By Liz Rees We are setting out on an inner pilgrimage through Lent. We journey inwards together through times of uncertainty, struggle, transition, and bewilderment.In his book Still Possible, poet David Whyte writes: “For the road to Santiago, don’t make declarations about what to bring and what to leave behind. Bring what you have.”The inner pilgrim knows that the holy destination, Santiago, is inside of us in our deepest centre and deepest truth. We start where we are, dropping the declarations and proclamations. We show up humbly on the journey, open to change, willing to let the path and wisdom reveal itself.Jan Richardson writes:If you could see the journey whole, you might never undertake it, might never dare the first step that propels you from the place you have known toward the place you know not.Call it one of the mercies of the road: that we see it only by stages  as it opens before us, as it comes into our keeping, step by single step.We step into Lent after two full years of pandemic, not knowing what the future holds. We have a precious opportunity to show up on a pilgrimage letting Christ guide us through death and rebirth, hearing what is only ours to hear as we step forward in faith. As Richardson writes, “There are vows that only you will know: the secret promises for your particular path and the new ones you will need to make when the road is revealed…”·       David Whyte’s words are from The Road to Santiago in his book Still Possible.·       Jan Richardson’s words are from here poem, “For Those Who Have Far to Travel.”  MeditationLet us come humbly inwards. Letting go of the thoughts and analysis that seem to be going on in our heads, letting this thinking and analyzing part of us rest as we head for a deeper place where we can hear differently, where we can make room for guidance, for being met.We are starting the journey of Lent together. This is an inner journey, a spiritual journey, through difficult times. We walk together. David Whyte wrote:“For the road to Santiago, don’t make declarations about what to bring and what to leave behind.Bring what you have. You were always goingthat way anyway, you were always going there all along.” Let’s see the road before us and sense the Santiago within us as a kind of allurement, and invitation, a pull from the Spirit.We enter silence now, letting each moment be a step on the road to Santiago.-Silence-We finish with Jan Richardson’s words:There are vows that only you will know: the secret promises for your particular path and the new ones you will need to make when the road is revealed by turns you could not have foreseenAmen

<h3>By Liz Rees</h3> We are setting out on an inner pilgrimage through Lent. We journey inwards together through times of uncertainty, struggle, transition, and bewilderment.In his book Still Possible, poet David Whyte writes: “For the road to Santiago, don’t make declarations about what to bring and what to leave behind. Bring what you have.”The inner pilgrim knows that the holy destination, Santiago, is inside of us in our deepest centre and deepest truth. We start where we are, dropping the declarations and proclamations. We show up humbly on the journey, open to change, willing to let the path and wisdom reveal itself.Jan Richardson writes:If you could see the journey whole, you might never undertake it, might never dare the first step that propels you from the place you have known toward the place you know not.Call it one of the mercies of the road: that we see it only by stages as it opens before us, as it comes into our keeping, step by single step.We step into Lent after two full years of pandemic, not knowing what the future holds. We have a precious opportunity to show up on a pilgrimage letting Christ guide us through death and rebirth, hearing what is only ours to hear as we step forward in faith. As Richardson writes, “There are vows that only you will know: the secret promises for your particular path and the new ones you will need to make when the road is revealed…”·       David Whyte’s words are from The Road to Santiago in his book Still Possible.·       Jan Richardson’s words are from here poem, “For Those Who Have Far to Travel.” MeditationLet us come humbly inwards. Letting go of the thoughts and analysis that seem to be going on in our heads, letting this thinking and analyzing part of us rest as we head for a deeper place where we can hear differently, where we can make room for guidance, for being met.We are starting the journey of Lent together. This is an inner journey, a spiritual journey, through difficult times. We walk together. David Whyte wrote:“For the road to Santiago, don’t make declarations about what to bring and what to leave behind.Bring what you have. You were always goingthat way anyway, you were always going there all along.” Let’s see the road before us and sense the Santiago within us as a kind of allurement, and invitation, a pull from the Spirit.We enter silence now, letting each moment be a step on the road to Santiago.-Silence-We finish with Jan Richardson’s words:There are vows that only you will know: the secret promises for your particular path and the new ones you will need to make when the road is revealed by turns you could not have foreseenAmen

The Road to Santiago

By Liz Rees Our world needs people who love. Our world needs people who are kind. We can be both through the practice of loving kindness.In her poem “Blessed are you who bear the light,” poet Jan Richardson writes:Blessed are you in whom the light lives, in whom the brightness blazes— your heart a chapel, an altar where in the deepest night can be seen the fire that shines forth in you in unaccountable faith, in stubborn hope, in love that illumines every broken thing it finds.Heart-felt love illuminating every broken thing it finds is a perfect description of the practice of loving kindness. It is an outpouring coming from compassion.Singer Jennifer Berezan writes, “I cannot turn my eyes. I cannot count the cost of all that has been broken, all that has been lost…. I long to hold the whole world in these arms.” Berezan gives us the prayerful loving kindness refrain:May all beings be happyMay all beings be safeMay all beings everywhere be freeIn loving kindness practice we open our hearts and repeat the loving kindness prayer again and again, until it is absolutely sincere and flowing from us. We can direct it to someone in particular or we can direct it to all. The essence of it is not the particular words but the outflowing of love. Our world needs it, we need to be it, and we have it in us to give.·       Jennifer Berezan lyrics are from her song In These Arms, A Song for All Beings·       Jan Richardson’s poem is from her book Circle of Grace MeditationLet us come to the quiet centre, the altar of the heart, feeling the support of each other. Breathe. Connect to the sacred heart of Christ, feeling this connection in the very centre of your being. We enter our practice with words from Jennifer Berezan: I cannot turn my eyes. I cannot count the cost.Of all that has been broken, all that has been lost.I cannot understand, the suffering that life bringsWar and hate and hungerAnd a million other things When I’ve done all that I canAnd I try to do my partLet sorrow be the doorwayInto an open heart And the light on the hills is full of mercyThe wind in the trees it comes to save meThe silence, it will never desert meI long to hold the whole world in these arms May all beings be happyMay all beings be safeMay all beings everywhere be free  We enter the flow of loving kindness by repeating this prayer again and again, until it’s absolutely sincere and flowing.-        Loving Kindness Practice  We finish with Jan Richardson’s words:Blessed are you in whom the light lives, in whom the brightness blazes— your heart a chapel, an altar where in the deepest night can be seen the fire that shines forth in you in unaccountable faith, in stubborn hope, in love that illumines every broken thing it finds.Amen

<h3>By Liz Rees</h3> Our world needs people who love. Our world needs people who are kind. We can be both through the practice of loving kindness.In her poem “Blessed are you who bear the light,” poet Jan Richardson writes:Blessed are you in whom the light lives, in whom the brightness blazes— your heart a chapel, an altar where in the deepest night can be seen the fire that shines forth in you in unaccountable faith, in stubborn hope, in love that illumines every broken thing it finds.Heart-felt love illuminating every broken thing it finds is a perfect description of the practice of loving kindness. It is an outpouring coming from compassion.Singer Jennifer Berezan writes, “I cannot turn my eyes. I cannot count the cost of all that has been broken, all that has been lost…. I long to hold the whole world in these arms.” Berezan gives us the prayerful loving kindness refrain:May all beings be happyMay all beings be safeMay all beings everywhere be freeIn loving kindness practice we open our hearts and repeat the loving kindness prayer again and again, until it is absolutely sincere and flowing from us. We can direct it to someone in particular or we can direct it to all. The essence of it is not the particular words but the outflowing of love. Our world needs it, we need to be it, and we have it in us to give.·       Jennifer Berezan lyrics are from her song In These Arms, A Song for All Beings·       Jan Richardson’s poem is from her book Circle of Grace MeditationLet us come to the quiet centre, the altar of the heart, feeling the support of each other. Breathe. Connect to the sacred heart of Christ, feeling this connection in the very centre of your being. We enter our practice with words from Jennifer Berezan: I cannot turn my eyes. I cannot count the cost.Of all that has been broken, all that has been lost.I cannot understand, the suffering that life bringsWar and hate and hungerAnd a million other things When I’ve done all that I canAnd I try to do my partLet sorrow be the doorwayInto an open heart And the light on the hills is full of mercyThe wind in the trees it comes to save meThe silence, it will never desert meI long to hold the whole world in these arms May all beings be happyMay all beings be safeMay all beings everywhere be free We enter the flow of loving kindness by repeating this prayer again and again, until it’s absolutely sincere and flowing.-        Loving Kindness Practice We finish with Jan Richardson’s words:Blessed are you in whom the light lives, in whom the brightness blazes— your heart a chapel, an altar where in the deepest night can be seen the fire that shines forth in you in unaccountable faith, in stubborn hope, in love that illumines every broken thing it finds.Amen

Loving Kindness

By Liz Rees In his song Falling Free, David Gray writes:“If every windowpane should shatter Every wall should fall apart It might hurt a bit But it wouldn't matter With this diamond in my heart.”Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins called us “immortal diamonds” and Christian mystic Thomas Merton said “a pure diamond blazing with the invisible light of heaven” is at the centre of every single one of us. Pink Floyd’s song “Shine on You Crazy Diamond,” written for an ousted band member, is an example of seeing and loving someone’s essence even when things have come crashing down quite disastrously. When we consider an inner diamond, we may want to remember that diamonds are formed in the depths and under pressure. It might take us a long time on the spiritual road to feel it in ourselves and see it in others, beneath the surface, like that treasure hidden in a field that Jesus described.In his book Open Mind, Open Heart, Thomas Keating wrote: “The acceptance of our basic goodness is a quantum leap in the spiritual journey.” A quantum leap because most of the time we’re identifying with our faults or saying “I” to the ordinary, never daring to imagine pure goodness in ourselves. What would happen if we began to identify with that inner diamond, that part of us that is pure love?Jesus said where our treasure is, there our heart is, imploring us to seek something essential, eternal and pure. “Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19)It's beautiful to see the spark and sparkle of heaven in ourselves and others. We are indeed “falling free” when do. ·       Listen to David Gray’s song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo7PWn7il_I·       Thomas Merton’s words are from his book Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander MeditationLet yourself relax but remain inwardly alert. Feel your connection to others who are here supporting you. Feel yourself drawing inward to the heart area. We begin with words from Thomas Merton:“At the centre of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God, which is never at our disposal, from which God disposes of our lives, which is inaccessible to the fantasies or our own mind or the brutalities of our own will…It is like a pure diamond blazing with the invisible light of heaven. It is in everybody, and if we could see it, we would see these billions of points of light coming together in the face and blaze of a sun that would make all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely. I have no program for this seeing. It is only given. But the gate of heaven is everywhere. Let us sense into this pure goodness in ourselves. -        Silence -  We finish with David Gray’s words, from his song Falling Free:“If every windowpane should shatter Every wall should fall apart It might hurt a bit But it wouldn't matter With this diamond in my heartThere’s no need to nail to the groundThere’s no need to smother it with senseJust listen to the rhythm of your heartAnd trust it all to chanceWe’re standing face to faceWith the angel of graceAnd don’t it just taste so pureMercy me, I’m falling freeSince you opened up the door.” Amen

<h3>By Liz Rees</h3> In his song Falling Free, David Gray writes:“If every windowpane should shatter Every wall should fall apart It might hurt a bit But it wouldn't matter With this diamond in my heart.”Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins called us “immortal diamonds” and Christian mystic Thomas Merton said “a pure diamond blazing with the invisible light of heaven” is at the centre of every single one of us. Pink Floyd’s song “Shine on You Crazy Diamond,” written for an ousted band member, is an example of seeing and loving someone’s essence even when things have come crashing down quite disastrously. When we consider an inner diamond, we may want to remember that diamonds are formed in the depths and under pressure. It might take us a long time on the spiritual road to feel it in ourselves and see it in others, beneath the surface, like that treasure hidden in a field that Jesus described.In his book Open Mind, Open Heart, Thomas Keating wrote: “The acceptance of our basic goodness is a quantum leap in the spiritual journey.” A quantum leap because most of the time we’re identifying with our faults or saying “I” to the ordinary, never daring to imagine pure goodness in ourselves. What would happen if we began to identify with that inner diamond, that part of us that is pure love?Jesus said where our treasure is, there our heart is, imploring us to seek something essential, eternal and pure. “Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19)It's beautiful to see the spark and sparkle of heaven in ourselves and others. We are indeed “falling free” when do. ·       Listen to David Gray’s song here: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo7PWn7il_I" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo7PWn7il_I</a>·       Thomas Merton’s words are from his book Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander MeditationLet yourself relax but remain inwardly alert. Feel your connection to others who are here supporting you. Feel yourself drawing inward to the heart area. We begin with words from Thomas Merton:“At the centre of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God, which is never at our disposal, from which God disposes of our lives, which is inaccessible to the fantasies or our own mind or the brutalities of our own will…It is like a pure diamond blazing with the invisible light of heaven. It is in everybody, and if we could see it, we would see these billions of points of light coming together in the face and blaze of a sun that would make all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely. I have no program for this seeing. It is only given. But the gate of heaven is everywhere. Let us sense into this pure goodness in ourselves. -        Silence - We finish with David Gray’s words, from his song Falling Free:“If every windowpane should shatter Every wall should fall apart It might hurt a bit But it wouldn't matter With this diamond in my heartThere’s no need to nail to the groundThere’s no need to smother it with senseJust listen to the rhythm of your heartAnd trust it all to chanceWe’re standing face to faceWith the angel of graceAnd don’t it just taste so pureMercy me, I’m falling freeSince you opened up the door.” Amen

