The journey into contemplative prayer is both deep and winding. It is both a path into ourselves and into God. Along the way we are asked to let drop pieces of who we imagine we are along the wayside, only to find them handed back to us, reshaped and refined, later along our travels. Our ideas about who we are and who our maker is are constantly challenged and questioned, in dialogue with the Holy Three-in-One.
We might begin to think, after many years of this practice, that we have learnt a lot. But the truth is more likely that we have unlearnt a lot. The Cloud of Unknowing is a classic of mystical Christianity for a reason, as it tells us to begin to know God by unknowing “him.”
Many things we assume about God are shaped by our own experiences. We may call Him Father, but this name will be nuanced by all the dealings we have had both with and as earthly fathers. The very pronouns we use, most often and traditionally male, are inadequate. Many have tried to undo them by using G-d or them/their, or by trying to balance them with female pronouns and images.
Often these changes can be helpful in our relating to the Almighty, but they can also reveal more about our own inability to grasp the enormity of God than they do about God. God is of course both beyond and wholly inclusive of gender. More importantly, God is both personhood and mystery. Falling further and further into knowing him is a precious and delicious endeavour. It is also mind-blowing and fraught with the heartache that only the greatest love and suffering can bring.
As we become more familiar, God widens out even further. It is like catching glimpses of a painting or photograph and just as we think we have worked out what it is depicting, realising that we are only seeing the tiniest detail of a much larger whole. Or like being Moses, standing in the cleft of the rock, catching a fraction of God’s goodness as he passes by. And this happens over and over again, until it no longer surprises us.
After many years of practising contemplative prayer, the only thing I know now, for sure, the one certainty that brooks no doubt in me, is this: God is good. I might add, and God is love, but this is to say the same thing a different way.
About everything else, people of faith may have different viewpoints, may struggle to speak the same theological and doctrinal language, but that one truth remains unassailable. God’s character, God’s good name, if you like, is the one constant. And that, by itself, contains enough wonder and treasure for contemplation till the end of time.
Keren Dibbens-Wyatt is a chronically ill writer and artist with a passion for poetry, mysticism, story and colour. Her writing features regularly on spiritual blogs and in literary journals. Her new book, Recital of Love, comes out with Paraclete Press in September 2020. Keren lives in South East England and is mainly housebound by her illness.
by Jody Collins,
(Photo above: Crocosmia in my front garden)
“Where do people put such things when they live by Plan? Our entire plan is simply Miscellaneous.” -Gladys Taber, Stillmeadow Seasons, 1950
Last Sunday was our first time back in a building to gather and worship for church since March of this year. I refer to that time as “2020 B.C.” as in Before Coronavirus.
Guided by our pastor and staff, we were properly spaced in family or couple groups, masked up and elbow-bumping our hellos to one another. It was….. weird. And it was somehow wonderful at the same time. Why? Because we were together again with our brothers and sisters, standing in the same room with live music. No more screens with live streaming church services…the body of Christ was re-membered–put back together again.
But yes, it was weird. Not the church part, but the whole year part.
For instance, how is it almost July?
It seems like 2020 should only have two months–January and June. Or better, just two parts–Then and Now. The plans in my Daytimer were thankfully in pencil (I’m old school like that) and erased easily enough. But instead of checking off or crossing out events and tasks, January through June just became one gaping hole.
Weeks have turned into months, days are jumbled together in no particular order. I wake up nearly every morning and wonder, “Now is it Tuesday or Friday?” Without Sundays set aside to be in fellowship and worship, weekly anchors that held my life in place disappeared almost overnight.
Yes, there has been little to plan on in these days of #coronavirus. Facts change overnight, what was for sure and for certain and familiar has vanished. I have been forced…. goaded? nudged? into facing the one fact that remains–God’s word is the only anchor I can count on. His truth centers me, His spirit fills me and His daily faithfulness in the world around me has continued to save me.
photo by Jody Collins
I am forever grateful that this pandemic and isolation came when Spring in our corner of the world was just waking up. Now here we are in the thick of Summer and flowers and trees are lush and vibrant, my potato vines are flourishing, the bees are busy in the lavender. Life continues in God’s creation whether there’s lockdown or not. You can’t quarantine nature, that is for sure.
The nudges I feel in this season were summed up beautifully the other morning when I read in Psalm 143 during my quiet time.
Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you.
Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul. Psalm 143:8
I so wish I could actually make plans in my Planner. That I knew what was going to take place in the next month or two. But the Holy Spirit is continuing to remind me that we are only given one day at a time and our days, whether we acknowledge it or not, belong to God.
