Meditation Archives - Page 18 of 19

Someone recently shared with me an awesome app – it’s called Pray as you go and it’s free. You can get it on your iPhone, ipad and I believe any other “smart” device. As I was navigating through the app, I came upon a section called Imaginative Contemplation Exercises. I was so excited to see it because I remembered the first time I did an exercise like that – it was in my old parish during a women’s retreat – the nun in charge asked us to close our eyes and imagine being in the story she was about to read. It was the Road to Emmaus – and as I sat with my eyes closed, listening to the story, imagining myself in the story, the tears began to fall down my face because I truly felt the presence of Christ! What an experience.

So if you are interested in growing closer to God and feeling the presence of Christ, I would definitely recommend that you download this app onto your mobile device. There are many more resources attached to the app as well. Take a look. If you do not have a mobile device or do not wish to download the app, you can access the website here. I would recommend taking a look at the website even if you do download the app because there are so many more resources that will help you go deeper in your relationship with God. If you would like to access the contemplation exercises directly from the website click here.

I’m so excited to be sharing this information with you. If you have a chance to check it out, let me know what you think!

Recently I had the opportunity to go to Erie, PA to spend time in retreat at Mt. St. Benedict, a monastery of Benedictine nuns. What a warm, gracious, welcoming community! My friends and I felt so blessed to have had an opportunity to share in their liturgies and to share meals and conversation with them. While there, I picked up a small book entitled God Speaks in Many Tongues by Joan Chittister. In the book Joan Chittister takes 40 sacred texts and shares a meditation. Here is one I found quite poignant:

Meditation 12

In my soul there is a temple, a shrine, a mosque, a church where I kneel.

Prayer should bring us to an altar where no walls or names exist.

In my soul there is a temple, a shrine, a mosque, a church that dissolve, that dissolve in God.

– Rabia, Sufi

Religion is the toxin that too often poisons the idea of the God in whose name we speak.

When we use religion to divide, to demean, to assert our own superiority, then we have made ourselves our religion.

Then God is shamed and, possibly, ignored.

Then no one with a right mind could possibly believe what we believe.

Good for them.

– Joan Chittister

We often wonder why so many people have lost their sense of faith and no longer seek the comfort and direction of the Almighty. This meditation challenges us to look in the mirror. What are we doing to welcome them back? Are we displaying attributes of ourselves that will make people say: “I want what they have”? If we aren’t, then we definitely should.

Category: Meditation (Page 18 of 19)

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