This Diamond in My Heart

By Liz Rees “Love liberates. It doesn’t just hold—that’s ego. Love liberates.” These are words of wisdom from the late poet and civil rights leader Maya Angelou. Our culture, Angelou says, is “stuck in almost a juvenile, puerile understanding of love.” This is the idea of possessing someone as opposed to setting them free, of getting rather than giving.She credits her grandmother for teaching her about liberating love. After being raped at seven years old, Angelou became mute for six years of her childhood. Her grandmother would braid her hair and tell her she would someday be a teacher traveling all over the world. “I used to sit there and think, this poor ignorant woman, doesn’t she know I will never speak?” Angelou did indeed teach all over the world and became one of the most famous writers of our time.“Each time I have another honor I think of my grandma. So I am grateful to have been loved, and to be loved now, and to be able to love because that liberates. Love liberates.” In her poem Touched by an Angel, Angelou writes, “We, unaccustomed to courage, exiles from delight, live coiled in shells of loneliness until love leaves its high holy temple and comes into our sight to liberate us into life.”  Love liberates. What charge those two words have when they are together. Who is our love liberating and in what way? What kind of love is liberating us and where is it coming from? Good questions. Thank you, Maya Angelou.Maya Angelou quotes are from Oprah Master Class video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8Gv7PwyeCk and https://highprofiles.info/interview/maya-angelou/ MeditationWe gather inwards to the place we keep pristine and clear within ourselves. Maya Angelou has said that this inviolate place within us is where we go to meet God.Today we are meditating on Maya Angelou’s wisdom that love liberates. We start with her poem Touched by an Angel:We, unaccustomed to courage exiles from delight live coiled in shells of loneliness until love leaves its high holy temple and comes into our sight to liberate us into life.Love arrives and in its train come ecstasies old memories of pleasure ancient histories of pain. Yet if we are bold, love strikes away the chains of fear from our souls.We are weaned from our timidity In the flush of love’s light we dare be brave And suddenly we see that love costs all we are and will ever be. Yet it is only love which sets us free.Spend a little time with the phrase Love Liberates, repeating it in the silent temple of your heart.When you’re ready, fall into silence letting yourself be loved and liberated by the Holy in ways you don’t even need to understand.-Silence- If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; It does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.  (1 Corinthians 13 NRSV)Amen

<h3>By Liz Rees</h3> “Love liberates. It doesn’t just hold—that’s ego. Love liberates.” These are words of wisdom from the late poet and civil rights leader Maya Angelou. Our culture, Angelou says, is “stuck in almost a juvenile, puerile understanding of love.” This is the idea of possessing someone as opposed to setting them free, of getting rather than giving.She credits her grandmother for teaching her about liberating love. After being raped at seven years old, Angelou became mute for six years of her childhood. Her grandmother would braid her hair and tell her she would someday be a teacher traveling all over the world. “I used to sit there and think, this poor ignorant woman, doesn’t she know I will never speak?” Angelou did indeed teach all over the world and became one of the most famous writers of our time.“Each time I have another honor I think of my grandma. So I am grateful to have been loved, and to be loved now, and to be able to love because that liberates. Love liberates.” In her poem Touched by an Angel, Angelou writes, “We, unaccustomed to courage, exiles from delight, live coiled in shells of loneliness until love leaves its high holy temple and comes into our sight to liberate us into life.”  Love liberates. What charge those two words have when they are together. Who is our love liberating and in what way? What kind of love is liberating us and where is it coming from? Good questions. Thank you, Maya Angelou.Maya Angelou quotes are from Oprah Master Class video <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8Gv7PwyeCk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8Gv7PwyeCk</a> and <a href="https://highprofiles.info/interview/maya-angelou/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://highprofiles.info/interview/maya-angelou/</a> MeditationWe gather inwards to the place we keep pristine and clear within ourselves. Maya Angelou has said that this inviolate place within us is where we go to meet God.Today we are meditating on Maya Angelou’s wisdom that love liberates. We start with her poem Touched by an Angel:We, unaccustomed to courage exiles from delight live coiled in shells of loneliness until love leaves its high holy temple and comes into our sight to liberate us into life.Love arrives and in its train come ecstasies old memories of pleasure ancient histories of pain. Yet if we are bold, love strikes away the chains of fear from our souls.We are weaned from our timidity In the flush of love’s light we dare be brave And suddenly we see that love costs all we are and will ever be. Yet it is only love which sets us free.Spend a little time with the phrase Love Liberates, repeating it in the silent temple of your heart.When you’re ready, fall into silence letting yourself be loved and liberated by the Holy in ways you don’t even need to understand.-Silence- If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; It does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.  (1 Corinthians 13 NRSV)Amen

Love Liberates

By Liz Rees Archbishop Desmond Tutu left behind a faith-fueled legacy of compassion. We can draw on his inspiration. “Disturb us, O Lord, he wrote, “when we are too well-pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little, because we sailed too close to the shore.”Dreaming too little he did not. He was one of the most prominent voices the non-violent resistance of apartheid in South Africa and a lifelong, outspoken advocate for the marginalized, including gay and lesbian people. Tutu died on December 26, 2021 at the age of 90. In 1985 Tutu told Sojourners magazine, “If it weren't for faith, I would have given up long ago…. In the middle of our faith is the death and resurrection. Nothing could have been more hopeless than Good Friday—but then Easter happened, and forever we have to become prisoners of hope.”His insistence on hope in the midst of struggle was echoed in an On Being interview with Krista Tippett on April 29, 2010: “There’s no question about the reality of evil, of injustice, of suffering, but at the center of this existence is a heart beating with love.”The day he died, the New York Times described him this way: “For much of his life, Archbishop Tutu was a spellbinding preacher, his voice by turns sonorous and high-pitched. He often descended from the pulpit to embrace his parishioners. Occasionally he would break into a pixielike dance in the aisles, punctuating his message with the wit and the chuckling that became his hallmark, inviting his audience into a jubilant bond of fellowship.”What a wonderful and overflowing legacy. May we willingly enter the prison of hope he modeled, and throw away the key.·       Disturb Us, O Lord Prayer is attributed Archbishop Desmond Tutu, adapted from an original prayer by Sir Francis Drake.·       New York Times quote is from: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/26/world/africa/desmond-tutu-dead.html·       Sojourners quote is from an article called “Prisoner of Hope,” February 1985 issue MeditationWe centre down, coming into the beating heart of love within us, forgetting about everything else, giving ourselves this spiritual time to deepen and enlarge.In this meditation we are taking inspiration from Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the lifelong human rights advocate from South Africa, who died December 26, 2021. He lived boldly and prophetically in the midst of struggle, describing himself as a prisoner of hope. Here’s a prayer that he wrote. We let it guide us into our time of silence.Disturb us, O Lordwhen we are too well-pleased with ourselves  when our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little,  because we sailed too close to the shore.Disturb us, O Lordwhen with the abundance of things we possess,  we have lost our thirst for the water of life  when, having fallen in love with time,  we have ceased to dream of eternity  and in our efforts to build a new earth,  we have allowed our vision of Heaven to grow dim.Stir us, O Lordto dare more boldly, to venture into wider seas  where storms show Thy mastery,  where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars.In the name of Him who pushed back the horizons of our hopes  and invited the brave to follow.We invite courage to open in ourselves. We invite the deeper and wider journey. We push off from the shore into our silence, letting ourselves be mysteriously inspired and transformed.-        Silence –We’ll finish with some of Desmond Tutu’s words captured in 1985 in Sojourners magazine: “If it weren't for faith, I would have given up long ago…. In the middle of our faith is the death and resurrection. Nothing could have been more hopeless than Good Friday—but then Easter happened, and forever we have to become prisoners of hope.”Amen

<h3>By Liz Rees</h3> Archbishop Desmond Tutu left behind a faith-fueled legacy of compassion. We can draw on his inspiration. “Disturb us, O Lord, he wrote, “when we are too well-pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little, because we sailed too close to the shore.”Dreaming too little he did not. He was one of the most prominent voices the non-violent resistance of apartheid in South Africa and a lifelong, outspoken advocate for the marginalized, including gay and lesbian people. Tutu died on December 26, 2021 at the age of 90. In 1985 Tutu told Sojourners magazine, “If it weren't for faith, I would have given up long ago…. In the middle of our faith is the death and resurrection. Nothing could have been more hopeless than Good Friday—but then Easter happened, and forever we have to become prisoners of hope.”His insistence on hope in the midst of struggle was echoed in an On Being interview with Krista Tippett on April 29, 2010: “There’s no question about the reality of evil, of injustice, of suffering, but at the center of this existence is a heart beating with love.”The day he died, the New York Times described him this way: “For much of his life, Archbishop Tutu was a spellbinding preacher, his voice by turns sonorous and high-pitched. He often descended from the pulpit to embrace his parishioners. Occasionally he would break into a pixielike dance in the aisles, punctuating his message with the wit and the chuckling that became his hallmark, inviting his audience into a jubilant bond of fellowship.”What a wonderful and overflowing legacy. May we willingly enter the prison of hope he modeled, and throw away the key.·       Disturb Us, O Lord Prayer is attributed Archbishop Desmond Tutu, adapted from an original prayer by Sir Francis Drake.·       New York Times quote is from: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/26/world/africa/desmond-tutu-dead.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/26/world/africa/desmond-tutu-dead.html</a>·       Sojourners quote is from an article called “Prisoner of Hope,” February 1985 issue MeditationWe centre down, coming into the beating heart of love within us, forgetting about everything else, giving ourselves this spiritual time to deepen and enlarge.In this meditation we are taking inspiration from Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the lifelong human rights advocate from South Africa, who died December 26, 2021. He lived boldly and prophetically in the midst of struggle, describing himself as a prisoner of hope. Here’s a prayer that he wrote. We let it guide us into our time of silence.Disturb us, O Lordwhen we are too well-pleased with ourselves  when our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little,  because we sailed too close to the shore.Disturb us, O Lordwhen with the abundance of things we possess,  we have lost our thirst for the water of life  when, having fallen in love with time,  we have ceased to dream of eternity  and in our efforts to build a new earth,  we have allowed our vision of Heaven to grow dim.Stir us, O Lordto dare more boldly, to venture into wider seas  where storms show Thy mastery,  where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars.In the name of Him who pushed back the horizons of our hopes  and invited the brave to follow.We invite courage to open in ourselves. We invite the deeper and wider journey. We push off from the shore into our silence, letting ourselves be mysteriously inspired and transformed.-        Silence –We’ll finish with some of Desmond Tutu’s words captured in 1985 in Sojourners magazine: “If it weren't for faith, I would have given up long ago…. In the middle of our faith is the death and resurrection. Nothing could have been more hopeless than Good Friday—but then Easter happened, and forever we have to become prisoners of hope.”Amen

Desmond Tutu: Prisoner of Hope

By Liz Rees It is a radical and life-changing practice to follow Jesus’s advice about prayer. We are invited to step into solitude and close the door. No public display, no bragging rights, no distractions. We leave the ego at the door.When you pray, go to your inner room, close the door and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you. -Matthew 6:6 (NAB)Jesus toppled the conventions of his day. He called his followers into intimacy with God, who he referred to as Abba, a term of endearment, tenderness and closeness. He did not tell his followers to make grandiose gestures of devotion. He directed them to get quiet and get real. In his Spiritual Journey teachings, Thomas Keating says: “To pray, the first thing that Jesus suggests we do is to realize that God is Abba – loving, close, relational, concerned, bending over us with tenderness and care, motherly in a certain sense. And this, then, is the necessary disposition to be able to enter with confidence into the Inner Room which, for most of us, is unknown territory.”Keating guides us to drop all words and sit in utter silence in that inner room, a surrendered heart-to-heart silence that holds our willingness to be transformed and brought into depth of relationship. “The root of prayer is interior silence. We may think of prayer as thoughts or feelings expressed in words. But this is only one expression. Deep prayer is the laying aside of thoughts. It is the opening of mind and heart, body and feeling—our whole being—to God, the Ultimate Mystery, beyond words, thoughts, and emotions.”Keating teaches that silence in the inner room guides us inward to the bullseye of the Divine Indwelling at the deepest centre of our being. By stopping our words and sitting in receptivity we cross the threshold from our ordinary awareness to our spiritual awareness and ever deeper to the true self and its union with the divine presence.James Finley, who was mentored at a Trappist monastery by Thomas Merton, shows us that one of the fruits of silence in the inner room is a growing disposition of humility: “Merton once told me that in silent prayer we must simply realize we are in water over our head. In these waters the false self quickly panics and heads for the shore. But the true self, secure in its humility, finds these waters to be a womb.” We cannot buy, manufacture, or borrow the reward that is granted in the secret deepening relationship that takes place in the inner room. By the time we reach death, whether that is sooner or later, we will see that we did not waste one moment opening ourselves spiritually to divine guidance and love. We will, rather, feel within ourselves the treasure that neither moth nor rust can consume nor thieves can steal. (Matthew 6:19). ·       Thomas Keating first quote from the Spiritual Journey is from 87: Prayer in Secret: Matthew 6:6, Part 1 (Contemplative Outreach). The second quote is from Open Heart, Open Mind, p 129.·       James Finley quote is from Merton’s Palace of Nowhere, p 87 MeditationWe sit upright in an alert posture. We let our shoulders relax. We unclench our jaws. We sit in relaxed receptivity. We do our best to let go of our busy thoughts and drop into the spiritual level of our being, becoming sincere, heart centered and open.We start with the instructions from Jesus about prayer:“When you pray, go to your inner room, close the door and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.”We can remember that Jesus’s word for Father was Abba, an intimate term of tenderness and closeness. Though we are together, each of us is entering the inner room at the centre of our being. We are closing the door to our distractions, and thus beginning to pray in secret. We will let Thomas Keating’s words lead us into a period of silence:“Deep prayer is the laying aside of thoughts. It is the opening of mind and heart, body and feeling—our whole being—to God, the Ultimate Mystery, beyond words, thoughts, and emotions…. We open our awareness to the Ultimate Mystery who we know by faith is within us, closer than breathing, closer than thinking, closer than choosing—closer than consciousness itself.”Enter silence now, and if you become distracted return to silent receptivity through the use of a sacred word. -silence-We finish with these words from a contemplative chant by Gerald May:Changeless and calm, Deep MysteryEver more deeply rooted in Thee. (x3) Amen

