Our theme for this month – Wisdom, from Joan Chittister ‘s book, In a High Season, and the Wisdom Psalm 1 as expressed in the Carmelite rule: to develop a contemplative dimension to [our] lives, to “meditate day and night on the Word of the Lord.”
- Psalm 1 – Blessed is the one that does not walk in step with the wicked / or stand in the way that sinners take, / or sit in the company of mockers, / but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree / planted by steams of water, / which yields fruit in season / and whose leaf does not wither – whatever they do prospers.
- Joan tells us: We must become aware of God where we are and in what we do, or life will never really be sacred to us.
- Contemplation is the ability to see the world around us as God’s sees it. Contemplation is sacred mindfulness of my holy obligation to care for the world I live in./ Contemplation is awareness of God within me and in the people around me. / Contemplation is consciousness in the real fullness of life. / God is calling me on and on and on, beyond all these partial things, to the goodness of the whole of life and my responsibility to it.
- Precisely because of the greatness of God, we don’t have to be great at all. Just in awe.
As you begin to relax now in body and mind, to slow your breathing, and enter your meditation, centering your prayer; your will, and intention on meditating on his law, day and night…take any word or image that comes to mind as your centering prayer…to return to your heart center… let’s be like that person [who] is like a tree / planted by steams of water, / which yields fruit in season / and whose leaf does not wither – whatever they do prospers.
Love and every blessing
Kathryn
Meditation Leader
Joan Chittister, In a High Spiritual Season: Triumph books, Missouri, 1995.
Remember to watch an introduction to Centering Prayer Meditation with Kathryn. You can see it here
Henri Nouwen, Mere Spirituality: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Great Britain, 2016.
Remember to watch an introduction to Centering Prayer Meditation with Kathryn. You can see it here