This meditation, written and narrated by Janine Rohrer and with music by David Buchs, my partners at Soul Space, might be just what you need for the holidays. It invites you to reflect on God’s faithfulness even in times of struggle, sorrow, and loss and to offer praise – not out of ignorance or forced cheerfulness, but out of a deep encounter with God’s care and love. I hope it will help you find strength and peace as you celebrate Thanksgiving this year.
There’s also another new meditation up on soulspace.center! (Scroll down to see it.) This one is a guided Daily Examen. This prayer practice developed by St. Ignatius of Loyola creates a rhythm of looking back at each day with God, to find where he was present, where we were present to him, and where we might have lost sight of him and his desires for us. Practiced regularly, the Examen builds awareness of God’s continual abiding with us no matter what our external circumstances and grows us in love, joy, patience, and all the fruits of the Spirit. I encourage you to commit to praying the Examen at least a few times a week – the perspective and immersion in God’s presence it offers is a much-needed gift in these uncertain days. (For those with little people, here’s an earlier post I wrote on doing the Examen with kids, along with a review of a book that can help.)
May your Thanksgiving be blessed with love, health, the warmth of friends and family (even if it’s through a Zoom screen!), and, above all, the grace and fellowship of the Lord.
Find me on Instagram @ravishedbylight and @soulspace.center.
In times of trouble, may the Lord answer your cry.
May the name of the God of Jacob keep you safe from all harm.
May he send you help from his sanctuary
and strengthen you from Jerusalem.
May he remember all your gifts
and look favorably on your burnt offerings.
May he grant your heart’s desires
and make all your plans succeed.
May we shout for joy when we hear of your victory
and raise a victory banner in the name of our God.
May the Lord answer all your prayers.
Now I know that the Lord rescues his anointed king.
He will answer him from his holy heaven
and rescue him by his great power.
Some nations boast of their chariots and horses,
but we boast in the name of the Lord our God.
Those nations will fall down and collapse,
but we will rise up and stand firm.
Give victory to our king, O Lord!
Answer our cry for help.
Today, our contemplative prayer will be a Lectio Divina, or a “Divine Reading.” It’s an ancient practice for meditating on a passage of Scripture by reading it several times, each time with a slightly different focus. It has five steps: Reading, Meditation, Prayer, Contemplation, and Action.
Begin by finding a comfortable position and closing your eyes. Rest your hands on your lap, palms upward and open in a gesture of openness and receiving. Begin to take slow, deep breaths.
“God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.” Imagine yourself being caught in a shower of light, as though you are immersed in a sunbeam. Feel the light and warmth pouring over you, starting at the top of your head and moving downward, through your chest and arms, filling your hands, then moving downward over your legs and feet. Imagine God filling you with his light and his love.
Rest. Breathe. Feel God’s total acceptance and love.
Holy Spirit, come. I ask you to guide our time of prayer. I pray that your Living Word would speak to us and transform us into the likeness of Christ. I pray that each person here would experience the joy and peace of God’s presence.
Let’s begin the Lectio.
The first step is Reading. With your eyes still closed, listen to the words of the Scripture. I will read from Psalm 20, a song of David. Listen prayerfully, allowing God to guide your thoughts and responses. (Read Psalm).
Step two is Meditation: This time, as I read the Psalm, listen for the part of the Psalm that stands out to you, that seems to resonate with you most. Repeat it to yourself several times, letting it sink in. You may also read the Psalm on the screen if you wish. (Read Psalm) How are you responding to the Psalm? What emotions do you feel? What hopes and dreams, desires or memories come up in you? What is God saying to you about your life today? About the gifts you have been given or the person he has created you to be?
Step three is Prayer. What do you want to say to the Lord in response to his Word? Do you want to offer praise? Make a request or a confession? Or simply let God know what’s on your mind and heart? Tell God whatever you feel led to say. What is God saying back to you?
The fourth step is Contemplation: Contemplation is an invitation to rest in God’s presence. Move to a time of silence. Simply be with God and allow God to do his transforming work in you. How does it feel to be in God’s presence? How do you sense God transforming you during this time? What part of your life is he making new?
The final step in Lectio Divina is Action: Now that you have received God’s love and grace, how are you being invited to respond? What words or deeds is God leading you into? How will you serve others on his behalf in this coming week?
God, thank you for guiding this time of prayer. I pray that you would continue the transforming work you have begun within us and through us. Continue growing us in love for your Word, openness to the Holy Spirit, and in the likeness of your Son, Jesus.
As you go from here, may you love as Jesus loved, without reservation, prejudice, or fear. May you be free to live the life God has placed in you.
1) Jesus weeps at Lazarus’ tomb but he also experiences deep anger (v. 33, 38). Based on the passage, why do you think he feels such anger? Who or what is his anger directed at? How do the emotions Jesus shows here fit with – or challenge – your image of who Jesus is?