<h3>By Liz Rees</h3> It is a radical and life-changing practice to follow Jesus’s advice about prayer. We are invited to step into solitude and close the door. No public display, no bragging rights, no distractions. We leave the ego at the door.When you pray, go to your inner room, close the door and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you. -Matthew 6:6 (NAB)Jesus toppled the conventions of his day. He called his followers into intimacy with God, who he referred to as Abba, a term of endearment, tenderness and closeness. He did not tell his followers to make grandiose gestures of devotion. He directed them to get quiet and get real. In his Spiritual Journey teachings, Thomas Keating says: “To pray, the first thing that Jesus suggests we do is to realize that God is Abba – loving, close, relational, concerned, bending over us with tenderness and care, motherly in a certain sense. And this, then, is the necessary disposition to be able to enter with confidence into the Inner Room which, for most of us, is unknown territory.”Keating guides us to drop all words and sit in utter silence in that inner room, a surrendered heart-to-heart silence that holds our willingness to be transformed and brought into depth of relationship. “The root of prayer is interior silence. We may think of prayer as thoughts or feelings expressed in words. But this is only one expression. Deep prayer is the laying aside of thoughts. It is the opening of mind and heart, body and feeling—our whole being—to God, the Ultimate Mystery, beyond words, thoughts, and emotions.”Keating teaches that silence in the inner room guides us inward to the bullseye of the Divine Indwelling at the deepest centre of our being. By stopping our words and sitting in receptivity we cross the threshold from our ordinary awareness to our spiritual awareness and ever deeper to the true self and its union with the divine presence.James Finley, who was mentored at a Trappist monastery by Thomas Merton, shows us that one of the fruits of silence in the inner room is a growing disposition of humility: “Merton once told me that in silent prayer we must simply realize we are in water over our head. In these waters the false self quickly panics and heads for the shore. But the true self, secure in its humility, finds these waters to be a womb.” We cannot buy, manufacture, or borrow the reward that is granted in the secret deepening relationship that takes place in the inner room. By the time we reach death, whether that is sooner or later, we will see that we did not waste one moment opening ourselves spiritually to divine guidance and love. We will, rather, feel within ourselves the treasure that neither moth nor rust can consume nor thieves can steal. (Matthew 6:19). ·       Thomas Keating first quote from the Spiritual Journey is from 87: Prayer in Secret: Matthew 6:6, Part 1 (Contemplative Outreach). The second quote is from Open Heart, Open Mind, p 129.·       James Finley quote is from Merton’s Palace of Nowhere, p 87 Meditation We sit upright in an alert posture. We let our shoulders relax. We unclench our jaws. We sit in relaxed receptivity. We do our best to let go of our busy thoughts and drop into the spiritual level of our being, becoming sincere, heart centered and open.We start with the instructions from Jesus about prayer:“When you pray, go to your inner room, close the door and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.”We can remember that Jesus’s word for Father was Abba, an intimate term of tenderness and closeness. Though we are together, each of us is entering the inner room at the centre of our being. We are closing the door to our distractions, and thus beginning to pray in secret. We will let Thomas Keating’s words lead us into a period of silence:“Deep prayer is the laying aside of thoughts. It is the opening of mind and heart, body and feeling—our whole being—to God, the Ultimate Mystery, beyond words, thoughts, and emotions…. We open our awareness to the Ultimate Mystery who we know by faith is within us, closer than breathing, closer than thinking, closer than choosing—closer than consciousness itself.”Enter silence now, and if you become distracted return to silent receptivity through the use of a sacred word. -silence-We finish with these words from a contemplative chant by Gerald May:Changeless and calm, Deep MysteryEver more deeply rooted in Thee. (x3) Amen

The Inner Room

By Liz Rees The Christmas story is infused by the night sky. We have the “star of wonder, star of night,” the “midnight clear,” the holy night with “the stars brightly shining” just to name a few. Our own tradition invites us into a cosmic liturgy, but are we participating?Richard Rohr reminds us that when we speak of Advent, we’re not just talking about Jesus being born 2000 years ago. “In fact, we’re welcoming the Universal Christ, the Cosmic Christ, the Christ that is forever being born in the human soul and into history.”He continues, “And believe me, we do have to make room, because right now there is no room in the inn for such a mystery…. We don’t see the incarnate spirit that is hidden inside of everything material.”In his book Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul, John Philip Newell shares the teachings of John Scotus Eriugena, a “wandering scholar” from Ireland who lived from 815-77. Eriugena taught that God speaks through two books: “The first is the small book; physically little, this is the book of Holy Scripture. The second is the big book, the living text of the universe, which includes the great luminaries of the heavens, the sun, moon, and stars; the earth, sea, and sky; the creatures of all these realms; and the multiplicity of life-forms that grow from the ground. We need to read both books, he says, the sacred text of scripture and the sacred text of the universe.”Deep time theologian Thomas Berry echoes this sentiment: “Ours is a world of highways, parking lots, shopping centres. We read books written with a strangely contrived human alphabet. We no longer read the book of nature.” Berry constantly pointed out in his writings that the universe itself is a sacred liturgy.As we walk this Advent journey, may we look up in wonder to the silent holy night, and may it give us pause to read the big book and name it as holy.·       Richard Rohr quote is from Centre for Action and Contemplation, Celebrating an Eternal Advent, December 24, 2019·       Thomas Berry quote is from his book The Great Work. MeditationWe give ourselves the gift of pause, of inward time. We let ourselves relax. We put down our racing thoughts and our plans and agenda. We breathe. We reconnect.We let these words about a star and a journey be our opening prayer: Star of wonder, star of nightStar with royal beauty brightWestward leading, still proceeding Guide us to thy perfect lightIn this meditation we are contemplating the cosmos as a liturgy. John Scotus Eriugena taught that the divine speaks through scripture but also through the “big book” which is the living text of the universe. This living text includes the great luminaries of the heavens – the sun, the moon and the stars as well as the earth and all its creatures.And we can remember that we are invited to celebrate the birth of the historical Jesus but also the Cosmic Christ, he who is bursting forth in our expanding universe.We enter silence now, the silent night, inviting the divine presence to awaken our wonder by meeting us inwardly, deep in our hearts. -        Silence - We finish with words from Tori Amos’s song Star of WonderSome say a star will rise again In the hearts of humankind Some say we have been in exile What we need is solar fireStar of wonder, star of night Star of royal beauty Westward leading, still proceeding A star A star of wonder Amen

<h3>By Liz Rees</h3> The Christmas story is infused by the night sky. We have the “star of wonder, star of night,” the “midnight clear,” the holy night with “the stars brightly shining” just to name a few. Our own tradition invites us into a cosmic liturgy, but are we participating?Richard Rohr reminds us that when we speak of Advent, we’re not just talking about Jesus being born 2000 years ago. “In fact, we’re welcoming the Universal Christ, the Cosmic Christ, the Christ that is forever being born in the human soul and into history.”He continues, “And believe me, we do have to make room, because right now there is no room in the inn for such a mystery…. We don’t see the incarnate spirit that is hidden inside of everything material.”In his book Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul, John Philip Newell shares the teachings of John Scotus Eriugena, a “wandering scholar” from Ireland who lived from 815-77. Eriugena taught that God speaks through two books: “The first is the small book; physically little, this is the book of Holy Scripture. The second is the big book, the living text of the universe, which includes the great luminaries of the heavens, the sun, moon, and stars; the earth, sea, and sky; the creatures of all these realms; and the multiplicity of life-forms that grow from the ground. We need to read both books, he says, the sacred text of scripture and the sacred text of the universe.”Deep time theologian Thomas Berry echoes this sentiment: “Ours is a world of highways, parking lots, shopping centres. We read books written with a strangely contrived human alphabet. We no longer read the book of nature.” Berry constantly pointed out in his writings that the universe itself is a sacred liturgy.As we walk this Advent journey, may we look up in wonder to the silent holy night, and may it give us pause to read the big book and name it as holy.·       Richard Rohr quote is from Centre for Action and Contemplation, Celebrating an Eternal Advent, December 24, 2019·       Thomas Berry quote is from his book The Great Work. MeditationWe give ourselves the gift of pause, of inward time. We let ourselves relax. We put down our racing thoughts and our plans and agenda. We breathe. We reconnect.We let these words about a star and a journey be our opening prayer: Star of wonder, star of nightStar with royal beauty brightWestward leading, still proceeding Guide us to thy perfect lightIn this meditation we are contemplating the cosmos as a liturgy. John Scotus Eriugena taught that the divine speaks through scripture but also through the “big book” which is the living text of the universe. This living text includes the great luminaries of the heavens – the sun, the moon and the stars as well as the earth and all its creatures.And we can remember that we are invited to celebrate the birth of the historical Jesus but also the Cosmic Christ, he who is bursting forth in our expanding universe.We enter silence now, the silent night, inviting the divine presence to awaken our wonder by meeting us inwardly, deep in our hearts. -        Silence - We finish with words from Tori Amos’s song Star of WonderSome say a star will rise again In the hearts of humankind Some say we have been in exile What we need is solar fireStar of wonder, star of night Star of royal beauty Westward leading, still proceeding A star A star of wonder Amen

The Cosmic Liturgy

By Liz Rees A beautiful Taizé chant can guide us through Advent, and we can turn to it whenever we feel lost, alone, or overwhelmed. The following line is sung again and again: “Within our darkest night, you kindle the fire that never dies away, never dies away.”The ‘dark night’ speaks to this time of year, to the Advent journey towards the holy birth, and to the times on the spiritual journey when we are bereft and stripped down to utter humility. St. John of the Cross describes the dark night as “sheer grace” because it allows us to find what burns in our hearts. We would never be inclined to do so otherwise.“On that glad night, in secret, for no one saw me, nor did I look for anything,with no other light or guide than the one that burned in my heart.This guided me more surely than the light of noonto where he was awaiting me—him I knew so well—there in a place where no one appeared.” Netanel Miles-Yepez says the darkness can be understood as obscuration of the ego. “My ego has to go dark. Then I can have an encounter with God.” Otherwise our ordinary way of operating and viewing ourselves simply takes up too much space: “We need to yield the ego identity.”The burning heart in St. John of the Cross’s Dark Night poem is “raw longing for the Beloved,” says Miles-Yepez. When our faith becomes that bare and free, it is very pure and driven towards God. Perhaps this is the fire that is kindled and never dies. What is clear is that something is going on in the darkness, both in Advent, and in general when we encounter the dark night on the spiritual path. The poet Rilke wrote in his poem You, Darkness “it is possible a great presence is moving near me. I have faith in nights.” May we all be blessed to see with such wisdom.·       Netanel Miles-Yepez quotes are from a workshop he led on John of the Cross on December 4, 2021 through Contemplative Outreach, Texas.·       The sung Taize chant can be heard here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqQsZK57OX8·       John of the Cross poem The Dark Night is from The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross translated by Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez·       Rilke’s You, Darkness if from his Book of Hours 1,11. MeditationWe gather our awareness inwards, closing our eyes so that only darkness appears to us. We connect in this darkness, journeying in Advent, yielding the ego. We experience Advent inside of ourselves, journeying deeply in faith to that pure divine spark in the centre of our being.We can know, as Rilke wrote, that a great presence is moving near me in the darkness. And we can feel what St. John of the Cross pointed towards--no other light or guide than the one that burns in my heart.We will spend some time with the words of a Taizé chant, and we’ll repeat them silently within ourselves, deep in the inner hearth.Within our darkest night, you kindle the fire that never dies away, never dies away.Repeat it again and again so that you know it inside, so that you will know it always.We take time now in silence, in the silent night.-silence-We finish with some verses from St. John of the Cross’s poem The Dark Night, letting these words inform us poetically of the spiritual journey, wherever we find ourselves:One dark night,fired with love’s urgent longings--ah, the sheer grace!—I went out unseenmy house being now all stilled. In darkness, and secure,by the secret ladder, disguised,--ah, the sheer grace!—in darkness and concealmentMy house being now all stilled. On that glad night,in secret, for no one saw me,nor did I look at anything,with no other light or guidethan the one that burned in my heart. This guided memore surely than the light of noonto where he was awaiting me--him I knew so wellthere in a place where no one appeared.O guiding night!O night more lovely than the dawn!O night that has united the Lover with his beloved…Amen.

