Contemplative at Home

Christ is Risen!

But his followers are still bewildered, grieving, and disorientated… Watch and listen as Mary, Mary and Salome go to the tomb at daybreak to anoint the body.

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 through the events of the week. May this prayer experience help you to grow in your capacity to remain attentive.

On Good Friday, we follow the example of the women at the cross, and remain as present to Jesus in his suffering as we are able.

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 through the events of the week. May this prayer experience help you to grow in your capacity to remain attentive.

Every blessing.

Every day this week, Contemplative at Home will re-release an episode from the 2018 Lent series. In Holy Week se are invited to be present to Jesus even as he suffers. May this prayer experience help you to grow in your capacity to remain attentive.

In today’s episode we pray with Mark 14:66-72 where Peter, standing outside the place where Jesus is being tried, and denies knowing Jesus, just hours after he has vehemently protested that he would ever do such a thing.

You’re invited to consider Peter’s foolishness, how weak and fickle he is, and perhaps any ways in which you too are inconsistent, or have disappointed others. You’re also invited to consider how this was for Jesus – in another Gospel it says that Jesus looked straight at Peter as the cock crowed.

Every day this week, Contemplative at Home will re-release an episode from the 2018 Lent series. In Holy Week se are invited to be present to Jesus even as he suffers. May this prayer experience help you to grow in your capacity to remain attentive.

We pray now with Jesus and the disciples, late in the evening at the Garden of Gethsemane, when Judas approaches with chief priests, temple police and elders to arrest Jesus, as told in Luke 22. Grace and peace be with you as you pray.

Every day this week, Contemplative at Home will re-release an episode from the 2018 Lent series. In Holy Week se are invited to be present to Jesus even as he suffers. May this prayer experience help you to grow in your capacity to remain attentive.

As Jesus prays at Gethsemane he asks his closest friends to stay with him while he prays. Anthony Borrow SJ suggests that it is normal for our prayer with these texts to become very quiet. He writes “It is difficult work to stay with the feelings of sadness, uncertainty, anxiety, anguish, fear, pain and betrayal. And yet, that is precisely what you are [invited] to do. Ask God for the grace to be there insofar as you are able. Talk with [God] about the challenge of staying with Jesus and any fears you might have […and] about how to find the courage to overcome those fear and to stay with Jesus” (towardgreaterfreedom.com)

Every day this week, Contemplative at Home will re-release an episode from the 2018 Lent series. In Holy Week se are invited to be present to Jesus even as he suffers. May this prayer experience help you to grow in your capacity to remain attentive.

In this episode we pray with Jesus and the disciples in the Upper Room, celebrating the Passover together. At the last supper as told in Mark 14:17-25 Jesus warns the disciples that one will betray him, then offers them all the bread and wine as symbols of his body and blood.

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 through the events of the week. May this prayer experience help you to grow in your capacity to remain attentive.

In this episode we pray with Luke 19:35-42.

These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. – Matthew 7, The Message

This episode concludes our series in the Sermon on the Mount, so if you have been praying along with the series, you may now want to review the nuggets of truth that have been significant for you along the way. In this passage Jesus says that these words are foundational, the basis for building our lives and habits upon, so perhaps as you pray today you’ll be prompted to think practically about how you are growing into the wisdom which has been revealed to you throughout the series.

Thank you to all who have prayed with this series on the Sermon on the Mount, it is an honour and privilege to walk along the road with you.

During each day of Holy Week, I will re-release the episodes from Lent 2018, so that you can use Contemplative at Home to hold space in your mind and heart for the events of the passion. Do subscribe in your podcast app or on the website to be updated when a new episode is released.

Thank you again my friends and every blessing.

Continuing in the Message translation of the Sermon on the Mount, in these verses from Matthew chapter 7 Jesus challenges us: to be straightforward with the Lord “Don’t bargain with God. Be direct…. Don’t look for shortcuts to God,” to expect the Lord to be straightforward with us “This isn’t a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we’re in,” and to be wary of leaders who aren’t straightforward themselves “Don’t be impressed with charisma, look for character.”

May these 20 minutes of guided audio with Matthew 7:7-20 help you to be prayerfully attentive to the truth that is being born out of God’s love for you today.

Every blessing.

“Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticise their faults— unless, of course, you want that same treatment. It’s easy to see a smudge on your neighbour’s face and at the same time be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, ‘Let me wash your face for you,’ when your own face is distorted by contempt? It’s … playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your part.” Matthew 7:1-5 The Message

As you spend time praying with this text, be alert for how the Spirit is nudging you, leading you in your thoughts.

Every blessing.

Those of you with a keen ear will hear the garden birds again, enjoying the March sunshine! I hope it’s not overly distracting!