Do you need to nourish your soul this summer? Join us at The Stillness Collective for a live guided meditation based on Scripture on Tuesday, July 26th, at 7pm. RSVP here to receive the Zoom link. This is a FREE event! David Buchs will be providing music and there will be an optional time of sharing after the meditation concludes.
The Ignatian Exercises: A Life-Changing Journey of Spiritual Formation
Also, I’m happy to report that I’ve completed my training in accompanying directees through the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises! Created by St. Ignatius of Loyola and used for centuries in the spiritual formation of Jesuit priests, the Spiritual Exercises take you on a 34-week life-changing journey through Scripture, prayer, God’s unfailing and creative love, and understanding how to recognize the work and calling of God in your life. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the Exercises totally changed my relationship with God and prayer, even though I became a Christian at age 5. I became more peaceful and confident, less anxious, more compassionate, and more accepting. My trust and faith in God grew. I became a better parent and partner. And the changes didn’t stop when the Exercises were over. My encounter with God and the prayer and discernment practices I learned during those nine months continue to define and deepen my faith.
If you have a deep desire for more intimacy with God, are looking for greater peace and freedom in your life, want to explore your calling, or perhaps are finding that your old ways of reading the Bible and praying aren’t satisfying to you anymore, and have the time to invest in daily reading, prayer, and journaling, the Exercises might be for you. The Exercises usually launch sometime in September, so that the readings on Advent and Easter roughly line up with the church calendar. If this stirs something inside of you, I would love to be your director and guide through the Exercises! Please contact me at cmyers.spiritualdirection@gmail.com to find out more information and to discern next steps.
Come join me and my partners in The Stillness Collective in a new course! It’s called “Discernment as a Way of Life: A Practical and Spiritual Approach to Decision-Making.” It launches Sunday, May 15th and will go for six weeks.
Why are we offering this course?
Because we’ve noticed lately that we know many people who are in the midst of big life-changes and discernment processes. They are seeking to make decisions with God, but don’t know how.
That’s where our course comes in. We’d like to introduce you to a well-loved book by Elizabeth Liebert called The Way of Discernment. It offers a time-tested, practical method of Christian discernment, based on the spirituality and practices of St. Ignatius of Loyola.
In our own lives, we’ve found it immensely comforting and empowering to have a method to follow rather than being left to muddle through with trial and error – or well-intentioned but not always helpful advice.
We also believe that Ignatian discernment doesn’t just help with decision making! It provides a framework for experiencing God in a deeper way in our day-to-day lives.
We want you to have these tools at your disposal, so that you, too, can grow in your experience of God and have a greater understanding of and confidence in his leading in your life.
I’m really excited about this course! Ignatian discernment is something I turn to over and over for wisdom and guidance. I hope you’ll join us and see what impact it could have on your life, too!
As always, thanks so much for being here and for your support. And please feel free to contact me with any questions you might have.
In faith, love, and hope –
Carrie
Course details: Sundays from May 15 – June 19 (six weeks), 7-9pm, via Zoom. For more information, including pricing, visit the course page at The Stillness Collective. Or, come join our information session on Thursday, May 5, at 7pm. Register here.
Exciting news! My partners and I at Soul Space are releasing not one, but FIVE guided Thanksgiving meditations for the month of November. One, like always, will be free. If you’re an email subscriber already, you’ll have already received it in your inbox. If you’re not a subscriber yet, you can become one at no cost simply by signing up on our website. The other four will be released a week at a time to those who sign up for our Patreon community.
This month, all of our releases are themed for Thanksgiving. Our free release, which you’ll receive as a link in your inbox as soon as you subscribe, is on Colossians 3:12-17. This recording will be yours to listen to whenever you choose on our website, or to download into your personal device.
