Touching the Sunrise

What the Pharisee Missed about the Meaning of Blessing (Luke 18:9-14)

Published on March 9, 2024February 15, 2024 by Sr. Kathryn J Hermes, FSPLeave a comment

Jesus addressed this parable
to those who were convinced of their own righteousness
and despised everyone else.
“Two people went up to the temple area to pray;
one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector.
The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself,
‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity —
greedy, dishonest, adulterous — or even like this tax collector.
I fast twice a week,
and I pay tithes on my whole income.’
But the tax collector stood off at a distance
and would not even raise his eyes to heaven
but beat his breast and prayed,
‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’
I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former;
for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled,
and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Luke 18:9-14

Humility, that most misunderstood of virtues, saves us from the theatrical pretensions to which all of us are drawn. Who hasn’t boasted occasionally of something they’ve accomplished, or been grateful, even in the secret of their hearts, that they aren’t in the class of people who they view to be beneath them as regards intellectual capacity, religious actions, cultural possibilities, or moral behavior?

The Pharisee praying in the synagogue was not exaggerating. He most probably did keep the law for that is what Pharisees did: they followed the legal traditions ascribed to the traditions of the Fathers. However, the special kind of prayer called the berakhah or blessing, so much a part of Judaism, is meant to be an expression of wonder at how blessed God is. For example, a typical blessing Jews recite before eating or drinking would acknowledge and bless God as the creator of the food and drink about to be enjoyed. The blessing for bread praises God as the one who brings forth bread from the earth. The blessing for wearing new clothing praises God as the one who clothes the naked.

These blessing prayers make clear that our true dignity lies infinitely more in God that in ourselves and can only be reached when we are united to God. The first truth that leads us to a great wonder in God’s glory and his goodness to us we find in Genesis. We are created from nothing. This very gift of an eternal existence make us utterly dependent on God and acutely aware of our own unworthiness. In love God created us and in love God upholds us. We have no being of our own but what we receive from God. Blessing God for his glory is in order!

The tax collector here is an image of all those who realize that they are dependent on God, gifted with life and an eternal purpose whose object is God, and that they can never come to completion without being perfectly united to God. In this case, sorrow for sins, even the grieving that comes from knowing that we will never be all that we were created to be, is appropriate and actually a necessary part of our relationship with God. Does this also sound familiar? We begin every Mass with a Penitential Act followed by the Glory to God. We take our place once again as God’s dear children so in need of his grace to live lives of truth and goodness and beauty.

So today, bless and thank God as the source of every good in your life, acknowledge your dependence on God for reaching the final completion of your life in Christ Jesus, sorrow for your sins and never stop believing in God’s love for you.

Image: Aberdeen Art Gallery, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Praying with this Passage of Scripture

Jesus in the Desert: Entering into the Mystery (Horizons of the Heart 33)

Published on March 3, 2024February 15, 2024 by Sr. Kathryn J Hermes, FSP1 Comment

The grace we are asking of God: to discover Jesus in my own personal story so that my personal myth may be transformed in Jesus, as was that of Ignatius, that I will be disposed to hear God’s call and follow it wholeheartedly

Horizons of the Heart is inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius and my own notes from my thirty-day Ignatian retreat in 2022. See an index for the whole series.

Begin by relaxing your body, your mind, letting go of anxieties and ambitions and expectations and plans… Lay all that you notice and all that you are bare and exposed before the Father who welcomes you with a gaze that is gently loving. Settle into the silence that runs deeper than emotional turbulence… Move beyond imagination where you wait upon the stirring of the soul and the movement of the heart. Return to Jesus to find the Rest he offers…to welcome the gift…to become a child held in safe arms….

Entering into the Mystery

Ask Jesus that every aspect of this prayer will please him and will give glory to God.

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (Matthew 4:1).

Slowly read the passage for your meditation once. Leave some moments of silence and then read it again with the intention of entering into the story, of observing the details of what is happening. Take some time to set the stage and enter with your senses into the environment in which the story takes place.

