Agnus Dei Vol. 5:5 Advent 07 Christmas Light

During the Christmas season one of the things I enjoy seeing is all the Christmas lights decorating homes and in windows. In the long December nights these lights bring a cheerful confrontation to the dark. The daylight hours again lengthen, and we are amazed at how much impact the amount of light can have on a sense of well being and disposition.

All the Christmas light that is outside is a small fraction of all the Christmas light that is within you.

Jesus/Yeshua says to us, “I offer life which expands in radiance and peace. I offer this expansion of my life in the mind and heart and awareness of those devoted to me as a way of self forgiveness, forgiveness of others, and abundant life in my light.”

John’s Gospel says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it… The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world… to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.”

Light or radiance is the energy of communion and thus community. Each of us in Yeshua’s presence is a source of communion. Our meditation together enlivens the life communion between Yeshua and those who perform the devotional offering of meditation.

The radiant body of Yeshua goes beyond the physical body, and has a cosmic structure. That structure is manifest in each person as the image of God. But we live lives that are full of suffering, that are disoriented to the wholeness of the radiant body of Yeshua. That is why meditation is so important. In the spiritual practice and devotion of meditation we are in a process of consecration to God. This is healing and transcendence and awakening in the Mind of Christ.

When we meditate with the Name of Yeshua we are offering our suffering that has destroyed our wholeness, peace and joy into the Name for healing and release for liberation. The Name is the wholeness of radiance/light. Meditating with attention to this Name the flow of devotional love - the devotional love that Yeshua has for us, his devotion to and for us - serves to heal the areas of life which cry out in the heart’s desire. This flow of love achieves communion between the whole person and the wholeness of Yeshua. The word Yeshua orients the heart’s desire, purifies it. The response of love by Jesus always transcends the desire, meeting it in its own place with love. The response of Yeshua’s love offering is a beam of his heart’s radiance/light arising from the fullness of his Name.

All the Christmas light that is outside is a small fraction of all the Christmas light that is within you.

Christmas blessings in the Lamb
The Rev. Beverly Hosea

Agnus Dei Vol 5:4 Meditation and Escape

The meditation course at the prison in Monroe is now well underway. This is an outreach service of the Community of the Lamb supported by you in your prayers and donations. And already I feel confident in saying that this ministry will thrive.

I can see right away that this meditation course will need to have great flexibility. I am quickly learning that the schedule in the prison is subject to instant changes for seemingly infinite numbers of reasons. The volunteer training prepared me for only just so much. Most of my familiarization with the prison environment will happen spontaneously as events occur.

The first session gave me a good example of this. I arrived in the middle of a lock down due to some incident, and so I sat with a number of other staff and a few volunteers in the waiting room until everything was clear for “inmate movement.” It was a good opportunity to get to know other staff, but left me with only about 45 minutes with the inmates. Since that first day, things have run more smoothly, and I have been able to have the full two hours with the inmates. Currently ten men are attending.

The men who have showed up for the class are ready to get down to business. For the most part they are clear about why they want to meditate. Essentially they are looking for an escape. What do men in prison think about? – Jail break, of course! And why wouldn’t they? The environment they live in is intense and stressful. There is little space for peace and quiet. The need and hunger for a time and space free from these stresses is consciously felt. We on the outside can pick and choose our environment with greater freedom. The work environment may be stressful, but we can escape at the end of the work day. Or the home environment may be a stew pot of stressful relationships, but we can always escape to work or school.

Prison walls are all around us, most of them invisible and interior. The men in Monroe can see their prison walls most clearly. We do not see ours. The advantage of seeing the walls is that one recognizes more readily the need for mercy, grace, healing, forgiveness. These are the ones about whom the Beatitudes are meant: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. So spiritually we could say that these inmates are one up on us! If we want to break free into greater expansion of awareness and liberation, then may the Holy Spirit show us our own prison walls.

For the men in prison, meditation might look like an escape, but what I always say is whatever it takes to get you to start meditating, fine. The first rule of meditation is show up. Whatever the suffering, whatever the stress, whatever the hunger, show up, sit down, close your eyes and offer the Prayer. Jesus, Yeshua, have mercy on us. And we turn our attention to what is simply present before us – our breath. And as we sit and observe the breath as we silently repeat the Prayer, a quietness settles over the body. It is then in those moments that we may come to be more aware of the aching heart, and we offer compassionate and loving attention to the being who is sitting there. The Mercy begins to make its presence felt. The body relaxes, the breathing softens. A deep unseen spiritual healing is taking place.

Yeshua is the healer, and meditation opens the way for his healing love to move effectively in the wholeness of our lives, not just as we sit in meditation, but as we live each day. Meditation practice provides moments of perfect spiritual wholeness, healing, and communion: communion that flows from the one sitting in devotion to Yeshua and communion that flows from Jesus as the offering of his love. The healing is the result of our mutual, loving devotion there in that space and time of practice. This devotion places our suffering into a new setting of his love.

If we hear what is being said here and respond with further opening of devotion in our meditation practice, then this will draw us more closely into his heart. And we will experience more fully this spiritual healing in all aspects of our lives – in relationships in families, in work, in community, in prison. In all these places, as we offer our heart’s desire and suffering more fully to Yeshua, we become a source of radiance.

The men in Monroe in the prison may not realize it yet, but they are not meditating just for themselves. The healing effects of meditation within them is already becoming a radiance that will affect their environment. Please pray for them in this healing and transforming process of meditation.

Agnus Dei Vol 5:3 Meditation as Outreach Ministry

Then the king will say to those at his right hand, 'Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.' Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?' And the king will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.' (Matthew 25:34-40 NRSV)


On August 4, members of seven different congregations came together for a Prayer of the Lamb retreat day in which we explored the spiritual foundation for outreach ministry, that is, how the meditation practice not only gives spiritual support and guidance for outreach ministry, but is also itself a form of outreach ministry.

This fall Prayer of the Lamb meditation as outreach will take flesh in a new program starting within prison walls. We are excited to announce that the Community of the Lamb has been approved for giving instruction in meditation at the Monroe Correctional Facility. I will be leading a six month pilot group starting this next month, instructing up to twelve inmates in the Prayer of the Lamb and leading them in meditation, reflection on practice and Bible study.

No one is more surprised than I that we are doing this. It seems very much like a Spirit-led blossoming of opportunity to meet an expressed need. Meditation in prison settings is becoming more widely recognized as an effective spiritual tool for stress reduction, personal spiritual growth and maturity, and modification in behavior among inmates. The purpose for teaching meditation in this setting is to bring greater faith, peace, order and social integration to inmate life, in this case specifically through a Christian context. I have heard that in prisons where meditation is taught and practiced, the positive effect is not just for those participating, but also there is an auxiliary effect on the whole prison.

The Board of Directors and I have laid the ground work for this first meditation course, which will be a pilot program. We will evaluate how it goes, make modifications where necessary and plan for more Prayer of the Lamb groups in the future if all develops as we hope. Already others have been asking me if they can also be involved in this outreach ministry. Jane York, President of the Board, has had previous experience in prison ministry and has been trained as a Prayer of the Lamb group facilitator, and I have asked her to participate with me in expanding this program.

How you can help – First, please keep this project in your prayers. Offer the Prayer of the Lamb for those participating in the pilot group, for the prison staff, and for me as I seek to be open to Yeshua’s Spirit as I lead these sessions. Second, I already have enough prayer beads for the size group I will lead this first time. But if you want to make malas for future groups or for seminars and retreats, let me know and I will get some supplies to you. Making prayer bead malas for others is good motivation for your own practice. Each bracelet or mala has at least one hour of meditation with the Prayer of the Lamb offered on it when it is made.

Third, financial support would be especially appreciated. Since this is an outreach program being offered to prison inmates, we will not be receiving the usual donations such as have funded all our seminars, retreats and groups to this point. Expenses for this ministry are not great, but we do have the cost of materials, office space, mileage, and hopefully an honorarium. If you are interested or excited about this ministry, donations would be a tremendous support.

Meanwhile meditation itself is a form of outreach ministry, especially when we are using the Prayer of the Lamb. Whether during sitting meditation or in the midst of the day’s events, this heart prayer offered into God’s mercy is without the encumbrance of our own agenda about what God should be doing. The Prayer is offered in simple innocence as an expression of faith in this tremendous mercy, and as such we are available for awakening in God’s will.

I live in an active part of the city, just a few blocks from a fire station, a police station and a hospital. I hear lots of sirens. My practice has been that each time I hear a siren I offer the Prayer for those responding and for the situation they are going to. All day long and sometimes at night if I am awakened by sirens, I offer this intercession. Where I live I do a lot of this kind of outreach ministry. Sometimes I would like to be out in the woods, in some quiet place where all one would hear would be bird sounds. But if I were out in the woods enjoying the fresh air away from the sound of traffic, I might forget to offer this ministry of intercession. So I give thanks for the opportunity for service that has been made available to me.

Where in your life are those opportunities for offering the outreach ministry of intercession? Where in your daily activities are you reminded of the needs, suffering, want, strife, anxiety, fear, alienation, and grief of the world? Increase your outreach ministry – Yeshua, Lamb of God, have mercy on us.


Hierarchy of Godly Service

During the summer retreat I presented a list that described levels of generosity in giving or offering service to others. As we move from self-motivated service to others through progressively more selfless ways of offering service, we can reflect on our own generosity of heart and what makes a difference for healing, reconciling and empowering others in a world of need. Others have asked that I share this list more broadly. Admittedly I cannot give a citation or reference for this list, as I do not recall its exact source. So if anyone else knows where this comes from, let me know. This list may not fully be in the correct order, but I know that it begins and ends correctly.

