prayer – Page 2 – Creative Spiritual Directions

ert of my inertia

copyright creative-spiritual-directions.com heart — Week 3 Today’s Readings Hosea 5:15-6:6 Lk:18:9-14

You are my call; my peace,

I have known You.

Your peace – sublime reassurance,

rest, acceptance, serenity trust.

You have taken me to You

I chose to be embedded;

enmeshed, felted; immersed and baptised in You.

I thank you, protect me God

in You is my refuge –

haven of life, of my security and truth.

To You I say – ‘You are my Lord’.

My happiness is in none of these sacred spirits of the earth,

nothing satisfies, nothing lasts

but ineffable embracing life and love.

Transcent life and light,

e(a)rt of my inertia.

Spirit to my spirit,

ineffable constant to my waivering,

serene sublimity to my flailing,

security, tranquility to my tussling,

reassurance to my tarrying.

My birthright, fullness, gift, freedom,

unbounded, limitless beyond expectation

I relate to you –

consumation.

The measuring line marks out for me a delightful place,

You are my direction, my dance, my light, my gift,

my vision, my vigour, my process, my flow,

my ert –

ert of my art, You are.

Therefore I am being; human and spirit with You.

You will teach me the path of life,

unbounded joy in Your presence,

forever beside You.

Thou art

Yahweh my inheritance.

(A refrain echoing from Ps 16)

Awesome One

copyright creative-spiritual-directions.com lotus (6) — Week 3 Lent Today’s Scriptures Hosea 14:2-10 Mark 12:28-34

I am praying again, Awesome One.

You hear me again, as words

from the depths of me

rush toward you in the wind.

…

I yearn to be held

in the great hands of your heart”.

Extract from “The Book of Hours: Love poems to God” by Rainer Maria Rilke*

One of my other favourite poems from Rilke is:

“Go to the limits of your longing”. For recitation click red arrow.

To view all the words and other poems please go to:

http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/R/RilkeRainerM/Iamprayingag/index.html

Recommended Reading:

“In the Company of Rilke:

Why a 20th-century visionary poet speaks so eloquently to 21st century readers yearning for inwardness, beauty & spiritual connection.”

by Stephanie Dowrick, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest. NSW. 2009

“Awesome God” can be found in Rilke’s “Book of Hours” translated by Joanna Macy, Author Anita Barrows. Riverhead Books, Penguin. NY. 1996.*

I wrote this verse as the word ‘innocence’ invited me this morning to ‘feel out’ its dimensions within me. In rising awareness of the work of Michael Leunig – artist, poet, philospher and officially declared Australian Living Treasure in 1999, I sought out an image and had NO knowledge of what follows. All within me blossomed as I discovered a gem -an extract follows from:

**“Ideas of Spirituality, Art and Innocence” by Michael Leunig*:**

“Why do I choose to put together this wonderful holy trinity of spirituality, art and innocence? … The simple truth is that I believe these things are treasures that matter hugely to the health of the individual and society…

I have come to understand my spirituality as an ongoing internal lyrical state of consciousness, semi-consciousness and unconsciousness in which I find meaning, comfort, refuge, inspiration, mystery and strength. …

With spirit, one is able to have and hold many feelings, and live a felt life. The spirit supports and negotiates between our feelings, instincts and intuitions …

I cannot help but think that a rich and confident spiritual life is a form of genius. …

The spirit lies at the heart of our character and personality; our individual, divine self, which is one of the greatest treasures we will ever have access to. …

Any thoughts of spirituality lead me quite naturally to the idea of art because in my view, and in my experience, art is an aspect or an expression of our individual spiritual reality.

I make the point that mystery is not confusion, rather it is an enchantment of the imagination and spirit. Indeed art is a spiritual project. …

In essence, spirituality and art are interwoven in their raw searching, in their expression, in their courageous unknowing, in their joy and darkness and in their radiant innocent strength which finds its way into the human heart. …

A direct link to the wondrous, innocent experiences of childhood might, in mature age, be called mature innocence. … I have found some of my most meaningful, useful and joyous work there. It is my studio within my studio. We might also understand mature innocence as mindfulness.”

I encourage you to visit the site for his full essay given as keynote presentation at 10th Dialogue Australasia Network Conference, 11 April 2015. http://www.leunig.com.au/ideas/spirituality-art-innocence?showall=1&limitstart= Words and image provided with gracious courtesy of Michael Leunig.

