Contemplative at Home

Contemplative at Home offers guided prayer, Christian meditation and contemplation. This space will help you 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, with episodes from the Gospels and the Psalms.

Imaginative Contemplation - Mary Meets Jesus at the Tomb - John 20 04/15/2024

Imaginative Contemplation - Early on the First Day of the Week - Easter Meditation 04/01/2024

A Good Friday Meditation - The Passion of Christ - John's Gospel 03/27/2024

A Good Friday Meditation - The Passion of Christ - John's Gospel 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 children's rhyme "We're Going on a Bear Hunt" knew so well). The only way to resurrection and eternal life, is through the grave. The only way to wholeness is through the heart centre of all that is broken. The only way to healing is through the pain. May you have the grace to open yourself more fully to this mystery this week. This meditation covers several moments in the crucifixion and death of Christ, and each section is read just one time. If you'd like to repeat a particular section or the entirety of the passage you will find the relevant times below. 6:24 Pilate hands Jesus over to the Jews - John 19:13-16 8:11 Jesus is put on the cross - John 19:17-25 11:09 At the foot of the cross "Here is your son, here is your mother" - John 19:25-27 12:13 Sour wine and "it is finished" - John 19:28-30 13:27 Jesus side is pierced - John 19:31-37 15:17 Jesus is buried - John 19:38-42 In this meditation on John’s Gospel, I invite you to join me in taking a ‘long, loving look’ at the passion of Christ, beholding the words as living, shimmering, life-giving containers which hold endless layers of wisdom, mystery, beauty and truth. Just for these few minutes, I invite you to leave your dogma, your creed, your thoughts, and your rational mind aside, and become present to your deeper self, your true self or essential self. I invite you to a way of unknowing, a place of deep being. 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 . /episode/index/show/contemplativeathome/id/30529258

Lectio Divina - Jesus is Handed Over - Holy Week meditation - John 19 03/25/2024

Lectio Divina - Jesus Before Pilate - John 18 03/18/2024

Lectio Divina - Jesus Before Pilate - John 18 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 about me?” Pilate replied, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom belonged to this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate asked him, “What is truth?” After he had said this, he went out to the Jews again and told them, “I find no case against him. But you have a custom that I release someone for you at the Passover. Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?” They shouted in reply, “Not this man but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a rebel. Just for these few minutes, I invite you to leave your dogma, your creed, your thoughts, and your rational mind aside, and become present to your deeper self, your true self or essential self. I invite you to a way of unknowing, a place of deep being. 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 . /episode/index/show/contemplativeathome/id/30371173

Lectio Divina - Peter Denies Jesus 03/11/2024

The Truth Will Make You Free - Lectio Divina - John 8 03/04/2024

The Light of the World - Lectio Divina - John 8:12-20 02/26/2024

The Woman Caught - Imaginative Contemplation - John 8 02/19/2024

Let Anyone who is Thirsty Come to Me - a meditation 02/12/2024

Where He is From - A Meditation 02/05/2024

Where He is From - A Meditation A 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. 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 Support the show by sharing it with a friend, rating it on your preferred podcast platform, Thank you so much! All music by . /episode/index/show/contemplativeathome/id/29768678

True Food - a meditation with John 6 01/29/2024

True Food - a meditation with John 6 A 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. 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 Support the show by sharing it with a friend, rating it on your preferred podcast platform, for just a few $ or £ per month. Thank you so much! All music by . /episode/index/show/contemplativeathome/id/29660743