<h3>By Liz Rees</h3> A beautiful Taizé chant can guide us through Advent, and we can turn to it whenever we feel lost, alone, or overwhelmed. The following line is sung again and again: “Within our darkest night, you kindle the fire that never dies away, never dies away.”The ‘dark night’ speaks to this time of year, to the Advent journey towards the holy birth, and to the times on the spiritual journey when we are bereft and stripped down to utter humility. St. John of the Cross describes the dark night as “sheer grace” because it allows us to find what burns in our hearts. We would never be inclined to do so otherwise.“On that glad night, in secret, for no one saw me, nor did I look for anything,with no other light or guide than the one that burned in my heart.This guided me more surely than the light of noonto where he was awaiting me—him I knew so well—there in a place where no one appeared.” Netanel Miles-Yepez says the darkness can be understood as obscuration of the ego. “My ego has to go dark. Then I can have an encounter with God.” Otherwise our ordinary way of operating and viewing ourselves simply takes up too much space: “We need to yield the ego identity.”The burning heart in St. John of the Cross’s Dark Night poem is “raw longing for the Beloved,” says Miles-Yepez. When our faith becomes that bare and free, it is very pure and driven towards God. Perhaps this is the fire that is kindled and never dies. What is clear is that something is going on in the darkness, both in Advent, and in general when we encounter the dark night on the spiritual path. The poet Rilke wrote in his poem You, Darkness “it is possible a great presence is moving near me. I have faith in nights.” May we all be blessed to see with such wisdom.·       Netanel Miles-Yepez quotes are from a workshop he led on John of the Cross on December 4, 2021 through Contemplative Outreach, Texas.·       The sung Taize chant can be heard here: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqQsZK57OX8" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqQsZK57OX8</a>·       John of the Cross poem The Dark Night is from The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross translated by Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez·       Rilke’s You, Darkness if from his Book of Hours 1,11. MeditationWe gather our awareness inwards, closing our eyes so that only darkness appears to us. We connect in this darkness, journeying in Advent, yielding the ego. We experience Advent inside of ourselves, journeying deeply in faith to that pure divine spark in the centre of our being.We can know, as Rilke wrote, that a great presence is moving near me in the darkness. And we can feel what St. John of the Cross pointed towards--no other light or guide than the one that burns in my heart.We will spend some time with the words of a Taizé chant, and we’ll repeat them silently within ourselves, deep in the inner hearth.Within our darkest night, you kindle the fire that never dies away, never dies away.Repeat it again and again so that you know it inside, so that you will know it always.We take time now in silence, in the silent night.-silence-We finish with some verses from St. John of the Cross’s poem The Dark Night, letting these words inform us poetically of the spiritual journey, wherever we find ourselves:One dark night,fired with love’s urgent longings--ah, the sheer grace!—I went out unseenmy house being now all stilled. In darkness, and secure,by the secret ladder, disguised,--ah, the sheer grace!—in darkness and concealmentMy house being now all stilled. On that glad night,in secret, for no one saw me,nor did I look at anything,with no other light or guidethan the one that burned in my heart. This guided memore surely than the light of noonto where he was awaiting me--him I knew so wellthere in a place where no one appeared.O guiding night!O night more lovely than the dawn!O night that has united the Lover with his beloved…Amen.

Within Our Darkest Night

By Liz Rees As we travel through the darkness to the nativity, we can ask ourselves, what is aching to be born in our own lives? What wants to break through the darkness in the form of new life?Meister Eckhart said we are all meant to be mothers of God. “What good is it to me if Mary is full of grace and if I am not also full of grace?” he asked, and, “What good is it to me for the Creator to give birth to the Son if I also do not give birth to him in my time and my culture?” The poet Rumi similarly wrote, “The body is like Mary and each of us has a Jesus inside.  Who is not in labor, holy labor? Every creature is.”Episcopal priest and contemplative teacher Matthew Wright says there’s a Christ-bearing dimension in all of us and in the whole universe. Theotokos means the one who gave birth to God and is the word for Mary used in Eastern Christianity. Wright says we are all called to become Theotokos, to bring forth what is holy within our depths.By spiritually connecting with Mary, Wright says we can restore the necessary balance of the unitive feminine in our inner lives. “We do not live in a motherless universe,” he says, and where we direct our devotion matters because it awakens the same qualities in our own being. As we walk the advent journey this year, may we see Mary in a new way, as she who shows us what is possible to open and give birth to within ourselves and in our world.·       Meister Eckhart quote is from Meditations with Meister Eckhart by Matthew Fox·       Rumi quote is from his poem The Body is Like Mary, translated by Daniel Ladinsky in his book, The Purity of Desire·       Matthew Wright content is from his Divine Feminine Retreat offered through the Wisdom Centre in Calgary November 5-6, 2021 MeditationWe settle our body and mind. We connect with each other, recognizing that we are walking an advent journey together. We are moving through the darkness to the possible, to the Holy.In this meditation, we will focus on Mary, the Mother of Jesus, Theotokos. We take inspiration from Matthew Wright who says we are all called to become Theotokos, to become Christ bearing.And we take inspiration from the poet Rumi who said the body is like Mary, and each of us, each of us has a Christ within: “Who is not in labor, holy labor? Every creature is.”In the Magnificat, Mary stated, “My soul magnifies the Lord.” What does it feel like to draw near this magnifying soul? To draw near someone who is Christ-bearing, who is breaking open and birthing the Holy?When you’re ready, fall into silence, an advent journey of holy silence within yourself, drawing near the unitive feminine, letting Holy Mystery call forth what needs to be birthed in you.-silence-We finish with Meister Eckhart’s words:“We are all meant to be mothers of God. … What good is it to me if Mary is full of grace and if I am not also full of grace? What good is it to me for the Creator to give birth to the Son if I also do not give birth to him in my time and my culture?”May we become Theotokos.Amen.

<h3>By Liz Rees</h3> As we travel through the darkness to the nativity, we can ask ourselves, what is aching to be born in our own lives? What wants to break through the darkness in the form of new life?Meister Eckhart said we are all meant to be mothers of God. “What good is it to me if Mary is full of grace and if I am not also full of grace?” he asked, and, “What good is it to me for the Creator to give birth to the Son if I also do not give birth to him in my time and my culture?” The poet Rumi similarly wrote, “The body is like Mary and each of us has a Jesus inside.  Who is not in labor, holy labor? Every creature is.”Episcopal priest and contemplative teacher Matthew Wright says there’s a Christ-bearing dimension in all of us and in the whole universe. Theotokos means the one who gave birth to God and is the word for Mary used in Eastern Christianity. Wright says we are all called to become Theotokos, to bring forth what is holy within our depths.By spiritually connecting with Mary, Wright says we can restore the necessary balance of the unitive feminine in our inner lives. “We do not live in a motherless universe,” he says, and where we direct our devotion matters because it awakens the same qualities in our own being. As we walk the advent journey this year, may we see Mary in a new way, as she who shows us what is possible to open and give birth to within ourselves and in our world.·       Meister Eckhart quote is from Meditations with Meister Eckhart by Matthew Fox·       Rumi quote is from his poem The Body is Like Mary, translated by Daniel Ladinsky in his book, The Purity of Desire·       Matthew Wright content is from his Divine Feminine Retreat offered through the Wisdom Centre in Calgary November 5-6, 2021 MeditationWe settle our body and mind. We connect with each other, recognizing that we are walking an advent journey together. We are moving through the darkness to the possible, to the Holy.In this meditation, we will focus on Mary, the Mother of Jesus, Theotokos. We take inspiration from Matthew Wright who says we are all called to become Theotokos, to become Christ bearing.And we take inspiration from the poet Rumi who said the body is like Mary, and each of us, each of us has a Christ within: “Who is not in labor, holy labor? Every creature is.”In the Magnificat, Mary stated, “My soul magnifies the Lord.” What does it feel like to draw near this magnifying soul? To draw near someone who is Christ-bearing, who is breaking open and birthing the Holy?When you’re ready, fall into silence, an advent journey of holy silence within yourself, drawing near the unitive feminine, letting Holy Mystery call forth what needs to be birthed in you.-silence-We finish with Meister Eckhart’s words:“We are all meant to be mothers of God. … What good is it to me if Mary is full of grace and if I am not also full of grace? What good is it to me for the Creator to give birth to the Son if I also do not give birth to him in my time and my culture?”May we become Theotokos.Amen.

Holy Labour - Theotokos

By Liz Rees If we ask ourselves, “Who am I?” and really sit with the question, we may find ourselves without a clear answer. We think we should know. We think we should be able to define ourselves readily with some kind of singular identity. But that is not how we are.May Erlewine’s song Never One Thing is a liberation. She wrote the song after being inspired by Walt Whitman’s line, “I am large, I contain multitudes.” Erlewine says, “It is a song about personal revolution and accepting and caring for all parts of ourselves. It is both a triumphant burst from the confines of society and a plea to be released from the captivity of labels and generalizations."The song goes like this:I'm the underbelly, I am the claw Never one thing, not one thing at all I'm a street fighter, I'm a prayer for peace I'm a holy roller, I'm a honey beeI am the truth, I am a lieI am the ground, I am the sky I am the silence, I am the call Never one thing, not one thing at allRichard Rohr has said that the contemplative journey frees us from rigidities and helps us become comfortable with paradox. With respect to his own journey, he writes: “I no longer fit in with either staunch liberals or strict conservatives. This was my first strong introduction to paradox, and it honed my ability to hold two seemingly opposite positions at the same time. It took most of midlife to figure out what had happened—and how and why it had to happen.”In John’s gospel, Jesus names himself in multitudes as well:  as a doorway, a vine, a good shepherd, as truth, the way, resurrection, and bread. Jesus was always flipping scripts, speaking in paradox and defying categories. He can lead us into the same territory.It is wisdom to know ourselves as multitudes. We are constantly changing, and there’s nothing at all about ourselves that we can pin down as a singularity. Knowing this we can stop all the pressure we put on ourselves to fit a definition of a this or a that. What a relief. Maybe this is part of what Jesus meant when he said he came to set the captives free.·       Richard Rohr’s quote I from the Center for Action and Contemplation blog Aug 24, 2020: https://cac.org/the-ability-to-hold-paradox-2020-08-24/·       Quote from May Erlewine was found on song facts:  https://www.songfacts.com/facts/may-erlewine/never-one-thing MeditationWe give ourselves a moment to become centred and present, letting our body and mind relax. We come into heart space and connect within, and with each other in kindness and total non-judgement.We start this mediation with some multitudes that Jesus spoke: “I am the bread of life, I am the light of the world, I am the doorway, I am the good shepherd, I am the resurrection, I am the true vine, I am the way, the truth and the life.”In this practice we can become aware that we all contain multitudes and defy singularity. None of us fits perfectly in a box. Whatever pressure we’ve been putting on ourselves, or buying into from our society, we can drop it now in the grace of this practice. We can just be who we are in this moment, with all of our contradictions, all of our inability to feel comfortable in categories. We can enter a time of spaciousness and freedom and peace.We let ourselves enter silence with the God of many names and of no name. -Silence-We finish with May Erlewine’s lyrics:I'm the underbelly, I am the claw Never one thing, not one thing at all I'm a street fighter, I'm a prayer for peace I'm a holy roller, I'm a honey beeI am the truth, I am a lieI am the ground, I am the sky I am the silence, I am the call Never one thing, not one thing at allI am hope, I am defeat I am broken, I am complete I am the grace, I am the fall Never one thing, not one thing at allAmen.

<h3>By Liz Rees</h3> If we ask ourselves, “Who am I?” and really sit with the question, we may find ourselves without a clear answer. We think we should know. We think we should be able to define ourselves readily with some kind of singular identity. But that is not how we are.May Erlewine’s song Never One Thing is a liberation. She wrote the song after being inspired by Walt Whitman’s line, “I am large, I contain multitudes.” Erlewine says, “It is a song about personal revolution and accepting and caring for all parts of ourselves. It is both a triumphant burst from the confines of society and a plea to be released from the captivity of labels and generalizations."The song goes like this:I'm the underbelly, I am the claw Never one thing, not one thing at all I'm a street fighter, I'm a prayer for peace I'm a holy roller, I'm a honey beeI am the truth, I am a lieI am the ground, I am the sky I am the silence, I am the call Never one thing, not one thing at allRichard Rohr has said that the contemplative journey frees us from rigidities and helps us become comfortable with paradox. With respect to his own journey, he writes: “I no longer fit in with either staunch liberals or strict conservatives. This was my first strong introduction to paradox, and it honed my ability to hold two seemingly opposite positions at the same time. It took most of midlife to figure out what had happened—and how and why it had to happen.”In John’s gospel, Jesus names himself in multitudes as well:  as a doorway, a vine, a good shepherd, as truth, the way, resurrection, and bread. Jesus was always flipping scripts, speaking in paradox and defying categories. He can lead us into the same territory.It is wisdom to know ourselves as multitudes. We are constantly changing, and there’s nothing at all about ourselves that we can pin down as a singularity. Knowing this we can stop all the pressure we put on ourselves to fit a definition of a this or a that. What a relief. Maybe this is part of what Jesus meant when he said he came to set the captives free.·       Richard Rohr’s quote I from the Center for Action and Contemplation blog Aug 24, 2020: <a href="https://cac.org/the-ability-to-hold-paradox-2020-08-24/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://cac.org/the-ability-to-hold-paradox-2020-08-24/</a>·       Quote from May Erlewine was found on song facts:  <a href="https://www.songfacts.com/facts/may-erlewine/never-one-thing" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.songfacts.com/facts/may-erlewine/never-one-thing</a> MeditationWe give ourselves a moment to become centred and present, letting our body and mind relax. We come into heart space and connect within, and with each other in kindness and total non-judgement.We start this mediation with some multitudes that Jesus spoke: “I am the bread of life, I am the light of the world, I am the doorway, I am the good shepherd, I am the resurrection, I am the true vine, I am the way, the truth and the life.”In this practice we can become aware that we all contain multitudes and defy singularity. None of us fits perfectly in a box. Whatever pressure we’ve been putting on ourselves, or buying into from our society, we can drop it now in the grace of this practice. We can just be who we are in this moment, with all of our contradictions, all of our inability to feel comfortable in categories. We can enter a time of spaciousness and freedom and peace.We let ourselves enter silence with the God of many names and of no name. -Silence-We finish with May Erlewine’s lyrics:I'm the underbelly, I am the claw Never one thing, not one thing at all I'm a street fighter, I'm a prayer for peace I'm a holy roller, I'm a honey beeI am the truth, I am a lieI am the ground, I am the sky I am the silence, I am the call Never one thing, not one thing at allI am hope, I am defeat I am broken, I am complete I am the grace, I am the fall Never one thing, not one thing at allAmen.

Who Am I? 

Welcome to the Inner Sanctuary podcast, a weekly program for everyone who wants to deepen their practice of meditation. With Liz Rees at Knox United Church (Calgary).

