YOU ARE WELCOME TO JOIN KATHRYN PILE FOR CENTERING MEDITATION THURSDAY 5PM 7 Septbmber 2021
Dear Meditators
This week we start a new series of Meditations on ‘Aspects of the Heart,’ from a book of that title by Joan Chittister. Joan is a Benedictine sister, a bold voice, internationally known author and lecturer, a leader in organisations for contemporary spirituality, and is currently co-chair of the Global Peace Initiative of Women.
- In her introduction Joan quotes Luke 6:45…A good person produces good from the treasure of the heart, and says, that everything we do in life, goes into the treasury of the heart. The ideas with which we fill our hearts determine the way we live our lives. Those are the things we draw on in those moments when we need to reach down deep inside ourselves for character, courage, endurance and hope. That the heart is an amalgam of magnets, all pulling in different directions…Goodness is the ability to choose one direction over another when it counts…and when does it count? When someone else’s life will suffer if we do not muster the courage to make the right choice in this situation at this time.
Over three weeks we will look at three aspects (of the 50) that Joan provides:
‘A Heart for Nature,’ this week, followed by ‘A Connected Heart,’ and ‘A Compassionate Heart.’
Joan quotes St Bernard of Clairvaux of the 12th century:
- “The trees and the stones will teach you what you never learn from the masters.”
She says, to cultivate an appreciation of nature is to deepen our own spiritual life, to come closer to creation, to see our own moral responsibility to it in the way we treat every blade of grass. Nature has an emotional effect on us…each change, whether darkness, fog, or burning sun is nature calling us to go deeper into the rhythms of life…to see ourselves as part of nature, more alive…attuning the soul to its teaching.
- Walking through nature, we walk hand in hand with God who enlivened it. Hildegard of Bingen says of nature: “I am that living and fiery essence of the divine substance…I shine in the water; I burn in the sun and the moon and the stars.”
Relax now in body and mind, slow your breathing, and enter your meditation, centering your prayer, your will and intention on “being called to go deeper into the rhythms of life…enlivened as nature, the essence of the divine substance.”
Love and every blessing
Kathryn
Joan Chittister, Aspects of the Heart, p 4, 5, 40, 41.
We are using this app to assist.
https://www.contemplativeoutreach.org/centering-prayer-mobile-app
Remember to watch an introduction to Centering Prayer Meditation with Kathryn. You can see it here
Let us know how you are finding this time – we always like to hear from you😊
Peace and health at this time.
Irene & Damien