Contemplative at Home

A 13-minute guided meditation to help you settle on how you will observe Advent this year.  If you're not quite sure what your advent observance will look like this year, or how you will make time to fit prayerful reflection into the busy month of December, or how to balance the sacred time of waiting with the jolly buzz, let me accompany you as you pray through these questions. This guided intent...

A 11-minute audio guided meditation with mindful breath awareness. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, God's mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning Great is Thy Faithfulness. All blessings as you pause with these profound verses. May they be new to you as you pray. Lissy Contemplative at Home  offers guided meditative prayer - space to slow down and listen to the truth t...

A 19-minute audio guided meditation with text from Mirabai Starr's translation of The Interior Castle.   In this meditation I invite you to pray with the wisdom of St Teresa of Avila. Listening prayerfully to the text, you are invited to ask: How is the Lord speaking to me in these words? Teresa was given a picture of her inner self, her soul, as mansion, a palace, with many rooms. At the center o...

A 22-minute audio guided meditation in John's Gospel, John 11:45-54, using Lectio Divina. In this meditation on John's Gospel, we consider the variety of responses people made to the radical and astonishing life that Jesus brought. I invite you to consider the ways you might resonate with those who responded with control, as well as the ways you resonate with those who responded with openness. Bre...

A 17-minute audio guided meditation in John's Gospel, John 17:1-4, 10-11, 13, 23, 26, using Lectio Divina. In Jesus' final prayer/teaching before he arrested, in John's Gospel, there is both a summary and climax of the primary messages of John. These messages include: the intimacy or one-ness that exists between Jesus and the Father, the invitation to all Jesus' followers into this Divine Intimacy...

An 18-minute audio guided meditation in John's Gospel, John 16:16-27, with questions for reflection. This meditation takes on a slightly different pattern as we allow the text to open up questions for our spiritual journey. Firstly we see how Jesus prepares his disciples for his departure, for a radical shift in their relationship to him. All enduring relationships go through multiple stages of ch...

A 21-minute audio guided meditation in John's Gospel, John 16:7-13, using Lectio Divina. John 16:7-13 "Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you, but if I go, I will send him to you.  8  And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment:  9  about sin, because they d...

A 17-minute audio guided meditation in John's Gospel, John 15:12-17, using Lectio Divina. In this meditation on John's Gospel, I invite you to join me in taking a 'long, loving look' at a few verses of text, beholding the words as living, shimmering, life-giving containers which hold endless layers of wisdom, mystery, beauty and truth. Just for these few minutes, I invite you to leave your dogma,...

A 21-minute audio guided meditation in John's Gospel, John 15:1-11, using Imaginative Contemplation. We continue our series in John 15 with an imaginative contemplation on the vine and branches, exploring the notion of abiding in God. Imaginative Contemplation invites us to see the scripture in new ways, to attend to it with different parts of our mind and heart so that the Lord might reveal fresh...

A 20-minute audio guided meditation in John's Gospel, John 8:12-20, using Lectio Divina. "Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit." "Abide in me." "Abide in my love." "I have said these things so that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete." This meditation is in the second half of Jesus' sermon on the vine and the branches. All blessings as you pray. Contemplative at Home...

A 17-minute audio guided meditation in John's Gospel, John 15:1-5, using Lectio Divina. There are so many layers for reflection in this well-known passage and I invite you to come to it fresh today, open to what nuggets of wisdom might be waiting for you in these images today. Abide in me, as I abide in you. Perhaps you'd like to link this phrase to your moments of mindful breathing today. Inhale:...

A 23-minute audio guided meditation on the Gifts of Summer. The summer is a time of ripening and fullness, a time to allow the long, warm days to ripen the fruit of the labour of spring. To contemplate, according to Walter Burghardt SJ, is to "take a long, loving look at the real." Summer, with its warmth and heat is just the time for such activity. Long, slow, loving moments to gaze at what is gr...

A 25-minute audio guided meditation in John's Gospel, John 11:32-44, Lazarus is raised from the dead, using Imaginative Contemplation. There are so many feelings in this story: Mary and Martha's great grief mixed with feelings of profound disappointment with Jesus. Their angry confusion that he hadn't come to heal Lazarus. Their apprehension when Jesus asks them to open the tomb. The feeling of th...