Here in the desert Jesus was seen by no one. He wasn’t planning what he would do when he left the desert to begin his mystery. He wasn’t imagining what it would be like to be an itinerant preacher. He wasn’t thinking about the people he might ask to join him. He wasn’t strategizing. He wasn’t identified with work and ministry and role…

In the desert one learns that we are completely dependent on God. Walk with Jesus, wander around, hungry, tired…. Help him prepare a place to sleep for the night. Watch as he prays to his Father….

Sinking still deeper into the mystery of Christ, allow your heart to taste, to smell, to touch the infinite gentleness and sweetness of Jesus.

As you do this your mind’s activity will fade into the background, and the mystery you are intuitively contemplating will begin to take over and engulf you, planting within your spirit an inner knowledge of the Lord…. Take as much time with this as you are able….

You will at some point begin to intuitively sense the difference between the way Jesus spontaneously feels, speaks, and acts in the desert and the way you yourself feel, speak, and act in similar situations in your own life.

Where have been the deserts in your life? What have these treks through the wilderness been like for you?

Notice how Jesus abandons himself into his Father’s hands, as a child held in safe and loving arms… Taste the sweetness and the trust in this relationship between the Father and Jesus…

Another desert experience is recounted in Deuteronomy 8:2-4. God says he led the Israelites into the desert “to humble and test you… to know what is in your heart… to see if you will keep my commands…. I caused you to hunger and then fed you with manna to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” God tested the people to demonstrate to them that they were absolutely dependent upon him for their survival…. that they would see that God is their God, not just the God of their ancestors.

We cannot become holy by sheer effort, nor can we do good things for God solely by applying ourselves to the task…

What would it be like to rely upon God to give direction and meaning to your life?

We are, in truth, radically unable to determine what we will become. What could a life of radical dependence on God look like for you today?

Entering into the mystery of what we contemplate, we humbly allow Jesus to be our Master, to educate our senses and feelings according to the pattern of his own life and teachings. It is a matter of becoming saturated with Jesus’ own way of being and feeling. It is learning how to resonate with everything Jesus resonates with, as we gain this felt understanding through our contemplation, and of rejecting whatever Jesus rejects….

Allow your spirit to soak up what has been felt and known in this contemplative prayer.

Colloquy

Allow an image or object that encapsulates all these experiences to form in your mind. Take some time to speak with God about the meaning or significance of this object.

Ask Jesus to show you one specific gift he wishes to give you. Receive it and remain in stillness and quietly relaxed presence under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

Reviewing the Graces of Prayer

When you finish praying, write down the main gifts and discoveries from this time of intimate contemplation. What is one concrete thing you can do to solidify these gifts in your life.

Image: Moretto da Brescia, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Lavish Ways of Our God (Luke 16:19-31)

Published on February 29, 2024December 30, 2023 by Sr. Kathryn J Hermes, FSPLeave a comment

When God does things, he does them lavishly. The book of Genesis opens with the stunning array of all creation being poured forth from God’s hands in his limitless love. And here, in the familiar story of the rich man and Lazarus, we see two accounts of lavish living. The rich man clothed himself in fine linen and dined sumptuously, extravagantly, lavishly.

On the other hand, we see Lazarus taken after his death to the bosom of Abraham, a term which means being in the seat of honor at a banquet. One of my favorite word-paintings of God’s lavish feast-giving is penned by the prophet Isaiah:

On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines,
of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear (Is. 25:6).

Simply reading these words often brings tears to my eyes. There are so many who are suffering under burdens that weigh them down, crushing burdens mostly not of their own making. They are afraid to lift their eyes to this feast of rich food that “the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples.”

God is telling you, however, “I want you at this banquet. Don’t make banquets of your own. Don’t hoard riches on this earth for yourself. Don’t give up hope when you are not wealthy. Trust entirely in my lavish love for you.”