What is God waiting for?

copyright creative spiritual directions.com — Week 3 Lent
Scriptures: Exod 3:1-8,13-15 , 1Cor 10:1-6,10-12 Lk 13:1-9

God is always there for us … waiting for our ………………..

(Your chance here to put in an answer …. what comes to your mind?)

Over these last few weeks of Lent, the children have been singing as part of our liturgy. I always find it uplifting particularly as their songs are so fresh and new to me.

However, twice lately I have been jarred by the words of a song they sing… and it left me thinking quite seriously…. Each time I noticed the disturbing affect on me as I read the words and heard them sing:

“God is always there for us…waiting for our crime”.

Do you believe that? I certainly don’t… that was the source of my concern. What sort of a version of God do we have? Worth thinking about further I pondered. Who is your God ? – Do we believe in a God of Mercy and Compassion? After deliberating over the two occasions I raised it with the co-ordinator who agreed to check the typing. I found the unofficial website with lyrics had this version also.

Still perplexed, I contacted the songwriter who confirmed indeed the words are ” waiting for our CRY!”

Now the merciful God whom I knew I could turn to has appeared in the song, not the God of judgement and condemnation.

It may be simple, yet so many times little typos like this can be either amusing or misleading. In this case I am glad to have the children, and the child in me, know that God is waiting for our cries.

May it be in this season of Lent we can keep examining our images of God and discover the truth and depth of Divine Mercy.

The Lord is kind and merciful … Psalm 102: vs. 1, 4

The Lord is compassion and love

Slow to anger and rich in mercy

Energy of Faith

copyright creative spiritual directions. com dawning — Week 2 Lent
Today’s Readings: Gen 37:3-4,12-13,17-28 Matt 21:33-43,45-46

It is an interesting reality – our personal energy. In some ways I have often had high energy… it is a clear gift. I see others do not have it in the same way it comes to me. But it is there in each of us. It is the power with which we each embrace life and live it.

Our energy for life is in some way tied particularly to our faith and values. It is a zeal for life itself and a strength of conviction allied to a sense of meaning and purpose. In times when I had become disillusioned or lost my way, my energy also waned until I found a new connection to meaning within myself.

There seems a correlation between the amount I give of myself in circumstances and the personal sense I have of it being in accord with my values. It is a faith that I am in the right place, or the right work or right standing with others….it is an outworking of my core beliefs about myself, my path and place at the time.

Faith in the rightness of things generates the energy that things are worth doing and enables me to go the extra mile when needed. Our commitment to our core beliefs, whether specifically religious or not, is lived out in small steps daily. We step out incrementally growing in our faith and test its limits.

Two Insights from Thich Nhat Hanh, Author and Buddist monk.
Taken from: “Taming the Tiger Within: Meditations on Transforming Difficult Emotions.”

“Faith is the outcome of your life. As faith continues to grow, you continue to get the energy, because faith is also an energy like love. If we look deeply into the nature of our love, we will also see our faith. When we have faith in us, we are no longer afraid of anything.”

and

“When you have faith, you have a lot of energy. When you believe in something really good, true, and beautiful, you are very alive.”

Thich Nhat Hanh -“Taming the Tiger Within: Meditations on Transforming Difficult Emotions.”p239, 241. Riverhead Books, Penguin Publ. NY. 2004.

An invitation

copyright creative-spiritual-directions. com heart and word (11) — Week 2 Lent Today’s Scriptures: Jer 18:18-20 Matt: 20:17-28

Recently I was as asked if I won $1m how would I spend it?

Maybe Lent is like that… We are reminded that we are being invited to share in a great gift of graces and a new life. How will we spend Lent?

Lent is a time where we can ponder on the true treasures we desire, our deepest yearnings and longings and cry out for grace to truly seek after these. The graces of healing, forgiveness and peace are at heart of our deepest desires. All things can be changed and made new.

