audio christian mindfulness

An audio meditation on your own belovedness and your existence as an expression of love.

"I belong to my Beloved, and my Beloved belongs to me. He brought me to the banqueting house, his banner over me is love."

Song of Songs 2:4, 6:3

This meditation invites you to take a little pause from all that is on your plate just now, to step aside and to remember that you are the beloved of Love Itself.

As I sat with these words today I imagined a big banner flying over my kitchen with the word LOVE emblazoned on it. Although this may sound trite, it is actually the most serious truth we can hold as we engage with ourselves, the other people in our kitchens, and the world at large.

You are the beloved, and your Divine Beloved delights in you.

That is the whole story.

BLESSINGS, DEAR ONE 💙💙💙

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 newsletter "The Contemplative Window" or join our Facebook group here

Support the show by sharing it with a friend, rating it on your preferred podcast platform, or by becoming a member for just a few $ or £ per month. Thank you so much!

All music by Pete Hatch. 

An audio meditation in John’s Gospel, chapter 1, verses 19-28.

The text for today's meditation records a conversation between priests and John the Baptist. John has been baptising at Bethany at the Jordan, and huge numbers of people are coming to respond to his message that "the Kingdom of God is at hand" (Matthew 4). The chief priests send representatives from Jerusalem to ask some questions, to find out what the buzz is all about.

They want to know if John is someone they are expecting, based on their reading and interpretation of the scriptures. Is John the Messiah, is he Elijah who ascended to heaven in a whirlwind and will return before the Messiah returns, or is this the prophet who Moses said would come before the Messiah?

John says he is none of these, and instead seems to be inhabiting his own unique voice, his own unique vocation. I’m neither Elijah, nor anyone else you are expecting, in the way you are expecting them. I am myself, and I'm here to point towards something that is at hand, someone who is among you on whom the Spirit rests. (Jesus later says in Mt 11:14 “And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who is to come. Let anyone with ears to hear listen!”)

I sense John inviting the interrogators to get out of their heads, to stop trying to puzzle out answers to match their expectations, and to open their hearts with curiosity to how the Spirit of God is at hand.

I invite you to open yourself to this sense of the Holy, to let go of trying to puzzle it all out in your brain, and even as you listen and pray, when you sense the Spirit hovering, to allow yourself to receive it. Let it wash over you, let your self be immersed, even baptised, in Presence of the Holy, even if it comes in an unexpected guise.

Every Blessing

Lissy

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 newsletter "The Contemplative Window" or join our Facebook group here

Support the show by sharing it with a friend, rating it on your preferred podcast platform, or by becoming a member for just a few $ or £ per month. Thank you so much!

All music by Pete Hatch.

A meditation in John’s Gospel, chapter 1, verses 6-9.

In this meditation on John’s Gospel, I invite you, as Jesus does in Mark 6, to "come away with me to a quiet place". I invite you to a quiet place within yourself, a place where your wonder and curiosity are allowed to take the lead. I invite you to behold these words of text, not from your critical, analytic, outward-functioning self, but from your soft, non-judgemental inner heart. I invite you to allow layers of possibility to unfurl from these simple phrases.

In short, I invite you to pray these words.

 John 1:6-9 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.  He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.  The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

May the light

and radiance

of Christ

shine on you

and in you,

through you

and from you.

May the light

of Christ

warm you,

be your companion this day,

and give you peace.

Blessings, always, dear ones.

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 newsletter "The Contemplative Window" or join our Facebook group here

Support the show by sharing it with a friend, rating it on your preferred podcast platform, or by becoming a member for just a few $ or £ per month. Thank you so much!

All music by Pete Hatch. 

It is no wonder the the community founded by John, "the one whom Jesus loved" (John 13:23), would go on teach at length about the profound love of God.

John is often referred to as the beloved disciple.

I can't help but wonder how much of this belovedness, this identity as the beloved, is a function of John's capacity and willingness to recieve the Love that was offered to him.

How might you be invited to increase your capacity to recieve love?

The writer of 1 John suggests that God is Love, that to love another is to know God and that when we love, God dwells within us. (v 7, v16)

What do you love? Who do you love? How do you love? Can you sense the presence of God humming within that love?