If you get our emails already or head to our website, you’ll notice some changes. First, we’ve renamed and rebranded ourselves as The Stillness Collective. Our mission continues to be to help people create space for restoration, rest, and stillness in their busy lives. Our meditations are one part of that mission. Spiritual direction is another part. The last, new piece – coming soon! – will be retreats.
You can still find a free sample meditation – Romans 8:32-39 – on our website under the heading “Guided Meditations,” but our new monthly release will now be available only to those who are on our mailing list, rather than posted online. Again, our mailing list can be joined at no cost and you’ll receive a link to a new meditation every month, which you can listen to online or download.
The other four meditations are based on ancient Christian forms of contemplative prayer – that means they are tried and true and experienced by Christians all over the world and for many centuries. Every month, as a Patreon supporter of The Stillness Collective, you’ll receive one guided Ignatian prayer, one Lectio Divina, one Examen, and one breath prayer. These will also be available online and to download. (To read more about these four forms of prayer, visit this link. )
We would love for you to join our community of supporters by signing up for Patreon. We know there are lots of options for meditation and prayer out there, but we believe that our guided prayers have a few features that make them special. First, they are planned and written by three experienced Christian spiritual directors who are immersed in contemplative practices and also trained in helping people connect with God and get in touch with their deep longings and desires. Second, you have the option to pair the meditations with monthly spiritual direction (and soon, retreats!), which will support you as you seek to encounter God in your everyday experience. Third, our meditations are set to beautiful ambient music composed specifically to help people enter into contemplation. And finally, you will be able to download our meditations and keep them forever, even if you choose to end your subscription.
I hope you’ll take a look at our offerings! Listen to our free meditation on Romans, sign up for our one free monthly meditation, and visit our Patreon page. Through December, we’re offering a discount on our four-meditation monthly package, so now is a great time to join our community. Thanks so much for being a part of our journey!
My partners and I at Soul Space released a new reflection yesterday! Featuring Psalm 16, it invites us to make God the center of our hope and trust, to follow him in his way of life and joy, and to see the abundant ways he is already present in our lives.
Last month, we also released a reflection on Philippians 4:6-8, a contemplation to help us cope with anxieties and fear by following the Apostle Paul’s RX for peace: gratitude, prayer, and focusing our thoughts on all that is good and comes from God.
In the meantime, we are also planning more reflections for the fall! Starting in November, we are hoping to release a series of 5 meditations per month. One will continue to be free, and the other four will be behind a paywall of some sort – we’re still working out the details. Our first series will be in November, on Gratitude (of course!), and in December, an Advent series entitled, “Opening Ourselves Up . . . to God’s Holy Disturbance.” Each month will include four different types of prayer based on the month’s theme: an Ignatian imaginative prayer, a Daily Examen, a breath prayer, and a Lectio Divina.
We’ve gotten some really great feedback on what we’ve done so far, so thank you to all who have listened, responded, and shared with your friends and family! All of us have had our lives and relationships with God changed by contemplative practices (and by spiritual direction) and are passionate about bringing them to as many people as possible. – Carrie
It’s been a while since I updated, but my partners and I at Soul Space have continued to release at least a recording a month. If you haven’t checked our site lately, this is good news for you! You’ll find a Daily Examen as well as a guided imaginative meditation on Matthew 11:28-29 that invites you to bring your burdens to Jesus and exchange them for his rest. This month, our new reflection takes you through Isaiah 43:1-4, a beautiful and mysterious passage in which God promises his people that neither fire nor flood will harm them nor separate them from his love and promises. (I could be wrong, but I think I remember one of the characters in one of my favorite childhood books, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, by Madeline L’Engle, quoting this verse to someone he loves.)
As always, I hope our meditations will help you experience the peace and presence of the Holy Spirit within you, calming your fears, building your faith and trust, and growing you in inner freedom and joy.
