the sensation of life
In the last few days, I have sat with two people with failing memories. One could not remember that their spouse had died in the last few hours, could not remember being there, the time and place, the last conversation. The other, who plaintively, anxiously asks for a sibling who visits every afternoon with a … Continue reading Failure of Memory
I spent the day at St Michael's Convent, Ham Common. I have come to view it as one of my favourite places. I spent the day alone and prayed, pottered and read some more of Into the Silent Land by Martin Laird. It is a wonderful book that brings together strands I am passionate about: … Continue reading Emptiness
What are we doing when we sit in prayer with a person as they are dying? The prayer, the blessing, is in the particulars: these lines and wrinkles; this graying hair; these tired, baggy eyes; this pattern of breath; this body, these cells that hold all, all, all that this person is. Has this person … Continue reading Thoughts at a bedside
I am used to exercises to relax and prepare to pray that focus on and relax parts of this body in turn until the whole body is relaxed. Some start at the top of the head and work down to the feet; some the other way round. For my money, the best end up in … Continue reading Relaxation exercises
I have learnt something new about discernment: it is important to have a realistic knowledge of oneself: abilities, gifts, skills, character and so on. So often, the enemy of the human promotes lowered self-worth and self-denigration sometimes, with particular subtlety, in the guise of spiritual humility; but it is damaging to think one is less … Continue reading Discernment
An assertion: my identity — my sense of self, of me — is rooted in the sensations of this body. If these sensations change, e.g. during serious illness, or as the result of an accident (as happened to me when I was knocked off my bike and broke my arm), then my sense of who … Continue reading Identity
There are two movements: outwards to the world — opening the pores of this body to sounds, sensations, the other, the Other — moving to an opening in and to love; inwards to this body and attending to this body's voice, in tenderness and interest. "Breathing in I go back to the island within myself." … Continue reading Movements
Relaxation Awareness of the breath Awareness of physical sensations Attend to the ‘stories’ this body has to tell, it's messages; learn to be at home Let this body tell you who you are Let this body be ((in) God) One never moves on from earlier stages, but one moves deeper into them as each new … Continue reading Levels of Body Prayer
This body can be still even as the mind chatters away. Let this body do the praying.
I was given this quote from Fr Pedro Arrupe, sj this morning. Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in … Continue reading Falling in love