Contemplative at Home

A meditation on Mark 10:46-52 As Jesus, his disciples and many others leave Jericho together, they pass a man begging on the side of the road. He causes an awkward disturbance, shouting for attention.  His name is Bartimaeus. As we pray with this passage, may it become new. Perhaps you'll have the space to become curious about what is awkwardly shouting for attention in your life. Perhaps you'll h...

A meditation with Matthew 20:20-23 What is it that you want? The mother of James and John has come to ask that her children might sit at the right and left hands of Jesus in his kingdom. But what is it that she most deeply wants? Power? Security? Honour? Status? Love? Which of her wounds propels her to make this request? And does she understand what Jesus' kingdom will look like? May this story he...

We continue our series of meditations on questions Jesus asked, this time in the feeding of the 4000 (Matthew 15:32-37). I find this one to be quite rich! Hope you do too, and every blessing as you pray 🙏🏽 Lissy 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 a...

What did you go out into the wilderness to see? Jesus asks his followers, asks us, in Matthew 11:2-11. John the Baptist, imprisoned, has just sent his own disciples to ask Jesus: "Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?" This interesting passage explores a number of the questions we have already prayed with, including the identity and character of Jesus as we explored in...

I'm so pleased to be sharing this meditation in Mark 4 with you today: "Come, let us go across to the other side of the lake" I invite you not to force or expect a particular insight, but to simply open yourself to recieve. May you see Jesus look at you as he asks "Why are you afraid?" Love and blessings Lissy Contemplative at Home offers guided meditative prayer - space to slow down and listen to...

Matthew 7:1-5 Hey Friends-- In this meditation, we meet Jesus as he teaches in the Sermon on the Mount. Here he asks us the question: why do you see the speck in your neighbours eye and do not notice the log in your own eye? Why is it so much easier to notice other people's faults and grievances than our own? This makes me think of Freud's iceberg theory, the proposal that we have many instincts,...

In this meditation we pray with an encounter between Jesus and his friends, who have journeyed up towards the base of Mount Hermon (in the Golon Heights), to a place where there is an ancient temple to the Greek god Pan. (Matthew 16:13-16).  Here he speaks to his friends about his own identity, first asking who are people saying that I am? Whether this is a PR question, or he wants them to ponder...

**new artwork for Contemplative at Home! You'll see that the podcast is now called MEDITATIONS by Contemplative at Home** This week we consider the lilies of the field as Jesus responds to the anxieties of his friends, inviting them to deeper trust. Who of you, by worrying, can add a single hour to your life? Blessings as ever, Lissy Contemplative at Home offers guided meditative prayer - space to...

In today's meditaiton we look at Matthew 9:27-30, NIV.  Two men, who are blind, pursue Jesus, asking for mercy. He asks them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" and then says: "According to your faith, let it be done to you" The two receive their sight. I'll be honest and say this is a slightly uncomfortable exchange for me. It raises all sorts of questions about unanswered prayers. Havin...

Happy September, friends. I hope this finds you well. I'm really excited for our next series of episodes, exploring Questions Jesus Asked. This series was suggested by my dear Spiritual Companion, Tina Lamb. You may remember that Tina brought us the Sunday poems during the first pandemic year. In this first episode we explore John 1:35-39, When John the Baptist's disciples follow Jesus, and Jesus...

A Centering Prayer meditation, with three minutes of silence, concluding with an Anglican collect. In centering prayer, we use a sacred word to gently hold our attention on the loving gaze of God. You are invited to find a word that comes naturally to you. This might be a name by which you address the Holy, a state such as love, peace, joy, or a short phrase such as "here I am" or "be still and kn...

In this Centering Prayer practice, we observe six minutes of silence together, and close our prayer with the Coventry Litany of Reconciliation . In centering prayer , we use a sacred word to gently hold our attention on the loving gaze of God. You are invited to find a word that comes naturally to you. This might be a name by which you address the Holy, a state such as love, peace, joy, or a short...