I can’t think of anyplace safer to be right now then listening and looking into the coming year one day at a time. That is God’s saving grace.
Tell me, what’s saving your life right now? I’d love to hear in the comments.
by Carol Dixon
‘Jesus is Lord’ was one of the earliest creeds of the church. Yet this simple affirmation was a very radical & dangerous statement at the time. To the Jews it was blasphemy which cost Stephen, the first Christian martyr his life- God alone was Lord. In the Roman world it was treason, as Lord was a term reserved for the Emperor, who was not only obeyed and revered but was seen as a living God on earth. And for those living in servitude, lord with a small ‘l’ was the person to whom they owed their livelihood at best, and at worst was the master of life and death.
Some people nowadays seem to have trouble calling Jesus and God ‘Lord’ – they don’t like the idea of anyone ‘lording’ over them. I don’t have much of a problem with it myself as I think of it differently.
Alnwick Castle (photos by Carol Dixon)
Having been brought up in Alnwick in the UK, the seat of the Dukes & Earls of Northumberland for six centuries, it was relatively easy to see that lordship worked as a two way contract – a kind of covenant between landowner and those who served him. In medieval times this included helping to protect the area from marauding Scots or English armies rampaging through the county and, although the men of the town had to be ready at short notice to go to battle, they were confident that their lord was in the thick of it fighting alongside them (in some cases he died with them). In the 19th & early 20th century, many of my ancestors were in the Duke’s service and although he expected them to work hard, he made sure that they were provided for. Even though they didn’t actually see him face to face very often, he knew their names and what they did for him. Not all lords took their responsibilities as seriously.
Parable of the Unforgiving Servant on a stained glass window in Scots’ Church, Melbourne shows the initial forgiving of the debt, and the final punishment of the unforgiving servant.(Public domain)
When Jesus came to live among humanity he took it a step further – living as one of us, dying instead of us – to show how far our Lord God was prepared to go for his people. When we realise how great the love of God is for each one of us, how much our Lord cares for every human being and how much God wants us to love and care for one another (& how far we often fall short of this!) then we begin in a small way to understand the need to pray ‘ Lord have mercy’ for ourselves and for our world, secure in the knowledge that, unlike some landlords, our Lord will hear us and listen to our cries for help. But there is a caveat – unlike the Unforgiving Servant in Jesus’ story in Matthew 18, we must be willing to listen to our neighbours’ cries and look after their welfare, not because God won’t listen to our pleas otherwise but because it is how God expects us to live in the service of his Kingdom, following in the footsteps of Jesus, our Saviour & Lord.
Two of the hymns I enjoy singing are ‘Jesus is Lord’ (above) which helps me to revel in the glories of God’s creation and Fred Kaan’s ‘Help us accept each other’ (below) as this challenges me to see God’s glory in the face of people in need and each in their own way encourage me to respond to the Lordship of Christ in the world.
Special Sale!
For the month of July, the Gift of Wonder Online Retreat will be on sale for $29.99! In the last week, we have had people say that it has helped them to reimagine prayer, rethink spirituality and even rethink what joy is about. We have also had people use it for healing and as a resource for fun summer practices. Because of this, we have decided to make this available at a discount price for July!
Next Zoom call is Wednesday, July 29th. We will send you the details to join the call after you have signed up and paid for the course. Great way to connect with one another as well as chat with Christine about the material discussed in the retreat.
Free Downloads!
We have added these new resources to our store for kiddos to enjoy during these Summer/Winter months.
Colourful Me: Open Ended Art Exercises to Bring Out Your Creativity is a lovely free download put together by Kim Balke, an Expressive Arts Therapist, who delights in inviting kids to share their creativity and self-expression through colouring exercises. She provides resources for parents, caretakers, and classroom support as well.
Colourful Me: Open Ended Art Exercises to Bring Out Your Creativity
A booklet-style prayer book specifically for kids to enjoy talking to God in new and creative ways. The practices found in Prayers of a Different Sort: A Children’s Prayer Book involve praying with our eyes, fingers, imaginations and feet.
by Christine Sine
Like many of us, I have been thinking a lot over the last couple of weeks about the things that I will miss out on this summer because of the restrictions that COVID 19 has placed on our lives. One usual delight for me is the opportunity to go to Mayne Island in the Canadian Gulf Islands with good friends for a few days of relaxation and fun. The house we rent is right on the beach and we spend many hours walking the beach, collecting shells, rocks, sea glass and other interesting objects.
Beach combing is one of my favorite summer activities I love walking along, preferably barefoot, with my head down breathing in the salt air and listening to the waves lapping on the shore. The world seems to fade away and I walk in a quiet oasis with the rhythm of God’s heartbeat and the fragrant salty tang of God’s breath soothing my spirit.
