Contemplative at Home

A meditation with Jesus's teaching in Matthew 9:16-17 "See I am doing a new thing, do you not perceive it?" "...be transformed by the renewing of your minds." In Matthew 9:16-17, Jesus uses analogies to illustrate how radically new and fresh his teaching, his message is. Our text today: 16 "No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. 17 Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved." How are you being invited to step into something new just now? If you want to think about the passage a bit more, get your head around why Jesus said this before you meditate on it, you might find this commentary helpful: https://thebiblesays.com/commentary/matt/matt-9/matthew-916-17/ However, the invitation from Contemplative at Home is always to engage with the text from a deeper place, to be wholly present to the Divine spirit within the text, to stand before it with an open heart and welcome whatever insights may land with you. May you be blessed as you pray here today. Warmest blessings, Lissy (Opening Text: Isaiah 43:19 and Romans 12:2) 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. www.contemplativeathome.com

In this episode I invite you to enter one of my favourite gospel stories in your imagination. John 20:19-23 finds the disciples locked in fear in the upper room, unsure of what has happened, what will happen, or how they are to go on. There is much anxiety in the air this week, so I invite you to find your way into that room with the disciples, to ponder who or what it is you have figuratively locked the doors against in your fear, to experience the presence of Christ to hear Christ speak PEACE and to receive the breath of Christ being breathed upon you. Receive the Holy Spirit. Your breath mingles with the breath of God. Peace. 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. For more information and show notes please visit www.contemplativeathome.com or find us on Facebook. All music by Pete Hatch. petehatch.com.

It's so familiar that it has become a bit twee: Love is patient, love is kind. I invite you to look again, to look wholeheartedly on the familiar verses of 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. No matter how glorious, impressive, beautiful, or successful a thing or a person may be, if the spirit of love is absent- it is empty, hollow, worthless, says Paul, (1 Cor 13:1-3) who then goes on to paint a picture for us of the nature of Divine love. I invite you to listen to the passage three times: considering God's love for you, your love for yourself, and your love for another. This is not a measuring stick, it is an invitation. May you be patient with yourself, may you be kind to yourself. Divine love is being poured out in and through you at each moment of each day. May you have the grace to receive it more deeply, more humbly, each day. EVERY BLESSING LOVES xxx 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. For more information and show notes please visit www.contemplativeathome.com or find us on Facebook. All music by Pete Hatch. petehatch.com.

Dear Friends! A meditation on the "new order." In Romans 7 Paul reflects on the law, under which we had to rely on our "flesh" - which I understand as the striving to be good enough, smart enough, pretty enough, strong enough, obedient enough... in other words, exhausting efforts no one can ever achieve in any sustained way. In Romans 8 Paul opens up the new order, in which we don't have to rely on our own ability or inability to achieve anything, but is rather an invitation to step IN to the Spirit of life, which sets us free. In this episode we pray with Romans 8:1-3 and 5-6. Every blessing xxxx 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. For more information and show notes please visit www.contemplativeathome.com or find us on Facebook. All music by Pete Hatch. petehatch.com.