pray share chat 9/1/2021 Apocalyptic Hope

This meeting is focused on Apocalyptic Hope.

 1.   meditation

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yobRPCcwcjI

2.  kathy sherman hold on to hope

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7SoSx3DQG1A

 

3.  Narrative

Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation

From the Center for Action and Contemplation

Week Seventeen: Apocalyptic Hope

Everything Is Passing Away

 

Jesus said to his disciples, “In those days, after the tribulation, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. And the stars will fall from the sky. And the powers in the heavens will be shaken, and they will see ‘the human one coming on the clouds’ with great power and glory. . . . Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” (Mark 13:24–27, 31)

Apart from the book of Revelation, Mark 13, along with parallel Gospel passages, is a primary example of apocalyptic literature in the New Testament. It is Jesus’ way of showing that everything is passing away. If we don’t hold this counterpoint in mind, we do one of two things: we take this world far too seriously, or we try to hold on to everything. We think it’s all going to last, but it isn’t. The 21st century, the United States of America, capitalism, our churches and our political parties, and all the rest are passing away. We might recall the Buddhist heart sutra “Gone, gone, entirely gone” when we watch old movies—even celebrities and stars die. We can take this as a morbid lesson, or we can receive it as the truth ahead of time, so we’re not surprised, disappointed, and angry when it happens in our generation.

The spiritual message is really quite simple, although a very hard one for us to learn. It is saying that nothing is permanent. Apocalyptic literature tells us to be prepared for that, so we won’t be shocked or scandalized when someone dies, or something is destroyed. You might learn this truth the moment after you hear of the death of your mother or father, when the rug is pulled out from beneath you. Or, during that moment when you go to the doctor and get a fatal diagnosis and are told you have three months left to live. Or when your house is destroyed by a tornado or flood in seconds. Apocalyptic literature describes such moments and crises. Again, this message is not meant to be heard as a threat, but as a truth that nothing lasts forever. Our great hope is that there will be something we can grasp onto, something that’s eternal, something that’s God. We want the absoluteness of God, the eternity of God, and we can’t fully find it here.

God puts us in a world of passing things where everything changes and nothing remains the same. The only thing that doesn’t change is change itself. It’s a hard lesson to learn. It helps us appreciate that everything is a gift. We didn’t create it. We don’t deserve it. It will not last, but while we breathe it in, we can enjoy it, and know that it is another moment of God, another moment of life. People who take this moment seriously take every moment seriously, and those are the people who are ready for heaven. If religion isn’t leading us into an eternal now, an eternal moment, an always-true moment, an always-love moment, then we have not lived the moment at all.

Adapted from Richard Rohr, “The End of Worlds,” homily, November 15, 2015; and

“A Time of Unveiling,” Four Steps to the Second Coming, Day 1, presentation to Franciscan friars, November 25, 2020, video. Unpublished talk; use

4.  Prayer

 A Prayer to Stay Anchored in God's Word

If we are looking at our circumstances, we will surely falter when they do. But when we keep our hearts focused on the Word of God, we will maintain hope and stay tethered to His faithfulness. 

Heavenly Father, I acknowledge that my hope is not in my circumstances. My hope is not even in the hoped-for answers to my prayers. But my hope is in You and Your Word, that it will sustain me, guide me, and give me wisdom in the midst of all that is happening around me. May my prayer echo that of the Psalmist’s: “You are my refuge and my shield; I have put my hope in your word” (Psalm 119:114, NIV).

5.  meditation

 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=f_pn10os0QI

 

6.  song

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-INp_ylhJkY

pray share chat 8/25/2021 focus on prayer

 This meeting is focused on prayer.  

1.  Meditation

A Powerful 10 Minute Guided Meditation - YouTube

2.  Song 

Andrea Bocelli - The Lord's Prayer - Live From The Kodak Theatre, USA / 2009 - YouTube

3.  Narrative

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/franciscan-spirit-blog/how-can-anyone-pray-always

Practice

All prayer is practicing for prayer. No one really knows how to pray, as Paul states in our epigraph at the beginning (Romans 8:26), and it is in this very experience of weakness and incapacity that the Spirit comes to pray in us, with us, and as us—with “groans unutterable” (Romans 8:27), which early on took the form of speaking in tongues (1 Corinthians 14:1–25) after the first Pentecost. Paul emphasizes that this early form of Christian prayer “does not feed the mind” or, in another translation, “my mind derives no fruit from it” (1 Corinthians 14:14). It was prayer at the prerational, transrational, or unconscious level, we might say today. It was done to us!

