Contemplative at Home

Luke 4:1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, …was led by the Spirit in the wilderness 

In the wilderness, Jesus is tempted to turn stones into bread, to take the glory and authority of all the nations on the earth, to test whether the angels will keep him from falling.

The temptations are for security, power and control.

Please do pray with us if you feel led! I’d love to hear how you find it. Thanks Friends.

Every blessing.

SHOW NOTES

Jesus, a Pilgrimage by James Martin, SJ (not an affiliate link)

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Luke 2:52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.

Hello Friends,

Have you ever thought about the thirty years that Jesus lived in a most ordinary way?

In this episode we pray with the Hidden Life: the years Jesus lived in obscurity, humbly given over to the hard work of a small community eking out a living from the land.

Every blessing.

SHOW NOTES

James Martin, SJ’s book Jesus: A Pilgrimage quoted from the chapter entitled ‘Nazareth’

(*also: follow James Martin on social media, he is in the holy land this week!)

All photos were taken at Nazareth Village in April 2016 www.nazarethvillage.com

Ann Voskamp’s post in Holy Week http://www.aholyexperience.com/2016/03/when-the-worlds-hurting-bleeding-in-holy-week-how-to-pass-around-healing-hope/

Richard Rohr interviewed by Rob Bell

http://robbell.podbean.com/e/episode-86-richard-rohr-and-the-alternative-orthodoxy/

Luke 2:52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.

Hello Friends!

Welcome to the first episode of Season Two: With Jesus in Ordinary Time.

This season we will consider the ordinary dynamics of Jesus’ life, the ordinary objects things he used to point people to the truth, and how he encountered ordinary people.

My family recently had the opportunity to visit Israel and in the midst of all that land holds we were struck by the ordinary realness of the place.

We especially had this sense went we went north to the Galilee. It is beautiful in a simple, gentle way and still relatively undeveloped.

From our guesthouse, we could just see the top of the church of the beatitudes. In this place, so tradition says, Jesus sat and spoke the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount.

Outside one morning I took in the landscape, considering the possibility that Jesus had been just here, living, walking, praying, listening, thinking, teaching.

And while I sat there, I recorded this episode, reading the words from Matthew 5 that Jesus first spoke somewhere very close to that very place.

You will hear the wind and the birds in this recording, and I hope that as you hear the wind you can feel it blowing across your body, and imagine that same wind dancing around the first listeners to these words.

Jesus spoke these challenging words to ordinary people, in an ordinary place, surrounded by ordinary things: clouds, breeze, birds, children, friends. This remarkable truth is for those in an ordinary context.

How does it speak to you?

He said, ‘Come.’ So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came towards Jesus. Matt 14: 29

Hello Friends!

I’m delighted to bring you episode 10, prayerful meditation on Matthew 14:25-33, Jesus and Peter walk on water.

When my mom gives a slightly expensive gift, she always lets us know: “It’s a good one!”  Which, of course, always makes us laugh, but today’s prayer was so deep and personal for me this week, and the story so rich, that all I want to say to you here is “It’s a good one!!!”

In this story of Jesus and Peter walking on water, we have fear and faith: fears addressed and more fears addressed, Peter stepping out in faith and then succumbing again to fear.

If you feel led to pray with this episode, I hope it is as significant for you as it has been for me.

Early in the morning Jesus came walking towards them on the lake

They were terrified and cried out in fear

Peter said “Lord if it is you, command me to come to you on the water”

Jesus said “Come.”

So Peter got out of the boat

And started walking on the water.

May you have the gift of deep awareness of yourself, your fears, your faith and the Lord’s remarkable and reassuring presence.

Every blessing friends.

SHOW NOTES

Matthew 14:25-33 read in the NRSV

Photo: The Sea of Galilee today, photo by Katie Tierney

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