You do an act of kindness, generosity, service for another.

Level 1: You know for whom you are doing this,
and they know who has given to them.

Level 2: You know to whom you are giving,
but they do not know who has given to them.
(ex. an anonymous gift)

Level 3: You do not know to whom you are giving,
but they do know who has given to them.
(ex. a benefactor giving through a charity)

Level 4: You know to whom you are giving,
but they do not know that they have been the recipients of a gift,
so masterfully has the gift been given.
(a good teacher does this)

Level 5: You do not know to whom you are giving,
and they do not know from whom they have received.
(ex. an unrestricted gift to the Episcopal Relief and Development fund)

Level 6: You do not know that you have given,
but others know they have received from you.

Level 7: You do not know that you have given,
and others do not know that they have received from you.
Nevertheless you have given and others have benefited.

This last level, I would propose to you, is the kind of ministry offered through meditation with the Prayer of the Lamb. We offered the intercession in faith and will not see the results directly. Nevertheless there has been intervention for the world. No one may know that healing and reconciliation have been taking place. Nevertheless peace and wholeness, love and mercy are being poured out.

Agnus Dei Vol 5:2 Penecost 07 Dog Awareness

When we sit in silence with the Prayer of the Lamb we are offering this prayer in a meditational style. We are not concerned about holding any mental intention of intercession for others throughout the time of sitting, although we may have begun with offering specific intentions. At my first morning meditation I offer the Prayer of the Lamb for each name or situation on my prayer lists and each prayer request that has come to me. Then I set that all aside and give my attention only to the meditation practice and the silent, mental recitation of the Prayer of the Lamb or the Name of Yeshua alone or a simple “Yeshua, have mercy,” offered gently, slowly and rhythmically into the time of silence.

After a short while inevitably what comes up are thoughts emerging out of the background of awareness making flash appearances in that ocean of silence. Many are the times when the Prayer or the Name drop into the background and the emerging thought has grabbed attention.

One of the issues that comes up again and again with meditators is a perceived problem with thoughts. “Clear your mind of thoughts.” “I try but I can’t,” I hear. “Thoughts keep distracting me.” “I have ‘monkey mind’ every time I try to meditate.” “At first it seemed so easy and so peaceful, but now every time I sit down the mind is filled with one thought after another.” These expressions reflect the idea that one is the victim of one’s own thoughts.

In some traditions of meditation the emphasis is on controlling and subduing the mind and the thoughts, holding them in check. There can be heroic effort put into directing attention away from thoughts. I can’t say that I have seen this work for many people, and with those for whom their efforts bring some measure of success, I harbor the suspicion that they have reinforced their own ego strength, so that in place of an expansion of awareness and ease of practice, there is a constriction of awareness into a tight band of control. However, it may also be very good to try as hard as one can to check thoughts, control the mind, and set aside all distractions, and to keep trying until one has utterly failed and comes to the realization that this is beyond capability. Then we can come to a place of grace and compassion for ourselves. Certainly telling people to control the mind serves to bring attention to the way the mind dominates and brings present awareness to what currently is foremost in the mind. It shows us our condition and engages us in some intentionality about our spiritual condition so influenced by the mind.

Some have likened the mind being distracted by thought to a puppy dog following whatever is set in front of it. When training a dog, I was told, you have about four seconds of dog attention in which to reinforce a desired action or to discourage an unwanted behavior before the window of opportunity closes. Response time has to be pretty close to the event. So likewise in meditation we might do well to practice the “four second rule” or remind ourselves quickly that we need not follow this thought that just emerged before us, but to let it go, let it drift off untouched or only slightly considered. Once there is the awareness that I am thinking a particular thought, that particular thought is over. To go back to that thought now becomes a matter of willful choice rather than the spontaneous arising of the stream of thoughts that the mind, or the mechanism of the brain, continually spews out.

I hope you can see the subtle difference between a spontaneously arising thought and a planned, premeditated or developed thought. It is the difference between the thought that I need to figure out what to fix for dinner and the actual planning of the dinner menu. It is the difference between a flash of memory from childhood of the gathering eggs in the hen house on Cousin Jack’s ranch in Montana and the expansion of that memory into a reminiscence about the time my sister picked up an egg so freshly laid that its shell had not yet hardened and how it broke in her hand, and the beauty of the sun appearing over the tops of the mountains in the morning there in the Flathead Valley and walking back to the farm house where Cousin Grace had breakfast preparing for us, and stopping to check our shoes before coming in the door and pumping water for washing our hands. It is the difference between a sudden remembrance emerging in consciousness of a comment with a barb to it that a colleague had made earlier, and working out what I wish I had said at the time and what I would say to that person next time we met.

Thoughts will arise, and we need not pounce on each one as it does. We can let them go. And we can also know that many times, much of the time, we don’t let them go until farther on down the road when we finally recognize that for the last several minutes attention had been totally engrossed in the development of some thought. Lord, have mercy.

So when thoughts arise and the puppy dog of attention starts following it, one way then to work with the situation is neither to berate ourselves nor to reject what has happened. Instead one could look at the thought as a piece of information reflecting one’s current condition. At that moment we could check what we are feeling right then. Is there any tension, concentration of energy, or reactivity occurring within our awareness? There is no need to do anything about our condition except observe it and accept the truth of our condition and honor our master by letting Yeshua do the work within us through the Holy Spirit.

So the mind is like a puppy dog in terms of stability of attention, having an attention span of less than four seconds. There is an advantage to this: dog awareness. Take your dog out for a walk and what does the dog do? It seems to want to examine everything, sniff everything. It doesn’t have the same agenda that you do. It doesn’t naturally walk along at a steady pace, keeping to the sidewalk, crossing streets only at corners, not being distracted by neighborhood cats or squirrels scrambling up tree trunks. The dog does not have the human’s agenda of going from point A to point B. To the dog everything is new right then. Even from one day to the next what was there when you went out for your walk yesterday is today as though it is brand new. With an attention span of four seconds everything is new. This is a way to stay present to the moment, to live in the now.

Meditation is “non-doing.” In meditation the idea on our part is to approach that state of non-doing by our subsequent refinement of still body, closed eyes, quiet environment and non-development of thoughts. Non-doing includes letting go of desire, hopes, struggle, and both clinging and rejection. But the silence is a gift; it is what is given. So the best advice of all, one could say, is to give up all hope of getting anywhere. We will not accomplish the quiet mind by our own efforts. Meditation is a faith practice.

Agnus Dei Vol 5:1 Winter 07 Meditation as a Congregational Spiritual Practice

Whenever I present a seminar introducing the Prayer of the Lamb in a congregation, only a certain selection of people from the whole congregation turns out for it. The fact is that the number of people coming intentionally to learn about a meditation prayer practice is a relatively small percentage of the entire membership. There are many people for whom this is not a spiritual practice they could envision for themselves, such is this culture’s general understanding of what meditation is. But there are also many for whom the discovery of a meditational intercessory prayer practice is exactly what they need in order to enter the whole realm of meditation which they never would have considered otherwise. Often I hear people tell me that they considered the Prayer of the Lamb because it had the focus of offering intercessions, so it didn’t seem quite like “wasting time” or “being too focused on self.”

Certainly in this culture, in which we are constantly encouraged to be busy and productive, or to multi-task, or to fill every waking moment with sound, intentionally sitting still in silence totally unemployed in activity, or even thought, is a radical way of behavior; it is just not “normal.” But then again, neither was Jesus “normal.” What he presented as good news liberating persons from all the ways in which they are bound is radical beyond comprehension. He confronted the power structures of the world at that time with the more powerful reality of ruling by serving. He exhibited in every word he said, every action he performed, every breath and every once of his being a love that far surpasses what this culture thinks of as love, a love so comprehensive that it turns death into life, a love that permeates all being and unites all being.

For those who do sit down and devote time each day to this simple meditational prayer, this time of silence becomes healing, reconciling, enlivening, transforming, enlightening, not only for self but for everyone in our vicinity. Meditational intercessory prayer instigates a stealth sabotage of the culture of the world we live in. I think about that each morning as I sit down to offer my intentional intercessions before beginning the first meditation practice of the day, there in that apartment building on Capitol Hill. I am surrounded by forty apartments where people of various ages and ethnic backgrounds live. There are students and retired people, health care professionals and IT techies, musicians and artists. There is probably little awareness that they are going about their day swimming through an ocean of love, but I sit there awake offering this “waste” of time ecologically for the whole unlikely community of this hive of an apartment building and neighborhood.
What would it be like if every congregation had a group, no matter how small, of those who would intentionally offer the Prayer of the Lamb as an ecological intervention in each faith community and its neighborhood? Imagine the subtle benefit and blessing that even a handful can convey within the community. It is not that we who sit in meditation are accomplishing anything, but that we are so many different places where intercession is occurring, so many different channels through which the Holy Spirit wind is lively in awareness, so many different reflections of the radiance of the Transfigured One ever in our midst, too often unseen. Imagine each gathering of the faithful for the Eucharist, the Supper of the Lamb, as a liturgy offered for the needs of the whole of creation, in faithful response to the total self-offering of Yeshua, Jesus. What each of us does in engaging in a meditation and prayer practice is not for each of our own benefit alone. It is a ministry of outreach for the whole of creation. What we offer in meditation supports and upholds the many other ministries flowing from that congregation. What we offer in meditation brings increasing awareness into the whole, enlivens the space for us all.