Let us break open this lavish love of our God. The word “lavish” appears in 1 John 3:1, which reads, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (NIV)

Paul helps us understand what this means as he almost sings exultantly:

“[God] raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable [we could read here, lavish] riches of his grace in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:6-7).

The riches of God’s grace are not able to be measured, and they will be lavished on us for all eternity. In fact it was take eternal ages for God to show us the riches of his grace through the kindness shown to us in Christ Jesus his Son. God will be ever greater in glory and we will be ever more completely satisfied with the outpouring of his unending mercies.

There in the “bosom of Abraham,” like Lazarus, our tears will be wiped away, we will finally rest in the security of God’s provision and loving protection. We will be home in our God who can never be outdone in his lavish kindness.

Let us lift our eyes from our own wealth, however great or small it may be, and rest our gaze on the riches of God given to us even now in Christ Jesus: to live in communion with God through the sacraments in ever closer intimacy and unending joy.

Praying with this Passage of Scripture

Lectio Divina is a way of listening to God as he speaks in his Word. It is a practice of communicating with God through Scripture and attending to God’s presence and what he wishes to tell us. In this slow and prayerful reading of the Word of God, we allow ourselves to be transformed by the Spirit who forms us into the image of Christ. There are four movements in Lectio Divina: Read (lectio), Meditate (meditation), Pray (oratio), Contemplate (contemplation).

Begin by finding a still space to pray. Breathe deeply and become quieter within. Abandon any agenda, worries or thoughts you bring to this prayer and entrust these things to the merciful care of God. Ask for the grace to be receptive to what God will speak to you through this Scripture reading. Grant me, Jesus Divine Master, to be able to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God and your unfathomable riches. Grant that your word penetrate my soul; guide my steps, and brighten my way till the day dawns and darkness dissipates, you who live and reign forever and ever Ame

Read (lectio)
Begin by slowly and meditatively reading your Scripture passage out loud. Listen for a particular word or phrase that speaks to you at this moment and sit with it for a time.

Jesus said to the Pharisees:
“There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen
and dined sumptuously each day.

He customarily clothed himself in fine linen, an outer garment dyed purple and an inner garment of fine linen made of flax. He dined sumptuously, extravagantly, lavishly.

And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores,
who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps
that fell from the rich man’s table.
Dogs even used to come and lick his sores.
When the poor man died,
he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham.

The rich man also died and was buried,
and from the netherworld, where he was in torment,
he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off
and Lazarus at his side.
And he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me.
Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue,
for I am suffering torment in these flames.’
Abraham replied, ‘My child,
remember that you received what was good during your lifetime
while Lazarus likewise received what was bad;
but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented.
Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established
to prevent anyone from crossing
who might wish to go from our side to yours
or from your side to ours.’
He said, ‘Then I beg you, father, send him
to my father’s house,
for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them,
lest they too come to this place of torment.’
But Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets.
Let them listen to them.’
He said, ‘Oh no, father Abraham,
but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
Then Abraham said,
‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets,
neither will they be persuaded
if someone should rise from the dead.'”
(Luke 16:19-31)

Meditate (meditatio)
Read the same passage a second time. As you re-engage the text, let the word or phrase that stood out become your invitation to speak from your heart with God who wishes to share his heart with you. Allow this word or phrase to wash over you and permeate your thoughts and feelings. You may wish to repeat this phrase quietly and gently for a period of time

Pray (oratio)
Read the text a third time. Listen for what God is saying to you. Speak heart to heart with God. Notice the feelings that this conversation with God raises up within you. Share with God what you notice about your response to this conversation. You may wish to return to repeating the phrase quietly and gently, allowing it to permeate you more and more deeply.

Contemplate (contemplatio)
Read the text a final time. Now be still and rest in God’s embrace. Ask God to give you a gift to take with you from this prayer. You might ask God if he is inviting you to do some action, for instance, make some change in your thoughts, attitudes or reactions, in the way you speak or how you treat others. Thank God for this gift and invitation as you conclude your prayer.