Blessings as you pray.

I John 4 verses 12, 18-21

¹² No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. ¹⁹ We love because he first loved us. ²⁰ Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.²¹ And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

 

 

In the spirit of the imaginative contemplation, I invite you into this guided meditation based on Matthew 4:18-20.

In imaginative contemplation you are invited to offer your imagination and your perception as tools through which God might speak to you in a new way.

May you see Jesus in a slightly new way here.

Blessings as you pray.

Lissy

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

Support the show by sharing it with a friend, rating it on your preferred podcast platform, or by becoming a member for just a few $ or £ per month. Thank you so much!

All music by Pete Hatch.

We begin the liturgical year now, in Advent, starting with the cries of our hearts out of the profound need within and around us. The need for restoration, for justice, for wholeness, for peace. Isaiah 35, (read here from the Message), points to a time of healing and life, blossoming and singing. It invites us to dare to hope, in the bleakest of places. Come, thou long-expected Jesus Born to set thy people free From our fears and sins release us Let us find our rest in Thee. Advent blessings and much love, Lissy 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" http://eepurl.com/hkbDFP or join our Facebook group here https://www.facebook.com/groups/1905953786386080/ For more information please visit www.contemplativeathome.com. All music by Pete Hatch. instagram.com/brother.boost

A meditation on Mark 10:46-52

As Jesus, his disciples and many others leave Jericho together, they pass a man begging on the side of the road. He causes an awkward disturbance, shouting for attention. 

His name is Bartimaeus.

As we pray with this passage, may it become new.

Perhaps you'll have the space to become curious about what is awkwardly shouting for attention in your life.

Perhaps you'll have the grace to hear Jesus ask: What do you want me to do for you?

Grace and peace 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

Support the show by sharing it with a friend, rating it on your preferred podcast platform, or by becoming a member for just a few $ or £ per month. Thank you so much!

Further details www.contemplativeathome.com.

All music by Pete Hatch.

A meditation with Matthew 20:20-23

What is it that you want?

The mother of James and John has come to ask that her children might sit at the right and left hands of Jesus in his kingdom. But what is it that she most deeply wants? Power? Security? Honour? Status? Love? Which of her wounds propels her to make this request? And does she understand what Jesus' kingdom will look like?

May this story help to reveal your own story, may this question become a question for you.

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

Support the show by sharing it with a friend, rating it on your preferred podcast platform, or by becoming a member for just a few $ or £ per month. Thank you so much!

Further details www.contemplativeathome.com.

All music by Pete Hatch.

In today's meditaiton we look at Matthew 9:27-30, NIV. 

Two men, who are blind, pursue Jesus, asking for mercy. He asks them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" and then says: "According to your faith, let it be done to you" The two receive their sight.

I'll be honest and say this is a slightly uncomfortable exchange for me. It raises all sorts of questions about unanswered prayers.

Having said that, it also led me to reflect on the tone of our faith, how we can 'believe' or request in prayer with a spirit of control, threat and demand or alternatively with a spirit of surrender, openness and curiosity.

My thoughts are still forming. I will be interested to hear where this meditation takes you. 

BLESSINGS AS ALWAYS

L

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

Support the show by sharing it with a friend, rating it on your preferred podcast platform, or by becoming a member for just a few $ or £ per month. Thank you so much!

Further details www.contemplativeathome.com.

All music by Pete Hatch.

A meditation with the two short verses of Psalm 117.

Following a stilling, there will be short phrases of the psalm offered with questions and suggestions, and then a 3 minute silence.

May you have the grace to meet deeply with the Lord as you pray.

Psalm 117

Praise the Lord, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples.

For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.

Praise the Lord.

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

Support the show by sharing it with a friend, rating it on your preferred podcast platform, or with a one-off or regular donation. Thank you so much!

Further details www.contemplativeathome.com.

All music by Pete Hatch.

 

In this meditation we pray with three short verses in Matthew 19.

"Then people brought little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked them. Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there." (Matt 19:13-15)

May you have the grace-filled encounter with Jesus.

PS: It's June! The birdsong is live, outside my window.

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

For more information please visit www.contemplativeathome.com.

All music by Pete Hatch.