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 19 minute audio meditation with John 7, verses 14-18 and 25-31, using Lectio Divina and breath work.
In John 7, the public opinion of the Rabbi Jesus is becoming fraught, with many following, many criticising and others wanting him out of the way.
In todays text Jesus has made his way to Jerusalem for the festival of booths, but has come quietly, on his own, without an entourage or public entrance. In the middle of the festival he stands up and speaks and many are moved by his teaching.
What John reports here is around Jesus' authority, which is very much under scrutiny by those present (and presumably by those amongst and for whom John was writing, decades later).
Jesus reasserts, as he does throughout the book of John, that he is from and of the Father, that he speaks not his own words but the words of the One who sent him, for the glory of the One who sent him.
I am revisiting Teresa of Ávila at the moment, and her teaching takes us to contemplation of the great mysteries of the Divine indwelling in our deepest selves, and the profound union with God of the soul in its most interior places. I can't help but read this text with that in mind. Jesus is entirely centred in and confident of the profound one-ness between himself and the Father.
In verse 18 he talks about what is true and false in a person, and Thomas Merton, a modern contemplative teacher, talked about the true self and the false self. To Merton the false self is the ego attachments to success, power and status. The true self is the deep, inner, soul-dimensions of the self where I am free to give and receive love purely, where I experience and rest in my belovedness.
Perhaps these thoughts will enrich your reading of the text. May you receive from this meditation whatever it is our Lord would offer you.
All blessings.
Contemplative at Home offers guided meditative prayer - space to slow down and listen to the truth that is being born out of God's love for you today - drawing on Ignatian spirituality and at times, Lectio Divina.
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All music by Pete Hatch.