Keep meditating.

Blessings in the Lamb,
Beverly

Agnus Dei Vol 4:4 Nov 06 Hurricane Katrina Outreach

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God.
[2 Corinthians 1:3-4]

At the recent Diocesan Convention we heard some tremendous stories of desperation and grace told by visitors from St. Paul Episcopal Church, New Orleans. Their rector, the Rev. Will Hood, spoke movingly to us all about the rebuilding efforts that are ongoing and will be continuing for some time. He talked about how they were a desperate people, and how they knew with no uncertainty their need for help. And therefore, I would say, they were spiritually in a very favorable position, open to God’s mercy and grace, able to recognize and be open to God’s work in their lives. This was clearly evident in the stories they related that gave strong witness to deep faith in our Lord Jesus and to God’s mercy and grace in action.

I spoke with Will and some of the parishioners who had come here from New Orleans to share their story, and they told me that just as important as monetary donations is being supported by prayer. So I passed on an idea that a few of you have suggested to me, that we make malas or bracelets of prayer beads for all the parishioners at St. Paul’s. I told them how we pray the Prayer of the Lamb for a full hour with each set of beads before they are put into circulation at seminars and retreats and are given to individuals. I said that we could probably send them enough prayer beads for all their parishioners by Christmas. This idea was received immediately with great warmth and anticipation.

And so, dear friends, I have committed us to making 150 sets of prayer beads in five weeks time. All who would like to take part in this project, please contact me immediately, and I will get you beads, cord, and directions. Please get the finished malas back to me by December 15 at the latest, so that they can be shipped to New Orleans for Christmas.

If one is meditating regularly ½ hour twice a day, that’s one mala a day. If as few as 10 people took part in this project, that’s only 15 malas per person. This is quite do-able.

With each mala that is made and prayed with, we are asking that you would also fill out a card with a word of encouragement for the one that will be receiving the prayer beads. Everyone in New Orleans has been deeply affected by Hurricane Katrina, most have completely lost homes. Jobs have been lost, schools have been lost, friends have not returned from the diaspora, and the landscape has been forever altered, with few landmarks left to even identify what had been the old neighborhood. The scope of the loss and the monumental tasks of starting over again have altered their lives forever, and it will be years before the restoration process will be complete. Our prayers and intercessions will be needed for some time to come.

This is what the Prayer of the Lamb is intended for: the continual, heart-centered appeal to Christ’s compassion and mercy, professing helplessness in the face of all the ways we are ignorant of or are unwilling to recognize, accept and be made whole by this divine mercy. The Prayer purifies attention away from entanglement with despair, strangling limitations and death, and moves attention towards increasing wakefulness that what the heart most desires is unconditionally given.

In this project of making and praying with these prayer beads and passing them on we demonstrate significantly how this meditational prayer is a very practical outreach ministry. So you are invited to take part in this ministry. Contact Beverly at PrayeroftheLamb@mac.com or by calling 206-713-5321. To read more about St. Paul, New Orleans, and the Diocese of Olympia “We will stand with you” project, go to:
http://olympia.anglican.org/katrina/index.cfm,
http://www.stpaulschurchno.org/index.html and
http://www.nola.com/living/t-p/index.ssf?/base/living-6/1148799908199590.xml&coll=1.

Out of all the affliction that these people in this part of the country, so devastated by hurricane and flood, have experienced, their testimony of faith provides consolation for others who are suffering. This was just one disaster of many world-wide and close to home. Jesus, Lamb of God, have mercy on us. And as we pray this prayer and meditate with it, we contribute to the healing, reconciliation, consolation and relief from suffering for countless others unknown to us.

Blessing in the Lamb,
Beverly

Agnus Dei Vol 4:3 Fall 06 Envisioning the Future

In the five years since the first Introductory Seminar, the Prayer of the Lamb has been shared in one format or another with 17 congregations in this diocese, as well as workshops at Ministry Resource Days and other offerings. There have also been seminars, retreats or presentations in six other dioceses, as well as seminars and retreats for Lutherans and Roman Catholics. There was also the presence at the 2003 General Convention of the Episcopal Church, and 900 sets of beads that many of you put together and used in meditation with the Prayer of the Lamb that were given to Deputies and Bishops and visitors. I estimate that in the last five years this ministry has reached 1600 people through all these various offerings.

Now it seems that it would be appropriate and beneficial to have a physical presence, a place where quiet days and short retreats could be given, where a meditation group could meet on a regular basis, where the Supper of the Lamb could be offered, and where there could be an office for meeting with individuals for meditation instruction or for spiritual direction, and where the newsletter could be produced.

I am glad to announce that we have begun to realize this dream! We have just been offered space for an office at St. Dunstan Episcopal Church, Shoreline, with use of their facilities for day retreats and such events. This is a congregation where we have held an Introductory Seminar, had a 12 week group, have a monthly on-going group, and where we have had celebrations of the Supper of the Lamb and Quiet Days. I am tremendously grateful for this generous offer, and feel that this reflects appreciation by the congregation for this ministry and its benefits for them. I am also pleased because this church is easy to get to, is handicap accessible, and is set in 4+ acres for beautiful, wooded grounds. The church and its setting are very conducive for meditation and prayer.

We will be getting the Community of the Lamb office set up in the next few weeks in the lower level of St. Dunstan. Now I will have space where I can meet with individuals for spiritual direction and individualized meditation instruction, a need that was becoming more and more apparent with the passage of time.
A second development in the mission of the Community of the Lamb is offering the ministry of intercession through the Prayer of the Lamb on a wider basis, inviting congregations and individuals to bring us prayer requests. I have a dream that the Community of the Lamb will become an association of those who pray the Prayer of the Lamb regularly and who offer the Prayer as intercessory intention for prayer requests entrusted to us from throughout the diocese and beyond. The Prayer of the Lamb is, I believe, so well suited for this way of offering intercession, because whatever the need or request the intercession is offered in trust without condition and inclusively. It is an act of faith in the abundant and unconditional mercy, love, compassion and care of God. I envision a regularly offered Eucharist, a Supper of the Lamb, at which the Community could gather to offer this meditation of intercession within the context of the sacrament. This would be a ministry of outreach and service, an ecological and spiritually based offering for the sake of the world.

It goes without saying that this is certainly a time when intercession for the world is needed. Not only is this a time for critical change going on in the institutional church on the congregational level, diocesan or synod level, and internationally, challenging how mission and ministry is focused, calling for greater clarity about the spiritual basis for what all we do and how we are to be, but this is also a time of urgent need for intervention worldwide in the escalation of violence, war, poverty, epidemic, and ecological disaster. Fundamental to all action in the world is the spiritual basis out of which this action flows.

Our purpose here is service, and what that service is arises from what we experience deeply as confining limits in this world. This purpose here is the service of sharing the radiant love and mercy of the Lamb of God which releases hearts to the freedom that God intends for all. We cooperate in fulfilling this service first by realizing ourselves the love and compassion Jesus/Yeshua has for us, and by offering compassion to ourselves. And this has an ecological effect. Then out of that compassion and out of that being a place where intercession is offered the radiance of the Light of God gives light and guidance and direction for active service in the world.

Blessings in the Lamb,
Beverly

Agnus Dei Vol4:2 Summer 06 Back Home Reflections

The time I spent away this last winter was full and rewarding, and going over journal notes I do further reflection. And I discover that it all reinforces what has been there from the beginning with the Prayer of the Lamb: meditation is a form of intercession.

When we offer the Prayer of the Lamb, “Jesus/Yeshua, have mercy on us,” with “the intention that this meditation is for the service of intercession, whatever quietness of body and mind, peace, joy, love that comes to us during the meditation sitting is then explicitly offered for those for whom we are praying. Meditation is intercession. We are simply being the loci for this occurring for all the world. It is no small matter, however. This is vital for the world.” That’s what I had written in my India journal.

When we sit down to meditate, we cease from our own actions and put ourselves at the disposal of the working of God’s mercy within us, grace in operation, unseen yet really present, at operation without interference from the thoughts we are having, or meaning we may want to attribute to our experiences in meditation. This space of mercy is all outside of our control, our personal intentions or desires. How we offer the Prayer of the Lamb may be with increasing ease and purity, or it may be a mixed expression of our own anxiety and confusion, but nevertheless God’s mercy is there abundantly, unqualified by how we may judge our practice to be going. The cloudiness of our limits of recognition does not diminish God’s Presence. How can the Unlimited, the Unconditioned be constrained in its essential potency by the limited vision of any of us?

Therefore our faithfulness in offering the Prayer, in doing the practice, counts. Just show up, every day. Sit there and offer the Prayer. It is vital for the world. And it goes beyond our specific intentions, because all is connected, all is related. We benefit ourselves even as we offer specific intercessions. And there is also an effect upon the whole of creation. There is no way to separate out the effect of one from the other. The mercy is at work in us as we sit in practice, on those for whom we have specific intentions, and on those for whom we would never think to pray for, on our enemies we may think to form for ourselves, on those with whom we would not care to associate, on all. We contribute to the whole world addressing all the violence, war, suffering, and darkness reflecting the Light that brings healing and reconciliation and wholeness.

I keep forgetting that meditation is a faith practice. I need to remind myself about that frequently. It is the obedience of trusting God, trusting that simply being is all that is asked. It is the surrender of myself as the doer, the recognition that I am not the one doing. This is clear in sitting meditation, and it becomes clearer in the rest of life as we trust in the spontaneous flow of Life here, just as there is that spontaneous flow that can be observed during meditation practice. This helps me just to sit there without trying to accomplish anything. It’s all been taken care of within the broad embrace of Yeshua, the Lamb of God, whose loving arms took in all the suffering and sin of the world for all time and all places.

