With permission for non-commercial use: This Gospel scene is JESUS MAFA from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=48391. Original source: Éditions de l’Emmanuel, https://www.editions-emmanuel.com/contact/
Contemplating the mysteries of life, creation, and Bible passages
1. Use a Scene from a Gospel
You may take a scene from a Gospel and picture yourself as any person there with Jesus … even as a bystander at the back of a crowd. But be there. Listen. See. Feel whatever is real for you. Give some extra time. Respond in your own way. Write even briefly in your journal. In this way of praying, we remember that there is no time or space limit with God!
2.Imagine that you are in a storm . . . with Jesus
Time and place are not issues. You can be present in Jesus' time, at some moment in your past that you remember as fearful, or in the present.
Acknowledgement: Thanks to Editions de l’Emmanuel, https//www.editions-emmanuel.com.contact/ for both paintings of the “Jesus Calms the Sea” and “Jesus Does Not Condemn”.
With permission for non-commercial use: This Gospel scene is JESUS MAFA from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=48391. Original source: Éditions de l’Emmanuel, https://www.editions-emmanuel.com/contact/
3. Be in this scene
… as an accuser, one of the crowd, or the woman who was caught (in adultery). The Gospel of John 8: 1 -11 presents trials of a woman, her accusers, and the system itself that accuses only the woman and not the man. But Jesus does not condemn. See. Hear. Feel. Ask for Jesus' compassion for yourself and others.
4. Ponder, savour the mystery of the cosmos
Let awe, wonder and gratitude well up in you!
5. Remember how you survived tough situations
What helped you? Let the divine love you and heal you.
6. Focus on your breath …
Feel your pulse on your neck or wrist.
Softly, gently, repeat often, whispering, "Gift of Life. Gift of Love."
7. A Loving Moment
Remember a special experience of love. Savour it, feeling the energy love gives you. Connect this experience with, "God is LOVE" … or 'Love is divine."
8. Gently Go Deeper
Feel the love you have for a child … yours or any children. Be with God's promise, "I will never forget you. … You are precious in my sight."
9. Repeat a Mantra
A Mantra is simply a word or few words that you repeat many times, slowly, gently, gradually resting in them. Examples: “God is love,” “Thank-you,” or “Do not be afraid. Only trust.”
Another option is to say the prayer Jesus prayed every day: “Hear, Israel. The Lord is our God. The Lord alone.”
"Shema, Israel. Adonai elohenu. Adonai ehad.”
Or simply rest quietly attentive to divine presence and gift, feeling your pulse. You can do this anytime, anywhere, often.
Cosmic Fire, Heart of Fire --
My Favoured Contemplation
About 30 years ago at Ontario Place in Toronto, I saw Ring of Fire, an Imax film about the Pacific Volcanic Rim. Fire at the heart of Earth, fire burning as it poured down mountains and under water all fired my imagination. Plants, trees, forests grow out of what was burning lava. Beyond the film: Sun fire … warming Earth life, all sparkle in eyes, colour … planet on fire, heart of God.
This theme took hold and grew, building on my studies of Teilhard de Chardin in the late 1960s: Fire, heart of Earth, heart of God. Cosmic expression of the divine, God's presence, divine body on fire. Even the symbol of the Sacred Heart of Jesus fits so well … Heart of Jesus on fire/love.
Love at the heart … for all without exception no matter what. I tasted this love/fire as a child and often found contemplative space-time even in our large family and small house.
This year, reading Everything Ablaze by David Richo deepened all this.
Cosmic energy in evolution is going forward as we enter a new era, the Ecozoic Era of expanding consciousness, discovering the unity/oneness of all Earth/cosmos -- opposed with the dying stranglehold of patriarchy, supremacists. Beyond all our categories and illusions -- called 'normal' because of our adaptations to it. Actually, it was this basic foundation that strengthened me every day in South Sudan.