Already we have something deeper, at least partially proceeding from forces beyond us, and thus many would say “Spirit led,” which is something other than saying, thinking, memorizing, or reciting by ourselves. In fact, it is often called “babbling” or “praying in the Spirit,” which appears to be somewhat embarrassing because it surely deflates the ego at least in the eyes of others. Although, the first time you surrender to it, it is a defeat to your own intelligence and common sense, too. No wonder it died out.

Luke’s comment is significant in his ending to Matthew and Mark’s excursus on what we call “intercessory prayer.” He adds that the answer to every intercession is always the same: “How much will the heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him [for anything]?” (Luke 11:13). So maybe prayer at its deepest level is not about getting something, problem solving, or resolving issues (although we are encouraged to trust in God for these things), but rather, all prayer is a radical receptivity to the Holy Spirit, which itself is inspired by that same Holy Spirit! We eventually know that God creates within us the desire—to desire—to pray for whatever we need or want. A divine and reverse Catch-22, you might say!

All we can do is pray that God can keep us open and completing the circuit of desire. God wants these good things for us more than we do, and any authentic Christian prayer is just seconding the divine motion. Again, we are merely practicing, continually learning, and forever surrendering to the divine mind. Letting go of our own small mind is the burden of all contemplative practice. And maybe this is why contemplative prayer died out too!

It is no surprise, therefore, that teachers of contemplative prayer, centering prayer, meditation, or the prayer of quiet, consistently prefer to use the words practice or sitting to describe what they do. Yet, it is not so much an action, a doing, as it is a non-doing. Prayer is not so much that the I is praying, as the profound and life-changing realization that prayer is happening through me. All I can do is gratefully be open to it and allow it to happen to me and through me and with me—and as me.

Prayer is also happening at rudimentary levels, in nature, in animals, in all growing and living things. How many of the psalms as well as the hymn in Daniel 3 speak easily of rivers “clapping their hands,” fire and heat “praising,” and animals and beasts “blessing the Lord”? This is not some New Age poetry; this is our poetry, our prose, and our gospel! How have we missed this? We defined prayer so supernaturally that we forgot how to do it naturally with what was all around us.

The act of praying might be the deepest meaning of something, in fact, the deepest meaning of being alive itself—and as in all of nature, elements, and animals, trusting and allowing the dying as a needed and important part of the life. It’s only our humanity that wants to decide whether to join in with “the height, the length, the depth and the breadth” of things (Ephesians 3:18). The rest of creation seems to do itself quite naturally, spontaneously, and fully.

Prayer is saying “yes” to the paschal mystery at work in all things, and joyfully joining in with that flow—the movement of both death and resurrection equally—and thus allowing the very life of the Trinity, in whose pattern all things are created.  This is already intimated in the first sentences of the Hebrew Bible in Genesis 1:1–2: God (Father), together with the Hovering Wind (Spirit), speaks the creative Word of Forms (Christ). History itself is one cosmic prayer spoken by God through this ongoing creation from the very beginning—each species “eagerly awaiting the full recognition [that they are each in their own way] children of God” (Romans 8:19).

What else could fully good news mean? We humans are the free and blessed ones who can enjoy this daughterhood and sonship consciously and lovingly as we join in the one divine flow of praise, adoration, gratitude, and chosen solidarity with all that God is doing. Paul excitedly calls it “the great parade” or “the great triumph” (2 Corinthians. 2:14) that we are all invited to join. We are being prayed through, it seems, often without our even knowing it. But you can now know it, enjoy it, and pass it on.

In a very true sense, God is the only one praying, and we are all invited to join the Son, Jesus, in his one completely trustful and eternal “Yes” and his one eternal “Amen” (2 Corinthians 1:20) to that infinite prayer of God—and thus to all and every single thing that is. The indwelling Holy Spirit teaches us how to trust, enjoy, and suffer this flow. Thus all true prayer is in the Spirit and in Christ. We do not know how to do it by ourselves. This is surely what distinguishes Christian contemplation from other traditions and also what frees us from too much emphasis on any precise technique or undue asceticism. Jesus never emphasizes posture, fasting, timing, or gesture—only intention—which is why and how we can indeed “pray constantly” (1 Thessalonians 5:16), which before we never thought was possible. It is just this:

God is the one who loves and prays through us,

Jesus shares and participates in this flow with and in his Body (us!), and

the Spirit keeps it all moving, dynamic, alive—and always flowing outward!