Blessings in the Lamb,
Beverly

Agnus Dei Vol 4:1 Spring 06 In India

In January 2000 I embarked on the meditation sabbatical that led to the development of the Community of the Lamb as an association of people who offer the Prayer of the Lamb in intercession for the needs of the world.

Last year I spent much time in travel around the world in spiritual pilgrimage, first to the Middle East to the places associated with the beginning of the spiritual practice of hesychasm of the eastern orthodox church out of which the Jesus Prayer and the Prayer of the Lamb derive. The time spent in Coptic and Orthodox monasteries and the caves of saints and monks of the past gave a physical, historical and geographical context for the teaching that accompanies the Prayer of the Lamb. And it was personally gratifying to sit in meditation, even if only briefly, in places like the cave of St. Antony of Egypt or a cave at the top of Mount Sinai or a cave in the side of a cliff in the desert area around the Dead Sea.

Later in September when I was group leader for a Franciscan Pilgrimage to Assisi and Rome following the footsteps of St. Francis, I was overjoyed to discover the caves of Italy where Francis and other saints resorted to prayer. Mount Athos in Greece is only one place among many where there are caves to welcome those pulled by the Spirit into periods of solitude, renunciation, prayer and meditation.

Seeking the place for retreat and prayer is a universal desire of the heart. It is not a running away from the world as much as a running to a place of encounter with God, engaging in a sensory fast in order to hear more easily the still, small voice that Elijah heard on Mount Sinai. It is not for a cozy time of just me and Jesus all full of bliss, but a time for coming face to face with the inner demons and purification of the soul and burning away of the ego. It is a time for waking up and encountering reality.

Early in December I was traveling again, this time heading for India, not returning until the middle of February. India had been there in my thoughts and imagination for a number of years. India has been referred to as the other Holy Land, a land where spirituality and spiritual practice is an integral part of daily life, a land of a surprising number of different religions and saints from every tradition, and where there is a much greater tolerance for the diversity of religions. Over the years as I read from the classic texts of the world’s religions I had been impressed by the way meditation and consciousness were discussed, how much more expansive and descriptive the vocabulary was, how this addressed questions that western spiritual writers seemed only able to hint at. Then as I read commentaries by different Hindus on Christian scriptures or about Jesus, I was struck by how easily and cleanly they zeroed in on the essential truths. It was a breath of fresh air, something that seemed more organic and congruent than a lot of the western theology I have studied. We in the west are frequently, I believe, too sophisticated, too into our heads. That is why I initially was drawn to the Orthodox Prayer of the Heart; I needed to move in my own prayer life out of the head and into the heart.

Finally the opportunity had arrived to make the pilgrimage to India. The impetus was a chance meeting with one of the many Indian holy people I had read about. Mata Amritanandamayi Devi (affectionately known as “Amma”) was on tour and in Seattle, so I went to see her out of curiosity. Since Jesus had lived in an eastern part of the world and had disciples whom he taught more specifically than the crowds, according to the Gospel accounts, and since what I had learned from Hindu writers about the process of discipleship had really opened up many passages of the Gospels to me, I had been thinking that to observe one of these eastern sages might reveal more of what it would have been like to be around Jesus during his earthly ministry.

I was not disappointed in my curiosity. In the large crowd I encountered a spiritual atmosphere much like what I would have imagined it to be like around Jesus. There was love and openness and welcome and a palpable peace. This was a different sort of crowd to be in, sort of what it was like when years earlier I had gone to see particularly renown charismatic leaders and healers. I joined the others receiving from Amma her trademark hug, a simple loving embrace to model how we all are to be in relationship with one another, an example of selfless service and giving without judgment or reciprocity. As I observed Amma that evening and that weekend I could see that here was a person truly living out the Gospel. And she also made it clear that she was not calling anyone out of their own religious tradition, but into a deeper observance of their own faith.

Here was the golden opportunity to see what it would have been like to have been around Jesus 2,000 years ago and to see what that discipleship process would have been like by being around someone whose culture, although Hindu, has more commonality with Judea and Palestine of the First Century than our western world could ever claim. And so in short order I found myself with plane tickets in hand and a reservation at Amma’s ashram in southern India for December and January.

Amma’s ashram in the backwaters of Kerala in south India was neither desert or cave, with permanent residents numbering about 2,000, a few hundred of whom were from countries all around the world. But in her presence the process of discipleship proved every bit as intense as I had suspected it would have been with Jesus. Always there were the opportunities to confront the basic core issues of one’s life and relationships. Physically it was living the life of extreme simplicity, of poverty, of renunciation of the comforts of the world. It required an utter reliance on faith, for me faith in Jesus, in Yeshua, as I came face to face with truth about myself. As one becomes more aware of the truth, of reality, one can no longer go back to old ways of being. But in this intense spiritual environment one is not given the opportunity to reconsolidate a personally framed self-definition to assure the ego of any mastery or ownership or control in managing one’s life. Instead it is all living by grace, the grace of the guru, the grace of Guru Jesus.

I have stories to tell about what I encountered at the ashram and what I saw when I traveled with Amma to various cities around south India, and some of these will appear in subsequent newsletters. The parallels with Jesus and his entourage going from village to village in Galilee and Judea were clear. The masses of people would gather, they would all be fed, all desiring to come for the loving embrace of the spiritual master would be welcomed, parables and stories conveying the basic teaching like the proclamation of the Gospel would be told, and there would always be tremendous hymn singing, Indian bhajans sung as call and response, known to all and sung with great enthusiasm.

There is more than can be shared in one newsletter. This is perhaps the introduction. But here is one example from my journal notes during the India pilgrimage.

Monday, December 12
The love and attention given to each person coming forward was constant, while Amma also seemed to be very aware of what was going on around her. It seemed to me that she was an axis mundi, like Jacob’s ladder, like Jesus, a connecting point between heaven and earth, a point at which the divine and creation converge energetically. As Amma gave her attention to each person, that seemed to me to be a point where the maya of separation was dissolved and there was only one being in harmony with itself, whole for a moment as Amma “absorbed” this other unique expression of creation kneeling before her.

It occurs to me that when I pray my intercessions each morning, this could be done with a similar giving of attention that Amma gives in darshan. This moment of intercession for each person is an intersection point with Yeshua, Jacob’s Ladder, axis mundi.

During this time in the life of the Church when interest is turning more and more to spirituality and less attention is given to maintaining the Church as an institution, people have had a tendency to look to the East for spiritual light. What one may discover, however, is that we have it all within our own Christian tradition, and the sages of the East may very well be pointing the way back home again with a fresh view.

Blessings in the Lamb,
Beverly

Agnus Dei Vol 3:5 Summer 05 Desert Insights

This last March I participated in the St. George’s College course, “Ways in the Wilderness,” traveling with a splendid international group of pilgrims throughout the deserts of Egypt, Jordan and Israel/Palestine, visiting Coptic and Orthodox monasteries, studying the spirituality of the desert and of these monastic traditions that have employed the Prayer of the Heart over vast expanses of time. I came home ruminating over how the Prayer of the Lamb has flowed seamlessly out of this tradition, but has also been tremendously relevant and contemporary for the spiritual issues of this time and place and cultural setting. The desert gets us to the core spiritual issues common to all human situations. The following are a very few insights and reflections on the lessons of the desert and the monastic life of the desert.

#1. St. Gregory of Nyssa called prayer a heart to heart talk, always active on God's part, and always slow on our part. Engaging in the discipline of prayer and meditation for me has been a process of paying attention, of listening, ever more carefully to what God is saying to me. It's the listening that has been slow. My talking in this conversation has often gotten in the way of the real communication going on, and has slowed me down. So now there is much less talk on my part, much more listening. As a result the heart to heart talk of prayer is less slow on my part, I would presume to say. The amazing thing is that God seeks so earnestly to talk with us. One Coptic monk calls this the humility of God. Prayer, this heart to heart communication, comes to us at the core of our self-consciousness. To be conscious, awake and aware is to come into contact with prayer at its heart. Thus it would seem to me that as conscious beings we are created to be in conversation with God, to be in prayer.

#2. Out in the Sinai Desert and in the Judean Desert on the sides of mountains I encountered fear. I was afraid of slipping and falling, I was afraid that the earth would give way beneath me. I both doubted my own abilities and mistrusted the environment not to betray me. But if I wanted to keep up with the others in the St. George's course and make it to the top of the mountain, or over the cliff into the cave, if I wanted to squeeze through the tight place in the cave panicky about having enough air, feeling closed in, or getting light-headed and dizzy because of the drop off of space over the side of vertical rock, there was no other way than to literally walk through the fear. I looked neither left nor right. I did not look up or look ahead where I was going. I only looked at my feet and the place where the next step was. I had to trust either the hand extended to me, or when there was no hand that the place where I was about to put my foot would hold me. There was no time to wait for emotions to pass, no luxury of whining or complaining, no time to think. Just do it. It was taking action in the face of contradicting emotions and thoughts. Was this sheer will? No, I don’t think so, since it is not my nature to be left behind in a challenge. I was preconditioned to respond to the situation in this way. This would have been my response regardless. This to me is a lesson of trust and obedience, of what is required of a disciple.

