The Inner Room

02/09/2017

More and more clinical studies are showing benefit for people engaging in meditation. The study looked at meditation specifically which is often associated for many people with religions of the east but many forms of Christian silent prayer would fall under this broad category as well.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/well/2016/02/18/contemplation-therapy/?referer=http://m.facebook.com

A new study suggests there’s some science behind the claims made for mindfulness meditation.

02/08/2017

We here at The Inner Room know all about the importance of the contemplative. This article talking about a renewed religious sensibility raises this too.

http://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/02/01/krista-tippett-religion-does-not-have-monopoly-faith

Krista Tippett shares unexpected wisdom from 20 years of interviewing people about faith

02/07/2017

Thanks for always bringing things to the heart the center the anchor Kevin Johnson.

Justice is the grammar of things. Mercy is the poetry of things.

01/28/2017

Justice is the grammar of things. Mercy is the poetry of things.

01/06/2017

"It’s much easier to despise the winter or suffer through it knowing spring is imminent, but what if it’s not? What if this is the winter that spring never enters into? What if these are the sorrows that never go away?" Cassidy Hall on winter, for The Inner Room.

I’ve had a distain for winter for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid in Iowa, my older sister could get me to go outside only by explaining an exciting game we were going to play in the blistering cold. Her games usually involved making food – pizzas in the ground, snow cones in my hands, o...

11/30/2016

Part Three of Visualization Practice for this Advent

This is the last stage in the beginning exercise.

Remember the practice of the last two days. Let the faces of those who have loved us in the past return to you. First recall those you remember from childhood. The faces of people who bring a smile to your face just because they are near to you. You deeply enjoy their presence. This presence and joy is a one of simple but deep love for you. If you recall more faces of people (and even pets) through the years of people who made you feel joyful, accepted, and loved -- let those faces appear too. Finally allow the great holy ones such as Christ, favorite saints, Mary, angels, etc naturally appear too. The holy ones who inspire you...not that you think you ought to recall them. (Remember there is no faking here. We aren't manufacturing this. We are recalling this.)

Allow yourself to realize that the same embodied feeling of love that you recall from the faces of people in your past -- that same embodied feeling -- is in fact the very love of God who works in and through the natural world and natural order of things. So allow yourself to feel that embodied love coming from Christ and the holy ones who love you deeply.

Hear all of them wish you deepest peace, joy, and well-being.

Let yourself receive the wish of love. If you find yourself resisting it, see if you can relax and allow yourself this gift. Breathe gently and slowly. Let the visualization and feeling become as concrete and particular as you can allow for.

After a few moments, imagine the group of lovers merging together and turning into a ball of light. Let that light of love send its rays on to you. Bathe in the light as if sunbathing. Let the light shower you completely. Allow yourself to keep remembering this embodied love as the rays of light shine on you.

In a little while, imagine that ball of light gently moving towards you and entering your heart. As your heart beats, feel the embodied love flow out from your heart. It's as if your own heart now has the voice of the lovers calling your name and then saying: May you have deepest joy, peace, and well-being for you are truly loved.

Slowly, dissolve the visualization. Let the light in your heart fade. Notice that the feeling of love remains. Rest in it.

Sit in quiet attention breathing deeply and slowly. Drop all frames of reference. Just enjoy being at rest.

(Using this visualization as a way into silence -- tomorrow).

11/29/2016

Part Two of Visualization Practice for this Advent

Remember the practice of the other day. We are recovering the memory of people (or pets) that brought us great joy as a child. They made us smile just by being with us.

We aren't manufacturing feelings that are not true. We are not trying to feel joy or anything. We are just recalling the presence of someone in the past who gave us great joy. We are remembering something true and profound. There should be no faking or struggling to feel something for someone. In the beginning we may not be able to remember anyone and we can sit in quiet trying to recall a time of joy of being in someone's presence. Eventually a face will appear to us at its own pace. No need to worry or stress if no faces appear at first. The memory will come.

It is important to realize now, that the person or pet who we remember as giving us great joy was deeply loving us. That presence, even if it was just brief and only once, caused us joy because in a simple way they were declaring their love for us. And it is that love that is a marking of God's presence. Where there is love, there is God. It is time to remind ourselves of this.

So return to your relaxed position. Take a few deep slow breaths and then turn your attention to the person(s or pet) you remember that gave you joy just because you were in their presence. Recall their face. Allow yourself to feel the contentment and joy of being in their presence. Now imagine them saying to you, "I wish you nothing but complete joy and well-being. You are truly loved."