Find me on Instagram at @ravishedbylight and @soulspacecenter
I’m so excited to announce my friends and fellow spiritual directors Janine Rohrer and David Buchs have launched our new website, Soul Space. At Soul Space, we create room for your soul to breathe. Our vision is to make space for busy people to find rest, nourishment, and inspiration for their souls. We offer guided meditations, spiritual direction, and retreats.
To go with the new website, we’ve posted a new guided meditation, set to David’s ambient music. Based on Psalm 25, it leads the listener to prayerfully reflect on trust, hope, and repentance and on God’s guidance, compassion, and love.
Listen to it now and let your soul find rest from a busy day! We’ll be releasing a new recording next week, too!
You can also find archived reflections on our Soul Space page at Soundcloud.
Start by finding a comfortable position. Close your eyes. Take deep, slow, even breaths. Use your breaths to ground yourself in the present moment. Take this opportunity to be kind to yourself. Wrap your arms around yourself and give yourself a hug. This is something you can do when you feel stressed or anxious – it actually releases chemicals in your brain that will help you feel more relaxed and cared for. As you hug yourself – make sure it’s a good squeeze! – imagine God smiling down on you with compassion and love.
In our prayer time, you will have an opportunity to consider your weaknesses – your character flaws, the places where you lack power, strength, wealth, or the ability to succeed as you might wish – in the light of God’s love and grace. You will have the chance to ask how God sees your weaknesses . . . and how he might be using them for his Kingdom.
1 Corinthians 1: 18, 24-28 says that:
18 The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction!
24 But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles,[f] Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.
26 Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy[g] when God called you. 27 Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. 28 God chose things despised by the world,[h] things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important.
In this passage, the Apostle Paul calls our attention to the difference between what God considers valuable and what the world considers valuable. Paul invites us to reflect on God’s foolishness in choosing Jesus as the instrument of our salvation. Jesus came in a frail, human body that was easily broken and killed, yet God transformed that weakness into a resurrection power that changed the world. This passage also invites us to reflect on our own weaknesses and how God might use those more powerfully than our strengths.
Jesus, I pray you will send your Holy Spirit to guide this time. As we reflect prayerfully on our weaknesses, I ask that you would keep away any shame or discouragement. Help us to look with compassion on ourselves, trusting that you work in and through all things, even those things we may struggle with in ourselves.
I will read the passage again. As you listen, ask the Lord to guide your thoughts and emotions.
18 The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction!
24 But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles,[f] Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.
26 Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy[g] when God called you. 27 Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. 28 God chose things despised by the world,[h] things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important.
Ask God to bring to your mind something about yourself that you consider a weakness. It might be related to your body, mind, emotions. Or perhaps it has to do with a relationship or a desire or personality trait that seems to get in your way. If more than one weakness or flaw comes to mind, ask the Lord to help you focus on only what he would like to talk to you about today.
When you’ve settled on a particular weakness, sit with it for a moment. What effect has this particular weakness has had on your life or the life of those around you? What memories and emotions come to your mind regarding this weakness?
How do you believe it has held you back? How do you believe things might be different if you didn’t have this weakness?
Now, begin to look at your weakness in the light of God’s love for you as his child. Psalm 139 says that God knew you before you were born, that he knit you together in your mother’s womb.
Imagine that you are there, with God, watching yourself being formed. Imagine your heart beginning to beat, your organs beginning to form, your fingers and toes beginning to move. Picture God bending down to breathe life into your lungs.
What does God see and know about you, as he is there with you before your birth? What do you see and know about yourself, as you bear witness with God to your creation?
Enter into conversation with God. What does he say about who you are now? What does he say about your weakness? What would you like to say back to God? Are there any questions you would like to ask him? How does he answer you?
As you look back on your life, can you see any ways that God has your weakness or used it for good? For example, a person with a quick temper may turn their anger and passion towards working for justice. Or a person too shy to pray out loud may turn out to be a powerful intercessor in the privacy of their own home. In your life, how has God what seems like a flaw into a strength?