By Liz Rees One of Thomas Merton’s most compelling spiritual writings is his last chapter of New Seeds of Contemplation, entitled The General Dance. In it he describes the “silence of the spheres as the music of wedding feast” and the world and time as “the dance of the Lord in emptiness.” Merton implores us to cast away our despair and join the cosmic dance: “No despair of ours can alter the reality of things; or stain the joy of the cosmic dance which is always there. Indeed, we are in the midst of it, and it is in the midst of us, for it beats in our very blood, whether we want it to or not. The fact remains that we are invited to forget ourselves on purpose, cast our awful solemnity to the winds and join in the general dance.”Far from being merely poetic, Merton was revealing the freedom and joy that opens in us when we journey deeply with contemplative practice, slowly shedding the trappings of ego and opening the depths of wisdom and intimacy with the Divine.Merton was a Trappist monk and a deep meditator who felt called by God to explore “immense depths” on the spiritual journey. Describing the world and time as the dance of the Lord in emptiness reveals how deep his understanding had become. Emptiness in Buddhism is known as the true nature of reality. In Christianity, it has been pointed to by the mystics such as Meister Eckhart through their own deep experience.Cosmologist Brian Swimme describes emptiness in simple and scientific terms in his book The Universe is a Green Dragon. He writes: “Elementary particles fluctuate in and out of existence. What a strange realization! Don’t think that physicists have any easier time of it than you! Elementary particles leap into existence, then disappear. A proton emerges suddenly—where did it come from? Who made it? How did it sneak into reality all of a sudden? ... I am not speaking here of the manner in which mass and energy can be transformed into one another. I am speaking of something much more mysterious. I am saying that particles boil into existence out of sheer emptiness. That is simply the way the universe works.”Merton wrote, “The more we persist in misunderstanding the phenomena of life, the more we analyze them out into strange finalities and complex purposes of our own, the more we involve ourselves in sadness, absurdity and despair.” How true. When we consider the vastness of the universe, and Brian Swimme’s description of the mystery of existence, our hard mental categories about ourselves and our anything else begin to loosen. Merton shows us the journey of the mystic is one of being set free. MeditationWe connect with our breath and connect with each other. We feel into the magnetic centre at the heart area and open ourselves to joy and to the Divine Mystery.In this practice we will be meditating on the Thomas Merton’s words from the General Dance. For the world and time are the dance of the Lord in emptiness. The silence of the spheres is the music of a wedding feast. The more we persist in misunderstanding the phenomena of life, the more we analyze them out into strange finalities and complex purposes of our own, the more we involve ourselves in sadness, absurdity and despair. But it does not matter much, because no despair of ours can alter the reality of things; or stain the joy of the cosmic dance which is always there. Indeed, we are in the midst of it, and it is in the midst of us, for it beats in our very blood, whether we want it to or no.  The fact remains that we are invited to forget ourselves on purpose, cast our awful solemnity to the winds and join in the general dance.  We open to flow and to awe and mystery, putting down our own “strange finalities.” We enter spiritual silence, feeling into the cosmic dance which is always there, in the midst of us, beating in our very blood.-Silence-We do not have to go very far to catch echoes of that game, and of that dancing. When we are alone on a starlit night; when by chance we see the migrating birds in autumn descending on a grove of junipers to rest and eat; when we see children in a moment when they are really children; when we know love in our own hearts; or when, like the Japanese poet Bashō we hear an old frog land in a quiet pond with a solitary splash--at such times the awakening, the turning inside out of all values, the "newness," the emptiness and the purity of vision that make themselves evident, provide a glimpse of the cosmic dance.As we begin to arise from the meditation, we can set an intention to open up flow and awe within ourselves. To notice and join the cosmic dance by dropping our tight mental categories and letting ourselves be transformed.Amen.

<h3>By Liz Rees</h3> One of Thomas Merton’s most compelling spiritual writings is his last chapter of New Seeds of Contemplation, entitled The General Dance. In it he describes the “silence of the spheres as the music of wedding feast” and the world and time as “the dance of the Lord in emptiness.” Merton implores us to cast away our despair and join the cosmic dance: “No despair of ours can alter the reality of things; or stain the joy of the cosmic dance which is always there. Indeed, we are in the midst of it, and it is in the midst of us, for it beats in our very blood, whether we want it to or not. The fact remains that we are invited to forget ourselves on purpose, cast our awful solemnity to the winds and join in the general dance.”Far from being merely poetic, Merton was revealing the freedom and joy that opens in us when we journey deeply with contemplative practice, slowly shedding the trappings of ego and opening the depths of wisdom and intimacy with the Divine.Merton was a Trappist monk and a deep meditator who felt called by God to explore “immense depths” on the spiritual journey. Describing the world and time as the dance of the Lord in emptiness reveals how deep his understanding had become. Emptiness in Buddhism is known as the true nature of reality. In Christianity, it has been pointed to by the mystics such as Meister Eckhart through their own deep experience.Cosmologist Brian Swimme describes emptiness in simple and scientific terms in his book The Universe is a Green Dragon. He writes: “Elementary particles fluctuate in and out of existence. What a strange realization! Don’t think that physicists have any easier time of it than you! Elementary particles leap into existence, then disappear. A proton emerges suddenly—where did it come from? Who made it? How did it sneak into reality all of a sudden? ... I am not speaking here of the manner in which mass and energy can be transformed into one another. I am speaking of something much more mysterious. I am saying that particles boil into existence out of sheer emptiness. That is simply the way the universe works.”Merton wrote, “The more we persist in misunderstanding the phenomena of life, the more we analyze them out into strange finalities and complex purposes of our own, the more we involve ourselves in sadness, absurdity and despair.” How true. When we consider the vastness of the universe, and Brian Swimme’s description of the mystery of existence, our hard mental categories about ourselves and our anything else begin to loosen. Merton shows us the journey of the mystic is one of being set free. MeditationWe connect with our breath and connect with each other. We feel into the magnetic centre at the heart area and open ourselves to joy and to the Divine Mystery.In this practice we will be meditating on the Thomas Merton’s words from the General Dance. For the world and time are the dance of the Lord in emptiness. The silence of the spheres is the music of a wedding feast. The more we persist in misunderstanding the phenomena of life, the more we analyze them out into strange finalities and complex purposes of our own, the more we involve ourselves in sadness, absurdity and despair. But it does not matter much, because no despair of ours can alter the reality of things; or stain the joy of the cosmic dance which is always there. Indeed, we are in the midst of it, and it is in the midst of us, for it beats in our very blood, whether we want it to or no.  The fact remains that we are invited to forget ourselves on purpose, cast our awful solemnity to the winds and join in the general dance.  We open to flow and to awe and mystery, putting down our own “strange finalities.” We enter spiritual silence, feeling into the cosmic dance which is always there, in the midst of us, beating in our very blood.-Silence-We do not have to go very far to catch echoes of that game, and of that dancing. When we are alone on a starlit night; when by chance we see the migrating birds in autumn descending on a grove of junipers to rest and eat; when we see children in a moment when they are really children; when we know love in our own hearts; or when, like the Japanese poet Bashō we hear an old frog land in a quiet pond with a solitary splash--at such times the awakening, the turning inside out of all values, the "newness," the emptiness and the purity of vision that make themselves evident, provide a glimpse of the cosmic dance.As we begin to arise from the meditation, we can set an intention to open up flow and awe within ourselves. To notice and join the cosmic dance by dropping our tight mental categories and letting ourselves be transformed.Amen.

The Cosmic Dance

By Liz Rees In his book A Sacred Voice is Calling, John Neafsey describes witnessing a group of very poor people praying in front of a statue of the crucified Christ in a church in Guatemala: “Each person, in their turn, went to the foot of the cross, and, as they prayed quietly about whatever was on their minds or in their hearts, they reached up and literally clung to the legs of Jesus…. I suspect that some of them were hanging onto him for dear life.”Perhaps we can relate and feel that, even if the gesture was not outwardly expressed, it was inwardly felt at certain points in our life. “For many of us, one thing suffering seems to do quite effectively,” writes Neafsey, “is to remind us of our need for God.”The poet Rilke, in his Book of Hours, wrote: “You cherish those who grip you for survival.” Jesus states in the Beatitudes: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted,” and Psalm 34 says: “The Lord is near to the broken-hearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”Neafsey points out that painful life experiences have the potential to deepen and mature us, to make us wiser and more compassionate, but this is not always how things work out. “Pain can also make us numb or bitter or self-absorbed…. Suffering can soften the heart—or it can turn it to stone.”So what do we do with pain? Do we run? Do we numb? Do we accept the heart of stone? If we are honest, we will see that we are familiar with all these strategies. But there is also the possibility of opening in utter humility and journeying deeply to the softer heart, lighting and holding a candle of compassion for ourselves and for everyone else. Victor Frankl, who survived the Nazi concentration camps, wrote, “Everything can be taken away but one thing, the last of human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.” No one wants suffering and it is not helpful to romanticize it. It is clear, however, that we turned in a spiritual direction in the first place because of it. It is also clear, that is has opened the vault of compassion in us because we understand what it is to suffer. Even if we are not experiencing any particular pain at this time in our life, may we light a candle of faith and compassion at every chance we get.·       John Neafsey quotes are from his book A Sacred Voice is Calling·       Excerpt from Rilke’s poem is from Rilke’s Book of Hours, translated by Anita Barrow and Joanna Macy. MeditationWe spend a moment connecting with each other, heart to heart, knowing we are supported and in spiritual community. We enter some time of gentleness, coming lovingly inwards, softening the heart.We’ll start with some words—a prayer—from the poet Rilke:You see, I want a lot.Maybe I want it all:The darkness of each endless fall,The shimmering light of each ascent. So many are alive who don’t seem to care.Casual, easy, they move in the worldAs though untouched. But you take pleasure in the facesOf those who know they thirst.You cherish thosewho grip you for survival. Today we are meditating on transforming pain into the spiritual path, knowing that suffering can soften the heart or turn it to stone. We choose the soft heart together.We’ll spend some time with Jesus’s words from the Beatitudes: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” We silent repeat and hear these words for ourselves and others, knowing there are many forms of mourning.When you’re ready, simply surrender into silence, opening to the comfort and wisdom that will silently stir within you during the practice or later.-silence-As we finish, imagine you are lighting a candle for all those who suffer and that you are held in the light of all those who light a candle of compassion for you. You are in a sea of light and hope.“The Lord is near to the broken-hearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” (Psalm 34)Amen

<h3>By Liz Rees</h3> In his book A Sacred Voice is Calling, John Neafsey describes witnessing a group of very poor people praying in front of a statue of the crucified Christ in a church in Guatemala: “Each person, in their turn, went to the foot of the cross, and, as they prayed quietly about whatever was on their minds or in their hearts, they reached up and literally clung to the legs of Jesus…. I suspect that some of them were hanging onto him for dear life.”Perhaps we can relate and feel that, even if the gesture was not outwardly expressed, it was inwardly felt at certain points in our life. “For many of us, one thing suffering seems to do quite effectively,” writes Neafsey, “is to remind us of our need for God.”The poet Rilke, in his Book of Hours, wrote: “You cherish those who grip you for survival.” Jesus states in the Beatitudes: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted,” and Psalm 34 says: “The Lord is near to the broken-hearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”Neafsey points out that painful life experiences have the potential to deepen and mature us, to make us wiser and more compassionate, but this is not always how things work out. “Pain can also make us numb or bitter or self-absorbed…. Suffering can soften the heart—or it can turn it to stone.”So what do we do with pain? Do we run? Do we numb? Do we accept the heart of stone? If we are honest, we will see that we are familiar with all these strategies. But there is also the possibility of opening in utter humility and journeying deeply to the softer heart, lighting and holding a candle of compassion for ourselves and for everyone else. Victor Frankl, who survived the Nazi concentration camps, wrote, “Everything can be taken away but one thing, the last of human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.” No one wants suffering and it is not helpful to romanticize it. It is clear, however, that we turned in a spiritual direction in the first place because of it. It is also clear, that is has opened the vault of compassion in us because we understand what it is to suffer. Even if we are not experiencing any particular pain at this time in our life, may we light a candle of faith and compassion at every chance we get.·       John Neafsey quotes are from his book A Sacred Voice is Calling·       Excerpt from Rilke’s poem is from Rilke’s Book of Hours, translated by Anita Barrow and Joanna Macy. MeditationWe spend a moment connecting with each other, heart to heart, knowing we are supported and in spiritual community. We enter some time of gentleness, coming lovingly inwards, softening the heart.We’ll start with some words—a prayer—from the poet Rilke:You see, I want a lot.Maybe I want it all:The darkness of each endless fall,The shimmering light of each ascent. So many are alive who don’t seem to care.Casual, easy, they move in the worldAs though untouched. But you take pleasure in the facesOf those who know they thirst.You cherish thosewho grip you for survival. Today we are meditating on transforming pain into the spiritual path, knowing that suffering can soften the heart or turn it to stone. We choose the soft heart together.We’ll spend some time with Jesus’s words from the Beatitudes: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” We silent repeat and hear these words for ourselves and others, knowing there are many forms of mourning.When you’re ready, simply surrender into silence, opening to the comfort and wisdom that will silently stir within you during the practice or later.-silence-As we finish, imagine you are lighting a candle for all those who suffer and that you are held in the light of all those who light a candle of compassion for you. You are in a sea of light and hope.“The Lord is near to the broken-hearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” (Psalm 34)Amen