Image by Giani Pralea from Pixabay

Jesus in the Desert: Making Space for the Word (Horizons of the Heart 32)

Published on February 18, 2024February 15, 2024 by Sr. Kathryn J Hermes, FSP1 Comment

Horizons of the Heart is inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius and my own notes from my thirty-day Ignatian retreat in 2022. See an index for the whole series.

Making Space for the Word

Ask Jesus that every aspect of this prayer will please him and will give glory to God.

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (Matthew 4:1).

Slowly read the passage for your meditation once. Leave some moments of silence and then read it again with the intention of entering into the story, of observing the details of what is happening. Take some time to set the stage and picture the environment in which the story takes place.…

The Judean desert was a rocky and barren place… In the Bible, the desert is an image of loss of control, of separation from the safety offered by villages and family, and of our utter dependence on God since without resources in these wastelands one would certainly die… Feel the heat on your face… Notice your thirst… Experience hunger… Bear the loneliness, no one as far as the eye can see… “It is through our senses that we feel the ‘touch’ within the heart (Exx 335), and then the heart expands in feelings of happiness, peace and serenity, and in a renewal of spiritual strength, along with desires to ‘move forward’ (Exx 315, 329) (Imitating Christ our Lord with the Senses: Sensing and Feeling in the Exercises: Antonio Guillen (The Way, 47/1-2 (Jan/April 2008), 225-241).

Read the passage of Scripture again.

Let the story expand from the few verses that are recounted in Scripture to what these forty days in the desert would have been like for Jesus, what he would have experienced or needed or felt, how he lived these events interiorly, how he expressed himself….

With your senses of sight, of hearing, of touch immerse yourself in the event. Is there any way you can be of help to Jesus. If so, imagine yourself entering the story through these actions. Look around for a particular moment that seems to be of greater importance to you, to catch your attention.

The desert is for Jesus a place of love. Here he has eyes and heart only for the Father. As the days of his forty day retreat go on, Jesus becomes more and more ready to live and die on the terms of love…. He hands himself over to the Father, confident in his love, willing to live and die for love of me.

Psalm 63:1:

You, God, are my God,
    earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
    my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
    where there is no water.

Jesus asks: Who will join me? Who will love like me? Who will trust my Father this completely?

Adore Jesus in the desert… In your inspired imagination show him reverence… Speak to him about these questions he asks, have an honest conversation.

This deeper contemplation of Jesus in the Gospels is an apprenticeship of our feelings and senses in which we are formed in such a way that we feel with Jesus, that our feelings becomes those of Jesus, and our spontaneous reactions of personal promotion and self-protection are gradually curbed and re-invented so that we spontaneously react as Jesus does.

Ask for the grace “to know Jesus intimately, to love him more intensely, and so to follow him more closely.”

Colloquy

Allow an image or object that encapsulates all these experiences to form in your mind. Take some time to speak with God about the meaning or significance of this object.

Ask Jesus to show you one specific gift he wishes to give you. Receive it and remain in stillness and quietly relaxed presence under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

Reviewing the Graces of Prayer

When you finish praying, write down the main gifts and discoveries from this time of intimate contemplation. What is one concrete thing you can do to solidify these gifts in your life.

Image: Briton Riviere: Temptation in the Wilderness, public domain, Wikimedia Commons

There is no leprosy that frightens Jesus away (Mark 1:40-45)

Published on February 11, 2024December 30, 2023 by Sr. Kathryn J Hermes, FSPLeave a comment

Two words in this Gospel are almost terrifying. Jesus “touched him.”

So far removed are we from what leprosy signified in biblical times, that this image of Jesus stretching out his hand to touch a person whose body was consumed by the disease has no affect on us.

Lepers were the walking dead who were banished to live outside towns in caves, tents, or garbage dumps. Even breathing the same air as a leper was thought to be dangerous, since leprosy was considered highly contagious. Leprosy consumed a person’s body, leaving stumps where fingers, hands, feet, or noses had once been. The laws dictated that lepers were to maintain twelve steps distance from others, cover their mouths with a cloth, and cry out “unclean, unclean” to announce their presence.