2) What are some things about this world now that make you angry or sorrowful? How does Jesus feel about those things? How does he feel about your anger and sorrow?
OBEY
Now that you have identified something that is troubling you about the world today – something that is not as Jesus intended it to be – how are you called to change it? Ask Jesus to show you one thing you can to do help make things right in the world, to help turn someone’s mourning to dancing, sorrow to joy (Psalm 30:11-12).
“Leap of Faith” is a devotional series on the Gospel of John for the Lent season. All readings are available on the Vineyard One NYC app, along with additional resources for Bible reading, worship, and prayer (IPhone app here; Google Play app here).
I’m cheating a bit today, and posting a draft I did a while back during a creative writing workshop I co-taught with a colleague. I don’t plan to post many unpublished poems, because I have (the vaguest of) vague plans in the back of my mind for submitting them for publication someday. But since this one was an exercise, and would need revision before being submission-ready, I think I can safely throw it up. It also fits in well with the Psalms reflections I’ve been posting. The impetus for the poem was the first sentence, “All is completed in beauty” – a quote from a source I unfortunately can’t remember.
It’s untitled for now, because I am the worst at coming up with titles. Suggestions for a title or revisions are welcomed!
(My preview page is not showing stanza breaks, and I’ve noticed this wordpress theme doesn’t show them in published versions either, so I may need to explore alternatives. But the poem is written as three quatrains and a final couplet.)
_______________________________________________
All is completed in beauty. Each rock
spinning alleluias from our silence
knows this in its secret heart. Art realized
from imperfection, anything held back
from full flowering of praise, finds its rest
in this endpoint that is not; transcendence
meaning, as it does, bursts of radiance
into infinity, like stars cresting
from their infant nebulae just beyond
the boundaries of visible light. We know
their warmth by the way the universe folds
around their fires, a lover’s response,
joyful gravity by which we are wooed
to God’s dwelling place, faith’s kingdom, our home.
Friday night is Bible study night at the Myers house, and has been for over a decade now. Tonight’s study featured friends of more than 10 years and a friend of less than 1. We’ve almost always started with dinner (Pre-made lasagna tonight, plus the transcendently crispy wings and buttery garlic knots from the small Italian place one block over) and informal conversation before moving to the study portion, but in the last few months, we’ve started by asking people to share their “highs” and “lows” for the week.
This routine is something we first learned about from friends. Their family would go around the dinner table every night, giving every person a chance to say the best and worst thing about their day. We loved the way it gave everyone, no matter their age, a chance to reflect, speak, listen, and connect, and we started doing the same thing with our family.
Recently, we revived this practice again, after I read about it in Sleeping with Bread: Holding What Gives You Life. Its dreamy watercolors make it look like a children’s bedtime story, and one of its aims is in fact to make the Ignatian examen accessible to children, as well as to anyone looking for a basic, gentle approach to this practice.
The examen is a way to review your day – how God was present, and how he might be inviting you to move forward – by asking yourself, “For what today was I most grateful? For what I was least grateful? Over time, paying attention to where in your days you find grace and life, and where you experience pain and resistance, points you towards how God might be moving and guiding you. It builds awareness and discernment, hope and faith.
For children, authors Dennis, Sheila Fabricant and Matthew Linn simplify the examen questions to precisely the ones we learned from our friends: “What was your high today? What was your low?” These are concepts children can easily understand – our five year old answers them quite vocally. We’ve also found them to be helpful in our small groups. They are non-threatening enough that most people don’t mind answering them, even visitors and new members. People can provide answers as detailed or as vague as they choose, sharing small ups and downs or deep joys and sorrows. Finally, the questions are easily explainable to English language learners; that’s an important criteria in our church, which was started specifically to welcome immigrants and internationals and to foster diversity.
Our group continues to gradually learn more and more about each other – what each person cares about, what they are going through, the unique ways they relate to God. And if we are good listeners, then each person has a chance to feel heard, valued, and loved.
Around the room tonight, the group’s highs and lows were predictably varied. My twelve-year old’s high was that there was no school on Monday; My kindergartener was excited that her graduation cap and gown were delivered today. There were a lot of lows pertaining to work – finding work, the wrong work, conflicts at work.
After completing our group examen – although we never actually use that term – we read Psalm 8 together. Psalm 8 juxtaposes God’s glory and the vast universe he’s made with his intimate care for all of his creatures, down to the very smallest. Verse two says “You have taught children and infants to tell of your strength.” Sleeping with Bread and the examen can help parents do just that – partner with God in teaching their children to be aware of both God’s majesty and his daily involvement in their lives. And it’s good for the adults too.