How might your weakness reveal more about the work God has designed you to do? How might God be inviting you to act on his behalf in the world? Imagine yourself giving your weakness to God and asking him to use it as he sees fit. How does it feel to do this? How does God respond?
Turn your attention to the week ahead. Are there any specific ways God is inviting you to let him use your weakness to bring a positive change in someone’s life? If you feel led to do so, commit to taking those actions.
This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.
Jesus, thank you that in you, we can see the weakness and foolishness of God in all its beauty and power. Thank you that in you, no part of us is despised or wasted, but can all be used for your glory and for the healing of the world.
As you go from this time of prayer, may you be blessed knowing that God has created and chosen you for a purpose. May Jesus go with you and the Holy Spirit empower you as you live out that purpose in the week ahead. Amen.
God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.
This was the contemplative prayer for today’s service at Vineyard One NYC. The prayer alludes to, though does not explicitly mention, the events of these past weeks: the murder of George Floyd – and countless other black men and women – the #BlackLivesMatter protests that have spread throughout the U.S. and beyond, the police violence against largely peaceful protestors, and the covid-19 epidemic, which disproportionately affects black and Hispanic communities. (More direct teaching and prayer about these events happened at other times in the service.) It invites repentance, prayers for unity, and action towards becoming a person who bears Jesus’ light into the world.
If you choose to lead this prayer, leave ample time for everyone to reflect and to listen to God’s voice.
Breath Prayer on 1 John 1:5-7
Breath prayer is a contemplative practice in which we breathe slowly and deeply, gradually synchronizing our breathing to short prayers or phrases that we pray aloud or quietly in our head. As we breathe, we are praying with our body, allowing God’s presence to take root in not only our minds and our hearts, but our physical being as well.
As we begin our time, I pray that we would be surrounded by God’s presence, love, and peace. In these turbulent days of violence, racism, illness, and uncertainty, may Jesus give us courage and to do his will, trust in his plans, and hope for the future.
I invite you to find a comfortable position wherever you are. Close your eyes and begin to breathe deeply and slowly. Pay attention to the rhythm of your breath. You may want to put your hands on your chest or stomach so you can feel your body rise and fall as you inhale and exhale. Breathe out any tension you may be feeling in your body. Relax your face, your neck, your shoulders, your arms and hands. Relax your legs and feet. Continue to breathe slowly and deliberately.
What emotions are you feeling right now?
God loves you without reservation, right now, exactly as you are. Surrender yourself to his love.
Today, the phrases from our breath prayer will come from 1 John 1:5-7. As you listen to the verses, keep up your slow, deep breathing. Allow God’s Word to sink in and bring quiet your spirit.
1 John 1:5-7
This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
I will read the verse again:
This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth.But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
For our breath prayer today, we will start with three phrases based on the Scripture. Pray these phrases silently in rhythm with your breathing.
God, you are light.
Cleanse us from sin.
Make us one.
God, you are light.
Cleanse us from sin.
Make us one.
For the next few minutes, keep repeating these phrases as you breathe.
God, you are light.
Cleanse us from sin.
Make us one.
As you pray, you may find that one of these phrases seems to resonate with you more than the others. Let the other phrases fall away and focus on the one that God seems to be drawing you towards. So you may choose to pray, God you are light.
Or, Cleanse us from sin.
Or, Make us one.
Continue with your chosen phrase, allowing God to draw you deeper into your prayer. If God seems to have you alternate between phrases, that’s perfectly fine. Follow his lead.
Now, ask the Lord if there are other words that he is inviting you to pray. Is there anything he is bringing to your mind? Follow God’s leading and begin to pray your new words or phrase. Or, if you are still drawn to the words you are already praying, continue as you were. Trust the Lord to guide this process.
Take a few more moments with your breath prayer.
Now, move to a time of silence. Imagine you are face to face with Jesus. You may picture him in as much or as little detail as you wish. What emotions are you experiencing as you sit in his presence?
