by Christine Sine
I first posted this prayer a couple of years ago and it is still one of my favorites. I used it as the prayer for one of the reflections in Rest in the Moment– which can be downloaded from the Godspace store or purchased from Amazon. I also love the meditation that I put together in conjunction with it and have found myself enjoying the sound of water and the words I wrote once more.
One thing my life coach suggested a couple of years ago is that I reward my weekly progress with a fun project that energizes and renews me. This project was one such project and I always feel that something like this is a God given gift to me and hopefully to others too.
I hope you enjoy it too. I suggest that you sit still, close your eyes and allow the sound of the words and the running water in the background to sooth your spirit.
I deliberately did not include the words on this video as it is intended to encourage us to relax into the presence of God, something which is more challenging when we read along as our focus is on the words rather than on God.
However for those who want to use the meditation as a focus for more prolonged meditation here is the text:
Sit still, breathe deeply,
Inhale the eternal breath.
Imagine it rushing into your lungs.
Absorb it into your bloodstream,
Allow it to course through your entire being.
Through the life giving heartbeat of God,
See it infused into every cell in your body.
Sit still, breathe deeply,
Plant your feet firmly
On the earth beneath your feet.
The earth from which you are made,
Uniquely shaped by your Master’s hands.
The earth, this rich and fertile gift from God,
For which we are responsible, caretakers, preservers,
Stewards of God’s good creation.
The earth, beginning and end of all life,
The place to which we will return,
Dust to dust, ashes to ashes.
Sit still, breathe deeply,
Lift your hands towards heaven,
Sense the eternal presence,
Above, beneath, behind, before.
Let God’s holy love flow through you,
Filling your heart,
Nourishing your soul,
Renewing your spirit.
Sit still, breathe deeply,
Calm your spirit.
Listen in the silence
To the gentle whisper of God’s voice
Let it call you
To inner wholeness and outer response.
Let it equip you with footsteps of peace,
Love, compassion caring, generosity and justice.
Sit still, breathe deeply,
Let the ever present, everlasting, never failing One
Abide in you
Amen.
For more breathing prayers check out this post –
Meditation Monday – Finding Breathing Room For Your Soul
by Christine Sine
Today is Jesus name day. Usually this is a day when I think about the many names by which I love to call Jesus – Saviour, Counsellor, Companion, Prince of Peace. Today however my thoughts went in another direction. Perhaps it is because I have been thinking a lot about the vulnerability of Mary and Joseph in their society. Perhaps it is because 2018 has been a year of seeing things differently for me.
How did Mary and Joseph’s family and the local villagers feel about him being named Jesus?
After all the name Yeshua in Hebrew is a verbal derivative from “to rescue”, “to deliver”. It was a common name at that time, but even so I wonder if it was an affront to their sensibilities. How dare they call this illegitimate son “saviour” and “deliverer”.
What doubts did Mary and Joseph bring to that naming day?
I can imagine that prophecy of Simeon was a tremendous reassurance to them:
“Sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace,
as you have promised.
30 I have seen your salvation,
31 which you have prepared for all people.
32 He is a light to reveal God to the nations,
and he is the glory of your people Israel!” (Luke 2:29-32)
Anna’s prophecy too, even though we do not know her words, must have reinforced this.
when I went online to see what others thought about this I could not find a single article, so if you know of other reflections that talk about how Jesus culture responded I would love to know about them.
What’s In Your Name?
As I thought about this, I found myself reflecting on my own name Christine — Christ follower. Now it seems appropriate. Today I see myself first and foremost as a Christ follower, others tell me the same and I think God does too. But that has not always been the case. Once it would have been the furthest thing from people’s minds when they looked at me. I was a difficult, rebellious child who, I suspect, gave my parents and those around me much grief. Yet it was obviously a God chosen name.
What name do you think God calls you by? What doubts do you have about the appropriateness of that name? What are the prophetic voices that remind you of its authenticity? How does this shape what you plan for the next year?
by Christine Sine
Happy New Year everyone! I hope you have rung in the new year with hope and joyful anticipation.
For me, New Year’s day is for prayer and contemplation. It’s always both fun and disheartening. I look back over the last year with its joys and sorrows then look forward with hope that newness will indeed emerge and grow into a healthy and fruitful plant, yet with trepidation too because so much never seems to change.
How do we prepare ourselves so that what we intend sticks.?
Here is a glimpse of what I am thinking about as we move into this new year:
- Revisit the theology that undergirds my life.
- Restate the values that flow from my theology.
- Shape practices that flow from these values.
- Establish goals as stepping stones.
What theology undergirds your life?
God’s desire is to see all things made new. That is the theological statement I have tried to make the centre of my life. I have spent much of the last 30 years studying the concept of shalom – of God’s desire for a world of wholeness and peace and abundance. Immersing myself in this theology has transformed my life but I still have a long way to go to ensure that everything I commit myself to flows out of this belief.
