christian guided meditation

A 22-minute audio guided meditation in John’s Gospel, John 8:12-20, using Lectio Divina.

My invitation to you, always, is to engage with scripture through your creative, non-rational self. Rational engagement with scripture is equally important - we usually call it bible study - and I hope there is a dose of it in your rhythms. But my invitation is to help you engage with this sacred text through the non-thinking parts of yourself. With your intuition, your soul, your inner knowing.

In this passage, there is debate. The pharisees are pushing Jesus, prodding with questions and asking for how he measures to the framework of their law.

You will have your own responses to this, and as you listen I invite you to stay in your deep inner knowing, to allow one word or phrase to open meaning for you, and to let the rest fall away.

I see Jesus here deep in his own inner knowing, profoundly connected with his Source, and focussed wholly on that alone.

May you come close to Jesus as you pray with this text.

All love, all Light, all blessings.

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

You can support the show by sharing it with a friend, rating it on your preferred podcast platform, making a one-off donation or becoming a member. Thank you so much!

All music by Pete Hatch. 

A meditation in John’s Gospel, chapter 6, verses 1-13, using Lectio Divina and Imaginative Contemplation.

In this meditation on John’s Gospel, I invite you to join me in taking a ‘long, loving look’ at a few verses of text, beholding the words as living, shimmering, life-giving containers which hold endless layers of wisdom, mystery, beauty and truth.

Just for these few minutes, I invite you to leave your dogma, your creed, your thoughts, and your rational mind aside, and become present to your deeper self, your true self or essential self. I invite you to a way of unknowing, a place of deep being. 

The miracle of the five loaves and two fishes is the only miracle that is recorded in all four gospels.

Blessings 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 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 with imaginative contemplation in John’s Gospel, chapter 5, verses 2-8.

In imaginative contemplation, we try to make the scene come alive in our minds eye. Some people can conjure very vivid images, sounds and smells in their minds, others experience more of an emotional impression. There is no right or wrong way to do this, the purpose of imaginative contemplation is to allow the gospel encounter to become your own in some way, to allow the text to bring the Word in a fresh way.

Grace and peace to you as you pray, as always.

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. 

May grace and peace be yours in abundance! (1 Peter 1:2)

Peter's letters are addressed to communities throughout Asia Minor, and the notes in my study Bible say that we can assume the members are "Gentiles, resident aliens and household slaves." They face persecution and social ostracism for identifying as Christian.

This meditation looks at verses 2-4 and 8-9. There is talk of heaven in this chapter and I find the dynamic between future and present hopes interesting. While it is easy to pitch our hopes on the future in very difficult circumstances, Peter also talks about the joy in the present moment. And this he says to an audience enduring difficulties which I personally cannot begin to imagine. You are receiving the outcome of your faith (v9). Whilst circumstances remain difficult, the hope that we long for is not confined solely to the future. It is also right here, around and among us, even in the midst of the mess.

Do you know anyone who embodies an earthy, joy-right-here-in-the-mess kind of faith and hope? Not by-passing pain, not ignoring injustice, but hope and love in the midst of it?

May this kind of resurrection hope be yours.

Blessings 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 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.

In Matthew 26:36-46 we are with Jesus, late in the evening after they have celebrated the Passover, Jesus has washed their feet, and broken the bread with his friends. Now they have gone to Gethsemane, a garden they may have stopped in regularly together on their way into Jerusalem.

The irony is not lost on me that I found myself heavy with sleep as I was trying to record this podcast. I have struggled with heavy sleepiness on a number of occasions  this week, but still, it is very unusual during recording, so I know where I find myself in the story this time… losing the battle to heavy lids with Peter, James and John.

 

“The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak” Matthew 26:41

 

I’ve heard said that this was the first betrayal. When Jesus was in extreme emotional and spiritual agony, asking his friends to stay with him in mind and heart, they were unable to do so. They left him to face his inner battles entirely by himself.

 

As we enter holy week with Jesus, I invite you to find whatever space you can to be attentive to his story, and to find yourself in his story, in some way.

