Join us for Centering Prayer Meditation Tuesdays 5pm with Kathryn Pile. ALL WELCOME
Dear Meditators 29/03/22
This week is the second of five reflections on hope, Mystical Hope, from the spiritual writer, Episcopal priest, Cynthia Bourgeault from her book by that name. Today’s session is on Living in the Mercy.
The aim:
- To join with God’s Presence through silent meditation
- To deepen that intention through breath, image, word and to practice ways to allow yourselves to become one with the source of Hope
- To experience through spiritual growth, the transformative qualities of living in the mercy.
First a short introduction… Cynthia invites us to find our way to the hope that does not disappoint or fail; a different kind of hope that has its source not in events and outcomes but in the mercy of God.
Mystical Hope shows how to recognize this hope in our lives, where it comes from, how to deepen it, and how to carry it into the world as a source of strength and renewal.
Let’s begin… reflections on the theme of living in the mercy…
- Mystical Hope – lives a life of its own; the immediate experience of being met, held, something intimately at hand, and bears fruit at a psychological level in the sensations of strength, joy, and satisfaction – produced from within, like a body of hope.
- The term Cynthia Borgeault uses to describe this embodying fullness is “the mercy” the water in which we swim. Mercy is the length and breadth and height and depth of what we know of God – we simply cannot get away from the Mercy, it confronts us at every turn, as a living reality of our faith. Mercy is God’s innermost being turned outward to sustain the visible and created world in unbreakable love.
- We are reminded in Scripture of the words of invitation…(Psalm 103:11) “For as the heavens reach beyond earth and time, we swim in mercy as in an endless sea. ”
Relax now in body and mind, slow your breathing, and enter your meditation, centering your prayer, your will and intention on the longing of being in God’s presence in hope…the immediate experience of being met, held…an embodying fullness as it floods forth into our being as strength and joy.
Love and every blessing, Kathryn
Bourgeault, Cynthia, Mystical Hope – Trusting in the Mercy of God: Cowley Publication, Maryland USA, 2001.
Remember to watch an introduction to Centering Prayer Meditation. You can see it here
Let me know how you are finding this time – If you have any suggestions or requests. I always like to hear from you.
Kathryn