It seems to me that in the day to day living out of our lives God is not absorbed in our fears or considerations or reluctance about following in obedience like we are. I have noticed that if I don’t get a lesson of life when it is presented to me, but let the fears or considerations or reluctance help me avoid or slide by the spiritual lesson provided me, I can be assured that the same lesson will present itself again, reconfigured but recognizable. This happens over and over until I quit resisting and face into the situation. A good for instance for me is in relationships apologizing for what I had done, or not done. All the fears and considerations come up about being unmasked in my sin and shortcomings, but despite the risk there is the strong urging of the Spirit to confess, own up to the mess and make restitution. Then I usually discover that the risk was primarily to ego self-preservation, the very thing that indeed needed to be dealt a healing blow.

#3. Out in the desert we couldn’t have made it on our own. We needed each other and we needed our guides. The environment does not care about your intentions or your status or presumed importance. A bishop can die in the desert as quickly as those making desperate runs across the border in hopes of finding a job. Community is a given; no one is separate. The environment, indeed all of creation, will teach us that if we look.

Blessings in the Lamb,
Beverly

Agnus Dei Vol 3:4 Easter 05 Ways in the Wilderness

Dear Friends:

I had hoped to send out periodic emails from the Holy Land to you all with vignettes from the course on desert spirituality I was taking from St. George’s College, Jerusalem. This course fit in so beautifully with the Prayer of the Lamb, providing historical, geographical, cultural and spiritual background for hesychasm and the prayer of the heart, the spiritual roots of the Jesus Prayer. I did send three emails, but not everyone got them. So in this newsletter the three emails are strung together.

February 27

This is the first of a short series of emails from the Holy Land and the deserts that have birthed and fostered the Prayer of the Heart and devotion to the Name of Yeshua, Jesus. With the long flights comes an opportunity for meditation and reading, and the prayer beads in the hand found steady employment. I chose to take with me a copy of the Philokalia, a collection of writings covering several centuries of Eastern Orthodox saints and theologians, this copy being a selection of those writings related specifically to the practice of the Prayer of the Heart, the Jesus Prayer.

From the writings of the Patriarch Callistus and his fellow-worker Ignatius of Xanthopoulos, 14th Century, Mount Athos:

Our glorious teachers and preceptors, in whom liveth the Holy Spirit, wisely teach us all, especially those who have wished to embrace the field of Divine silence and consecrate themselves to God, having renounced the world to practice hesychasm with wisdom, and to prefer prayer to the Lord above any other work or care, begging His mercy with undaunted hope. Such [ones] should have, as their constant practice and occupation, the invoking of His holy and most sweet name, bearing it always in the mind, in the heart and on the lips. They should force themselves in every way possible to live, breathe, sleep and wake, walk, eat and drink with Him and in Him, and in general so to do all that they have to do. For as in His absence all harmful things come to us, leaving no room for anything to profit the soul, so in His presence all evil is swept away, no good is ever lacking and everything becomes possible, as the Lord Himself says: "He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5). Thus, unworthy as we are, we too call with faith on this most terrible and most worshipful name; and with His aid daringly set sail and launch forth…

And so I launch forth, prayer beads in hand and the Name of Yeshua in my heart.

I arrived at St. George's College by sherut, an inexpensive van-pool, in the short hour ride from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The college is located adjacent to St. George's Anglican Cathedral in East Jerusalem just a couple of blocks north of the Damascus Gate into the Old City. The building that I am staying in is new, the fruit of the work of the late Dean Coombs of St. John's Cathedral, Spokane. When I first came to Jerusalem in 1989, he and Barbara Coombs were living in residence for a year at St. George's while he worked on getting building permits and dealing with endless bureaucracy. Each room for those attending the courses is named for a place or an event in the life of Jesus and is given in memory or thanksgiving by various people, My room is the Childhood of Jesus, giving in thanksgiving by John Peterson and his wife for their daughters. John Peterson, from the Diocese of Minnesota, was one of the deans of the college and went on from there to work for Archbishop of Canterbury John Carey. As I look around at the name plaques up and down the halls I recognize many names of those from the Episcopal Church in the USA showing our strong support for the ministry here. The hallway bears a plaque from St. Thomas, Medina. So I am surrounded by the familiar in the family of the church. And now I hear the bells calling for the first Eucharist of this Sunday morning.

Monday 2/28

Yesterday and today were spent in visiting again many of the holy sites that have so moved me in past visits, sharing them with others who had arrived for the course. Briefly what has impressed me is the few numbers of pilgrims. The streets in the Old City of Jerusalem look deserted in places, shops closed. There are no crowds and waiting lines at shrines. It seemed unreal that we could linger at prominent holy sites totally alone. The people living here all seem desperate. I was able to look closely at the huge wall that is being built throughout the land separating Palestinians and enclosing them. This wall is going completely around Bethlehem and will virtually imprison the entire city. I watched the lines at the check points of men returning home after a day's work in Jerusalem. We were passed on through easily, but all these men were being directed, or, more accurately, herded along together by young soldiers with guns. The effect on the sensibilities is chilling. How can this be taking place? Bishop Riah spoke to us this evening as the course got started, welcoming us, but also telling us about some of the huge difficulties indigenous Christians face. Here in the geographic center of the Gospel stories of our Lord, life is intensely lived, full of suffering and crying out to God. Yeshua, Lamb of God, have mercy on us.


March 4

After a few days in Jerusalem reacquainting myself with all of the precious holy sites associated with our Lord's life and ministry and death and resurrection, and the beginning of the course, we left for Egypt heading out across the various deserts we had to pass through on our way to Cairo and the Coptic churches and monasteries of Egypt. It was sort of like the Holy Family going to Egypt, and indeed I have come to know just how important this story of Jesus is to the Coptic Christians. There are deeply held traditions here about where the Holy Family traveled to, how long they stayed and all the various miracles that happened, all the springs of water that began at the hand of the Christ Child.

Our course of travel was to dip over Mount Scopus and down the backside of Jerusalem to Jericho and the Dead Sea heading down the Great Rift Valley following the frankincense route. So immediately we were plunged into the desert and into the many varieties of ways in which the desert manifests itself. All along the Dead Sea we saw a thin layer of crystallized salt on the ground leached out of the soil by the bits of rainfall and moisture in the area.

Then the route took us up through jagged hills of the most fierce appearance. This led us up to the central plateau area of the Sinai that goes on and on for miles, a wasteland of stones and sand. But it was amazing to see clumps of vegetation scattered throughout, small separate bushes and even trees, all looking very dry and withered with grayish-green leaves, but mostly composed of dead looking sticks and twigs. The shade they offered was sparse. Here and there we would see desiccated bits of human civilization, camels or donkeys wandering about (meaning that there were humans not too far off). Military check points appeared at intervals along the route.

Now we are in Cairo, the most heavily populated city of Egypt with air pollution that leaves the sky looking like Los Angeles only worse (not as bad as Kathmandu however). One can look directly at the sun. The pyramids are incredibly impressive, something I had wanted to see all my life. There is an interior resonance with these massive structures, the cleanness of design, enduring the millennia of the passage of time.

My introduction to the Coptic Church here in Egypt has been a wonderful discovery. Here is a member of the Body of Christ that delights in claiming its unique position as the first blessed by our Lord himself, when the Holy Family traveled throughout the land during their sojourn in Egypt. Many beautiful legends exist about this period of Jesus' life here, with churches founded on sites the Holy Family is said to have visited. Tomorrow we go to some of the monastic communities still in existence from the days of the Desert Fathers and Mothers.


March 16

The last message was from Cairo. Since then we have been really out in the desert in several locations, with not much access to email except in Amman, Jordan. But then our schedule didn't allow much free time for that. I didn't mind, however, as what we had on the course schedule was so full and so rich. The highlight has got to be the three days we spent out in the Sinai Desert with the Bedouins away from everything. Many of the Bedouins are Christians, and our guide, Dr. Rabiah, was both a great academician and at home in the desert. We had Bedouin drivers and cooks who provided excellent meals, and wherever we set up camp from out of nowhere the local sheik and some of his family would show up – the proverbial desert hospitality.

The monasteries were all incredible in terms of age, icons, history and relics. We were able to have some contact with monks and brief conversations, and our readings were all from scripture and the desert fathers. The lectures were great and our instructor, Henry Carse, led wonderful discussions that explored scripture and how the desert impacts life experience.

For me the desert became a place where all culture was stripped away, all presumption, all illusion. One is left humbled by the sheer intensity of environment. The desert demands respect. In the midst of all the expanse and bareness of geography in all its varied expressions of rock and stone, mountain and wadi, sky and sand, there is a fullness of presence of God. Yet that very presence of God is both hugely impersonal and at the same time excruciatingly intimate. Much like meditation...

Right now a verse in the Gospels is echoing in my ears, the words of Jesus:
"What did you come out into the desert to see?"

Blessings in the Lamb
Beverly


Today, back at home, with Holy Week now behind me, I find that the images of the desert and of the monasteries still swirl around inside my head. As I reflect on and process these intense three weeks, I continue to examine the question, “What did you come out into the desert to see?” The impact is still being integrated...

Agnus Dei Vol 3:2 Advent 04 Integrating the Practice into Daily Life

Advent greetings. As we begin another liturgical year, wouldn’t it be something if these brief weeks before Christmas be filled with as much silence, prayer and meditation as it is likely to be filled with shopping, gift-wrapping, Christmas cards and baking?

It has been six months since our last issue of Agnus Dei, the newsletter for the Community of the Lamb. During that time the ongoing prayer groups have continued meeting with consistent high commitment, and individuals have been given instruction in the Prayer of the Lamb and have put it into practice in their daily schedules.

