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Silent Sunday

Like a child at rest

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This silent Sunday is a follow-up to Talk 4 in the non-duality series on the mirror of shame. This is an invitation to practice letting go of the harsh, judgmental and self-shaming voice in our minds, and to open ourselves in childlike simplicity and trust to the realm of the still small voice that reminds us of our belovedness.

Opening music:

Love make your wayAlana Levandoski
00:00 / 02:42

There's a love rooted deep in us

It wants to grow and grow and grow and grow

All it needs is for our light to shine

And when tears come, to let them flow


Oh Love, oh Love, grow inside of us

Oh Love make your way

Oh Love show the world

That it bears your holy Name.


I say yes in the silence

I say welcome in my being

I say yes, I'll be a home

For God's love to make its way


Oh Love, oh Love, grow inside of us

Oh Love make your way

Oh Love show the world

That it bears your holy Name.


The following is a guided meditation which leads into a time of silent prayer (you can choose between a 10 minute timer and a 20 minute timer below, which each have three gongs at the end).

Guided practice 10 minutes
00:00 / 10:26
Guided practice 20 minutes
00:00 / 20:30

Listen to the following music as an ending to the time of prayer:

O Lord my heart is not proudMargaret Rizza
00:00 / 07:50

O Lord, my heart is not proud,
nor haughty my eyes.
I have not gone after things too great,
nor marvels beyond me.
Truly I have set my soul
in silence and peace;
at rest, as a child in its mother's arms,
so is my soul.

Reflection:

Read the following passages through twice or three times, and listen for any word or phrase that seems to be inviting you to linger with it. Spend some time in silence, allowing the Spirit to breathe fresh life into these words.


Matthew 3:16-17

As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. 

At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 

And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”


Henri Nouwen:

I know that the words spoken to Jesus when he was baptised are words spoken also to me and to all who are brothers and sisters of Jesus. My tendencies towards self-rejection and self-deprecation make it hard to hear these words truly and let them descend into the center of my heart. But once I have received these words fully, I am set free from my compulsion to prove myself to the world and can live in it without belonging to it. Once I have accepted the truth that I am God’s beloved child, unconditionally loved, I can be sent into the world to speak and act as Jesus did.”



For Further Reflection:

Below are a few additional readings and suggestions for practice, for deeper reflection on this theme.


Beloved Is Where We Begin, by Jan Richardson

If you would enter into the wilderness,

do not begin without a blessing.

Do not leave without hearing who you are:

Beloved, named by the One who has travelled this path before you.

Do not go without letting it echo in your ears,

and if you find it is hard to let it into your heart, do not despair.

That is what this journey is for.

I cannot promise this blessing will free you

from danger, from fear, from hunger or thirst,

from the scorching of sun or the fall of the night.

But I can tell you that on this path there will be help.

I can tell you that on this way there will be rest.

I can tell you that you will know the strange graces that come to our aid

only on a road such as this,

that fly to meet us bearing comfort and strength,

that come alongside us for no other cause than to lean themselves toward our ear and with their curious insistence whisper our name:

Beloved. 

Beloved. 

Beloved.


Receiving your belovedness

At this point in our in-person meetings we have a time of taking communion. So I invite you to try one of the following at this point:

  • If you feel free to do this, find some bread and wine/juice, and as you receive the bread and the wine, read these words slowly, with the same simple receptivity as eating and drinking: "You are my beloved child, in whom I am well pleased."

  • Alternatively, bring your awareness to your breathing, and as you receive the in-breath, read these words slowly, with the same simple receptivity as taking in your breath: "You are my beloved child, in whom I am well pleased."


Just sit there, by Hafiz

Just sit there right now.

Don't do a thing.

Just rest.

For your seperation from God

is the hardest work in this world.


Everyday life practice:

Some of you my have done this practice that was suggested in the last talk, but I encourage you to continue with this. It is important that we help one another to see our belovedness, by mirroring this to each other. As you go through your daily life, ask yourself if you are adding to the shame that others feel, or if there is instead some way that you can hold up a mirror for them that reminds them that they are made in God's image, that who they are is very good.

Bowing to one another as the beloved of God is another way of practicing this through the day, or saying under our breath “You are God’s beloved child”.


To pray, that is, to listen to the voice of the One who calls us the "beloved", is to learn that that voice excludes no one. Where I dwell, God dwells with me and where God dwells with me I find all my sisters and brothers. And so intimacy with God and solidarity with all people are two aspects of dwelling in the present moment that can never be separated."

― Henri Nouwen

  


Ending music:

Song of SolomonMartin Smith
00:00 / 02:39

When I feel the cold of winter

In this cloak of sadness, I need You

Oh the evil things that shake me

All the words that break me, I need You


Over the mountains, over the sea

Here You come running, my Lover to me


Do not hide me from Your presence

Pull me from these shadows, I need You

Beauty wrap Your arms around me

Sing Your song of courage, I need You


Over the mountains, over the sea

Here You come running, my Lover to me

Oh, through the valleys, through the dark of night

Here You come running, to hold me till it's light

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Sharon's book that was previously called "Contemplative Living" has been republished by AnamChara Books under the title "Deeper: Finding the Depth Dimension Beneath the Surface of Life". The Kindle version is available from Amazon, and the hard copy version can be ordered from loot.co.za or Takealot, or from your local bookshop through Ingram Distribution.

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