SPRING: HOPE's DIVINE POSSIBILITY 23.4.14

In the Hebrew scriptures the promise of God's abundance is often conceived of
as blossoming in the desert.
In that harsh landscape, a flower bursting forth from the dry land is a symbol of
divine generosity, fruitfulness, and hope.   * #Hope is a stance of radical openness to the God of newness and #possibility. {tweetable}
* When we #hope, we acknowledge that God has an imagination far more expansive than we do. {tweetable}
* The fertility of spring speaks of an abundantly creative God who is at the source of the potent life force beating at the heart of the world. Created in God's image, we are called to participate in this generous creativity ourselves. Our own blossoming leads us to share our gifts in service to others. * Take time this week to meditate with gratitude on a flower, appreciating all of its qualities of beauty, how it simply is what it was created to be. Allow yourself to fill with joyful gratitude for the gifts of the earth. Open yourself to experience the fullness of this flower and all of the ways God delights in the beauty of blossoms.

Then shift your focus from the flower to yourself. Take this sense of wonder and awe at the beauty of the flower and imagine how God gazes with delight on the beauty of who you are.
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What aspects of your being can you imagine God relishing? What are the longings inside of you God is asking you to embrace?[Tweet]

Rest in this awareness of the joy and delight of God in your own beautiful blossoming for several minutes. Notice what new longings it stirs in you.

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.~Marcel Proust [Tweet]

Perhaps you'd like to share your exploration and discoveries.
Please accept this as your personal Invitation to Poetry and/or Photography .

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With April comes a new Invitation for Contemplation. In the northern hemisphere, spring is slowly arriving with birdsong and blooming. Wherever we live on this beautiful planet, we can tend to the flowering that happens within after a season of fallowness. The outer seasons become a mirror for our inner experience.
The text with which we are praying this month is from the Hebrew wisdom book the
Song of Songs, which the ancient rabbis called "the holy of holies."
"Arise and bloom" is our theme,
tending to the ways our hearts and souls are breaking forth into blossom
after a season of fallowness and stillness.

I invite you to set aside some time this week to pray with the text below.  See these Lectio Divina guidelines.

Lean into silence, pray the text, listen to what shimmers, allow the images and memories to unfold, tend to the invitation, and then sit in stillness.

For see, the winter is past,

the rains are over and gone.

The flowers appear on the earth,

the time of pruning the vines has come,

and the song of the dove is heard in our land.

The fig tree puts forth its figs,

and the vines, in bloom, give forth fragrance.

Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one,

and come!   —Song of Songs 2:11-13

After you have prayed with the text (and feel free to pray with it more than once – 

St. Ignatius wrote about the deep value of repetition in prayer, especially when something feels particularly rich) spend some time journaling what insights arise for you.

~ from  Christine Valters Paintner -
  Abbey of the Arts *

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SHARED WITH ~
- HollyGerth -
- Thought Provoking Thursday -
- Essential Fridays -
- Make a Difference Mondays - - Woman to Woman -
- Hope in Every Season -
- Faith Filled Friday -
- Sunday Community -
- Weekend Brew -

- Natasha in Oz Say G'day -

LECTIO DIVINA: CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER 15.4.14

How to Practice Lectio Divina 
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First Movement – Lectio: Settling & Shimmering
Begin by finding a comfortable position where you can remain alert and yet also relax your body. Bring your attention to your breath and allow a few moments to become centered. If you find yourself distracted at any time, gently return to the rhythm of your breath as an anchor for your awareness. Allow yourself to  settle into this moment and become fully present.  Read your selected scripture passage or other sacred text once or twice through slowly and listen for a word or phrase that feels significant right now, is capturing your attention even if you don’t know why.  Gently repeat this word to yourself in the silence.  * Second Movement – Meditatio: Savoring & Stirring 
Read the text again and then allow the word or phrase which caught your attention in the first movement  to spark your imagination. Savor the word or phrase with all of your senses, notice what smells, sounds,  tastes, sights, and feelings are evoked. Then listen for what images, feelings, and memories are stirring, welcoming them in,
and then savoring and resting into this experience.  *
Third Movement – Oratio: Summoning & Serving
Read the text a third time and then listen for an invitation rising up from your experience of prayer so far.  Considering the word or phrase and what it has evoked for you in memory, image, or feeling, what is the invitation?  This invitation may be a summons toward a new awareness or action. 
* Fourth Movement – Contemplatio: Slowing & Stilling 
Move into a time for simply resting in God and allowing your heart to fill with gratitude for God’s presence in this time of prayer. Slow your thoughts and reflections even further and sink into the experience of stillness. Rest in the presence of God and allow yourself to simply be. Rest here for several  minutes. Return to your breath if you find yourself distracted.  * Closing 
Gently connect with your breath again and slowly bring your awareness back to the room, moving from inner experience to outer experience. Give yourself some time of transition between these moments of contemplative depth and your everyday life.  Consider taking a few minutes to
journal about what you experienced in your prayer. 

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© Christine Valters Paintner – excerpted from Lectio Divina—
The Sacred Art: Transforming Words and Images into Heart-Centered Prayer
(SkyLight Paths Publishing)
– feel free to share this with attribution  www.AbbeyoftheArts.com

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Your Transformative 'Word' for 2013 ?

Have you discovered your Word for 2013 ?

In ancient times, wise men and women fled out into the desert to find a place where they could be fully present to God and to their own inner struggles at work within them. The desert became a place to enter into the refiner's fire and be stripped down to one's holy essence. The desert was a threshold place where you emerged different than when you entered.

Many people followed these ammas and abbas, seeking their wisdom and guidance for a meaningful life. One tradition was to ask for a word –  this word or phrase would be something on which to ponder for many days, weeks, months, sometimes a whole lifetime. This practice is connected to lectio divina, where we approach the sacred texts with the same request – "give me a word" we ask – something to nourish me, challenge me, a word I can wrestle with and grow into.  The word which chooses us has the potential to transform us.

• What is your word for the year ahead? A word which contains within it a seed of invitation to cross a new threshold in your life?

A free 12-day online mini-retreat to help your word choose you. . .

This year  Christine of Abbey of the Arts is offering all Abbey newsletter subscribers a gift: a free 12-day online mini-retreat with a suggested practice for each day to help your word choose you and to deepen into your word once it has found you.

Sign up here and you can start your mini-retreat today. Once you subscribe you will receive a confirmation email with access to the mini-retreat content
(and you are free to unsubscribe at any time). 

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