Contemplative at Home

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.

“As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.” -Psalm 42

This seventeen minute meditation offers you the opportunity to sit deeply with these words, holding space for you to hear what is stirring within you.

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.

In this episode I offer you an Examen, which may be used to review your experience of Lent and Eastertide this year, or could be used to review the past several months at any stage.

“Holy ground is not simply the ground of God’s past encounters with particular people in particular places… it is the ground on which we are actually standing, wherever we are” – John Stroyan, Turned by Divine Love p 16

We pray the Examen to help us become more aware of the ways in which our own lives are the holy ground on which God is at work.

Every blessing as you pray.

All music by Pete Hatch. petehatch.com.

Contemplative at Home offers guided meditative prayer – space to slow down and listen to the truth that is being borne out of God’s love for you today – drawing on Ignatian spirituality and Lectio Divina.

“When the day of Pentecost had come they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.” Acts 2

Today we pray with a slow reading of Acts 2:1-8, finishing our series in the book of Acts with the account of Pentecost.

May you be open to the coming of the Holy Spirit in your own heart and mind as you deepen your experience with these verses.

All music by Pete Hatch. petehatch.com.

We continue through Acts during Eastertide, today stopping in Acts 16:25-34 with Paul and Silas who have been put into prison after freeing an enslaved girl from a demon. The themes of slavery, imprisonment, liberation and freedom run through this story, and I continue to be amazed at how slowing down with the text reveals such riches.

This passage does lend itself to the imagination so perhaps you will imagine you are one of the other prisoners, listening to these two passionate men who sing songs of joy and praise even as their hands and feet are bound. Or perhaps as the earthquake hits you will imagine you are the prison officer, so fearful of your fate at the hands of your employer that you’re prepared to take your own life.  

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.

On Thursday 30 May, 40 days after Easter, we celebrate the Ascension of Jesus.

In Acts 1:3-11, Jesus points his friends to the ways in which he will remain with them, urging them stay present to his leading moment by moment as they wait on the Holy Spirit.

“After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.  They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.  “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky?” – Acts 1:9-11

Augustine’s sermon on the ascension (well worth a read), points to the ways in which the ascension mysteriously knits together the things of earth and heaven. “Out of compassion for us he descended from heaven,” Augustine writes “and although he ascended alone, we also ascend, because we are in him by grace.”

May you be open to hear the truth which is making itself known to you today.

Every blessing

Contemplative at Home offers guided meditative prayer – space to slow down and listen to the truth that is being borne out of God’s love for you today – drawing on Ignatian spirituality and at times, Lectio Divina.

In this season of Easter, we continue to pray with the book of Acts.

Today we pray with Acts 16:9-15, and we join Paul and his friends who respond immediately to a vision which they interpret as a call to go to Macedonia.

Stay with them as they spend a few days sailing from port to port, and imagine them staying in Philippi… did they sleep on their boat or in an accommodation? What prompted them to stay for a few days?

As they go out of the city to pray on the Sabbath, imagine this scene by the river, try to picture the vegetation, their clothes, the faces of the people present. Notice Lydia’s open heart, passionate faith and warm invitation. 

Listen for one word or phrase which catches your attention.  

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.

In this season of Easter, we pray with passages from the book of Acts.

In Acts 9:36-43 we find ourselves at home with Tabitha, a disciple of Jesus who is notable for her generosity and kindness to people in need.

She is also reputed for her handiwork with cloth and clothing, and has a close knit group of women – widows – around her. These women are all together part of a group of disciples of Jesus in Joppa. Perhaps a sketch of Tabitha will start to form in your mind, as you note how well-regarded, loved and respected she is. This article in America Magazine fills in further details.

You may remember that Tabitha falls ill and dies, that Peter is brought in as the events of this resurrection story unfold.

I invite you to imagine yourself into this story and to notice how you respond as the events develop.

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. Every blessing as you pray.

During the season of Easter, Contemplative at Home will pray with stories from the book of Acts.

In this episode we pray with Saul, a socially privileged young Pharisee who is intoxicated with conviction that followers of the Way must be eliminated.

You are invited to be present to Saul’s story. You might recall the passionate convictions of your own youth, or imagine the flash of light which knocks him to the ground, or ponder what those three days of blindness and fasting may have been like for him.

Use the space between the words to bring the story to life in your own mind.

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.

Every blessing as you pray.

In John 20, the disciples are still in the upper room, locked in fear and confusion. In this episode we join them as Jesus appears among them.

In his book on the Spiritual Exercises, Kevin O’Brien SJ writes “Notice how Jesus meets the disciples amid their fears and gives them the comfort of the spirit in such an intimate gesture. The Spirit liberates them from their fears and sends them out of the locked room into a world in need.”

On Palm Sunday, through Holy Week and from Easter Sunday until Easter Tuesday, Contemplative at Home will publish a daily episode, re-released from the 2018 Lent series. We are invited to be present to Jesus and his followers through the events of the week. May this prayer experience help you to grow in your capacity to remain attentive.

Today we pray with the disciples on the road to Emmaus, who are joined by Jesus but are unable to recognise him. The text is taken from Luke 24.

On Palm Sunday, through Holy Week and from Easter Sunday until Easter Tuesday, Contemplative at Home will publish a daily episode, re-released from the 2018 Lent series. We are invited to be present to Jesus and his followers through the events of the week. May this prayer experience help you to grow in your capacity to remain attentive.