Contemplative at Home

This episode was originally published in February 2021 under the title “Imaginative Contemplation – Fishermen Called as Disciples” and has been slightly edited for re-release today.

Join us as we continue our imaginative journey through encounters with Jesus in Luke’s gospel. In Luke 5:1-11, Jesus is teaching by the sea when some fishermen, who have been out all night but caught nothing, come in for breakfast.

Every blessing as you pray.

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.

All music by Pete Hatch. 

A 7-minute meditation on the love of God using a smattering of verses from the Psalms and prophets.

This one is for moments when you need grounding, centering, comfort or peace.

You are loved with an everlasting love.

Verses include Jeremiah 31:3, Psalm 86:15, Zephaniah 3:17, Psalm 36:7 (various translations).

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.

All music by Pete Hatch.

In this imaginative contemplation based on Luke 4:31-42, we spend a day with Jesus in Capernum.

As always, if at any time during this guided meditation you don’t feel safe, do come away from it.

Wherever prayer takes you over the next 20 minutes, may you be blessed and enriched…

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

All music by Pete Hatch.

In this imaginative contemplation, we are with Jesus as he preaches in the synagogue in Nazareth (Luke 4:14-28)

I find these images (and these preview clips) helpful for conjuring the scene in my imagination. I wonder if it would help you to look at them before you go into prayer.

We use the prayer of Brother Lawrence in our opening sequence: “Here we are Lord, all devoted to you. Make us according to your heart.” (Fais-nous selon ton cœur)

This meditation continues our exploration of the question “Who, then, is this?” as we engage with the opening chapters of Luke’s gospel.

For a meditation with Jesus in the wilderness (Luke 4:1-13), see 2020 meditation here or a 2016 meditation here.

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.

All music by Pete Hatch.

I mean I never imagined that a guided meditation on the great line of Jesus’ ancestors was plausible, but here we are. It has been given to me by spark of inspiration, and I pass it on to you. My sincere apologies for the sure mispronunciations scattered throughout.

I hope, however, that you won’t be distracted by the names which may sound unusual to English-speaking ears. Instead I invite you to be present in your imagination to each of these souls, and to ponder on the gifts, the legacy, the riches of love, perspective, humour, faith, experience, wisdom, intellect, leadership, creativity and intimacy with God, that this great line of souls bestows on Yeshua, Jesus.

We continue our exploration of the question “Who, then, is this?” as we explore the opening chapters of Lukes gospel. This is a meditation based around Luke 3:21-38.

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.

All music by Pete Hatch.

Do you know any twelve year old boys? If so you might call to mind their general stage of development, their physicality, their spiritual and intellectual capacity, their general energy. We’ll be engaging with a 12 year old Jesus in this meditation. You’re invited to join his community in your imagination as they travel to Jerusalem for the passover, and to observe Jesus and his parents as he makes the decision not to return home with their group, but to stay in the temple to debate with the teachers.

This meditation on Luke 2:41-52 continues our series of Imaginative Contemplations on the question “Who, then, is this?” You are invited to step aside from any answers you’ve decided on in the past, and to have an encounter with Jesus in the present.

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

All music by Pete Hatch.

A meditation to play with the text of Luke 2:22-39 – the presentation of the infant Jesus in the temple – using mindfulness, grounding techniques, lectio divina and imaginative contemplation.

My desire is always that you will be offered space to pause, to reconnect with yourself and to be nourshed by an encounter God.

This episode was recorded ‘on location’ in my prayer room… which was delightful for me, but terrible as a recording studio. (!) I’ve taken out as much echo-y reverb as I can, and send my apologies for what is left over. It’s a beautiful January day here and the birds seem to think it’s springtime. You’ll hear them! I think they are the bluetits.

Blessings, blessings, blessings. Whether it has anything to do with the content of this meditation or not, I hope that you will be given one clear gift out of the time you set aside for prayer today.

Thank you so much for choosing to pray here with me. I’m honoured to share space with you.

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

All music by Pete Hatch.

A meditation for the new year, for new beginnings, for a fresh start.

Exodus 33:14-15The LORD replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.”

Moses now ‘sees God face to face’, ie is deeply attuned to Divine Presence. In this Presence, Moses wrestles with God about how to lead the people out of the wilderness, to the promised land. In this moment, we find today’s verses.

What does Divine Presence mean for you? How does it come to you? Do you relate to the very Presence of God?

And how and where do you echo Moses’ instinctual prayer: “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here” ?

This meditation offers you space to think about the incoming year, to ponder the weeks and months ahead, to consider key relationships, commitments and daily patterns in light of this exchange: “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here”

I don’t mean for this to be prescriptive. May you find the resonances in your own heart, and follow.

Grace and peace as always dear ones.

Lissy

This verse is out of today’s daily office at the Northumbria Community.

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.

All music by Pete Hatch.

Christmas Greetings, dear ones!

This is a meditation with Luke 2:1-21, the account of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, with the manger, no room at the inn, the shepherds and the angels.

These words are almost unhelpfully familiar, and I invite you to stay with your breath, to stay in your deep open-hearted self as you listen, that you might hear something new, something fresh, perhaps even something unexpected.

(Isn’t there so much in this story that is unexpected?)

We open with a 4-7-8 breath pattern to help us cross the threshold to prayer.

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.

All music by Pete Hatch.

We continue our meditations in Luke 1, this week looking at Mary’s song of praise and thanksgiving: that God has regard for the lowly, the humble.

The invitation here is always to come out of your thinking-assessing mind, and into your intuitive-deep-knowing self as you hear the text in this format. I felt moved to literally move my body in response to the text this week, to find a physical expression for each of the phrases of the text. You are very welcome to do the same. Or perhaps you’d rather paint in colour, or sing, or speak or work with clay while you listen to these phrases, slowly repeated. Let them seep into your pores. There is wisdom, hope, liberation and love here, for those who have ears to listen.

Advent blessings friends.

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

All music by Pete Hatch. <—- new single, out this week!