Imagine them sending this love to you and allow yourself to receive it. It doesn't matter if you think you deserve it or not. Allow them to send you love. See them smiling at you and feel their love. If it helps, imagine rays of light or warmth traveling from them to you and bathing you in healing embrace. Let yourself be held in this love.

After awhile, see if you can recall other faces of people over the years that also spark this same feeling in you. Imagine that now gathered in front of you there is a group of ones who have loved you. Imagine them speaking words of love and sending their wishes to you. Hear them speak your name gently and then the words: "You are loved. We wish nothing but deepest fulfillment and joy for you."

I want you to imagine that Christ, Mary, angels, a saint you have a devotion to -- all manner of holy peoples appear with your group of loved ones. See Christ looking at you. Hear Him say: "My child, I love you deeply. I sent these ones to love you on my behalf. I only wish you complete joy and the deepest fulfillment of who you are created to be."

Feel the warm embrace of that love as if you were bathing in the sun on a beautiful spring day. If at any point the feeling and the sense of that loving presence fades, focus precisely on one of the faces of the people you remember loving you and feel the power of their presence surge into you again.

After a while, slowly let the visualization dissolve. Watch the loved ones gently disappear from view. And now for a few moments just sit in quiet. Sit still. Breathe deep and rest in quiet attention. Just be here at rest.

Try to do this entire visualization for at least 5-10 minutes and see if you can build your time up to about 15-20 minutes of visualization and rest.

Notice that as the days go one, more and more people who have offered you love -- even if it was briefly -- like strangers smiling at you on the street when they really didn't have to do so. A person who holds the door or goes out of their way to be helpful. Small acts of kindness and friendship in various places and times. Notice that there are people wishing each other well being and joy quite often. Notice those moments, and thank God for them as you become aware of them.

(Part three tomorrow).

11/28/2016

The Inner Room is a space that supports deepened prayer and spiritual maturity by directing us to silent prayer and waiting for the grace of contemplation. Being willing to rest, to stop seeking, and to let God pray in us is a simple process but it is not necessarily easy. And our culture and the popular mindset can often misguide us.

How to simply learn to trust and be open to a deepening silence? How to stay focused when one's mind seems to be caught in spinning unhelpful stories and your mind acts like an echo chamber?

There are an infinite number of ways and there aren't any one-size fits all templates. We each have to find our own way. But if one is a beginner, or one wishes to have a set practice they can use to help in times when it is tough sitting in patient waiting, a common practice of imaginative visualization in the spirit of Saint Ignatius of Loyola can help.

For this Advent, quite a few of us at The Inner Room will be doing a version of the following practice as part of our prayer time. It will be described over the next two days. Please feel free to join us and to incorporate it during your time of Advent prayer if you feel so inclined. Whatever your Advent practice though, please know that we in The Inner Room wish to hold you in our prayers and we hope you will hold us in yours during this time of Advent.

Maranatha!

Preparing for this practice:

Spend some time recalling people from your childhood that you enjoyed spending time with. Recall people who made you smile. You just felt good to be in their presence. It can be a favorite relative, a teacher, or even a pet. It can be multiple people. But the important thing is to remember just that moment or moments of feeling joy at being in their presence. It need not be a holy person, nor should it be some one you think you SHOULD like. It can be a person currently in your life or someone who no longer is in your life. It is just a person that brought that feeling up inside you and that their memory is one that makes you smile when you think of them.

Sit in quiet bringing to mind the people or pets that evoke the feeling of deep enjoyment. Try to recall in your mind's eye, what this person or pet looked like. Make it as real as you can imagine. Sit in the presence of that person you call to mind and rest in the enjoyment of being with this person or pet. For a few moments, sit in a relaxed position, breathe deeply and slowly and imagine that you are sitting in the same room with this person. Imagine them looking at you and smiling. Smile back. Notice the deep feeling of contentment and well-being as you look at this person and see them smiling at you. Rest in that feeling. If the feeling begins to fade or not feel intense, bring your imagination to focus deeply on their face again. Look into their eyes. Recall the feeling. Allow your body to rest and relax.

Do this visualization for at least 5-10 minutes at the beginning of your prayer time every day. Try to spend some part of your prayer time every day sitting and resting in the joy of being in this person's presence. You may notice over time that you begin to recall faces of persons from long ago that you forgot of people who gave you great joy. Allow these faces to be in front of your eyes as the days go on over Advent. Say a prayer of gratitude for these people and/or animals that gave you the gift of their presence in the past.

(Part two tomorrow).