“Have you found the beginning then, that you are asking about the end? The soul who stands at the beginning will know, at the same time, the end…” (from the Gospel of Thomas). The didgeridoo meditation was recorded at an ancient Celtic burial site in Gower today. Listen and find yourself at the beginning (12 minute meditation).
The recording begins with the Lord’s Prayer in Welsh, but today’s contemplation comes from the early Syriac Aramaic version of the prayer. This helps us draw out some of the otherwise hidden nuances in Jesus’ teaching of the prayer. The contemporary Sufi, Neil Douglas-Klotz, has done much work in recent years to raise awareness of the benefits of considering the Aramaic setting for Jesus’ teachings, and I have drawn on his translations here as well as working with the Syriac Aramaic.
Below you can find a beautiful musical version of the prayer.
An ancient Christian contemplative practice, using imagination and Scripture. This is a re-recording because yesterday’s sound file was broken.
When we engage in contemplative prayer, things happen to us!
Isaiah 11. 1-10
“A shoot shall come out from the stock of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins.
The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.”
Voice lost in the wind and rain, sitting under Illtyd’s tree at Llanilltyd, Ilston, this morning. So today just didj and flute and nature
A simple aid to practicing centring prayer – no interesting cut-aways to distract your attention, just the sitting!
Picking up from yesterday, a short reflection and instruction on Centring Prayer.
Here’s the second Advent recording. It can be a lead-in to a more extended period of contemplative prayer. Set a timer perhaps for 10 to 20 minutes after the recording finishes (it is 10 minutes long). Responding to today’s Gospel reading (Luke 10.21-24) and to the teaching about prayer (Matthew 6.6) the reflection includes an adaptation of the Lord’s Prayer for breath practice.
Tonnau Duw ('God's waves') Fr Tim Ardouin 