 

You can find more holy week meditations here.

 

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 with John 10

I have come that you might have life to the full.

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.

 

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.

This is a 20-minute meditation with the magi, who studied the stars, and followed a star whose rising signified the birth of the King of the Jews. 

This mindful meditation gives you space to prayerfully reflect on Matthew 2:1-3 & 7-12, the visit of the magi, and to consider what insights the account may have for you. I find this a particularly helpful new year meditation, though it is by no means specific to a particular time of year.

We don't know that the bearers of gold, frankinsense and myrrh were kings, or how many of them there there were. What we do know is that they brought three gifts, that they were astrologers, likely Zoroastrian, and that they came from the east.

I am reminded in my annual reading of Elizabeth Goudge's children's book I Saw Three Ships, that gold, frankincense and myrrh may represent wealth, worship and death, three profound gifts we may offer to the Giver of all.

Blessings on you.

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 for the fourth week of Advent, with the prophecies of Isaiah 11.

Blessings 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 meditaiton with Isaiah 9 Advent blessings 🙏🏽🕯🕯🕯 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

Advent is a time for preparing, for making space (though as Tsh Oxenrieder says in her Advent book "Shadow and Light", to be still, to make space is an almost subversive act our culture's December).

I do pray that you might find some space today to breathe, to be still, to listen and to ask yourself the question, what might it mean for my heart to prepare room for the Christchild?

Much love and every blessing as you pray today

L

PS: Here we pray with Isaiah 40:3-5. The whole chapter is worth your Advent meditation time!

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.

This is a meditation with Luke 6:46-49.

I hope that this slow and mindful approach to the story of the houses with and without foundations will open something new and relevant for you today. 

Wishing you peace like a river.

Lissy x

PS: I've had a few conversations this week with people who mentioned using these meditations with a small group, so I've added a couple of brief 'if you're in a group' prompts to this recording.

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.

What did you go out into the wilderness to see? Jesus asks his followers, asks us, in Matthew 11:2-11. John the Baptist, imprisoned, has just sent his own disciples to ask Jesus: “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”

This interesting passage explores a number of the questions we have already prayed with, including the identity and character of Jesus as we explored in Matthew 16 who do you say that I am? as well as Jesus’ question what are you seeking? In John 1.

What did you go out into the wilderness to see?

The latest trend? Trappings of wealth? Or a prophet? One to speak truth to power and hope to despair, one who re-energises the imagination of the people of God?

“The task of prophetic ministry is to nurture, nourish, and evoke a consciousness and perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture around us.” 
― Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination

I invite you to be open, even playful, and curious, setting all preconceived notions aside as you are present to these words, listening for something new on the breeze of the Spirit.

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.

Matthew 7:1-5

Hey Friends--

In this meditation, we meet Jesus as he teaches in the Sermon on the Mount. Here he asks us the question: why do you see the speck in your neighbours eye and do not notice the log in your own eye?

Why is it so much easier to notice other people's faults and grievances than our own?

This makes me think of Freud's iceberg theory, the proposal that we have many instincts, motivations and drives functioning at a subconcious level within us.

May our contemplative practice reveal to us a new awareness of what is happening within, and may a healthy practice of non-judgement take root.

Blessings and 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" 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 this meditation we pray with an encounter between Jesus and his friends, who have journeyed up towards the base of Mount Hermon (in the Golon Heights), to a place where there is an ancient temple to the Greek god Pan. (Matthew 16:13-16).  Here he speaks to his friends about his own identity, first asking who are people saying that I am? Whether this is a PR question, or he wants them to ponder this, or he is truly exploring this question for himself, we don't know. But apparently there has been a lot of buzz because several different answers are offered: some say that you're Moses, or Jeremiah, John the Baptist or another prophet. And when Jesus asks "who do you say that I am?" and Peter answers "The Messiah," I think it is good to bear in mind that Peter has a very deep, rich understanding of what 'the Messiah' means. There is more to this encounter but today we are going to stay with this little bit. As you reflect on these questions for yourself, I invite you to come to them with your own cultural context and understanding. To come with your perspective on the world at this moment in history, your understanding of God and what you and your people are longing for.  I also invite you to be very honest with Jesus when he asks: who do you say that I am? There is no point saying, even to yourself, the answer you think you ought to say or the answer you think you'd like to say. Who do you truly think that Jesus is? I invite you to dialogue. BLESSINGS AS YOU PRAY With 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

Happy September, friends. I hope this finds you well.