---

4.  prayer

Prayer for Perseverance

Holy Lord, Thank You for grace. Please help me move beyond the hurdles that trip me up and give me the strength and wisdom to look up and see the hope I run toward in Christ. In Jesus’ Name, Amen. ~ Gwen Smith

5.  Meditation

Alone With GOD - 3 Hour Peaceful Music | Relaxation Music | Christian Meditation Music |Prayer Music - YouTube

6.  Song

Be with Me at Morning - YouTube

the unforgettable smile

 

a friend died

kept remembering the smile

on his face.

still makes me happy

through the sadness.

to leave that legacy

what a gift.

rest in peace Ozzie

share that smile

up there.

pray share chat 8/18/2021 Holy Mother

 We honor the Holy Mother in this meeting;

1. meditation

10 Minute Morning Meditation for Clarity, Stability, and Presence | Goop - YouTube

2.  song holy mother by eric clapton and pavarotti

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=x9uYu4R2nk8

Background of song

Hear Clapton and Pavarotti sing a prayer to the "Holy Mother" (aleteia.org)

3.  Narrative

 Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation

Seven Themes of an Alternative Orthodoxy

Mary As Corporate Personality

Meditation 48 of 53

We see that Mary is the archetype, the personification of the one who represents and sums up the entire mystery of how salvation is received, and this has many dimensions. Like Jesus, I believe she is a Corporate Personality, a stand-in and exemplar for all of us. This is why the older churches so honored her and were fascinated by her. She is us!

The “immaculate conception” refers to her identity before she had done anything right or anything wrong (perhaps implied in Romans 8:30).

Her free election at the Annunciation with no mention of merit (Luke 1:38), as it is for us.

Her virgin motherhood is shrouded in mystery even for her (Luke 2:19, 51), as it is for us.

She has a quiet, ordinary life (no statements for thirty years), as most of ours are.

She shows heroic “standing” in dignity and solidarity with the pain and despair at the end (John 19:25).

She demonstrates receptivity to the shared life of the Holy Spirit along with everybody else at Pentecost (Acts 1:14).

All of these dimensions point to the full meaning of how God is born into the world! It is never about us, and always about God. We, like Mary, are merely “handmaids,” instruments, and it took such a woman as this to make the whole pattern glaringly clear.

Adapted from Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality, pp. 177-178

4.  Prayer 

Prayer of St. Aloysius to the Blessed Mother

1. Catholic Online

 

2. Prayers

O holy Mary, my Mistress into thy blessed trust and special keeping, into the bosom of thy tender mercy, this day, every day of my life and at the hour of my death, I commend my soul and body; to thee I entrust all my hopes and consolations, all my trials and miseries, my life and the end of my life, that through thy most holy intercession and thy merits, all my actions may be ordered and disposed according to thy will and that of thy divine Son.
Amen.

5.  Meditation

Relaxing Sleep Music • Deep Sleeping Music, Relaxing Music, Stress Relief, Meditation Music (Flying) - YouTube

6. Song

 Magnificat

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6_iixWJo-7k

Immaculate Mother

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IaquwkfPwJU

pray share chat 8/11/2021 allowing God to love us

 The focus of our meeting is allowing God to love us.

1.  Meditation.

Positive Energy 10 minute Guided Meditation - YouTube

2.  Song

May the Greatest Love - YouTube

 3.  Narrative

May 14, 2021  Rohr

Allowing God to Love Us

In my experience, few Christians have a sense of what it feels like to be loved by God. We might get it intellectually or even sense it in our hearts, but the marriage of the soul and God is experienced on a deeper level when we make ourselves vulnerable to being overtaken by God’s overwhelming desire for us. I offer this contemplative reflection from Carmelite nun Ruth Burrows on prayer as an experience of allowing God to love us.

What do we mean by prayer? What does the word mean in the Christian context? Almost always when we talk about prayer we are thinking of something we do and, from that standpoint, questions, problems, confusion, discouragement, illusions multiply. For me, it is of fundamental importance to correct this view. Our Christian knowledge assures us that prayer is essentially what God does, how God addresses us, looks at us. It is not primarily something we are doing to God, something we are giving to God but what God is doing for us. And what God is doing for us is giving us the divine Self in love. . . .

What is the core, the central message of the revelation of Jesus? Surely it is of the unconditional love of God for us, for each one of us: God, the unutterable, incomprehensible Mystery, the Reality of all reality, the Life of all life. And this means that divine Love desires to communicate Its Holy Self to us. Nothing less! This is God’s irrevocable will and purpose; it is the reason why everything that is, is, and why each of us exists. We are here to receive this ineffable, all-transforming, all beatifying Love. . . .