Let Jesus speak to you about his intentions for this prayer time. What is he saying to you with his words? What is he saying to you without words?
Is there anything you would like to say to him?
As you spend time with the Lord, how do you sense him bringing his light to your circumstances? How do you sense him inviting you to bring his light to others? What kind of person is he calling you to be during this season?
If you feel led to do so, tell Jesus your intentions to be this person. What is one concrete action you can take this week to become someone who bears Jesus’ light?
Lord, thank you for this time of prayer. You are the source of our every breath. Help us to honor you with our words, thoughts, and actions. With the power of your Spirit, help us to illuminate the darkness in our world.
As you go from here, may you live in the light of Jesus’ love, healing, redemption, reconciliation, and peace. Amen.
Copyright by Carrie Myers, 2020.
Find me on Instagram at @RavishedByLight.
Photo credits: Clear Glass Sphere, Pixabay; Protestors Holding Signs, Photo by Kelly Lacy from Pexels
Some of the most powerful prayer times I’ve had personally or guided others through have been through the Ignatian practice of Imaginative Prayer. Imaginative Prayer – not surprisingly – refers to the experience of bringing your imagination into the process of reading and praying with Scripture.
While I was in spiritual direction training, my instructor, Jared, led us through an imaginative prayer on the Gospel story of Jesus silencing the wind and waves. In imaginative prayer, you can picture yourself as a person already in the story, add yourself to the scene as a bystander – even imagine yourself as an inanimate object or a natural force, like the boat or like the storm. There are no limits to how you can interact with the scene in your mind and emotions.
As Jared read through the passage to us, he encouraged us to place ourselves in the scene we were hearing. We were to imagine the feeling of the boat heaving beneath us, feel the gusts of wind and the icy rain pelting down on us, smell and taste the salt air, feel the panic clenching in our stomachs, hear the frenzied shouting of the disciples as they tried to keep the boat from capsizing or breaking apart.
In my own prayer, I didn’t take on another persona. I was simply me, witnessing the unfolding interaction between Jesus and his disciples. As Jared read the passage again, I watched and heard the scene unfold the second time, I was struck by the disciples’ question to Jesus: “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” Suddenly, that question became my own, and I found myself saying to Jesus, without planning it in the least, “Lord, don’t you care if I drown?”
As I spoke those words, I think I realized in a new way how overwhelmed and tired I had been, how I felt pushed and pulled in different directions. I felt like I was drowning amidst the competing demands of my life. In my prayer, I was, like the disciples, reaching out to Jesus for rescue.
And what was Jesus’ response? In my prayer, he did something different than he did in the original Gospel story. Instead of quieting the storm, he took off his cloak, folded it into a pillow, and gestured to me that I should lie down and rest. He was letting me know that, whatever was going on around me, I could be at peace. He would watch over and take care of me.
That interaction with Jesus affected me profoundly at the time and still continues to shape me. That tangible sense of Jesus’s care and provision for me led me to the leap of faith that was leaving my job and unknowingly prepared me for an intense season of parenting a child in crisis. I remember that prayer often and it reminds me to trust and rest. It reminds me that I am safe with the Lord.
How can you experience Imaginative Prayer for yourself? First, it’s helpful to know that the Gospels and other narrative sections are often the most fruitful places in Scripture to pray imaginatively because they have stories you can enter into. (If you are poetically inclined and respond well to language and imagery, the Psalms and other poetic or prophetic books like Isaiah would also work.)
Once you have your Scripture passage chosen, follow these steps:
Find a comfortable, quiet place. Invite God to be with you and to guide your prayer time.
Read the passage aloud or quietly to yourself.
Read it again. This time, imagine yourself within the scene – as one of the main people, as a bystander, even as an object or element.
Use all five senses: try to taste, touch, hear, see, smell what is going on. What are you doing? What are others doing?