Most of us still have lingering in our memories the fear we experienced with COVID-19, when even being within six feet of another or breathing the same air as they, conjured up the possibility of a painful death. We learned to stay from others to protect ourselves and those we love.

Jesus, instead, “touched” the leper.

Jesus stepped over the imaginary line of demarcation, entering into the dangerous zone of closeness with the leper.

Jesus got close enough to this man to smell the putrid smell of his decaying flesh. He could feel the man’s foul breath on his face.

Jesus got closer still in order to touch the body of the leper, putting his fingers into the wounds of oozing sores.

Jesus conveyed to this man that he wanted so much that he would be healed that he himself was willing to risk his life, to give his life.

Jesus was close enough to look directly into the face of a person whose face was horrifically disfigured and perhaps even unrecognizable.

And Jesus touched him.

Sometimes we may feel that we have become disfigured, unrecognizable, because of the wounds we have received in our life and the brokenness of our own sin.

And Jesus touches us.

There are certain others in our life that we consider “lepers” in the sense that they think, speak, or act in ways that threaten us or that walk outside the path of discipleship of the Lord Jesus.

And Jesus touches them.

There is no leprosy that frightens Jesus away, no disfigurement that makes him draw back. One day, when thinking of certain others in my life, wondering how they could be at peace with what they were doing, I heard God say to me this: “I know. Only I know.”

Jesus touches each of us in the places of our leprosy. We are each of us known intimately and lovingly by a God unafraid to enter into our misery and travel with us the journey to the Kingdom.

Today you might ask yourself in a moment of prayer: “Jesus, what does this say about you and about me?”

Praying with this Passage of Scripture

Lectio Divina is a way of listening to God as he speaks in his Word. It is a practice of communicating with God through Scripture and attending to God’s presence and what he wishes to tell us. In this slow and prayerful reading of the Word of God, we allow ourselves to be transformed by the Spirit who forms us into the image of Christ. There are four movements in Lectio Divina: Read (lectio), Meditate (meditation), Pray (oratio), Contemplate (contemplation).

Begin by finding a still space to pray. Breathe deeply and become quieter within. Abandon any agenda, worries or thoughts you bring to this prayer and entrust these things to the merciful care of God. Ask for the grace to be receptive to what God will speak to you through this Scripture reading. Grant me, Jesus Divine Master, to be able to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God and your unfathomable riches. Grant that your word penetrate my soul; guide my steps, and brighten my way till the day dawns and darkness dissipates, you who live and reign forever and ever Ame

Read (lectio)
Begin by slowly and meditatively reading your Scripture passage out loud. Listen for a particular word or phrase that speaks to you at this moment and sit with it for a time.

A leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged him and said,
“If you wish, you can make me clean.”
Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand,
touched him, and said to him,
“I do will it. Be made clean.”
The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.
Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once.
He said to him, “See that you tell no one anything,
but go, show yourself to the priest
and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed;
that will be proof for them.”
The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter.
He spread the report abroad
so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly.
He remained outside in deserted places,
and people kept coming to him from everywhere.
(Mark 1:40-45)

Meditate (meditatio)
Read the same passage a second time. As you re-engage the text, let the word or phrase that stood out become your invitation to speak from your heart with God who wishes to share his heart with you. Allow this word or phrase to wash over you and permeate your thoughts and feelings. You may wish to repeat this phrase quietly and gently for a period of time

Pray (oratio)
Read the text a third time. Listen for what God is saying to you. Speak heart to heart with God. Notice the feelings that this conversation with God raises up within you. Share with God what you notice about your response to this conversation. You may wish to return to repeating the phrase quietly and gently, allowing it to permeate you more and more deeply.

Contemplate (contemplatio)
Read the text a final time. Now be still and rest in God’s embrace. Ask God to give you a gift to take with you from this prayer. You might ask God if he is inviting you to do some action, for instance, make some change in your thoughts, attitudes or reactions, in the way you speak or how you treat others. Thank God for this gift and invitation as you conclude your prayer.