As executive director and seminar leader I had less time for presentations and conferences with congregations considering holding introductory seminars. This has been due to increased time and involvement with St. Elizabeth Parish, Burien, where I have been serving as Interim. The work there has been complex and longer in duration than the usual interim situation for parishes between rectors, but it has also been important for aiding the congregation in undergoing major transitions. This has called on skills I previously had used with congregations involved in “Total Ministry,” while also drawing significantly on what has emerged for me out of my own major transition through the meditation sabbatical that began in January of 2000.

While the parish work has taken more of my time away from further developing the Community of the Lamb at this time, it has also contributed greatly to my own learning and practice. I have been given a wonderful opportunity to practice what I preach, to test out personally the application of the Prayer of the Lamb to praying throughout the day. Is it really possible to pray without ceasing while carrying on a 21st Century life in Western culture? If we are not in a position to be able to go away to a monastery or retreat center, can we nevertheless hope to grow and thrive in the spiritual discipline of this form of the Jesus Prayer?

The answer is that we have positive indications that this is possible, and we are to be encourage in our own daily practice. Making the connection between sitting practice and waking practice has been possible in, of all places, vestry meetings, for instance, where sitting awake and alert in meetings, worship, conversations and all sorts of interactions shares the same consciousness as in sitting in silence with the eyes closed. One can learn more about the transpersonal nature of our corporate being, how huge the truth is that what I see in others is a reflection of who I am and who we all are in Yeshua, the Lamb of God. I can also see how hard it is for people to be truly present with each other, and to hear one another, as I observe how I listen to others.

Yet also how adaptable is the Prayer of the Lamb to social settings! A touch of the hand to the beads in the pocket, a silent articulation of the Name of Yeshua, and awareness is there of the Presence of Divine Love that takes one out of one’s self. Then the moment’s agenda is not at all about me, and the action is freed to move in harmony with the Way, the One who is the Way, Truth and Life.

Above all the practice of the Prayer of the Lamb with increasing awareness is still work of grace first and foremost. Even our desire to be faithful in practice comes from the faithfulness of the Lamb of God. May we realize moment by moment this grace of the truth of our being.

In the love of the Lamb,
The Rev. Beverly Hosea

Agnus Dei Vol 3:1 Summer 04 The Prayer of the Lamb in Times of Moral Crisis

We look at recent news headlines about prison abuse in Iraq, wondering how such things could happen. We may consider hard questions about our impact on the environment trying to determine if what are seen as economic needs can justify the effects. We see a radical shift in the cultural discussion about the definition of marriage and what constitutes a family. We find ourselves avoiding certain topics of discussion in some groups or relationships because we know that we have very differing and strongly held positions of belief, and we see relationships close down or get cut off. All of this may be seen as a cause of deep personal questioning and grief. In times of moral ambiguity or times of strident polarization, in times of moral outrage and times of change that threaten what had been relied on in the past, how does one pray?

We want desperately to pray in a way that will be effective and beneficial for the suffering we experience. We forget that it is not our prayers that are effective. It is God who is effective.

Jesus said, “I will do whatever you ask in my Name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my Name you ask me for anything, I will do it.” John 14:13-14

Let us consider what it might mean to pray in the Name of Jesus. It is, of course, not simply adding the Name at the end of a prayer. It is to pray from the place of identity in Jesus/Yeshua, recognizing one’s baptism as immersion into that Name. The Name itself means salvation – Yeshua in the Hebrew, salvation, that which liberates and brings wholeness and life. The Name itself contains the answer to our prayers.

With the Prayer of the Lamb, we offer each utterance, each silent mental recitation, into that Name, Yeshua/Jesus. The Prayer is a simple offering without any agenda other than trusting in that mercy which is already poured out to us, around us, over us, and through us, that mercy which flows abundantly and spontaneously from the Mercy Seat. As we sit with the Prayer or let it roll through our awareness in the midst of activity, like beads through our fingers, the heart opens to the healing and transformative medicine of Divine Mercy. Even as we pray for others, we ourselves find benefit and blessing. To whatever degree we are blessed, so also is all creation blessed, for we are not the agents of blessing, but the reflection. We come to realize that we are the place where intercession is occurring, radiant space whose radiance can be perceived as light reflected from the Source, from the Creator.

One might notice in all this that questions do not necessarily get answered, even though suffering may be transformed into reconciliation or healing or new life. One cannot pray the Prayer of the Lamb in order to prove or determine who is right and who is wrong or what is the correct way to believe. The Prayer of the Lamb is a prayer of the heart, not the head, not the mind. It is an act of devotion in which the heart and will are surrendered to Yeshua. It is an act of devotion that acknowledges that the One who is effective is the Source of Life itself, our Creator, the One who breathed life into us in the beginning and who sustains each breath that enters our lungs moment by moment, the One who breathes us.

It may seem hard to offer intercession through the Prayer of the Lamb without looking for a particular outcome or answer to dilemma. The place of trusting may not be comfortable. We are kept on that existential edge. We cannot own an answer, cannot possess it, thinking that this will settle the matter once and for all, immutable. We are called and drawn to trust and knowing that the more we know, the more we realize that we do not know. My thought is that we might leave the knowing to Yeshua, and simply see what gets revealed moment by moment. Sitting in silence with the Prayer of the Lamb is a good way to do this.

Agnus Dei Vol 2:6 Winter 03 As Practice Matures

In this time of long winter nights, let us turn in devotion to the Uncreated Light, which even as the shadows of life deepen for us, abides unchanged – Source of Life.

“And the Word was made flesh,
and dwelt among us.” John 1:14


As we engage a spiritual practice, such as the Prayer of the Lamb, and continue faithful in daily practice, we can observe over time various changes that seem to develop or flow naturally. By naturally we mean developing without conscious effort or intentional intellectual work on our part. With the Prayer of the Lamb, we may notice such changes as the ease in praying the Prayer or its evolution in form, or our posture (where and how) for the sitting practice in relationship to the flow of the Prayer, or discovery of new places in various daily activities that lend themselves well to the practice so that the Prayer seems to self-generate. We may also notice changes within ourselves, such as everything from dissipation of the effects of stress to whole shifts in attitude and ways of interacting with others as well as areas previously identified as problems seemingly resolving themselves or ceasing to be problems. As practice matures or ripens, we might expect fruit to be produced, fruit that is practical and useful, like figs on a tree that are meant to be plucked and eaten or made into Christmas pudding.
Let me share with you what I have been observing and learning in my own practice of the Prayer of the Lamb. I began with a sincere motivation of devotion to Yeshua. It was mixed with other motivations, to be sure, but devotion as a deep yearning of the heart was clearly highly important to me. This devotion has characterized my motivation for this whole practice, a way to express my gratitude and love for our Lord. Secondly I engaged this prayer as a spiritual practice that assists release of self-identification with the ego and mind-body energies towards union with Yeshua. The discovery is that as the second is realized, there is a shift in the first. There is a move from yearning for Jesus, the drawing of the heart, that deep desire, now moving toward absorption of the known self, self-forgetfulness in service, and an encompassing sense of wonder, acceptance, peace, calmness, and love that flows in an outward direction. There was also the discovery that I could no longer feel alone, no sense of loneliness left. Rather loneliness was an impossibility, not even comprehendible. And fear of differences in others, that which can separate us in relationships, dissipated.

But most of all has come a matter-of-fact trust in the healing and integrating process of meditation, even when there is no indication in the actual practice at the moment that I have “gotten any better” in how I meditate should I want to make an evaluation of my practice. It does not matter one fig how I may judge any particular time of sitting in silence with the Prayer. Consistency and regularity in practice, showing up and attending without judgment are all that it takes. For I am convinced through personal experience that the work of integration, healing and transformation is not mine but of the Resurrection Spirit of Yeshua.

The shift in devotion was the most startling when I recognized that it had already happened. I wondered if it could possibly be that devotion directed toward Yeshua could ever change. How I was experiencing that devotion and expressing that devotion however did change. The devotion became somehow reconfigured on its own, now directed toward others in service. I had been quite happy when on sabbatical pouring out the hours each day in meditation with the flow of heart energy intentionally and freely and joyfully given to Jesus. Then the call came to share the Prayer of the Lamb with others, and before I realized it, the Spirit seemed to have evicted me out of the sabbatical and into active service. Now in the arena of this service configured both with the Community of the Lamb ministry and in parish ministry, the service has been freshly experienced as acts of devotion with the same heart energy flowing spontaneously and freely in the relationships of service. Others suddenly appear before me as reflections of divine creativity and revelations of Yeshua, Yeshua being present standing between us, or we being together in him. Now it is "agape" love, that love which expresses the love between the Lover and the Beloved, love that is the medium in which all relationships swim, and is truth and reality check. And consciousness expands, a consciousness which is being wide awake to the present moment and which transcends intellect and articulation.

Agnus Dei Vol 2:5 Fall 03 Reflections on General Convention

Jesus to the Pharisees: “But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.”
[Matthew 12:7 NRSV]


For the benefit of all the Episcopalians on this newsletter list, here are some reflections on General Convention. We now have had a few weeks since the once-every-three-years national convention in Minneapolis, July 30 through August 8. You saw the news media’s coverage of the hot issues, and may or may not have heard anything else about what happened at General Convention. You may have read a letter from your bishop, or have been involved in conversation about issues of sexuality and authority and how the Bible is interpreted. Those conversations may have been with those who hold the same perspective that you hold, or they may have been conversations with those with viewpoints conflicting with your own. It is an understatement to say that there has been a lot of reactivity about the topic of human sexuality. We have reacted, and expressed that reactivity in myriad ways. The topic of sexuality touches on what goes to the heart of self-identity. And so our responses often have less to do with rationality as emotionality and retreat into holding positions which are trusted as secure in their expression of the Mind of God, but which, if we should examine them further, would be shown up as being from a limited and limiting understanding in respect to the whole matter.