Bring to your awareness: What emotions or thoughts are coming up? What do you feel happening in your body? How is God speaking to you through the unfolding scene and your inner and bodily responses?
Is there any action God is inviting you to take or commitment he is inviting you to make?
I hope imaginative prayer becomes another invaluable way for you to connect with God and learn more of his heart for you!
And a voice from heaven said, “And a voice from heaven said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.”
Nouwen writes that Jesus’ core identity came from this moment of knowing he had his father’s total, lavish acceptance and approval. He goes on to say that the same is true for each of us. We are all God’s beloved children and our core identity – our center – comes from knowing we are God’s beloved and that he is well-pleased with us.
Building on this definition of each of as God’s beloved, Nouwen explains that
I have come to define prayer as listening . . . to the one who calls you the Beloved.
Is that you, God? (Also, the face I make when my teenagers are in charge of Spotify.)
In our noisy, pixelated, distracting world, it’s not easy to listen for the voice of the Beloved. It can be hard to distinguish God’s voice from all the others clamoring for our attention. And once we do listen, it can be just as hard – if not harder – to accept the truth of God’s love for us. That’s why regular, intentional prayer is crucial.
The discipline of prayer is to constantly go back to the truth of who we are [God’s beloved children] and claim it for ourselves . . . We must go back to our first love, back regularly to that of core identity.
According to Nouwen, our acceptance of our belovedness is the journey of our lives – “the origin and fulfillment of life in the Spirit.” Through prayer, we come to understand that God loves us, as we are, in both our “limitations and glory.” God’s voice calling us his beloved silences our self-condemnation and our self-rejection; listening to this voice coming from God – as well as through other people who show us love and acceptance – is what enables us to feel at home in the world.
Living out the truth of our belovedness is another way of saying that Christ is being incarnated in us. As a way to let this truth sink in, Nouwen recommends “The Beloved Prayer,” a three-part, thirty-minute prayer that can be done individually or as part of guided meditation in a group. “The Beloved Prayer” begins with quietly praying the phrase, ‘”Jesus, you are the Beloved,” then moving onto “Jesus, I am the Beloved,” and then concluding with “Jesus, we are all the Beloved.”
For those of us who don’t have thirty minutes in their day or who are building up to longer contemplative prayer sessions, praying one phrase at a time is an option. Follow these steps.
Praying “The Beloved Prayer”
Find a quiet, still place. You may choose to set a timer if you have a limited amount of time for this practice. Begin to breathe slowly and deeply, relaxing your body and clearing your mind.
Become aware of God’s presence with you. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide your prayer time.
Choose the phrase that seems to most resonate with you at this moment: Jesus, you are the Beloved; Jesus, I am the Beloved; or Jesus, we are all the Beloved. The last phrase will lead you to meditate on a group of people – perhaps family or friends – the Body of Christ, or on all of God’s creation.
Begin saying it to yourself, quietly aloud, or only in your head. You may choose to close your eyes. Try to gently merge the rhythm of the phrase with the rhythm of your breathing. Say it slowly, without hurry, until every other thought seems to fall away. As distractions inevitably show up, don’t worry about them. Simply acknowledge them and refocus the words of the prayer.
If you have not set a timer, you may find your prayer time comes to its natural conclusion. You may feel rested and replete, or you may simply find a bodily demand can no longer be ignored. Come slowly back to your normal awareness and sit for a moment in silence. If you feel led to do so, end with a brief prayer of thanksgiving and a request for continued awareness of God’s presence throughout your day.
You may find that one phrase claims your attention for days or weeks, or you may feel drawn to a different phrase each day. Either way, trust the Holy Spirit to affirm your belovedness and bring you back to that place of core identity.
* Part of my Spiritual Practice of the Month series of posts.**
** Yes, I know. It is practically April! I’m a “9” with a strong “1” wing on the Enneagram and the legalistic part of my soul is simultaneously embarrassed and proud that I’ve snuck in this post just under the wire.