Beach combing garden
A Beach Combing Meditation Garden
Since that won’t be possible this year, I decided to create a new summer meditation garden around the theme of beach combing. I have pulled out some of my favorite collected treasures and spent longer than I should have reminiscing as I arranged them in my bowl.
Margaret Silf’s book Landscapes of Prayer has been my companion in this process.
She explains that:
When I walk the seashore, I meet in that one sacred space, both the immanent and the transcendent God. The ocean stretches out as far as my eye can see, and way beyond, just as the sense of the divine lies far beyond any human understanding. And yet that same ocean laps at my feet and deposits all kinds of very ordinary objects on the shore for me to discover as I do my beach combing – objects that may have stories to tell me about who I am and who God is for me, and how our realities embrace in this ordinary-extraordinary space where the water meets the land. (Landscapes of Prayer: Finding God in Your World and Your Life – Margaret Silf (24,25)
This quote is followed by the story of Jesus making breakfast on the beach for his friends and in her narrative, Margaret likens this to a beach BBQ where the aroma wafts across the shore to the disciples inviting them to breakfast and a new beginning. For months afterwards I could not smell BBQ without imagining that scene and seeing Jesus beckoning me to join him for a fish breakfast.
She suggests that beach combing is a wonderful way to pray and adapts the Prayer of Examen to fit into this context but last year, I created my own discernment process from her questions. This year, as I process the trauma of COVID, and the anguish of Black Lives Matter, I find myself adapting that process yet again for the current situation. So I hope you will enjoy the reflective process below that has come out of this.
Beach combing
Beach Combing Meditation
Pick up a seashell, piece of driftwood, or other favorite found treasure. Settle into a comfortable space, close your eyes and imagine yourself walking across the beach towards Jesus as he beckons you to enjoy the BBQ he has prepared for you and for his other disciples. Sit and savour that experience of holy companionship for a couple of minutes.
What treasures have you discovered in the ordinary landscape of the last few months that caught your attention with delight and joy, bringing you new life as they connected you to God, to yourself and to others? My awe and wonder walks with my husband each morning is one of my greatest treasures of these weeks of isolation. These are the treasures that have transformed what could have been a very painful and traumatic time into extraordinary time, shaping both my faith and life in unexpected and precious ways.
Who or what has nourished and enriched your life helping you to find new depths of faith and healing the hurts and broken places that have come to the surface during this time? My husband Tom’s supportiveness and encouragement is the most sustaining and wonderful gift that has built my confidence as I continue to stretch myself beyond my comfort zones. I am rich in other nourishing influences too. My garden, both its beauty and its productivity nourish my spirit and my soul relaxing and growing not just me but all who enter it. The small intentional community in which we live provides companionship, laughter and fun as we all share our isolated lives together.
What waves lap at the boundaries of your life, either gently, bringing rest and calm from stress, or crashing like storm waves with tumult and destruction to your well ordered plans? Lots of crashing storm waves at the moment, but also gentle, soothing ones.
This stressful season has made me realize how important my contemplative practices and my breathing prayers are. These are the gentle waves that calm my soul and nourish my spirit helping me to relax in the midst of my anxiety.
The waves that crash like storm waves are the stories of those much more deeply impacted than I am by this virus and by the racial inequality it has highlighted – hospital workers, migrant farmers, the entire African American community here in the U.S. and other vulnerable members of our communities. I realize as I think about this that it is these storm waves, not the gentle ones that both uncover and deposit new treasures – maybe new understanding, deeper compassion and generosity’ stronger cries for justice welling up from within.
As you look back over your beach today, have you left a trail of footprints that need to be washed away by the loving presence of God – things you wish you had handled differently that have left you with regrets, guilt, anxiety? I always feel that I should be doing more than I am – speaking out more strongly for justice or being more generous and compassionate. This can paralyze me and immobile me. I sit this morning watching as the cleansing flow of the rising tide washes away these regrets and feelings of guilt and I feel refreshed and made new again.
What questions rise in your mind at this time
As you bring your prayer to a close, gather up your treasures. How will you display them for future remembrances or where will you store them? As I look at my collection I wonder what new creative practices they could stir within me. Last year I collected several different colored rocks on my beach combing journey. I shaped them first into a question mark and then into a circle reminding myself that questions help bring wholeness and completeness. This year I used shells from my last trip to Australia. Those symbols, combined with the use of my new beach comber’s garden will continue to lead me on a journey towards wholeness.
