pete Hatch.

A Centering Prayer meditation, with three minutes of silence, concluding with an Anglican collect.

In centering prayer, we use a sacred word to gently hold our attention on the loving gaze of God. You are invited to find a word that comes naturally to you. This might be a name by which you address the Holy, a state such as love, peace, joy, or a short phrase such as “here I am” or “be still and know that I am God.” You are invited to settle on your phrase and then to stay with it for the duration of your meditation. 

Blessings as you pray, dear ones.

Collect:

O God, whose beauty is beyond our imagining

and whose power we cannot comprehend:

show us your glory as far as we can grasp it,

and shield us from knowing more than we can bear

until we may look upon you without fear;

through Jesus Christ our Saviour.

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 weekly newsletter “The Contemplative Window” or join our Facebook group here

Support the show by sharing it with a friend, rating it on your preferred podcast platform, or by becoming a member for just a few $ or £ per month. Thank you so much!

Further details www.contemplativeathome.com.

All music by Pete Hatch.