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Imaginative Contemplation: Jesus Cleanses a Leper

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Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Here, as stated before, it is my intention to draw from the forthcoming Sunday liturgy and to offer a guided prayer on one of the pieces of scripture in the same way that we have been doing in Exploring Personal Prayer. I do not intend to offer any reflections on the scripture. My suggestion is that you follow the Ignatian structure: preparation for prayer by reading the scripture, going to your prayer place and doing the prayer itself, and then moving away to another place and doing a review of the prayer. Keeping some sort of prayer journal is good practice. Note any moments of consolation in the prayer, where you felt drawn more deeply into God, and moments of desolation, where prayer was disturbed, where you were distracted and pulled further away from God: feelings of attraction and repulsion should be noted. These points may provide areas for repetition of the prayer. Also, if you have a spiritual director or prayer partner, someone who can listen with an ear to where God is in this, it may be worth sharing your prayer with them. I am following the processes outline in the prayer cards above. You may print these onto A6 or A4 card to have in your prayer space to help you become accustomed to this way of praying, remembering it is more of a flow than a rigid structure.  

Mark 1:40-45

40 A leper[a] came to him begging him, and kneeling[b] he said to him, ‘If you choose, you can make me clean.’ 41 Moved with pity,[c] Jesus[d] stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’ 42 Immediately the leprosy[e] left him, and he was made clean. 43 After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, 44 saying to him, ‘See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.’ 45 But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus[f] could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.

Imaginative Contemplation: Mark 1:40 -45, Jesus Cleanses a Leper.

Background music is the album: Keith Halligan – Lifestyle Meditation, Global Journey  

Lectio Divina: Job 7

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Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Here, as stated before, it is my intention to draw from the forthcoming Sunday liturgy and to offer a guided prayer on one of the pieces of scripture in the same way that we have been doing in Exploring Personal Prayer. I do not intend to offer any reflections on the scripture. My suggestion is that you follow the Ignatian structure: preparation for prayer by reading the scripture, going to your prayer place and doing the prayer itself, and then moving away to another place and doing a review of the prayer. Keeping some sort of prayer journal is good practice. Note any moments of consolation in the prayer, where you felt drawn more deeply into God, and moments of desolation, where prayer was disturbed, where you were distracted and pulled further away from God: feelings of attraction and repulsion should be noted. These points may provide areas for repetition of the prayer. Also, if you have a spiritual director or prayer partner, someone who can listen with an ear to where God is in this, it may be worth sharing your prayer with them. I am following the processes outline in the prayer cards above. You may print these onto A6 or A4 card to have in your prayer space to help you become accustomed to this way of praying, remembering it is more of a flow than a rigid structure.  

Job 7: 1-4, 6-7

‘Do not human beings have a hard service on earth,
    and are not their days like the days of a labourer?
2 Like a slave who longs for the shadow,
    and like labourers who look for their wages,
3 so I am allotted months of emptiness,
    and nights of misery are apportioned to me.
4 When I lie down I say, “When shall I rise?”
    But the night is long,
    and I am full of tossing until dawn.

My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle,
    and come to their end without hope.[a]

7 ‘Remember that my life is a breath;
    my eye will never again see good.

Lectio divina: Job 7, guided prayer.

Background music is the album: Keith Halligan – Lifestyle Meditation, Global Journey  

Imaginative Contemplation: All Saints Day

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All Saints Day

Here, as stated before, it is my intention to draw from the forthcoming Sunday liturgy and to offer a guided prayer on one of the pieces of scripture in the same way that we have been doing in Exploring Personal Prayer. I do not intend to offer any reflections on the scripture. My suggestion is that you follow the Ignatian structure: preparation for prayer by reading the scripture, going to your prayer place and doing the prayer itself, and then moving away to another place and doing a review of the prayer. Keeping some sort of prayer journal is good practice. Note any moments of consolation in the prayer, where you felt drawn more deeply into God, and moments of desolation, where prayer was disturbed, where you were distracted and pulled further away from God: feelings of attraction and repulsion should be noted. These points may provide areas for repetition of the prayer. Also, if you have a spiritual director or prayer partner, someone who can listen with an ear to where God is in this, it may be worth sharing your prayer with them. I am following the processes outline in the prayer cards above. You may print these onto A6 or A4 card to have in your prayer space to help you become accustomed to this way of praying, remembering it is more of a flow than a rigid structure.  

Revelation 7:2-4,9-14

2 I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to damage earth and sea, 3 saying, ‘Do not damage the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have marked the servants[a] of our God with a seal on their foreheads.’

4 And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred and forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the people of Israel:

The Multitude from Every Nation

9 After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. 10 They cried out in a loud voice, saying,

‘Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!’

11 And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God, 12 singing,

‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honour
and power and might
be to our God for ever and ever! Amen.’

13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, ‘Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?’ 14 I said to him, ‘Sir, you are the one that knows.’ Then he said to me, ‘These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Imaginative Contemplation Revelation 7: 2-4,9-14. Guided Prayer

Background music is the album: Keith Halligan – Lifestyle Meditation, Global Journey  

Imaginative Contemplation: Matthew 11: 25-30

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Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Here, as stated before, it is my intention to draw from the forthcoming Sunday liturgy and to offer a guided prayer on one of the pieces of scripture in the same way that we have been doing in Exploring Personal Prayer. I do not intend to offer any reflections on the scripture. My suggestion is that you follow the Ignatian structure: preparation for prayer by reading the scripture, going to your prayer place and doing the prayer itself, and then moving away to another place and doing a review of the prayer. Keeping some sort of prayer journal is good practice. Note any moments of consolation in the prayer, where you felt drawn more deeply into God, and moments of desolation, where prayer was disturbed, where you were distracted and pulled further away from God: feelings of attraction and repulsion should be noted. These points may provide areas for repetition of the prayer. Also, if you have a spiritual director or prayer partner, someone who can listen with an ear to where God is in this, it may be worth sharing your prayer with them. I am following the processes outline in the prayer cards above. You may print these onto A6 or A4 card to have in your prayer space to help you become accustomed to this way of praying, remembering it is more of a flow than a rigid structure.  

