Reflection
Open and receptive
Our theme for this reflection is about the attitude of open receptivity in our prayer and in our lives. The talk in the video is followed by a sound track with a guided time pf practice of open receptivity.
Length: 11 minutes
The sound file below is a guided prayer, which will lead you in this attitude of open surrender.
Music: Magic hour
Cynthia Bourgeault:
"We enter the kingdom of heaven in those moments when our awakened or attuned heart allows us to see the reality that lies beyond our normal vision. This is the realm where attention, prayer, and love have power to change things. ... To realise the kingdom of heaven here and now...is really a matter of developing a kind of x-ray vision that can look right through the physical appearance of things and respond directly to their innermost aliveness and quality."
Rumi:
The following lines from the poet Rumi capture the mystery and paradox at the heart of contemplation, that what appears to us as nothing is filled with God's "something", and our emptiness makes way for God's fullness:
"A silence resides in an empty jar as fragrance,
as a river in spring flood."
Ending prayer: from Psalm 33
Psalms for Praying, by Nan Merrill
The Beloved dwells in every heart
that is open and receptive;
Into our hands, into our hearts, does the Beloved surrender,
that we might do with Love what we will.
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