Let me share with you another perspective, as an eyewitness to the events of General Convention and the whole culture and life that formed for 10 days there in the Minneapolis Convention Center among the several thousand persons present – deputies, bishops, support staff, volunteers, visitors, exhibitors, Triennial delegates, and representatives of various different church organizations and interest groups. Besides attending to the Prayer of the Lamb booth in the exhibit hall, I was able to be in the gallery during momentous events in the House of Deputies, House of Bishops and committee hearings, and, best of all, to participate in the daily eucharists. What I observed everywhere was a noticeable restraint and civility in conversation and action. Everyone seemed committed to listening respectfully to one another and to speaking without inflammatory language, speaking from personal positions without generalizing, categorizing or name calling, using “I” statements without blaming. I found this utterly remarkable. It seemed as though the process of Gospel study employed each day in the eucharists had its effect on how conversations were being held the rest of the day. People still held positions passionately, but also were demon-strating in varying degrees that the larger context for being together as a faith community was the context of agape love, unitive love that could recognize Christ in one another.
The prayer beads, some 800 bracelet-sets of them, indeed had a role to play at General Convention. These were offered free to anyone interested. After a couple of days people were coming to the booth because others had mentioned it to them. Then there were the high school youth groups providing a tremendous youth presence at convention. The beads were very popular with them, and literally we were swamped with young people, and I had to very quickly give instruction in how to pray with the beads and introduce them to a spiritual practice that they could take with them into daily life. Because of their eager interest in learning some concrete and practical way to pray, I am thinking about how to present an introductory seminar specifically for youth.

As each day passed I spotted more and more prayer beads on people’s wrists scattered throughout the convention center. And people returned to the booth to tell me how much they had been using the beads for praying the Prayer of the Lamb during sessions of the convention, during times of voting, and when waiting for the results of votes. What people were recognizing is that the Prayer of the Lamb, Jesus, Lamb of God, have mercy on us, helped them to shift out of an adversarial attitude and to release their own prayer agenda about how they wanted things to turn out or how they thought God should act. The Prayer was an aid in seeing broader possibility, in opening to change, and in finding compassion for others. One person told me that she was finding that she was becoming much more inclusive in her openness to others with strongly differing perspectives, becoming more inclusive not through her own intention to do so, but as a discovery that this is what had happened spontaneously within her.

For those of you who made the prayer bead bracelets and prayed an hour on each set, know that you contributed to the prayerful atmosphere that pervaded the General Convention. I am glad that I was able to be there, thanks to the financial support of many contributors. There are conversations that were held in the booth to be followed up on for possible further expansion of this ministry, and the contacts and connections made were numerous. Whether or not the Prayer of the Lamb is adopted by others as a spiritual practice as a result of the booth in the exhibit hall, the quiet influence of the Prayer during the convention itself was the most significant reason for being there. I cannot help but feel that all will be well ultimately where hearts are open. For to take up the practice of the Prayer of the Lamb is to place oneself in a position for being opened up to the transforming presence of the Resurrection Jesus, the Lamb of God.

Agnus Dei Vol 2:3 Easter 03 Paschal Lamb

“But we were hoping that he was the one about to redeem Israel.”
the two disciples on the road to Emmaus
[Luke 24:21]

In Luke 24 the story of the unrecognized Resurrection Jesus walking with Cleopas and his companion home from Jerusalem is a story about discipleship and growing awareness. The Passover Lamb of God, having completed the sacrifice of his life, swallowing up death into unbounded Resurrection Life, now works patiently with these two slow-of-heart disciples revealing to them bit by bit what they can take in until they are ready for a direct, unveiled revelation of the Risen Lord.

The two disciples had one idea in mind of what they expected from the Messiah, an idea of great appeal given their cultural and historical situation. It was the Palm Sunday hope, “Hosanna to the son of David…” (Matthew 21:9) “…Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David. Hosanna in the highest.” (Mark 11:10) “Blessed is the King coming in the Name of the Lord.” (Luke 19:38) This is the political messiah, the one who would come in the tradition of the great warrior king who was successful in battle against the giant, a messiah who could stand up to giant Rome, a man of blood, as David was a man of blood, and the blood that would redeem Israel this time was anticipated to be the blood of the Romans. Instead Yeshua came as the Paschal Lamb, and it would be his own blood, like the blood on the doorposts in Egypt, that would deliver not only the Children of Israel from bondage, but would deliver all living beings from death itself into abundant, unbounded Life.

At first the eyes of the two disciples were held, were restrained, in recognizing the Risen Lord. In other Resurrection stories the first encounter with the Resurrection Jesus astounded and frightened the disciples, shocking them out of their usual perception about how reality works, blowing their minds. Here with his identity cloaked Yeshua leads these two into a master teaching session, preparing the soil, and creating readiness for the moment when the cloak over their eyes would be removed. When that moment came in the breaking of the bread, everything came together for them. They could see clearly, even though Jesus had physically disappeared from their sight. “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures?” They could recognize the warming of their hearts, the sign of inner responsiveness to the Way, Truth and Life being presented to them in this stranger’s teaching of the scriptures.

The meditational use of the Prayer of the Lamb provides another similar setting for this kind of discipleship in which all those of us who are slow-of-heart can come to growing awareness and experience our hearts burning within us. We sit in silence with this simple prayer of intercession, and through the space of practice we watch an evolving process of inner repentance and responsive gratitude as we come to greater and greater awareness of the abundance of Mercy flowing to our increasingly acute awareness of need. Some will report along the way that they experience a similar warming of the heart, the sensation of energy in the area of the heart, the tug of devotional longing drawing us into deeper commitment to following our Lord.

This is evidence of fruit in the practice, and this is something that comes from a growing consistency and persistence in practice, from faithful engagement with the Prayer in daily sitting meditations and throughout the day and night. And as we can see from the paradigm in Luke 24, this fruit of growing devotion and growing awareness is not what we produce through our own efforts, but is given to us by the Resurrection Spirit of Yeshua. How do I know that? Because the more I sit with the Prayer of the Lamb and do nothing, attempt nothing, during that time of silence, the more I give up trying to make the meditation time go a particular, desired way, then the greater the ease of practice and the smoother the time goes. I get up rested, grateful for the quiet, having accomplished nothing on the long list of tasks yet to do, but without my effort something has happened to me, that has changed significantly how I then set about doing all those tasks. Priorities shifted, worries and concerns withered up, and hot button issues dissipated. It has been the Resurrection Spirit of Jesus at work cleansing, healing, and transforming, all as a part of intervention for the world.

The blessings of the Paschal Lamb be with each of you in your practice of the Prayer of the Lamb.

Agnus Dei Vol 2:2 Lent 03 Waging Peace in a Time of War

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.
[John 14:27]

“Blessed are the peacemakers.”…When the inner peace of the mind and heart is established, then man becomes a peacemaker. He disseminates peace externally also with his presence, his behavior, his words…I think, my child and brother, that deep peace is born and increases with unceasing prayer. Nothing else nourishes and renews it as much as the Name of the Lord.
An elderly hermit of Mount Athos quoted by Archimandrite Ioannikios Kotsonis, 1998


As a way of expressing deep concern but also from a sense of helplessness, I have heard a number of people say, “All we can do is pray.” I think this minimizes the value of offering a prayer response to the events of war. Rather prayer can be our first response, and the place from which our subsequent actions then flow. When we sit with the Prayer of the Lamb in silence we are being a place where intercession is occurring, and where the Resurrection Spirit of Jesus is at work within us and through us transformation, healing and reconciliation are occurring. The meditational style of this prayer provides us with a practical way to “wage peace.” One could say that meditation is God’s life in us. We sit there and what begins to emerge is awareness of the Spirit at work in our lives, and awareness of peace. As we are being engaged by the Spirit and as we are coming into the realization that we are indeed made in the Image of God, peace comes. Why do I say that it is peace that comes? Because peace is intrinsic to God. As we sit with the Prayer in meditation awareness grows of our identity in Christ and of the basic underlying quality of that consciousness. That quality is peace. From our prayer practice what then emerges is peace as a characteristic of the one who prays. The capacity for aggression and violence diminishes and disappears. And this causes a shift in the dynamics of our relationships. The one whom we once saw as opponent, now is viewed with growing love. Waging peace begins with ourselves as the basic way to change the whole environment, and to meditate is to wage peace.

Agnus Dei Vol 2:1 Epiphany 03 Interceding for the World

John 3:16
For God so loved the world…

"The Lord seeks a heart filled with love for God and for one’s neighbor – this is the throne where He would sit and where He appears in the fullness of His heavenly glory. ‘Son, give me thy heart’ (Prov. 23:26), He says, ‘and all the rest I will add unto thee’ (cf. Matt. 6:33), for the human heart can contain the Kingdom of God."
St. Seraphim of Sarov, d. 1833, A Russian Monk of the Jesus Prayer Tradition


As I walked into the room where one of the Community of the Lamb 12-Week groups was meeting, I was greeted with this urgent statement: “We really need to pray for the world, right now especially.” My immediate inner response was that this is exactly what the Prayer of the Lamb is about, and that this is a spiritual resource already engaged and available to be drawn upon now and for any moment or time of urgent need, for any crisis, for any crucial turning point or juncture in the events of the world.