Blessed are Those who Mourn

By Liz Rees What does it mean to see with the eyes of the heart? Mystic theologian Cynthia Bourgeault calls us to know and experience heart-centred spiritual perception: “According to the great wisdom traditions of the West (Christian, Jewish, Islamic), the heart is first and foremost an organ of spiritual perception. Its primary function is to look beyond the obvious, the boundaried surface of things, and see into a deeper reality….”Bourgeault draws our attention to biblical teachings such as Jesus stating in the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God” and the Ezekiel: “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” She states: “My bare-bones take on Jesus is that he comes as the ‘master cardiologist,’ the next in the great succession of Hebrew prophets, to do that ‘heart surgery’ first announced by Ezekiel.”Bourgeault says our contemporary understanding needs a refresh because we have come to associate the word “heart” primarily with emotions and are missing the profundity of spiritual experience that perhaps can only be tasted rather than explained. The practice of putting the mind in the heart is well known in Eastern Orthodox contemplative practice. For example, she quotes the following instruction from the Art of Prayer: An Orthodox Anthology:To stand guard over the heart, to stand with the mind in the heart, to descend from the head to the heart—all these are one and the same thing. The core of the work lies in concentrating the attention and the standing before the invisible Lord, not in the head but in the chest, close to the heart and in the heart. When the divine warmth comes, all this will be clear.Seeing with the eyes of the heart means entraining ourselves to “a higher order of divine coherence and compassion,” says Bourgeault. “Then grace upon grace flows through this vibrating reed and on out into a transfigured world.”·       Cynthia Bourgeault quotes and quote from Art of Prayer are from The Way of the Heart essay in Parabola: https://parabola.org/2017/01/31/the-way-of-the-heart-cynthia-bourgeault/ MeditationWe begin by feeling each other’s presence and support and giving ourselves permission to enter a time of quiet contemplation and meditation.We are reflecting on seeing with the eyes of the heart, knowing the heart to be the locus of spiritual perception. As Cynthia Bourgeault instructs, we are not talking about our emotions, but something much deeper, a contemplative heart, our palpable warm connection with Christ, the “master cardiologist.”We’ll deepen by placing a hand on our heart and silently repeating these words from Jesus: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”When you’re ready, descend into silence. If you become distracted, begin to silently repeat the line again.-Silence-We finish with these words from Ezekiel: “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”Amen

<h3>By Liz Rees</h3> What does it mean to see with the eyes of the heart? Mystic theologian Cynthia Bourgeault calls us to know and experience heart-centred spiritual perception: “According to the great wisdom traditions of the West (Christian, Jewish, Islamic), the heart is first and foremost an organ of spiritual perception. Its primary function is to look beyond the obvious, the boundaried surface of things, and see into a deeper reality….”Bourgeault draws our attention to biblical teachings such as Jesus stating in the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God” and the Ezekiel: “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” She states: “My bare-bones take on Jesus is that he comes as the ‘master cardiologist,’ the next in the great succession of Hebrew prophets, to do that ‘heart surgery’ first announced by Ezekiel.”Bourgeault says our contemporary understanding needs a refresh because we have come to associate the word “heart” primarily with emotions and are missing the profundity of spiritual experience that perhaps can only be tasted rather than explained. The practice of putting the mind in the heart is well known in Eastern Orthodox contemplative practice. For example, she quotes the following instruction from the Art of Prayer: An Orthodox Anthology:To stand guard over the heart, to stand with the mind in the heart, to descend from the head to the heart—all these are one and the same thing. The core of the work lies in concentrating the attention and the standing before the invisible Lord, not in the head but in the chest, close to the heart and in the heart. When the divine warmth comes, all this will be clear.Seeing with the eyes of the heart means entraining ourselves to “a higher order of divine coherence and compassion,” says Bourgeault. “Then grace upon grace flows through this vibrating reed and on out into a transfigured world.”·       Cynthia Bourgeault quotes and quote from Art of Prayer are from The Way of the Heart essay in Parabola: <a href="https://parabola.org/2017/01/31/the-way-of-the-heart-cynthia-bourgeault/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://parabola.org/2017/01/31/the-way-of-the-heart-cynthia-bourgeault/</a> MeditationWe begin by feeling each other’s presence and support and giving ourselves permission to enter a time of quiet contemplation and meditation.We are reflecting on seeing with the eyes of the heart, knowing the heart to be the locus of spiritual perception. As Cynthia Bourgeault instructs, we are not talking about our emotions, but something much deeper, a contemplative heart, our palpable warm connection with Christ, the “master cardiologist.”We’ll deepen by placing a hand on our heart and silently repeating these words from Jesus: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”When you’re ready, descend into silence. If you become distracted, begin to silently repeat the line again.-Silence-We finish with these words from Ezekiel: “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”Amen

Eyes of the Heart

By Liz Rees Letting go is happening all around us as we head towards winter. Trees are great teachers of release. If we want to find inner peace, we’ll have to apprentice to them.In her poem She Let Go, Safire Rose guides us in the spiritual practice of letting go:She let go.Without a thought or a word, she let go.She let go of fear. She let go of the judgments. She let go of the confluence of opinions swarming around her head. She let go of the committee of indecision within her. She let go of all the ‘right’ reasons. Wholly and completely, without hesitation or worry, she just let go.When we practice centering prayer, we are letting go. We are letting go of our thoughts and petitions and remaining in silent receptivity, and, most importantly, we are letting go of our personal agendas and maps. Thomas Keating wrote, “This prayer is a journey into the unknown. It is a call to follow Jesus out of all the structures, security blankets and even spiritual practices that serve as props for the ego.” Our clenching, grasping and tightness of mind are coming from our belief that our happiness and security is tied to life going as we’ve planned, to who we think we are, and to our illusion of control. We can gradually move into inner freedom by letting it all go in the presence of the divine, and letting ourselves be met and guided by a love we’ve never known. Keating wrote: “Centering prayer is an exercise in letting go. It lays aside every thought. One touch of divine love enables you to take all the pleasures of the world and throw them in the wastebasket.”Letting go as a spiritual practice does not mean we become completely passive in life. It simply opens us to guidance and to inner peace. This comes as we open in humility, ever deeper, into our spiritual being and becoming. -Thomas Keating quotes are from his book Open Mind, Open Heart. MeditationWe begin with the breath. Inhale receiving, exhale releasing. Let’s call to mind the trees all around us who have gracefully been dropping their leaves.Here is Safire Rose’s poem She Let Go:She let go.Without a thought or a word, she let go.She let go of fear. She let go of the judgments. She let go of the confluence of opinions swarming around her head. She let go of the committee of indecision within her. She let go of all the ‘right’ reasons. Wholly and completely, without hesitation or worry, she just let go.She didn’t ask anyone for advice. She didn’t read a book on how to let go. She didn’t search the scriptures.She just let go. She let go of all of the memories that held her back. She let go of all of the anxiety that kept her from moving forward. She let go of the planning and all of the calculations about how to do it just right.She didn’t promise to let go. She didn’t journal about it. She didn’t write the projected date in her day-timer. She made no public announcement and put no ad in the paper. She didn’t check the weather report or read her daily horoscope.She just let go. She didn’t analyse whether she should let go. She didn’t call her friends to discuss the matter. She didn’t do a five-step Spiritual Mind Treatment. She didn’t call the prayer line. She didn’t utter one word. She just let go.No one was around when it happened. There was no applause or congratulations. No one thanked her or praised her. No one noticed a thing.Like a leaf falling from a tree, she just let go. There was no effort. There was no struggle. It wasn’t good and it wasn’t bad. It was what it was, and it is just that. In the space of letting go, she let it all be. A small smile came over her face. A light breeze blew through her. And the sun and the moon shone forevermore.What do you need to let go of? What inside of you is gripping tightly to a situation, an outcome, a view of yourself, or another person? Together, let’s let go.Our tightly held plans for ourselves and our lives may be in the way of where we are actually called and who we are actually called to be. We let go now into silence, following Jesus into the unknown. In faith, in trust, we just let go.-Silence-A small smile came over their faces. A light breeze blew through them. And the sun and the moon shone forevermore.Amen

<h3>By Liz Rees</h3> Letting go is happening all around us as we head towards winter. Trees are great teachers of release. If we want to find inner peace, we’ll have to apprentice to them.In her poem She Let Go, Safire Rose guides us in the spiritual practice of letting go:She let go. Without a thought or a word, she let go. She let go of fear. She let go of the judgments. She let go of the confluence of opinions swarming around her head. She let go of the committee of indecision within her. She let go of all the ‘right’ reasons. Wholly and completely, without hesitation or worry, she just let go.When we practice centering prayer, we are letting go. We are letting go of our thoughts and petitions and remaining in silent receptivity, and, most importantly, we are letting go of our personal agendas and maps. Thomas Keating wrote, “This prayer is a journey into the unknown. It is a call to follow Jesus out of all the structures, security blankets and even spiritual practices that serve as props for the ego.” Our clenching, grasping and tightness of mind are coming from our belief that our happiness and security is tied to life going as we’ve planned, to who we think we are, and to our illusion of control. We can gradually move into inner freedom by letting it all go in the presence of the divine, and letting ourselves be met and guided by a love we’ve never known. Keating wrote: “Centering prayer is an exercise in letting go. It lays aside every thought. One touch of divine love enables you to take all the pleasures of the world and throw them in the wastebasket.”Letting go as a spiritual practice does not mean we become completely passive in life. It simply opens us to guidance and to inner peace. This comes as we open in humility, ever deeper, into our spiritual being and becoming. -Thomas Keating quotes are from his book Open Mind, Open Heart. MeditationWe begin with the breath. Inhale receiving, exhale releasing. Let’s call to mind the trees all around us who have gracefully been dropping their leaves.Here is Safire Rose’s poem She Let Go:She let go.Without a thought or a word, she let go.She let go of fear. She let go of the judgments. She let go of the confluence of opinions swarming around her head. She let go of the committee of indecision within her. She let go of all the ‘right’ reasons. Wholly and completely, without hesitation or worry, she just let go.She didn’t ask anyone for advice. She didn’t read a book on how to let go. She didn’t search the scriptures.She just let go. She let go of all of the memories that held her back. She let go of all of the anxiety that kept her from moving forward. She let go of the planning and all of the calculations about how to do it just right.She didn’t promise to let go. She didn’t journal about it. She didn’t write the projected date in her day-timer. She made no public announcement and put no ad in the paper. She didn’t check the weather report or read her daily horoscope.She just let go. She didn’t analyse whether she should let go. She didn’t call her friends to discuss the matter. She didn’t do a five-step Spiritual Mind Treatment. She didn’t call the prayer line. She didn’t utter one word. She just let go.No one was around when it happened. There was no applause or congratulations. No one thanked her or praised her. No one noticed a thing.Like a leaf falling from a tree, she just let go. There was no effort. There was no struggle. It wasn’t good and it wasn’t bad. It was what it was, and it is just that. In the space of letting go, she let it all be. A small smile came over her face. A light breeze blew through her. And the sun and the moon shone forevermore.What do you need to let go of? What inside of you is gripping tightly to a situation, an outcome, a view of yourself, or another person? Together, let’s let go.Our tightly held plans for ourselves and our lives may be in the way of where we are actually called and who we are actually called to be. We let go now into silence, following Jesus into the unknown. In faith, in trust, we just let go.-Silence-A small smile came over their faces. A light breeze blew through them. And the sun and the moon shone forevermore.Amen

The Spiritual Practice of Letting Go

By Liz Rees We all have trauma in our lives. None of us has been loved perfectly or loved others perfectly. We all carry unresolved pain and we all deserve tenderness and compassion.Dr. Gabor Mate, a renowned addiction expert who has spent many years working on the lower east side of Vancouver, says that the many forms of addiction in our society are coming from our endless search to relieve past pain and trauma and to externally fill a void we feel inside: “There are many, many addictions. Yes, there’s the addiction to drugs, but there’s also the addiction to consumerism, the addiction to sex, to the internet, to food. For each person there’s a different way of feeding the emptiness.”In his book In the Realm of the Hungry Ghosts, he wrote: “Many of us resemble the drug addict in our ineffectual efforts to fill in the spiritual black hole, the void at the center, where we have lost touch with our souls, our spirit—with those sources of meaning and value that are not contingent or fleeting.”What we need is to find is the light within: “Jesus said the Kingdom of God is within, that the power is not outside of yourself but inside…. We have to find that light within ourselves. We have to find that light within communities and in our own wisdom.”Father Thomas Keating brings us further into this awareness: “Jesus addressed this problem head-on in the gospel. What was his first word when beginning the ministry? “Repent.” To repent is not to take on afflictive penances…. It means to change the direction in which you are looking for happiness.”Keating says that regular contemplative silence initiates a healing process he calls divine therapy: “The psyche begins to evacuate spontaneously the undigested emotional material of a lifetime, opening up a new space for self-knowledge, freedom of choice, and the discovery of the divine presence within.”Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could all stop running and let ourselves be held and healed in the grace that is waiting to receive us. There is a light within, holy and whole. It is waiting to be known by every single one of us.Gabor Mate quotes are from his book In the Realm of the Hungry Ghosts and from this short film: Thomas Keating quotes are from his book Invitation to Love. MeditationWe give ourselves permission to take this time to be nurtured from within. We feel the presence of supportive community. We allow ourselves to relax and come into our hearts.We reflect on Thomas Keating’s teaching that the word “repent,” stated by Jesus, means to change the direction in which we are looking for happiness. To look inside of ourselves instead of outside. Reflect for a moment, without any judgement, about the various ways you have been trying to fill yourself from the outside, by reaching for something or someone to fulfil you.What would it mean to change the direction in which we are seeking happiness, to find the light within?We spend a few moments with the words: “The Kingdom of God is Within Me,” repeating them silently and in the heart.When it feels right, fall into silence, knowing you are held, you are received, no matter what has happened in the past. The Kingdom of God within you is just love, just relief, just presence, always there.[Silence]If we touch that light within ourselves even once, we know something very precious. Gradually, we will realize that we do not need to keep reaching to be filled from the outside as our true nature in Christ is shining from within.Amen.

