Methods of Contemplation

This episode is a guided visualization by Cassidy Hall. She leads us through a meditation based around the idea of descending down a staircase into our innermost being and exploring the interior landscape through symbolic images. Most of the work we do as human beings is abstract and external, so much so that we often are estranged from our own self, and therefore everything else. This meditation can help us to reacquaint ourselves with our innermost being.

Cassidy Hall is an author, filmmaker, podcaster, student, and trained counselor. She works as a Teaching Assistant at Christian Theological Seminary where she is studying for her MDiv and MTS degrees. She also serves as Student Pastor of First Congregational United Church of Christ where she has begun the ordination process. Since 2017, Cassidy has served as the secretary of the International Thomas Merton Society. In 2012, while working as a counselor and reading Thomas Merton’s New Seeds of Contemplation, Cassidy made a pilgrimage to all seventeen Trappist/Cistercian Monasteries of the United States. While there, she wrote, interviewed monks and nuns, and photographed her entire experience within these seventeen spaces. Her personal quest for silence was written about in this Des Moines Register feature article by Mike Kilen. Born and raised in Iowa, Cassidy moved to Los Angeles in 2013 to work on the production team of the documentary feature film In Pursuit of Silence. The film’s success on the festival circuit and beyond led to its worldwide theatrical release. Her directorial debut short-film, Day of a Stranger, paints an intimate portrait of Thomas Merton’s hermitage years and is anticipated for release in the summer of 2020).

Find Cassidy here:

www.cassidyhall.com

Feel free to catch up with us on social media @methodspodcast, or if you'd like, you can support us on Patreon.

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Cassidy Hall is an author, filmmaker, podcaster, student, and trained counselor. She works as a Teaching Assistant at Christian Theological Seminary where she is studying for her MDiv and MTS degrees. She also serves as Student Pastor of First Congregational United Church of Christ where she has begun the ordination process. Since 2017, Cassidy has served as the secretary of the International Thomas Merton Society. In 2012, while working as a counselor and reading Thomas Merton’s New Seeds of Contemplation, Cassidy made a pilgrimage to all seventeen Trappist/Cistercian Monasteries of the United States. While there, she wrote, interviewed monks and nuns, and photographed her entire experience within these seventeen spaces. Her personal quest for silence was written about in this Des Moines Register feature article by Mike Kilen. Born and raised in Iowa, Cassidy moved to Los Angeles in 2013 to work on the production team of the documentary feature film In Pursuit of Silence. The film’s success on the festival circuit and beyond led to its worldwide theatrical release. Her directorial debut short-film, Day of a Stranger, paints an intimate portrait of Thomas Merton’s hermitage years and is anticipated for release in the summer of 2020).

Find Cassidy here:

www.cassidyhall.com

Feel free to catch up with us on social media @methodspodcast, or if you'd like, you can support us on Patreon.

linktr.ee/methodspodcast

www.methodspodcast.com

www.patreon.com/methods

www.instagram.com/methodspodcast

www.facebook.com/methodsthepodcast

This is the eighth episode of our third season: Vision.

In our last season, we explored the concept of a meditation anchor, and the simplest of these, the breath. An anchor is something, anything really, that we set as the primary focal point for our rational mind. Doing this helps us to build concentration, and gives us a bridge, or a stable place upon which to stand, above the shifting state of our thoughts. This time, we will explore a visual or conceptual anchor to place our focused attention on, allowing our “monkey mind” to entertain itself, while our deeper and truer self rests simply in presence.

There is something uniquely powerful about finding a slowly-changing scene to behold.  It gives us an access point to the present moment, while also recognizing its transience, its continuous state of change, allowing us to let go, again and again, to be present with what is. This week, we will focus on a wave. If you live in a place that doesn’t have access to the beach or the ocean, this method can also be done using your imaginative faculties.

Feel free to catch up with us on social media @methodspodcast, or if you'd like, you can support us on Patreon.

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www.methodspodcast.com

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Hello, and welcome to Methods.

This is our third season: Vision. Today we'll explore ignatian contemplation on a passage from scripture, the Gospel of John, chapter five.

Imaginative prayer, also known as Ignatian Contemplation is the name given to prayer which helps us enter more fully into the passage of Scripture we are reading, by using our ability to form pictures or inner impressions in our minds. We live in a rational, left brain world where information and analysis is the highest priority. But as humans, our soul is still captivated by experience. Jesus called on people’s imagination all the time. He was constantly telling stories and painting word pictures. He asked people to imagine the kingdom of God as a mustard seed, as yeast, as treasure hidden in a field. Through imaginative prayer we step into a gospel story and imagine ourselves to be there in that scene. Rather than reading the Bible abstractly, we enter the story to more deeply experience and encounter Jesus in the scene. In doing so we remain true to the Biblical reading, but more actively experience it. We might be a disciple in the boat with Jesus, one of the crowd at the feeding of the five thousand, or the woman at the well asked by Jesus to draw up water for him. It’s important that as you hear the story you try to feel what it’s like to actually be inside that story.  Listen, taste, smell, feel, and watch what happens.