We must realize [therefore,] that what we have to do is allow ourselves to be loved, to be there for Love to love us. . . . True prayer means wanting GOD not ego. The great thing is to lay down this ego-drive. This is the ‘life’ we must lose, this the ‘self’ we must abandon if we are to have true life and become that self God wants us to be, which only God can know and ultimately only God can bring into being. . . .

The essential thing we have to do is believe in the enfolding, nurturing, transforming Love of God which is the Reality: the Reality that is absolutely, totally there whether we avert to It or not. Prayer, from our side, is a deliberate decision to avert to It, to respond to It in the fullest way we can. To do this we must set time aside to devote exclusively to the ‘Yes’ of faith. . . .

If we are convinced that this is the heart of prayer, this basic decision to remain open to the inflowing of divine love, then we shall understand that we can choose any method we like to help us maintain this basic desire and intention.

4.  Prayer

A Prayer for Resting in God's Love

God of Goodness, I come into your presence so aware of my human frailty and yet overwhelmed by your love for me.
I thank you that there is no human experience that I might walk through where your love cannot reach me.
If I climb the highest mountain you are there and yet if I find myself in the darkest valley of my life, you are there.
Teach me today to love you more.
Help me to rest in that love that asks nothing more than the simple trusting heart of a child.

- Author Unknown

5.  Meditation

🔴 Deep Sleep Music 24/7, Healing Music, Meditation Music, Sleep Music, Relaxing Music, Study, Sleep - YouTube

6.  song

All You Need to Know - YouTube

pray share chat 8/4/2021 making a choice

 Focus of today's meeting is on making a choice

1.  meditation

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cWCpr38Dm9M

2.  song

You Will Show Me the Path of Life

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UlegZ-qNQsw&list=PLvxPdu4DGGZLZbD6qHIgMRX6Lto7dHisF&index=92

3.  Narrative

Week Twenty: Choosing Love in a Time of Evil

 

Making a Choice

 

 

 

Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.

—Viktor Frankl

The quote above sounds like something a teacher of contemplation would say! The practice of contemplation helps us to stand back from ourselves and take the view of what I and others call “the stable witness.” Then we are not attached to our thoughts or our knee-jerk reactions, and we can find the space we need to choose the way we want to act or the words that would be most helpful. While he is not known as a teacher of contemplation, psychiatrist Viktor Frankl (1905—1997) developed this wisdom during his time as an inmate in Auschwitz. He writes:

The experiences of camp life show that humanity does have a choice of action. There were enough examples, often of a heroic nature, which proved that apathy could be overcome, irritability suppressed. Humanity can preserve a vestige of spiritual freedom, of independence of mind, even in such terrible conditions of psychic and physical stress.

We who lived in concentration camps can remember the people who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a person but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way. . . .

Even though conditions such as lack of sleep, insufficient food and various mental stresses may suggest that the inmates were bound to react in certain ways, in the final analysis it becomes clear that the sort of person the prisoner became was the result of an inner decision [emphasis mine], and not the result of camp influences alone. Fundamentally, therefore, any person can, even under such circumstances, decide what shall become of them—mentally and spiritually. They may retain their human dignity even in a concentration camp. . . . It is this spiritual freedom—which cannot be taken away—that makes life meaningful and purposeful. . . .

The way in which a person accepts their fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which they take up their cross, gives them ample opportunity—even under the most difficult circumstances—to add a deeper meaning to their life. It may remain brave, dignified and unselfish. Or in the bitter fight for self-preservation they may forget their human dignity and become no more than an animal. Here lies the chance for a person either to make use of or to forgo the opportunities of attaining the moral values that a difficult situation may afford them. . . .

When we are no longer able to change a situation . . . we are challenged to change ourselves.

 

 

 

Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning (Beacon Press: 1959, 2006), 65–67, 112. Note: Minor edits made to incorporate gender-inclusive language.

4.  Prayer

Accepting God’s Will Prayer
Jesus, my Savior, I know that living in Your will is the best and safest place to be. During those moments in my life that bring me to the lowest valleys filled with sorrow, I ask that You help me accept whatever happens. Help me to see past my wants and wishes. Remind me that You are in control and You know best. Keep my mind filled with Your promises and show me that when I am living in Your perfect will, all other things will fall into place. In Your name, I pray. Amen.

 5.  Meditation

🔴 Relaxing Music 24/7, Peaceful Music, Sleep Music, Spa, Meditation Music, Study, Sleeping Music - YouTube

6.  song

Be Thou My Vision

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ihJAJA4ibEs