This Christmas season as I read “Celebration of Abundance, my Walter Brueggemann Advent devotional, I realized I probably needed to flesh that out a little in terms of the issues I struggle with both within myself and in the world around me:
Beyond the world of exclusion and rejection and hostility there is on offer a world of welcome that sees the other not as threat or competition but as cohort on the pilgrimage of humanity.
This may not seem like a theological statement, but to me it is profoundly so. The gospel has at its core a message of welcome not exclusion, companion not threat. What wonderful foundations for my life as I move into this new year.
What Values Shape Your Life?
A theology of wholeness not the “theology” of the consumer culture should shape my life and my values. I have really struggled with how many of the articles looking at the impact of the government shutdown here in the U.S. say nothing about the impact on individuals and families. The “theology” of economic prosperity for the country shapes the values of concern for the economic institutions rather than individual lives. And the cry of “it’s not cost effective” even shapes our concern for creation and the destructiveness of “cost effective” policies.
I have always seen shalom as working for wholeness in four areas of life and want to make sure I continue to establish practices in all of those :
- How do I value my soul and nourish the wholeness God has begun within me?
- How do I value others and grow the wholeness of relationship not just with friends and family but with strangers and outcasts and the excluded both near and far
- How do I value God’s good creation and the call to responsible stewardship .
- How do I value God and how deeply do I want to grow my relationship with my Creator through prayer, scripture reading, contemplation and other practices?
I am convinced that if we don’t establish each of these areas of wholeness as important priorities then we will not grow into the people God intends us to be.
What Practices Flow from My Values?
We can talk about values until we are blue in the face without allowing them to change our lives. It is only when we establish practices that flow from those values that our lives will change.
- What practices nourish my soul? For me personally it is contemplation, writing of prayers, creative exercises like painting on rocks and creating meditation gardens that most nourishes my soul.
- What practices bring wholeness in relationships? Unhurried time alone with my husband Tom, hospitality for friends, listening to the voices of those at the margins and responding to their pain. These are a few of the practices that flow from my values.
- What practices show my care for God’s good creation? As I pondered this question today I realized I need to make more effort at sustainable practices – cutting back on purchases, recycling where possible, reducing use of plastic, growing our own vegetables and purchasing from farmers markets are all small steps I need to maintain to live sustainably.
- What practices draw me into deeper intimacy with God?I could just say all of the above and be done with it. But I realize there are another couple of practices I need to add to the list – silence and balance. When I get busy these are the two practices that I ditch first. Sitting still, undistracted by the internet, work projects or even meal planning separates me from God and when I get out of balance allowing work to take over and swamp my need for contemplation, awe and wonder walks and quiet meditation I move away from God.
What Transformation Do I hope for?
Theology, values and practice are only helpful if they are viewed in the context of transformation. What do I hope I will become over this next year. With the launch of my new book The Gift of Wonder, it is easy to focus on success in terms of its success, but I realize that is not the important measure of success.
Success is about becoming the person God wants me to be. Success is about enabling others to become who God intends them to be.
So how do I measure the success of what I do? Goals are not of value in themselves. Goals are only important as stepping stones towards transformation. So get out your calendar. Look at the next twelve months. What are some stepping stones that would help you measure the transformation God wants to accomplish in your life?
Who Will Keep You Accountable?
We all need a circle of accountability, friends, colleagues and spiritual directors who hold us accountable and keep us on track. Who are those people in your life? How often do you get together with them? What kind of accountability do they keep you too?
You might also like to check out some of the New Year posts from last year – so much to help us shape our lives for the coming year:
New Year’s Resolutions – Jenneth Graser
Meditation Monday – Finding Balance – Christine Sine
Life – A Poem for the New Year – Ana Lisa De Jong
Start the New Year With a Spiritual Audit – Christine Sine
Meditation Monday – Making New Year’s Resolutions as Spiritual Discipline – Christine Sine
by Christine Sine
Each year at this time I write myself a new prayer for the new year. Yesterday I read through my prayer for 2018 Let newness emerge and realized that the prayer I have written for this year carries many of the same sentiments. In last year’s prayer (which I still think is one of the best I have written) I said “Let us give fresh expression to your eternal world.” It is a prayer I offer every year, with the hope and expectation that the year that is emerging will bring with it new expressions of God’s eternal world of love and peace and justice.
This year’s prayer expresses some of the same sentiments because I know that I need to repeat these words until they are so ingrained in my being that all I am and all I do is focused on seeing them come into being. God IS in the business of making all things new. I know it in my bones. That is what Christmas is all about and I will not lose hope.
So enjoy and ring in the new year with hope and anticipation of God’s newness.
The Promise of Newness Beckons
The promise of newness beckons
like freshness after the rain.
Let it rise from the ashes of the past,
Hope where none seems possible,
Peace where violence reigns,
Love where hate now flourishes.