I'm really excited for our next series of episodes, exploring Questions Jesus Asked. This series was suggested by my dear Spiritual Companion, Tina Lamb. You may remember that Tina brought us the Sunday poems during the first pandemic year.

In this first episode we explore John 1:35-39, When John the Baptist's disciples follow Jesus, and Jesus asks them "What are you seeking?"

Can you allow Jesus to ask you "What are you seeking?"

Thank you so much for inviting me into your precious moments of meditation. It is an honour to be here with you.

NB!!! :

My children have a delightful party piece where they imitate me, my eyes half closed and my dreamiest meditation voice crooning "may you open your heart to the peaceful love of God"... then abruptly turn around to shout in a very angry voice 'BOYS!! SHUT!! UP!! I'M RECORDING!!!"

This is not entirely accurate. "Shut up" is not something I generally say to anyone... However, there was a very animated online game going on downstairs whilst I recorded this (aghhh!) and while I've managed to edit most of the outbursts out of the background, there may be one or two which escaped. May they amuse you. And may your meditation be such that ambient noises do not ruffle you. 

Blessings, all.

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 Centering Prayer meditation, with three minutes of silence, concluding with an Anglican collect. In centering prayer, we use a sacred word to gently hold our attention on the loving gaze of God. You are invited to find a word that comes naturally to you. This might be a name by which you address the Holy, a state such as love, peace, joy, or a short phrase such as “here I am” or “be still and know that I am God.” You are invited to settle on your phrase and then to stay with it for the duration of your meditation.  Blessings as you pray, dear ones. Collect: O God, whose beauty is beyond our imagining and whose power we cannot comprehend: show us your glory as far as we can grasp it, and shield us from knowing more than we can bear until we may look upon you without fear; through Jesus Christ our Saviour. 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

In the Hebrew Bible the word for Spirit - ruach - is alternately translated as spirit, as breath (or breath of life), and as wind.

The ruach hovers over the deep before the creation of the world. The ruach blows back the waters of the great flood. The ruach gives life to the dry bones in Ezekiel's vision.

In this meditation we consider how the wind of the Holy Spirit might revive and renew us, before practicing a simple breath prayer.

Inhale: Breath of God,

Exhale: Breathe on me.

Inhale: Breath of God,

Exhale: Loosen my grip.

Inhale: Breath of God,

Exhale: I breathe in you.

Blessings, always, as you pray, 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 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.

"the earth is the Lord's and everything in it" Psalm 24:1 For me summer is always a time to connect more deeply with the natural world, so throughout July we will be praying with the four elements: Earth, Air, Water and Fire. In this first of our elemental meditations for 2022 we explore Earth with a guided meditation, connecting imaginatively with the deep network of things happening underground, considering the ways in which the Earth and all its bounty enable us to live and thrive, and relating the Earth to the ground of God's love. This meditation includes a reading from Genesis 1, and information gleaned from the Royal Society of Biology and National Geographic. Do check those links for more information about the world below the surface. Blessings 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" http://eepurl.com/hkbDFP or join our Facebook group here https://www.facebook.com/groups/1905953786386080/ 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! ko-fi.com/contemplativeathome For more information please visit www.contemplativeathome.com. All music by Pete Hatch. instagram.com/brother.boost

"Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth!"

This short and familiar Psalm of praise invites you to engage freely and joyfully in your expressions of gratitude and love for the Lord.

May you have the freedom to express yourself loudly, fully and with abandon.

Grace and peace as you pray!

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.