Meditation - Soaking in the Love of God - Updated
Contemplative at Home
A 10-minute meditation on the love of God with breath awareness and verses from the Psalms and prophets. This is an updated version of a released in 2022, with more space to let the verses settle in to your psyche. Listeners to the previous meditation responded in the following ways: "Deep deep thanks. I really struggled today but I'm in a beautiful calm place after this" - Janine "Might become a go to meditation for me these next few weeks." - Ian "So thankful for God’s tender love and understanding" - Anon This meditation is ideal is for moments when you need grounding, centering,...
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Imaginative Contemplation - Mary Meets Jesus at the Tomb - John 20
Contemplative at Home
A guided meditation with John 20:11-18, using imaginative contemplation. 23 minutes. This is the re-release of a . This passage has meant so much to me and helped me, in a crisis of faith, to see that what feels like The End may in fact be a beginning, an invitation to something much bigger. Here are some thoughts I shared in 2022: "In today’s meditation, based on John 20:11-18, Mary isn’t ready to see that she is in transition. She still clings with all she’s worth ... to Jesus of Nazareth as she’s known him and loved him. Jesus, however, is ushering her in to a different, but...
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Imaginative Contemplation - Early on the First Day of the Week - Easter Meditation
Contemplative at Home
A 16-minute audio guided meditation in John’s Gospel, John 20:1-10, using Imaginative Contemplation. Christ is risen. Alleluia! In this meditation we are reminded that the resurrection of Jesus broke over his friends and disciples slowly, amidst confusion and stress. As I reviewed this meditation for editing, I was surprised at how vivid the experience at the empty tomb was for me, and found a beautiful new light lit in my heart. Enter this story for yourself and discover a new perspective on your faith in the resurrection of Christ. He is risen indeed. Alleluia! offers...
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A Good Friday Meditation - The Passion of Christ - John's Gospel
Contemplative at Home
A 19-minute audio guided meditation in John’s Gospel, John 19:13-42, using Lectio Divina. I am struck by two key invitations as we meditate on the suffering of Jesus in Holy Week. The first invitation is to see how full and completely Jesus offered himself in love. And the second invitation is to attend to pain, to difficult emotions and circumstances. Our public and private lives give us more than enough pain to come to terms with and it is often easiest to ignore or numb in the face of it all. But at the cross Jesus seems to suggest that the only way is through (as the adventurer's in the...
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Lectio Divina - Jesus is Handed Over - Holy Week meditation - John 19
Contemplative at Home
A 17-minute audio guided meditation in John’s Gospel, John 19:1-9, using Lectio Divina. In this Holy Week meditation on John’s Gospel, I invite you to join me in taking a ‘long, loving look’ at Jesus as he endures these grim moments of his arrest, 'trial', and conviction to crucifixion. Notice the way he remains present and attentive even while circumstances become frayed and harried around him. Just for these few minutes, I invite you to leave your dogma, your creed, your thoughts, and your rational mind aside, and become present to your deeper self, your true self or essential self....
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Lectio Divina - Jesus Before Pilate - John 18
Contemplative at Home
A 22-minute audio guided meditation on John’s Gospel, John 18:33-40 using Lectio Divina. In this meditation on John’s Gospel, I invite you to join me in taking a ‘long, loving look’ at a few verses of text, beholding the words as living, shimmering, life-giving containers which hold endless layers of wisdom, mystery, beauty and truth. Here is the text for todays meditation, from the NRSV: John 18:33-40 Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you...
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Lectio Divina - Peter Denies Jesus
Contemplative at Home
A 22-minute meditation with John 18:12-27, using breath work and Lectio Divina. A meditation for Lent as Jesus is arrested and interviewed by Annas. offers guided meditative prayer - space to slow down and listen to the truth that is being born out of God's love for you today - drawing on Ignatian spirituality and at times, Lectio Divina. Sign up for Lissy's newsletter "" or join our Facebook group You can support the show by sharing it with a friend, rating it on your preferred podcast platform, making a or Thank you so much! All music by
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The Truth Will Make You Free - Lectio Divina - John 8
Contemplative at Home
A 16-minute guided audio meditation with John 8:31-36, using breath work and Lectio Divina. "We have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying 'You will be made free'?" John 8:33 Jesus invites his followers into an interior freedom. We could devote our entire lives to the exploration of this invitation. You might find it useful to reflect on these questions: Where and when do I feel lack of freedom around my choices or my reactions? When and how do I feel an inability to give and receive love? In what ways do I feel stuck? Am I free to express my needs and opinions with...
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The Light of the World - Lectio Divina - John 8:12-20
Contemplative at Home
A 22-minute audio guided meditation in John’s Gospel, John 8:12-20, using Lectio Divina. My invitation to you, always, is to engage with scripture through your creative, non-rational self. Rational engagement with scripture is equally important - we usually call it bible study - and I hope there is a dose of it in your rhythms. But my invitation is to help you engage with this sacred text through the non-thinking parts of yourself. With your intuition, your soul, your inner knowing. In this passage, there is debate. The pharisees are pushing Jesus, prodding with questions and asking for how...
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The Woman Caught - Imaginative Contemplation - John 8
Contemplative at Home
A 23-minute audio meditation with John 8:1-11, using Imaginative Contemplation. In this meditation on John’s Gospel, I invite you to join me in taking a ‘long, loving look’ at a few verses of text, beholding the words as living, shimmering, life-giving containers which hold endless layers of wisdom, mystery, beauty and truth. Just for these few minutes, I invite you to leave your dogma, your creed, your thoughts, and your rational mind aside, and become present to your deeper self, your true self or essential self. In imaginative contemplation we invite the Spirit to speak to us through...
info_outlineA guided audio meditation with John 6:52-60, 66-69, using Lectio Divina.
"Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. 60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”
66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. 67 “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”
The language here is definitely alarming at face value, but I'm very confident that our Lord is not promoting cannibalism.
What then might it mean, to eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ?
His flesh and his blood point, of course, to his life and his death, and all their layered symbols.
And the invitation here is to partake, to share, to step in.
Christ's invitation is truly so intimate.
He speaks of abiding in you, and you abiding in Him (v56). This hints of union (v56), of shared being (v57), of an eternal oneness (v58).
I have now come to see the communion or eucharistic meal as something that nourishes all my energies with the very presence of Christ. He in whom I live and move and have my being.
“This [eucharistic] sacrament is operative to produce both love and union with Christ. The greatest showing of love is to give oneself as food.” – St. Albert the Great
I can only pray that my ongoing transformation through this deepening union enables me to bring some shard of His presence, His light, His food to those near me, to the world.
These are a few of my own meandering thoughts.
May the meditation with these words lead you more deeply into your own reflections.
And may it lead you into deepening intimacy with Christ.
BLESSINGS, DEAR ONES.
Contemplative at Home offers guided meditative prayer - space to slow down and listen to the truth that is being born out of God's love for you today - drawing on Ignatian spirituality and at times, Lectio Divina.
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All music by Pete Hatch.