A 21-minute audio guided meditation in John's Gospel, John 10:31-42, using Lectio Divina. The text in this meditation comes from the NRSV and NIV, and includes most but not all of the verses in John 10:31-42. See below for verses in today's meditation. 22  Then came the Festival of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter,  23  and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon's Colonnade.  24 ...

A 20-minute audio guided meditation in John's Gospel, John 10:11-15, using Lectio Divina. In this meditation on John's Gospel, I invite you to join me in taking a 'long, loving look' at a few verses of text, beholding the words as living, shimmering, life-giving containers which hold endless layers of wisdom, mystery, beauty and truth. Distraction is a normal part of meditation, so don't be worrie...

A 23-minute audio guided meditation in John's Gospel, John 10:1-10, using Imaginative Contemplation. In this meditation on John's Gospel, I invite you to imagine that you're on a Galilean hillside, listening to Jesus speak. Just for these few minutes, I invite you to leave your dogma, your creed, your thoughts, and your rational mind aside, and become present to your deeper self, your true self or...

A 10-minute meditation on the love of God with breath awareness and verses from the Psalms and prophets. This is an updated version of a meditation released in 2022, with more space to let the verses settle in to your psyche. Listeners to the previous meditation responded in the following ways: "Deep deep thanks. I really struggled today but I'm in a beautiful calm place after this" - Janine "Migh...

A guided meditation with John 20:11-18, using imaginative contemplation. 23 minutes. This is the re-release of a meditation first published in 2022 . This passage has meant so much to me and helped me, in a crisis of faith, to see that what feels like The End may in fact be a beginning, an invitation to something much bigger. Here are some thoughts I shared in 2022: "In today's meditation, based o...

A 16-minute audio guided meditation in John's Gospel, John 20:1-10, using Imaginative Contemplation. Christ is risen. Alleluia! In this meditation we are reminded that the resurrection of Jesus broke over his friends and disciples slowly, amidst confusion and stress. As I reviewed this meditation for editing, I was surprised at how vivid the experience at the empty tomb was for me, and found a bea...

A 19-minute audio guided meditation in John's Gospel, John 19:13-42, using Lectio Divina. I am struck by two key invitations as we meditate on the suffering of Jesus in Holy Week. The first invitation is to see how full and completely Jesus offered himself in love. And the second invitation is to attend to pain, to difficult emotions and circumstances. Our public and private lives give us more tha...

A 17-minute audio guided meditation in John's Gospel, John 19:1-9, using Lectio Divina. In this Holy Week meditation on John's Gospel, I invite you to join me in taking a 'long, loving look' at Jesus as he endures these grim moments of his arrest, 'trial', and conviction to crucifixion. Notice the way he remains present and attentive even while circumstances become frayed and harried around him. J...

A 22-minute audio guided meditation on John's Gospel, John 18:33-40 using Lectio Divina. In this meditation on John's Gospel, I invite you to join me in taking a 'long, loving look' at a few verses of text, beholding the words as living, shimmering, life-giving containers which hold endless layers of wisdom, mystery, beauty and truth. Here is the text for todays meditation, from the NRSV: John 18:...

A 22-minute meditation with John 18:12-27, using breath work and Lectio Divina. A meditation for Lent as Jesus is arrested and interviewed by Annas. Contemplative at Home  offers guided meditative prayer - space to slow down and listen to the truth that is being born out of God's love for you today - drawing on Ignatian spirituality and at times, Lectio Divina. Sign up for Lissy's newsletter " The...

A 16-minute guided audio meditation with John 8:31-36, using breath work and Lectio Divina. "We have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying 'You will be made free'?" John 8:33 Jesus invites his followers into an interior freedom. We could devote our entire lives to the exploration of this invitation. You might find it useful to reflect on these questions: Where and when do I feel...

A 22-minute audio guided meditation in John's Gospel, John 8:12-20, using Lectio Divina. My invitation to you, always, is to engage with scripture through your creative, non-rational self. Rational engagement with scripture is equally important - we usually call it bible study - and I hope there is a dose of it in your rhythms. But my invitation is to help you engage with this sacred text through...