Jesus Thanks His Father

25 At that time Jesus said, “I thank[a] you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; 26 yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.[b] 27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

28 “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Imaginative Contemplation: Matthew 11: 25-30. Guided prayer

Background music is the album: Keith Halligan – Lifestyle Meditation, Global Journey  

Lectio Divina: Romans 6

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Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Here, as stated before, it is my intention to draw from the forthcoming Sunday liturgy and to offer a guided prayer on one of the pieces of scripture in the same way that we have been doing in Exploring Personal Prayer. I do not intend to offer any reflections on the scripture. My suggestion is that you follow the Ignatian structure: preparation for prayer by reading the scripture, going to your prayer place and doing the prayer itself, and then moving away to another place and doing a review of the prayer. Keeping some sort of prayer journal is good practice. Note any moments of consolation in the prayer, where you felt drawn more deeply into God, and moments of desolation, where prayer was disturbed, where you were distracted and pulled further away from God: feelings of attraction and repulsion should be noted. These points may provide areas for repetition of the prayer. Also, if you have a spiritual director or prayer partner, someone who can listen with an ear to where God is in this, it may be worth sharing your prayer with them. I am following the processes outline in the prayer cards above. You may print these onto A6 or A4 card to have in your prayer space to help you become accustomed to this way of praying, remembering it is more of a flow than a rigid structure.  

Romans 6:3-4,8-11

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

8 But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Lectio Divina: Romans 6: Guided prayer

Background music is the album: Keith Halligan – Lifestyle Meditation, Global Journey  

A beautiful idea for Palm Sunday

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This blog post from Deacon Greg Kandra was shared with me recently. I will be participating.

A beautiful idea for Palm Sunday

How can we publicly acknowledge this important day on our calendar when so many of us will be behind closed doors?

The Missionaries of the Holy Spirit posted this idea on their Facebook page:

What if everyone on Sunday April 5 in the morning, puts a branch on the door of their house or on the window, to celebrate Palm Sunday?

It could be any green branch you can get. This would help, despite the social distancing, to be connected as we enter into the Holiest of Weeks.

Want to join?

We may be physically isolated, but not separated. We are united as the body of Christ.

We are the Church.

Yes, we are. We’ve got this. Let’s do it.

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Diary of a Sunflower: 24 August, year 2

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I’m quite angry and upset with my companion. Maybe justifiably, maybe not. He asked me (in a roundabout way) how did I know I wasn’t putting words in Jesus’ mouth. It’s not the question itself that upsets me, because I recognise it as a danger – I do, but it’s the implication that that’s what he feels is going on. I feel he already had that question in his mind before we met yesterday. And it raises the question in my mind – is he stepping onto my path to walk with me or am I expected to walk on the one he had laid down for me? Maybe I’m being unfair in putting it as bluntly as that. How do I know the words are not just what I want to hear? Where do they come from? How does God speak to us really? Through the people we meet, the things they say, what happens to us and through scripture – all of these ways. So where does the Jesus in my prayer find these words? Perhaps from all of these sources that I have read, that people have said, and He focuses them all into something that has meaning for me. How do I know it’s from Him? The same way that I know He is there, real, and not some fool who died on a cross two thousand years ago! Faith. Meeting Him up close and personal like this has enriched my prayer life and my faith. It is the difference between describing what it is like to breast feed a baby, for example, and actually experiencing it. Maybe I do need to move away from the well – and I did in the Samuel reading, but here is a place where I can meet and experience being with Jesus, where I can find refuge that is so much more than words. I am angry with my companion because he cast doubt on that. Praying like this makes Jesus real for me. 

I think I also feel that he contradicted, defended against, my viewpoint on Mary and didn’t really acknowledge it. I then become defensive and try to explain and the transaction continues. I recognise on a rational level the faults in my (feelings) ideas about her, but it is my experience of being a woman in the Roman Catholic Church and my companion did not come close to recognising or grasping that. How could he? I am angry with the Catholic church and her traditions. What keeps me there is JC because I find Him there – in the Mass and in some of the people I know. If it were just the institution and structure and traditions, I would not be a Catholic. 

I feel better after the meeting with my companion today. I think. I need to explain myself more clearly to him. He feels I’m giving him intellectual ideas rather than my feelings and what the whole thing means to me. So, we should put it down to a communication block and try to move on from there. Apart from that, I think I have been feeling ill today. My temperature is higher than usual in the last two days and I’ve slept a lot today. I just felt so exhausted. 

Starts this week!

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The same programme as at Sheringham and Cromer earlier in the year. All are welcome to attend who can get there. The booklet is given below if you want to print it for yourself.

Image on flyer: Stained Glass of St. Ignatius at Loyola Castle (thejesuitpost.org)

Coming soon…

sunflowerseedspiritualityLeave a comment

The same programme as at Sheringham and Cromer earlier in the year. All are welcome to attend who can get there. The booklet is given below if you want to print it for yourself.

Image on flyer: Stained Glass of St. Ignatius at Loyola Castle (thejesuitpost.org)