I make 3 offerings:

A meditation:

An extract from short essay by Fr. Daniel O’Leary entitled “Forging in the Smithy of the Soul –Sometimes we must sweat blood to stay faithful”. *

In part he says : “We endeavour to short-circuit the relentless call of Christ. We want to equate the increase in our religious behaviour during Lent with growth in holiness. There is, however, no cheap grace. …

In our mistaking of the outward ego for the inner essence we are unknowingly denying ourselves the possibility of any radical conversion. …

In Lent we grow by dying. There is no other way. In this dying we recognise the false face we’ve grown used to, the daily lies we tell, the thoughts of deception that crowd our minds, the infidelities we do not commit only because we might get caught, the lovelessness of our lives parading as shallow compassion, our collusion with conformity, our fear of beauty and big dreams…. p.28-29

I recommend the full very short essay, contained in “Already Within” by Fr. Daniel O’Leary and his weekly reflections at: http://djoleary.com/pages/general.htm

A song “And So” by Kirtana from her album “Unseen Grace.”

According to Wikipedeia kirtana is Sanskrit for “praise; eulogy” and is call and response chanting in India’s devotional traditions. It involves hymns, chanting or mantras to musical accompaniment.

An image/prayer

Some days ago, I strolled among some gums and grasses quietly pondering and there before me was this short prayer – in the photo at the top of the page. Just as it came to me…I give it to you- the Invitation to Repentance….

Look inside

Blue Space by Dark Dissolution

A selection of 3 poems of 148 poems by
Mewlana Jalaluddin RUMI

There is Life-Force within your Soul

There is a life-force within your soul,
seek that life.
There is a gem in the mountain of your body,
seek that mine.
O traveller, if you are in search of That
Don’t look outside, look inside yourself
and seek That.

There Is A Way

There is a way between voice and presence
where information flows.
In disciplined silence it opens.
With wandering talk it closes.

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
As an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

Rumi,as he is know in the west, was born in the Persian Empire (now Afghanistan) in 1207. He was a theologian, scholar and professor who wrote great mystical Sufi poetry.

Select reading: http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Richard-Rohr-s-Meditation–Rumi.html?soid=1103098668616&aid=8aTnVT82V-0

This page is based on an extract of poems 104 and 121 published on Poemhunter website http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-guest-house-2/

This copyrighted work accessed via Wikipedia on Mewlana Jalaluddin Rumi; and is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the CC-BY-SA.

Artwork used with permission Blue Space by darkdissolution

Awareness

point of view streetscapes ncote, fairfield bwk 082 — **First Week of Lent Today’s Readings: Is 55:10-11 Mt 6:7-15**

It seems strange that the best way of knowing ourself is through our failings. Accepting our faults with a compassionate and true heart enables us to come into a place of inner peace and freedom.

In loss, grief or inner distress. .. we grope in pain to embrace the hidden self – fallible and frail. We meet our limits and our reality … in a way – our ‘true self’.

Our ‘true self’ is not out there floating on the clouds in some ideal person, but grounded, vulnerable and wounded.

The radical part of this, for me, is that in ‘knowing’ my own weakness I have also come into a ‘knowing’ of my God and grown in compassion for others. This is not new for those who have been through the valleys, but it is renewing and always a revelation.

In times of travail, as I cried out “If you are real God, show yourself .. come,” – my mustard seed of faith, carried in the smallest cry, reached the highest heavens. Grace came and answered my deepest needs.

I did not think my deepest need was to be found in relationship with God. But this became the centre of a pivotal knowing by experience. This was my first step into a life of faith…to call, wait and hope. This is the faith life -to live in the unknowing waiting expectantly for the light.

The Spirit meets us in our powerlessness and we are joined to a new Truth – our solace and our strength is in God alone. All else is delusion or illusion of our mind attempting to reinterpret our deep experience.

Becoming aware of our inner truth is an ongoing process of constantly turning back and discovering God and self in relationship.

Lent is a season of grace and compassion. It is a time in which we set aside judgement and condemnation of self and others and turn inward to find new love and realise our hopes.

Over time we get in touch with our frailty and fault lines and the Spirit leads us with a humble contrite heart to repentance, forgiveness, healing and renewed life.

We ‘Trust in the slow works of God’ ∗ and in the unfolding mystery of our lives. The Poetry and Prayer Pages may be helpful to your quiet reflections and include a work from ∗Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.

Bewildered

copyright creative-spiritual-directions dry — **Today’s Scriptures: Deut 26:4-10 Romans 8-13 Luke 4:1-13**

It is not easy to come to a quiet place and pray. Some times we back off from the spiritual journey. We may become aware of fears that are surfacing, or feel confronted or overwhelmed by a sense of our vulnerability or exposure in prayer.