A centering prayer meditation with 10 minutes of silence, and closing with a Gaelic blessing. In centering prayer, we use a sacred word to gently hold our attention on the loving gaze of God. You are invited to find a word that comes naturally to you. This might be a name by which you address the Holy, a state such as love, peace, joy, or a short phrase such as "here I am" or "be still and know th...

Dear Friends,  This the first of our August centering prayer meditations for 2022. In this meditation we observe 4 minutes of silence together and we close with a collect from the Church of England . (see text below) In centering prayer, we use a sacred word to gently hold our attention on the loving gaze of God. You are invited to find a word that comes naturally to you. This might be a name by w...

In this meditation we visualise God's abundant love glowing within us as an ember, or flame. We allow that love to flow out of us, warming those we love and care for. This meditation was inspired by a suggested exercise in Christine Valters Paintner's book Earth, Air, Fire, Water: The Christian Practice of Praying with the Elements . O living flame of love O lamps of fire in whose splendors the de...

A take on Lectio Divina, this meditation flows from the Genesis 2 creation account "a river watering the garden flowed from Eden, from there it separated into four headwaters", to Psalm 36 "you give them drink from your river of delights", through Isaiah 44 & 55 "I will pour water on thirsty ground," "come all you who are thirsty, come, drink", to Jesus' words in John "streams of living water will...

In the Hebrew Bible the word for Spirit - ruach - is alternately translated as spirit, as breath (or breath of life), and as wind. The ruach hovers over the deep before the creation of the world. The ruach blows back the waters of the great flood. The ruach gives life to the dry bones in Ezekiel's vision. In this meditation we consider how the wind of the Holy Spirit might revive and renew us, bef...

"the earth is the Lord's and everything in it" Psalm 24:1 For me summer is always a time to connect more deeply with the natural world, so throughout July we will be praying with the four elements: Earth, Air, Water and Fire. In this first of our elemental meditations for 2022 we explore Earth with a guided meditation, connecting imaginatively with the deep network of things happening underground,...

Announcments!! Sign up for Living Water retreat here https://forms.gle/LZfqzVAGTcVU8MJ8A Support contemplative at home at ko-fi.com/contemplativeathome Hoping for more centering prayer meditations in August.. and podcast moving to MONDAYS from august as well. Thank you for being here!!! xxx Contemplative at Home offers guided meditative prayer - space to slow down and listen to the truth that is b...

A meditation with the two short verses of Psalm 117. Following a stilling, there will be short phrases of the psalm offered with questions and suggestions, and then a 3 minute silence. May you have the grace to meet deeply with the Lord as you pray. Psalm 117 Praise the Lord, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples. For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures fore...

"Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth!" This short and familiar Psalm of praise invites you to engage freely and joyfully in your expressions of gratitude and love for the Lord. May you have the freedom to express yourself loudly, fully and with abandon. Grace and peace as you pray! Sign up for Lissy's weekly newsletter " The Contemplative Window " or join our Facebook group here For more...

In this meditation we pray with three short verses in Matthew 19. "Then people brought little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked them. Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there." (Matt 19:13-15...

This meditation gives you the opportunity to take the words of the Lord's Prayer and slow them right down, ruminate on them, marinate in them, and, perhaps, receive something fresh from them. A Lectio Divina with the Lord's Prayer. We pray with both the NIV translation of Matthew 6:9-13 and the New Zealand Anglican Lord's Prayer. What a gem. Blessings as you pray today dear one. Blessings on you....

This is a meditation with Isaiah 43:1-7 When you pass through waters, I will be with you. And when you pass through rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through fire, you will not be burned. The flames will not set you ablaze. As always, I wish you every blessing as you pray with this meditation. Contemplative at Home offers guided meditative prayer - space to slow down and listen t...

I'm still pondering the in-between, transition times of life and today's Lectio Divina with Isaiah 43:16-21 opens a song of hope and promise in the wilderness. The prophet sings of a God who is moving and living, hovering over the wasteland, drawing and inviting the jackal and the owl and a people captive in Babylon into dance, into relationship, into life. I wonder what the wasteland, the wildern...