<h3>By Liz Rees</h3> We all have trauma in our lives. None of us has been loved perfectly or loved others perfectly. We all carry unresolved pain and we all deserve tenderness and compassion.Dr. Gabor Mate, a renowned addiction expert who has spent many years working on the lower east side of Vancouver, says that the many forms of addiction in our society are coming from our endless search to relieve past pain and trauma and to externally fill a void we feel inside: “There are many, many addictions. Yes, there’s the addiction to drugs, but there’s also the addiction to consumerism, the addiction to sex, to the internet, to food. For each person there’s a different way of feeding the emptiness.”In his book In the Realm of the Hungry Ghosts, he wrote: “Many of us resemble the drug addict in our ineffectual efforts to fill in the spiritual black hole, the void at the center, where we have lost touch with our souls, our spirit—with those sources of meaning and value that are not contingent or fleeting.”What we need is to find is the light within: “Jesus said the Kingdom of God is within, that the power is not outside of yourself but inside…. We have to find that light within ourselves. We have to find that light within communities and in our own wisdom.”Father Thomas Keating brings us further into this awareness: “Jesus addressed this problem head-on in the gospel. What was his first word when beginning the ministry? “Repent.” To repent is not to take on afflictive penances…. It means to change the direction in which you are looking for happiness.”Keating says that regular contemplative silence initiates a healing process he calls divine therapy: “The psyche begins to evacuate spontaneously the undigested emotional material of a lifetime, opening up a new space for self-knowledge, freedom of choice, and the discovery of the divine presence within.”Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could all stop running and let ourselves be held and healed in the grace that is waiting to receive us. There is a light within, holy and whole. It is waiting to be known by every single one of us.Gabor Mate quotes are from his book In the Realm of the Hungry Ghosts and from <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SustainableHumanOfficial/videos/248476193475445/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this short film</a>:  Thomas Keating quotes are from his book Invitation to Love. MeditationWe give ourselves permission to take this time to be nurtured from within. We feel the presence of supportive community. We allow ourselves to relax and come into our hearts.We reflect on Thomas Keating’s teaching that the word “repent,” stated by Jesus, means to change the direction in which we are looking for happiness. To look inside of ourselves instead of outside. Reflect for a moment, without any judgement, about the various ways you have been trying to fill yourself from the outside, by reaching for something or someone to fulfil you.What would it mean to change the direction in which we are seeking happiness, to find the light within?We spend a few moments with the words: “The Kingdom of God is Within Me,” repeating them silently and in the heart.When it feels right, fall into silence, knowing you are held, you are received, no matter what has happened in the past. The Kingdom of God within you is just love, just relief, just presence, always there.[Silence]If we touch that light within ourselves even once, we know something very precious. Gradually, we will realize that we do not need to keep reaching to be filled from the outside as our true nature in Christ is shining from within.Amen.

The Light Within

By Liz Rees “We know things at the core of our being that have not necessarily been taught, and some of this deep knowing may actually be at odds with what our society or religion has tried to teach us,” says John Philip Newell. Contemplative practice allows us to awaken this inner knowing, also known as wisdom. Thomas Merton names it Sophia, the feminine name for divine wisdom according to the Judeo Christian tradition. In his soul stirring writing on Sophia, he names wisdom as an “invisible fecundity” flowing from the depths of the divine: “I am awakened, I am born again at the voice of this, my Sister, sent to me from the depths of the divine fecundity.”Newell joins Merton in beckoning us to reawaken to what we know in the depths of our being, “that the earth is sacred and that this sacredness is at the heart of every human being and life-form” and to set it free in one another by speaking and living from that place: “We can open ourselves to a radical humility of heart, which is our true strength.”Newell states that we are in deep need of a paradigm shift, religiously, culturally and ecologically because we are suffering from what the Celtic tradition has named soul forgetfulness: “We have forgotten who we are and have fallen out of true relationship with the earth and with one another.”What could be more beautiful and necessary than to access the hidden wholeness at the centre of our being for the sake of our whole aching world?Quotes from Thomas Merton’s “Sophia” are taken from the collection When the Trees Say Nothing.Quotes from John Philip Newell are from his book Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul. MeditationGather inwards. Breathe in love, breathe out whatever you need to clear. Come into your beautiful sacred heart, gracefully and with love.Here are words from Thomas Merton:There is in all visible things an invisible fecundity, a dimmed light, a meek namelessness, a hidden whole-ness. This mysterious Unity and Integrity is Wisdom, the Mother of all, Natura naturans. There is in all things an inexhaustible sweetness and purity, a silence that is a fount of action and joy. It rises up in wordless gentleness and flows out to me from the unseen roots of all created being, welcoming me tenderly, saluting me with indescribable humility. This is at once my own being, my own nature, and the Gift of my Creator's Thought and Art within me, speaking as Hagia Sophia, speaking as my sister, Wisdom.I am awakened, I am born again at the voice of this, my Sister, sent to me from the depths of the divine fecundity.We open to wisdom. We open because our world needs us to open, to remember.  We connect to source, open flow and settle into spiritual silence, returning with the aid of a sacred word, spoken in the silent heart whenever we recognize that we have left the prayer.[Silence]We close with a dedication and a determination. We dedicate ourselves to wisdom because the world needs wisdom. We make a determination to soften, to listen, to come out of soul forgetfulness for the sake of our whole aching world.Amen.

<h3>By Liz Rees</h3> “We know things at the core of our being that have not necessarily been taught, and some of this deep knowing may actually be at odds with what our society or religion has tried to teach us,” says John Philip Newell. Contemplative practice allows us to awaken this inner knowing, also known as wisdom. Thomas Merton names it Sophia, the feminine name for divine wisdom according to the Judeo Christian tradition. In his soul stirring writing on Sophia, he names wisdom as an “invisible fecundity” flowing from the depths of the divine: “I am awakened, I am born again at the voice of this, my Sister, sent to me from the depths of the divine fecundity.”Newell joins Merton in beckoning us to reawaken to what we know in the depths of our being, “that the earth is sacred and that this sacredness is at the heart of every human being and life-form” and to set it free in one another by speaking and living from that place: “We can open ourselves to a radical humility of heart, which is our true strength.”Newell states that we are in deep need of a paradigm shift, religiously, culturally and ecologically because we are suffering from what the Celtic tradition has named soul forgetfulness: “We have forgotten who we are and have fallen out of true relationship with the earth and with one another.”What could be more beautiful and necessary than to access the hidden wholeness at the centre of our being for the sake of our whole aching world?Quotes from Thomas Merton’s “Sophia” are taken from the collection When the Trees Say Nothing. Quotes from John Philip Newell are from his book Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul. MeditationGather inwards. Breathe in love, breathe out whatever you need to clear. Come into your beautiful sacred heart, gracefully and with love.Here are words from Thomas Merton:<blockquote>There is in all visible things an invisible fecundity, a dimmed light, a meek namelessness, a hidden whole-ness. This mysterious Unity and Integrity is Wisdom, the Mother of all, Natura naturans. There is in all things an inexhaustible sweetness and purity, a silence that is a fount of action and joy. It rises up in wordless gentleness and flows out to me from the unseen roots of all created being, welcoming me tenderly, saluting me with indescribable humility. This is at once my own being, my own nature, and the Gift of my Creator's Thought and Art within me, speaking as Hagia Sophia, speaking as my sister, Wisdom. I am awakened, I am born again at the voice of this, my Sister, sent to me from the depths of the divine fecundity.</blockquote>We open to wisdom. We open because our world needs us to open, to remember.  We connect to source, open flow and settle into spiritual silence, returning with the aid of a sacred word, spoken in the silent heart whenever we recognize that we have left the prayer.[Silence]We close with a dedication and a determination. We dedicate ourselves to wisdom because the world needs wisdom. We make a determination to soften, to listen, to come out of soul forgetfulness for the sake of our whole aching world.Amen.

Wisdom

Ojibway writer Richard Wagamese wrote a lot about silence. In silence, he said, we touch truth and allow our hearts to shift: “There are motions of the heart that occur only in quiet rooms, in the splendour of solitude where nothing and everything exists at the same time. Being and becoming have their confluence in these moments of touching your essence. You feel yourself to be a part of the great wheel of creative, nurturing, loving, benevolent energy that is spinning around us all the time.”

Ojibway writer Richard Wagamese wrote a lot about silence. In silence, he said, we touch truth and allow our hearts to shift: “There are motions of the heart that occur only in quiet rooms, in the splendour of solitude where nothing and everything exists at the same time. Being and becoming have their confluence in these moments of touching your essence. You feel yourself to be a part of the great wheel of creative, nurturing, loving, benevolent energy that is spinning around us all the time.”

Silence

By Liz Rees Alongside the well-known pilgrimage journeys, such as the Camino de Santiago, is another kind of journey, says John Philip Newell. It is one in which the destination is unknown. “This is when pilgrimage becomes peregrination… seeking one’s place of resurrection, setting sail into the unknown in search of new beginnings.” This, he says, is a sacred journey: “The journey is about opening to the way forward, trusting what we do not yet see.” As we continue to face pandemic conditions and the climate emergency, what choice do we have but to join hearts and say yes to being changed and to being the change?Contemplative community will allow us to journey together, stepping off the shoreline into the unknown, with others, in utter authenticity and drawing on collective wisdom. “We may not know exactly where the journey will take us,” says Newell. “We can know, however, that in opening to the journey we feel more alive, more true. In opening to the journey together we can be part of nurturing hope in one another .…”“Many of us today in the Western world are aware that the old order is not working—politically, socially, environmentally, religiously. Countless numbers of us from the Christian community have already lifted the anchor and are sailing out of the harbour of our religious homeland, even though we may not know where we are heading or how far we need to go. The good news is that we do not need to know exactly where we are heading. We can choose to be part of an ancient spiritual practice of peregrination, leaving home or the comfort of the familiar in order to seek resurrection, new beginnings.”The Oxford dictionary defines peregrination as: “a journey, especially a long meandering one.” Sounds a lot like life, like an authentic spiritual path.(John Philip Newell quotes are from Chapter 9 of his book Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul.)MeditationWe take some time to come inside, stepping off the shore of our ordinary awareness and into the inner world, into our place of authenticity at the centre of our being.We join hearts with the others who are here for we have shown up to support each other’s deepening. We connect with indwelling presence of the divine mystery and we invite guidance.In this meditation we can contemplate peregrination, the ancient practice of stepping into the unknown on a journey, seeking resurrection, moving with the allurement of the Spirit and with the inner navigation of the heart.John Philip Newell said:We are being invited to call others by their true name, to view them in their deepest identity, to see and think of them not primarily for their failings, but first and foremost in their original nature, made of God. Each one of us is essentially brother of Light, sister of Light, no matter what we have done…. At the heart of our being is the light from which we have come…. We can call each other back to live from these true depths, not because we have somehow achieved sacredness in our lives, but because we are made of sacredness, pure grace.We fall into silence, using the method of Centering Prayer, a full open surrender. We use a sacred word of our choosing when we notice we have left a prayerful state, and we let the word call us back to the invitation we are holding for the Spirit to meet us.[Silence] “The journey is about opening to the way forward, trusting what we do not yet see.” Amen.

<h3>By Liz Rees</h3> Alongside the well-known pilgrimage journeys, such as the Camino de Santiago, is another kind of journey, says John Philip Newell. It is one in which the destination is unknown. “This is when pilgrimage becomes peregrination… seeking one’s place of resurrection, setting sail into the unknown in search of new beginnings.” This, he says, is a sacred journey: “The journey is about opening to the way forward, trusting what we do not yet see.” As we continue to face pandemic conditions and the climate emergency, what choice do we have but to join hearts and say yes to being changed and to being the change?Contemplative community will allow us to journey together, stepping off the shoreline into the unknown, with others, in utter authenticity and drawing on collective wisdom. “We may not know exactly where the journey will take us,” says Newell. “We can know, however, that in opening to the journey we feel more alive, more true. In opening to the journey together we can be part of nurturing hope in one another .…”“Many of us today in the Western world are aware that the old order is not working—politically, socially, environmentally, religiously. Countless numbers of us from the Christian community have already lifted the anchor and are sailing out of the harbour of our religious homeland, even though we may not know where we are heading or how far we need to go. The good news is that we do not need to know exactly where we are heading. We can choose to be part of an ancient spiritual practice of peregrination, leaving home or the comfort of the familiar in order to seek resurrection, new beginnings.”The Oxford dictionary defines peregrination as: “a journey, especially a long meandering one.” Sounds a lot like life, like an authentic spiritual path.(John Philip Newell quotes are from Chapter 9 of his book Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul.) MeditationWe take some time to come inside, stepping off the shore of our ordinary awareness and into the inner world, into our place of authenticity at the centre of our being.We join hearts with the others who are here for we have shown up to support each other’s deepening. We connect with indwelling presence of the divine mystery and we invite guidance.In this meditation we can contemplate peregrination, the ancient practice of stepping into the unknown on a journey, seeking resurrection, moving with the allurement of the Spirit and with the inner navigation of the heart.John Philip Newell said:<blockquote>We are being invited to call others by their true name, to view them in their deepest identity, to see and think of them not primarily for their failings, but first and foremost in their original nature, made of God. Each one of us is essentially brother of Light, sister of Light, no matter what we have done…. At the heart of our being is the light from which we have come…. We can call each other back to live from these true depths, not because we have somehow achieved sacredness in our lives, but because we are made of sacredness, pure grace.</blockquote>We fall into silence, using the method of Centering Prayer, a full open surrender. We use a sacred word of our choosing when we notice we have left a prayerful state, and we let the word call us back to the invitation we are holding for the Spirit to meet us.[Silence]  “The journey is about opening to the way forward, trusting what we do not yet see.” Amen.