Light will pierce the darkness.
There will be welcome for strangers.
The hungry will be filled.
The oppressed will be set free.
God’s power for life
Proclaimed in Bethlehem so many years ago
Now shines in us.
Let us grow towards the light that is Christ
Until the world is filled with truth and justice and love.
(c) Christine Sine
by Christine Sine
Over the weekend someone shared this quote from St. Teresa of Avila with me: “Remember: if you want to make progress on the path and ascend to the places you have longed for, the important thing is not to think much but to love much, and so to do whatever best awakens you to love.” It resonated in my soul.
My theme for 2019 is “Let newness emerge” but I realize that the newness that emerges must be rooted in a deepening love relationship with God. Newness might be the new seedling growing, but love is the fertile soil in which it is planted.
What awakens us to love?
How do we grow into a deeper measure of the love of God?
As I look to the new year that is my prayer and my quest. The hatred and violence in our world seems to be growing. We don’t need more walls, more animosity to those who look different from us, or more self centeredness. We need more love. Love of self, love of neighbor, love of creation, and as an umbrella over it all – love of God.
Prayer is not about getting down on our knees to talk to God. Nor is it about praying for the needs of the world. It is about falling in love and staying in love with God as we converse with and interact with the One who fills every fibre of our being. One of my guides through this journey has been this prayer by Father Arrupe.
What awakens us to the love of God?
What awakens us to the love of God who formed us with loving care, transforms us with a gentle touch, sustains us with compassion and comfort? What awakens us to the love of God so that we crave that intimate place of communion with the lover of our souls, not just when we sit down in a place of retreat but moment by moment, every day in the ordinary routines and activities of life?
This is the question that I think is at the heart of the gospels. Jesus whole life is about teaching his disciples to love the God who is love. That is why James calls “love of God and love of neighbour” the royal law. That is why John, the son of thunder could become the apostle of love. That is why Jesus spent so much time drawing aside to quiet places to pray and why all the disciples longed to learn how to pray as Jesus prayed, not in a distant hands off relationship but in an intimate loving interaction that they saw permeate Jesus’ life and ministry.
How Do We Learn to Love?
Learning to love someone means spending time in their presence, becoming familiar with their voice, gazing into their face. It means loving to stand in awe of what they have made, touching, tasting and relishing their love expressed through such creativity as we see in the faces of those around us and in the wonder of creation. It means learning to love what they love.
To enter into a loving relationship with God means to desire what God loves – justice and mercy and compassion.
Love for God means that our hearts ache with the things that tear God’s heart apart – sin and disease, injustice and violence. As we deepen our love relationship with God and grow into the fullness of our experience of God’s love we are able to love others and to love God’s creation too. The outpouring of God’s love into the lives of others is I believe one of the most profound expressions of prayer that there can be.
An Exercise in Love
Heart shaped rocks
I love to collect heart shaped rocks and will often hold one in my hand while I reflect on the love of God.
Some are naturally shaped by the waves or wind. Others, like the ones in this photo have been shaped by human hands, but they are equally as precious images of the love of God for me.
Find something that is heart shaped. Hope it in your hand. Read the quote above several times. Ask yourself: Lord what do I need to do to be awakened more deeply to your love? Close your eyes and allow God to speak to you.
OR
if you don’t have something heart-shaped draw a heart on a piece of paper. Trace the heart several times with colored pencils or crayons. Read through the quote above several times. Ask yourself: Lord what do I need to do to be awakened more deeply to your love? Close your eyes and allow God to speak to you.
What awakens you to the love of God? How do you plan to grow into that love and express that love in the coming year?
Today’s poem, a beautiful one to reflect on as we draw to the close of the year, was written by Irish poet and author John O’Donohue who died in 2008. This poem is from my favorite of his books To Bless The Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings. Its beautiful poems and prayers provide a wonderful for contemplative reflection at all seasons of the day and year.
At The End Of The Year
As this year draws to its end,
We give thanks for the gifts it brought
And how they became inlaid within
Where neither time nor tide can touch them.
The days when the veil lifted
And the soul could see delight;
When a quiver caressed the heart
In the sheer exuberance of being here.
Surprises that came awake
In forgotten corners of old fields
Where expectation seemed to have quenched.
The slow, brooding times
When all was awkward
And the wave in the mind
Pierced every sore with salt.
The darkened days that stopped
The confidence of the dawn.
Days when beloved faces shone brighter
With light from beyond themselves;
And from the granite of some secret sorrow
A stream of buried tears loosened.
We bless this year for all we learned,
For all we loved and lost
And for the quiet way it brought us
Nearer to our invisible destination.
(c) John O’Donohue To Bless The Space Between
I love this Irish Christmas blessing that I first posted a couple of years ago and thought that it needed to be coupled with this wonderfully Irish Christmas song. Enjoy and continue to enjoy the wonder of the Christmas season.
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