With the best intentions we resist settling into the quiet silence and sometimes flee into activities, reading or mental activity in an unconscious attempt to allay the tremors or succumb to diversions.

Alone we feel our powerlessness against temptations…

Even in the most isolated of places we bring with us our distractions and attractions which are prone to disturb us. Yet, in these words of Luke 4:1 we may find a new peace –

“Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus … was led by the Spirit through the wilderness, being tempted there”.

It was the work of the Holy Spirit to lead Jesus through temptations and desert. And he prevailed. We are all disciples. The master calls and leads. We pray as we were taught “lead us not into temptation…deliver from evil”…

As we come to our place of meeting, we too seek the Holy Spirit as our guide and counsellor. We may be tested sorely in entering the wilderness of our own interior, but it is only with the Spirit, who will teach us all things, that we will come to the fullness of life we seek. In seeking the Spirit we are seeking and discovering what the mystics call ‘the ground of our being’.

Only then can we set aside the temptations, overcome the inner struggles and distractions, and persevering in trust, gradually grow into a deeper union with the Spirit. Alone we can do nothing or may even become stranded or displaced or dishevelled in our journey. Our journey is from the self focus and obsession to immersion in the mysterious Other whom Rudolf Otto termed ‘mysterium tremendum et fascinans’.

The word of God empowers each of us.

Be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Retreating and backing away

collection late 2014 sudanese baptism and Christmas 2015 007 - Copy — **Today’s Scriptures: Isa 58-9-14 Luke 5:27-32**

Today I had to reverse back down a narrow path and around a bend, most unexpectedly. I realised that the view going backwards is always different and sometimes difficult. I amusedly saw how I was both backing away and retreating…it left me pondering…

Hindsight is a valuable tool to be part of our guide. Upon reflection, we can re-enter past experiences, and refresh encounters that were particularly important for us. We can find strong positive influences and quite negative factors

Taking note of really significant events and people in our past can help us decide to move forward in new directions. We can see more clearly what the real needs are which may enable us to grow into our personal fullness and we can invite into our life new mentors, new voices and new music to dance to. We can choose in whose steps we walk.

A spiritual retreat is a way of stepping back over a period of time, usually with some guidance, to be able to recognize the unique ways in which the Spirit has been working in our lives and to attune to the ways in which we may be called into the future.

We retreat into that sacred place where we go to pray … intently entrusting our time, emotions, anxieties and needs to the Holy Spirit as our companion and guide.

As we set aside the past patterns and come with a sense of holy indifference as to future options, we allow a holy spaciousness to enter our vision. Without being attached to any outcome, we let our own truth arise and simply attend to our feelings and responses. A spiritual guide prayerfully supports each retreatants unique journey. Quiet and time allow for the inner most things of our heart to arise from deep within.

I must say in retreating, there is sometimes a sense of a need to back away also … the spiritual path can be tremulous and mysterious.

It is empowered by the Holy Spirit, the dynamo, the dynamic of life.

PSALM 139 As your accompaniment

Yahweh, you examine me and know me,

you know if I am standing or sitting,

you read my thoughts from far away,

whether I walk or lie down, you are watching,

you know every detail of my conduct. vs.1-3

If I flew to the point of sunrise,

or westward across the sea,

your hand would still be guiding me,

your right hand holding me. vs. 9-10

See SELECT READINGS NIV bible link

I am praying again, Awesome One.

You hear me again, as words

from the depths of me

rush toward you in the wind.

…

…

I yearn to be held

in the great hands of your heart”.

Week 3 Lent Today’s Readings: Deut 4:1,5-9 Matt 5:17-19

Innocence

in a sense

is like incense …. innocence…

it rises up and offers something of its very being

to inner sense

innocence – seemingly elusive yet

my inner sense

in a sense – it touches me … I behold it,

in a sense – I perceive its vapour,

I am in sense arising inner sense

an incense

to my being in innocence.

“Ideas of Spirituality, Art and Innocence” by Michael Leunig*:

Two Insights from Thich Nhat Hanh, Author and Buddist monk. Taken from: “Taming the Tiger Within: Meditations on Transforming Difficult Emotions.”