The Inner Journey, Together

BY LIZ REES How do we truly light the fire of love in our lives? We all know the core teaching of Jesus to love God with all our hearts and love our neighbors as ourselves, but has it become a pat phrase? How do we actually live it?Thomas Merton pulls us deeply into an ‘I Thou’ awareness that changes everything:Contemplation is not a trance or ecstasynot emotional fire and sweetness that come with religious exaltationnot enthusiasm, not the sense of being “seized” by an elemental forceand swept into liberation by mystical frenzyContemplation is no pain-killer.In the end the contemplative suffers the anguish of realizingthat he (she) no longer knows what God is;this is a great gain,because “God is not a what,”not a “thing.”There is “no such thing” as Godbecause God is neither a “what” nor a thing”but a pure “Who,”the “Thou” before whom our inmost “I” springsinto awareness.The inmost I, he says, “must be drawn up like a jewel from the bottom of the sea” because the self we know otherwise is but a pale disguise: “We must remember that this superficial “I” is not our real self. It is our individuality and our empirical self but it is not truly the hidden and mysterious person in whom we subsist before the eyes of God. The “I” that works in the world, thinks about itself, observes its own reactions and talks about itself is not the true “I” that has been united to God in Christ. It is at best the vesture, the mask…. Our external, superficial self is not eternal, not spiritual. Far from it. … It is utterly frail and evanescent.”“The only true joy on earth,” Merton says, “is to escape from the prison of our own false self, and enter by love into union with the Life Who dwells and sings within the essence of every creature and in the core of our own souls.”If we can get utterly real with God in the core of our souls, we can make way for a love that is extraordinary and not stung at every turn by what people say and do: “Until we love God perfectly, everything in the world will be able to hurt us.”Carrying an ‘I Thou’ consciousness into our lives allows us to see others with eyes of love and to draw the jewel out in them as well: “To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence, for God is love. Love is my true identity. Selflessness is my true self. Love is my true character. Love is my name.”Richard Rohr echoes Merton when he says, “The True Self does not teach us compassion as much as it is compassion already. And from this more spacious and grounded place, one naturally connects, empathizes, forgives, and loves just about everything. We are made in love, for love, and unto love, and it is out of this love that we act.”I Thou quote is from Thomas Merton, A Book of Hours, edited by Kathleen Deignan. All other Merton quotes are from New Seeds of Contemplation. Richard Rohr quote is from Center for Action and Contemplation post January 10, 2020: https://cac.org/naturally-indwelling-2020-01-10/. MeditationWe centre down and journey to the place within us where we know love and where we are love.Jesus said: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all you mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”We enter into a meditation on love, traveling with Thomas Merton to the consciousness of I Thou:Contemplation is not a trance or ecstasynot emotional fire and sweetness that come with religious exaltationnot enthusiasm, not the sense of being “seized” by an elemental forceand swept into liberation by mystical frenzy.Contemplation is no pain-killer.In the end the contemplative suffers the anguish of realizingthat he (she) no longer knows what God is;this is a great gain,because “God is not a what,”not a “thing.”There is “no such thing” as Godbecause God is neither a “what” nor a thing”but a pure “Who,”the “Thou” before whom our inmost “I” springsinto awareness.We drop all of our disguises and superficialities and invite the Thou of Christ to sit with our inmost I. [Silence]If we understand that we are “drawn up like a jewel from the bottom of the sea” because of a love that calls us into who we truly are, we can turn our lives into love for others as well. Merton says: “To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence, for God is love. Love is my true identity. Selflessness is my true self. Love is my true character. Love is my name.”Imagine yourself surrounded by others, those you know, those you don’t know. Feel how, just like you, they have a secret beauty even if they have no idea about it. Imagine seeing them from your inmost being where you sit with the Divine Beloved. Imagine your love, kindness and forgiveness being part of the force that pulls out the jewel in them.[Silence]We cannot buy or borrow such a heart of love. We can only invite it and allow it to develop within us through our spiritual journey. We do not waste a moment of our life contemplating, cultivating, and practicing love. It is the very essence and meaning of our life.We finish with the words we started with: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all you mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”Amen.

<h3>BY LIZ REES</h3> How do we truly light the fire of love in our lives? We all know the core teaching of Jesus to love God with all our hearts and love our neighbors as ourselves, but has it become a pat phrase? How do we actually live it?Thomas Merton pulls us deeply into an ‘I Thou’ awareness that changes everything:<blockquote>Contemplation is not a trance or ecstasy not emotional fire and sweetness that come with religious exaltation not enthusiasm, not the sense of being “seized” by an elemental force and swept into liberation by mystical frenzy Contemplation is no pain-killer.In the end the contemplative suffers the anguish of realizing that he (she) no longer knows what God is; this is a great gain, because “God is not a what,” not a “thing.”There is “no such thing” as God because God is neither a “what” nor a thing” but a pure “Who,” the “Thou” before whom our inmost “I” springs into awareness.</blockquote>The inmost I, he says, “must be drawn up like a jewel from the bottom of the sea” because the self we know otherwise is but a pale disguise: “We must remember that this superficial “I” is not our real self. It is our individuality and our empirical self but it is not truly the hidden and mysterious person in whom we subsist before the eyes of God. The “I” that works in the world, thinks about itself, observes its own reactions and talks about itself is not the true “I” that has been united to God in Christ. It is at best the vesture, the mask…. Our external, superficial self is not eternal, not spiritual. Far from it. … It is utterly frail and evanescent.”“The only true joy on earth,” Merton says, “is to escape from the prison of our own false self, and enter by love into union with the Life Who dwells and sings within the essence of every creature and in the core of our own souls.”If we can get utterly real with God in the core of our souls, we can make way for a love that is extraordinary and not stung at every turn by what people say and do: “Until we love God perfectly, everything in the world will be able to hurt us.”Carrying an ‘I Thou’ consciousness into our lives allows us to see others with eyes of love and to draw the jewel out in them as well: “To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence, for God is love. Love is my true identity. Selflessness is my true self. Love is my true character. Love is my name.”Richard Rohr echoes Merton when he says, “The True Self does not teach us compassion as much as it is compassion already. And from this more spacious and grounded place, one naturally connects, empathizes, forgives, and loves just about everything. We are made in love, for love, and unto love, and it is out of this love that we act.”I Thou quote is from Thomas Merton, A Book of Hours, edited by Kathleen Deignan. All other Merton quotes are from New Seeds of Contemplation. Richard Rohr quote is from Center for Action and Contemplation post January 10, 2020: <a href="https://cac.org/naturally-indwelling-2020-01-10/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://cac.org/naturally-indwelling-2020-01-10/</a>. MeditationWe centre down and journey to the place within us where we know love and where we are love.Jesus said: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all you mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”We enter into a meditation on love, traveling with Thomas Merton to the consciousness of I Thou:<blockquote>Contemplation is not a trance or ecstasy not emotional fire and sweetness that come with religious exaltation not enthusiasm, not the sense of being “seized” by an elemental force and swept into liberation by mystical frenzy. Contemplation is no pain-killer.In the end the contemplative suffers the anguish of realizing that he (she) no longer knows what God is; this is a great gain, because “God is not a what,” not a “thing.”There is “no such thing” as God because God is neither a “what” nor a thing” but a pure “Who,” the “Thou” before whom our inmost “I” springs into awareness.</blockquote>We drop all of our disguises and superficialities and invite the Thou of Christ to sit with our inmost I. [Silence]If we understand that we are “drawn up like a jewel from the bottom of the sea” because of a love that calls us into who we truly are, we can turn our lives into love for others as well. Merton says: “To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence, for God is love. Love is my true identity. Selflessness is my true self. Love is my true character. Love is my name.”Imagine yourself surrounded by others, those you know, those you don’t know. Feel how, just like you, they have a secret beauty even if they have no idea about it. Imagine seeing them from your inmost being where you sit with the Divine Beloved. Imagine your love, kindness and forgiveness being part of the force that pulls out the jewel in them.[Silence]We cannot buy or borrow such a heart of love. We can only invite it and allow it to develop within us through our spiritual journey. We do not waste a moment of our life contemplating, cultivating, and practicing love. It is the very essence and meaning of our life.We finish with the words we started with: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all you mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”Amen.

I-Thou

BY LIZ REES We are being called into our hearts and towards radical change and conversion. The discovery of the remains of 215 children at Kamloops Indian Residential School has hastened a process of deep and undeniable reckoning. In his book, The Great Spiritual Migration, Brian McLaren wrote, “Conversion involves repentance—a radical rethinking. It includes remorse—for harm done in the name of our faith. But conversion means more than being sorry; it means becoming different.”“If Christian faith is to experience the great spiritual migration it needs, our cover-ups and denial must be replaced with humble awareness and a deep change of heart, because the less aware Christians are of how dangerous Christianity has been, the more dangerous Christianity will be.”McLaren calls us to look right into the heart of our theology: “It's clear to me now that to salvage at least some sectors of Christian faith from violence against people and our planet, we must go to those roots. To be converted from all forms of supremacy and domination, we must dare to embark on a great theological migration, challenging many of our deepest assumptions about God.”“We need to migrate to a grown-up God,” he says. “We need God 5.0 to emerge, a God of the inclusive we, the God not just of us but of all of us.” Writer Richard Wagamese shares similar sentiments in his book Embers: “I’ve been considering the phrase ‘all my relations’ for some time now. It’s hugely important. It’s our saving grace in the end. It points to the truth that we are all related, and that we are all connected, that we all belong to each other. The most important word is ‘all.’”As we all face deep and gut-wrenching truth, we can remember that we are being called forward spiritually and the movement has already begun. McLaren writes: “Only in the impossible, uncertain, disruptive place when finger by finger, the fist of our little hearts is pulled open—only in that impossible agonizing place—does a new depth of naked, essential faith in God mysteriously become possible.” MeditationWe can spend a moment getting grounded in place, and as we do so we can contemplate where we are, the land we live on, the watersheds we rely on. Maybe we have a family history in this place or maybe not. Either way, we can think of the thousands of years people lived here before us--thousands of years.We hold in our hearts the discovery of the remains of 215 children in undocumented graves at Kamloops Indian Residential School, a Christian school like many, many others, where children suffered, were forbidden to speak their languages or express their spirituality or cultures because they were seen as heathen. No one considered that indigenous people held faith traditions that were beautiful and life-giving and had something to teach Christians.Brian McLaren says: “If Christian faith is to experience the great spiritual migration it needs, our cover-ups and denial must be replaced with humble awareness and a deep change of heart….” He says it is only when finger by finger the fist of our hearts is pulled open does a new depth of naked, essential faith become possible. We will enter an emptying meditation, letting Richard Wagamese lead us in: “Spirituality isn’t found in your head. It’s found in your heart. It isn’t found in big, important-sounding words or long speeches. It’s found in your silence. If you travel with your heart and your quiet, you’ll find the way to spiritual.”We travel with our heart and our quiet to the God of inclusion, the God of healing, the God of Truth and Reconciliation. We open ourselves deeply to whatever humility, conversion and migration needs to take place within us.[Silence]We finish with more words from Richard Wagamese:“I’ve been considering the phrase “all my relations” for some time now. It’s hugely important. It’s our saving grace in the end. It points to the truth that we are all related, and that we are all connected, that we all belong to each other. The most important word is “all.”….ALL my relations.”Amen.

<h3>BY LIZ REES</h3> We are being called into our hearts and towards radical change and conversion. The discovery of the remains of 215 children at Kamloops Indian Residential School has hastened a process of deep and undeniable reckoning. In his book, The Great Spiritual Migration, Brian McLaren wrote, “Conversion involves repentance—a radical rethinking. It includes remorse—for harm done in the name of our faith. But conversion means more than being sorry; it means becoming different.”“If Christian faith is to experience the great spiritual migration it needs, our cover-ups and denial must be replaced with humble awareness and a deep change of heart, because the less aware Christians are of how dangerous Christianity has been, the more dangerous Christianity will be.”McLaren calls us to look right into the heart of our theology: “It's clear to me now that to salvage at least some sectors of Christian faith from violence against people and our planet, we must go to those roots. To be converted from all forms of supremacy and domination, we must dare to embark on a great theological migration, challenging many of our deepest assumptions about God.”“We need to migrate to a grown-up God,” he says. “We need God 5.0 to emerge, a God of the inclusive we, the God not just of us but of all of us.” Writer Richard Wagamese shares similar sentiments in his book Embers: “I’ve been considering the phrase ‘all my relations’ for some time now. It’s hugely important. It’s our saving grace in the end. It points to the truth that we are all related, and that we are all connected, that we all belong to each other. The most important word is ‘all.’”As we all face deep and gut-wrenching truth, we can remember that we are being called forward spiritually and the movement has already begun. McLaren writes: “Only in the impossible, uncertain, disruptive place when finger by finger, the fist of our little hearts is pulled open—only in that impossible agonizing place—does a new depth of naked, essential faith in God mysteriously become possible.” MeditationWe can spend a moment getting grounded in place, and as we do so we can contemplate where we are, the land we live on, the watersheds we rely on. Maybe we have a family history in this place or maybe not. Either way, we can think of the thousands of years people lived here before us--thousands of years.We hold in our hearts the discovery of the remains of 215 children in undocumented graves at Kamloops Indian Residential School, a Christian school like many, many others, where children suffered, were forbidden to speak their languages or express their spirituality or cultures because they were seen as heathen. No one considered that indigenous people held faith traditions that were beautiful and life-giving and had something to teach Christians.Brian McLaren says: “If Christian faith is to experience the great spiritual migration it needs, our cover-ups and denial must be replaced with humble awareness and a deep change of heart….” He says it is only when finger by finger the fist of our hearts is pulled open does a new depth of naked, essential faith become possible. We will enter an emptying meditation, letting Richard Wagamese lead us in: “Spirituality isn’t found in your head. It’s found in your heart. It isn’t found in big, important-sounding words or long speeches. It’s found in your silence. If you travel with your heart and your quiet, you’ll find the way to spiritual.”We travel with our heart and our quiet to the God of inclusion, the God of healing, the God of Truth and Reconciliation. We open ourselves deeply to whatever humility, conversion and migration needs to take place within us.[Silence]We finish with more words from Richard Wagamese:“I’ve been considering the phrase “all my relations” for some time now. It’s hugely important. It’s our saving grace in the end. It points to the truth that we are all related, and that we are all connected, that we all belong to each other. The most important word is “all.”….ALL my relations.”Amen.

The Great Spiritual Migration

Welcome to the Inner Sanctuary podcast, a weekly program for everyone who wants to deepen their practice of meditation. With Liz Rees at Knox United Church (Calgary).

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