Feel free to catch up with us on social media @methodspodcast, or if you'd like, you can support us on Patreon.

linktr.ee/methodspodcast

www.methodspodcast.com

www.patreon.com/methods

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Hello, and welcome to Methods, an exploration in guided prayer and meditation.

Today Keith Kristich leads us through a Self-Emptying meditation which also focuses on the three intelligence centers of the head, heart, and body. Keith is a centering prayer group facilitator, Enneagram expert, and life coach. A graduate of the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation in Washington D.C., Keith is well versed in contemplative spiritual paths, as well as with non-religious community groups.

Find Keith here:

https://keithkristich.com/

Feel free to catch up with us on social media @methodspodcast, or if you'd like, you can support us on Patreon.

linktr.ee/methodspodcast

www.methodspodcast.com

www.patreon.com/methods

www.instagram.com/methodspodcast

www.facebook.com/methodsthepodcast

Hello, and welcome to Methods, an exploration in guided prayer and meditation.

Today we talk with Keith Kristich. Keith is a centering prayer group facilitator, Enneagram expert, and life coach. A graduate of the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation in Washington D.C., Keith is well versed in contemplative spiritual paths, as well as with non-religious community groups. 

Find Keith here:

https://keithkristich.com/

Feel free to catch up with us on social media @methodspodcast, or if you'd like, you can support us on Patreon.

linktr.ee/methodspodcast

www.methodspodcast.com

www.patreon.com/methods

www.instagram.com/methodspodcast

www.facebook.com/methodsthepodcast

Hello, and welcome to Methods.

This is the sixth episode of our third season: Vision.

In our last season, we explored the concept of a meditation anchor, and the simplest of these, the breath. An anchor is something, anything really, that we set as the primary focal point for our rational mind. Doing this helps us to build concentration, and gives us a bridge, or a stable place upon which to stand, above the shifting state of our thoughts. This time, we will explore a visual or conceptual anchor to place our focused attention on, allowing our “monkey mind” to entertain itself, while our deeper and truer self rests simply in presence.

There is something uniquely powerful about finding a slowly-changing scene to behold.  It gives us an access point to the present moment, while also recognizing its transience, its continuous state of change, allowing us to let go, again and again, to be present with what is. This week, we will focus on a river, and what we can surrender to it.

Feel free to catch up with us on social media @methodspodcast, or if you'd like, you can support us on Patreon.

linktr.ee/methodspodcast

www.methodspodcast.com

www.patreon.com/methods

www.instagram.com/methodspodcast

www.facebook.com/methodsthepodcast

Hello, and welcome to Methods, an exploration in guided prayer and meditation.

Today we’re talking with Mary Jane Miller.

Mary Jane Miller has painted icons for more than twenty five years. Her hope as a female iconographer is to create images where people might come closer to God. Painting modern catholic icons, and designing new byzantine style images, Mary Jane pushes the edge of tradition with respect and grace through her beautiful icons, and can further inform us how vision can play a role in our spiritual life.

Feel free to catch up with us on social media @methodspodcast, or if you'd like, you can support us on Patreon.

linktr.ee/methodspodcast

www.methodspodcast.com

www.patreon.com/methods

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Hello, and welcome to Methods.

This is the fifth episode of our third season: Vision. Today we'll explore ignatian contemplation on a passage from scripture, the Gospel of John, chapter four.

Imaginative prayer, also known as Ignatian Contemplation is the name given to prayer which helps us enter more fully into the passage of Scripture we are reading, by using our ability to form pictures or inner impressions in our minds. We live in a rational, left brain world where information and analysis is the highest priority. But as humans, our soul is still captivated by experience. Jesus called on people’s imagination all the time. He was constantly telling stories and painting word pictures. He asked people to imagine the kingdom of God as a mustard seed, as yeast, as treasure hidden in a field. Through imaginative prayer we step into a gospel story and imagine ourselves to be there in that scene. Rather than reading the Bible abstractly, we enter the story to more deeply experience and encounter Jesus in the scene. In doing so we remain true to the Biblical reading, but more actively experience it. We might be a disciple in the boat with Jesus, one of the crowd at the feeding of the five thousand, or the woman at the well asked by Jesus to draw up water for him. It’s important that as you hear the story you try to feel what it’s like to actually be inside that story.  Listen, taste, smell, feel, and watch what happens.

Feel free to catch up with us on social media @methodspodcast, or if you'd like, you can support us on Patreon.

linktr.ee/methodspodcast

www.methodspodcast.com

www.patreon.com/methods

www.instagram.com/methodspodcast

www.facebook.com/methodsthepodcast

Carl is a contemplative writer, speaker, teacher, soul friend, and storyteller. He is a co-host for the podcast Encountering Silence, of which I am a dedicated listener. He is also the author of numerous books, including The Big Book of Christian Mysticism, Answering the Contemplative Call, An Invitation to Celtic Wisdom and Unteachable Lessons.

Today Carl McColman of the Encountering Silence podcast, leads us through an iteration of receptive meditation called Centering Prayer.

Find Carl here:

https://carlmccolman.com/

Feel free to catch up with us on social media @methodspodcast, or if you'd like, you can support us on Patreon.

linktr.ee/methodspodcast

www.methodspodcast.com

www.patreon.com/methods

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