Now as I look to the future I wonder what does God want me to learn from my beach combing experience that will help shape the months to come? As I think about this, the image of Jesus on the beach comes to me again and I imagine that he is once more beckoning me to come and join him and all his disciples in a feast, a feast that is spread out for all the peoples of the world. This is a feast that I long to sit at and partake of, but know that to fully appreciate it I must continue to work for justice and freedom for those who are currently excluded from the feast.
Discernment comes in many shapes and forms I realize. In the meditative process of beach combing, I learn the need to relax and allow the waves to shape who I am becoming, and what our world is becoming. Not easy but essential at this time.
Questions bring us wholeness and completion
Over the last couple of weeks I have been posting 2 services for people to use on Sunday or over the week. The contemplative Taize style service is from my home church St Andrews Episcopal in Seattle and the Lament is from a group based in Chicago called The Many This service was live streamed on Wednesday evening but it is just as relevant today.
Contemplative service with music in the style of Taize from St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Seattle.
Carrie Grace Littauer, prayer leader, and music by Kester Limner and Andy Myers.
Permission to web stream or podcast music in this service is granted under One License number A-710-756.
“In God Alone” by J. Berthier — copyright 1991, all rights reserved by GIA/Les Presses de Taizé
“Kyrie” text by Kester Limner, music by Kester Limner and Andy Myers, shared under the Creative Commons License, Attribution (CC-BY)
“The Law of God is Love – Simple Arrangement” is by Kester Limner, shared under the Creative Commons License, Attribution (CC-BY) www.saintandrewsseattle.org
Learn more about The Many: Website – https://www.themanyarehere.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/themanyarehere Facebook/Instagram/Twitter – @themanyarehere Church Resources website – https://www.pluralguild.com Get music by The Many: Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2ZpUGMG iTunes/Apple Music: https://apple.co/3cR0AKC Website: https://pluralguild.com/music or https://themanyarehere.com/music
by Christine Sine
I wrote this post a couple of years ago but still holds true for me as I reflect on the meaning of freedom, interdependence and independence in the US. The Black Lives Matter movement has made me very aware that freedom on paper does not mean freedom from prejudice, distrust and abuse.
So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.
For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another. Galatians 5:1, 13-15 NLT
What does it mean to be free? Today is Independence Day in the U.S. when Americans celebrate their “freedom”. To be honest, it is a celebration I struggle with because I don’t believe God calls us to be independent but rather interdependent. I also realize that our cultural perspectives shape our views of freedom.
To Americans, the concept of freedom focuses on the freedom of individual choice, which can be as trivial as the right to choose whether I want my eggs sunny side up or over easy, or as serious as the right to bear arms. What I struggle with is that there seems to be little recognition of the often dire consequences our individual choices can have for the society or for the world in which we live.
To Australians, freedom revolves around the freedom of society and the recognition that our decisions all have consequences, not just for us as individuals, but for all of our society and our world. Consequently, most Australians are willing to give up the right to bear arms for the good of a safe society in which we don’t have to worry about mass gun violence and killings. In the Australian political system, voting is compulsory because of the belief that with the freedom of citizenship comes the responsibility of participation in the process that provides our freedom.
Unfortunately, neither country does very well when it comes to granting freedom to all. We like to be exclusive – no freedom to immigrants, to those of other sexual orientation, those with disabilities, those of other races or religions. And of course we were all slow to grant freedom to our indigenous brothers and sisters and as the Black Lives Matter movement shows there are many who still don’t feel free in spite of the abolition of slavery. Whether we think of freedom as individual or societal, we all like to limit who we give freedom to.
All of this leads me to my most important question about freedom, “What does freedom look like in the kingdom of God?”. Obviously there is an element of individual freedom – all of us need to take on the individual responsibility to kneel at the foot of the Cross, repent and reach out for the salvation of Christ. However, our entry into the family of God faces us with serious consequences for how we act in society.
Our freedom as Christians means that we no longer focus on our own needs but rather “consider the needs of others as more important than our own” (Philippians 2). It means that we live by the law of love – what James calls “the royal law” (James 2:8). In the quote above, Paul sums this up very well, “Do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: Love your neighbour as yourself.”
What is Your Response?
What comes to mind when you think about freedom? Take out your journal and piece of paper and divide it into 2 columns. On one side write the words that come to mind when you think of freedom. In the other column, write down the negative consequences of your personal freedoms for others, for the earth and even for your life. Listen to the video below and reflect on the true meaning of freedom.
Sit quietly for a few minutes reflecting on your lists and the video you have listened to. Allow God to speak to you. Are there changes you need to make to your original lists based on your reflections? Are there places in which God calls you to repent of your “independence”? Are there ways in which God may ask you to give up your personal freedoms for the common good?
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