The Prayer of the Lamb asks for the biblical mercy that is the loving-kindness of God, the flow of grace in abundance even to the absolute poverty of our need. As those who pray this prayer come to know, this mercy is utterly reliable and always available. It is present and able to be received regardless of rightness or worthiness or even ignorance of just how much need there is for mercy. Therefore in times of emergency, crisis, catastrophe or impending war we may pray for this mercy in the midst of anxiety, dread and despair, when we are afraid and feel we are helpless. The mercy of God is already present even as the words form in the heart - mercy to heal, reconcile, strengthen and transform, beginning in each one praying and radiating throughout the world.

Now we may think that when we pray the Prayer of the Lamb or any prayer or engage in contemplative prayer or meditation, that we are making a difference for positive good, that we are accomplishing an important ministry, or that we helping to bring about some act of mercy and grace. We may pray with great intention and sincerity, motivated by the love and devotion we wish to express for Yeshua. None of that really accomplishes anything of itself. But whatever works for motivating us to get on our knees or our meditation cushions comes at the initiation of the Spirit. We are merely the place at the moment where the intercession is occurring. Our bodies physically present, our minds silently reiterating the words of the Prayer, holding them gently in awareness, our breath continuing on its own giving a rhythm to the Prayer are all that is needed. All we bring is innocent presence in offering the Prayer obediently and trustingly.

Many have commented that while the practice remains the same – Yeshua, Lamb of God, have mercy on us, the turning of a circle of beads, the spontaneous flow of breath – what happens during each sitting is never the same twice. We may think that today I will practice in such a way as to foster great peace or no interruptions by thoughts or for experiencing expansion of awareness, but we find out ever so surely that we have no control over what happens during this time of offering the Prayer. It is for our own good that we should really come to vivid awareness about this, for then perhaps we can see that it is the One who has called us into discipleship who is doing it all. What an interesting discipleship! The less effort we do on our part, the more we let go of whatever we construe as our part of the work, and the more that we disciples leave to our Teacher, the better it is all the way around.

The great love of God for the world, for the whole of creation, seeks embodiment in those willing to be receptacles, those willing to receive, those willing simply to be still and awake and observing. Then for the sake of the world the One truly able to work is at work. In our hearts God so loved the world.

Agnus Dei Vol 1:6 Dec 02 O Come, Let Us Adore Him

Luke 2:7
And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of
cloth, and laid him in a manger…

“No one has seen or shall see the things which you have seen. The Lord himself has become the altar, priest, and bread, and the chalice of salvation. He alone suffices for all, yet none suffice for him. He is Altar and Lamb, victim and sacrifice, priest as well as food.
St. Ephrem of Edessa (Syria, d. 373)


How amazing that from the very beginning of his earthly life Jesus, the Lamb of God, is found as a newborn laying in a feeding trough, the “dinner plate” for sheep and cattle and beasts of burden! His whole life was offered to feed a hungry world: bread for the hungry multitudes, words of life that fed a hunger even deeper, his own body broken and blood poured out held out to us with the command to consume him utterly. Such is Yeshua’s devotion to us. Such is his commitment to us, and his love for us and for all creation. O come, let us adore him.

One way we express our devotion to the Christ Child, the Lamb of God, is through the offering of ourselves, our time and our attention as we sit with the Prayer of the Lamb. As we offer intercession for the world with its overwhelming suffering and needs, this too is an act of devotion, an act of trust in God’s abundant mercy, an act of trust that what lay in the manger was more than sufficient for all. May our devotion at this Christmas time in particular include intercession for the peace of the world. O come, let us adore him.

Do you remember in the story of the woman at the well (John 4) how after their conversation the woman left Jesus by the well with his disciples and went back into the town to engage in significant evangelism? The disciples urged Jesus to eat the lunch they had brought him, but he said, “I have food to eat of which you do not know…my food is to do the will of the One who sent me, and to complete his work.” In our devotion to the Lamb of God, may we be willing to do the will of the One who sends us to be the place where intercession is occurring and where the ministry of Jesus continues. In that way we too become food, a living sacrifice. O come, let us adore him.

Agnus Dei Vol 1:5 Nov 02 Baptized in the Name

Cyprian, Bishop and Martyr of Carthage, 258
In his treatise, On the Lord’s Prayer, he wrote: “We say ‘Hallowed by thy Name,’ not that we want God to be made holy by our prayers, but because we seek from the Lord that his Name may be made holy in us, … so that we who have been made holy in Baptism may persevere in what we have begun to be.”

John 1:12
But to all who received him, who believed in his Name, he gave power to become children of God


When I first began to practice meditational prayer, it was with an intense desire to draw closer to Jesus. As with many others, these early days of meditation were filled with beautiful experiences of divine grace and mercy. They kept me engaged in the practice, a clever divine “trick,” it would seem, to ensure that in cultivating an open heart the real underlying work of transformation would take place. I had no idea where I was going.

But my ignorance about the path, the purpose, the process at work within me through the Resurrection Spirit of Jesus, didn’t matter. The work of personal transformation does not belong to the individual disciple being as earnest or devoted as possible. The work is done in spite of ourselves.

After awhile when many of the beautiful spiritual experiences faded away, I got a much clearer picture of my own ignorance in trying to draw closer to Jesus. How could I? I was already as close as I would ever be. That is, sooner or later it dawns on us that when we are baptized into Christ, we are baptized into Christ. We are in Christ, in Yeshua, in the Heart and Mind of the Creator. There is no separation, there never was, and we can trust that. What a relief!

Well, maybe that’s a relief. For now the time spent sitting is not brimming with colorful mental connections popping with profound insights. Instead the real work of transformation, actual change and healing at the core of being, seems to be taking place. It seems like it must be the real work, because in this experience of the meditation time, what comes up has a lot less to do with my agenda, what I think God should work on in me, and a lot more of looking in a mirror at the ways I manage my own self-limiting reactivity to the world around me in contrast with an expansiveness of awareness or consciousness that seems to be limitless precisely because it carries nothing of my agenda, or anything that can be designated by a first person possessive pronoun. In this expansiveness of consciousness there is a free flow of life that is sheer grace, easy as pie, a free ride, and is not veiled by ego.

So I look at the rest of life activities, everything going on when I’m not sitting on my cushion dryly reciting the Prayer of the Lamb over and over silently, always on the watch for where in the midst of the hustle and bustle is that same expansiveness of consciousness. It’s when there is self-forgetting, when “I” get out of the way. And not unexpectedly, it’s when “I” disappears in the process of serving others and serving creation in any of a myriad of ways. The attention is directed outward from self, is engaged in the other, and is seeing this other being as naturally part and parcel with self. And lo and behold, this “ecological” perspective on life is the very thing that leads to awakening more and more fully to my own baptismal identity with Christ. Not by attending to myself has ANY spiritual breakthrough come, not by any personal achievement, but by attending to others in given connectedness with self comes the realization that through the Name of Yeshua transformation is at work. What joy!

Agnus Dei Vol 1:4 Sept 02 Mercy for the World

James 2:13
…Mercy boasts itself superior to judgment.

2 Corinthians 5:17-18
So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.


This particular month of September comes loaded with thoughts and feelings about what all has happened in the last year on this planet. A year ago the Prayer of the Lamb was being practiced faithfully by a few people in intercession for the needs of the world prior to the terrorist attacks. The Prayer of the Lamb has since then been engaged by many more as a response to that violent event, and continues to be a form of meditational and intercessory prayer applied to daily life by those seeking a way to hold the whole world situation.

At this time it may be good to reflect again about mercy as it is expressed in the context of the Prayer of the Lamb, Yeshua, Lamb of God, have mercy on us.

It is all a matter of grace.

Grace is God’s unqualified love and positive regard directed toward all, and grace is the way God’s mercy comes to us. Grace is the process of mercy, the way mercy occurs. Mercy is at the heart of the Creator, and so it can be said that nothing comes to be or lives that is not of or from mercy, and is intended by the Creator’s heart to reveal mercy.

However we do not have to look very far before we encounter violence and injustice, war and suffering, either globally or in our own homes. Yet no event occurs in isolation or can detach from relationship. It is this absence of consciousness of mercy that is utter poverty of knowing and accepting the grace through which each has the possibility of emerging as an expression of the Creator.

The scandal of mercy is that mercy sees all as innocent. Mercy looks at each being as the creative expression of the presence of the Creator. Mercy responds to this presence with kindness and generosity. Mercy desires to give itself that all may share in the joy of awareness of Christ’s presence. In this giving the attitude of poverty cannot survive. In the realization of this abundance of mercy, anger and aggression dissolve. We are freed to express the generosity of the open heart ready to embrace union of hearts. And such open hearts come to discover that there is a process of transformation going on until we see in each other the image and likeness of Yeshua.

I would suggest that if this is the process going on, then offering the Prayer of the Lamb individually and in community is both opening the way for and offering the ministry of reconciliation. The vision is for all circumstances of violence, injustice and suffering to be addressed by strong, positive and merciful action that flows from hearts that know this abundance. When we come to wakefulness through our prayer practice, we see the connection between sitting and action. We see the ability to respond – response-ability – and the Prayer moves to action where each of us can be an icon of mercy living by grace, and where we can make a positive contribution toward transforming the condition of life from suffering to grace.

Here is an alternative for responding to violence with more violence. Here is the affirmation of creation through healing and reconciliation. Here is creative response-ability responding in mercy for the world.