Image: Dzambel at Cathopic

Want a way to live in wonder at all God does? (Mark 4:26-34)

Published on January 26, 2024December 30, 2023 by Sr. Kathryn J Hermes, FSP1 Comment

I will be the first to admit I don’t have a “green thumb.” My forays into gardening and planting are very limited. Perhaps for this very reason, I am still in awe when some green thing under my care actually flourishes. A few months ago I rescued two leaves which had been unceremoniously cut off from a plant so that it would have more room to grow. I place them in a small dish of water “just to see what would happen.” Maybe I can grow another plant, I thought. Then I promptly left on retreat for two weeks.

Imagine my excitement upon my return when I noticed that each leaf had the tiniest white almost transparent roots at their base! Clearly, I couldn’t take the glory for this gardening miracle. I hadn’t even been home. But there it was. The water almost evaporated in the dish that had become their home, and yet these leaves rescued from the garbage two weeks earlier were now beginning to become new plants in their own right.

“This is how it is with the Kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how.”

The Kingdom of God begins in the quietest of ways, in a word of encouragement, an offer to pick up something at the grocery store for a housebound neighbor, a prayer for the world as it suffers the disharmony caused by war and falsehood, a decision to use the media responsibly. We might feel that in the face of the needs of others, our contribution is small. But isn’t that just the point? It is not our contribution at all, it is the Kingdom of God. We take the next good step in the important and more insignificant moments of our life, and God is the one who gives the growth.

Timothy and Titus were disciples of the great apostle Paul. They learned from him the power of the Word, that it is not our actions and proclamations that make the difference, but the power of God in Christ who does all things. So have great courage that your work in the Lord’s field, whatever it may be, will bear God’s great fruit.

Praying with this Passage of Scripture

Lectio Divina is a way of listening to God as he speaks in his Word. It is a practice of communicating with God through Scripture and attending to God’s presence and what he wishes to tell us. In this slow and prayerful reading of the Word of God, we allow ourselves to be transformed by the Spirit who forms us into the image of Christ. There are four movements in Lectio Divina: Read (lectio), Meditate (meditation), Pray (oratio), Contemplate (contemplation).

Begin by finding a still space to pray. Breathe deeply and become quieter within. Abandon any agenda, worries or thoughts you bring to this prayer and entrust these things to the merciful care of God. Ask for the grace to be receptive to what God will speak to you through this Scripture reading. Grant me, Jesus Divine Master, to be able to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God and your unfathomable riches. Grant that your word penetrate my soul; guide my steps, and brighten my way till the day dawns and darkness dissipates, you who live and reign forever and ever Ame

Read (lectio)
Begin by slowly and meditatively reading your Scripture passage out loud. Listen for a particular word or phrase that speaks to you at this moment and sit with it for a time.

The Parable of the Growing Seed

He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”

The Parable of the Mustard Seed

Again he said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.”

With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything. (Mark 4:26-34)

Meditate (meditatio)
Read the same passage a second time. As you re-engage the text, let the word or phrase that stood out become your invitation to speak from your heart with God who wishes to share his heart with you. Allow this word or phrase to wash over you and permeate your thoughts and feelings. You may wish to repeat this phrase quietly and gently for a period of time

Pray (oratio)
Read the text a third time. Listen for what God is saying to you. Speak heart to heart with God. Notice the feelings that this conversation with God raises up within you. Share with God what you notice about your response to this conversation. You may wish to return to repeating the phrase quietly and gently, allowing it to permeate you more and more deeply.

Contemplate (contemplatio)
Read the text a final time. Now be still and rest in God’s embrace. Ask God to give you a gift to take with you from this prayer. You might ask God if he is inviting you to do some action, for instance, make some change in your thoughts, attitudes or reactions, in the way you speak or how you treat others. Thank God for this gift and invitation as you conclude your prayer.

Image: Myriams-Fotos; pixabay.com