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
Thursday, May 24, 2007
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
[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
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
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
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
#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...
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
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.
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.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
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.
“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.
[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.
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.
[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.
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.
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!
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.
…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.
Agnus Dei Vol 1:3 Summer 02 On the Path
Matthew 13:33
He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”
Meditation can be compared to the rising of the dough, letting the Life of the Resurrection Spirit of Yeshua move within us, for awakening, for revelation.
Colossians 3:17
And everything whatever you do, either what you say or what work you do, do it all in the Name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
With each introductory seminar and presentation about the Prayer of the Lamb that I make, I continue to learn, as the old maxim goes regarding learning by teaching. This is not just learning about how to present the Prayer of the Lamb to others, but it is more about discovering new aspects and applications of the Prayer of the Lamb, discovering more of its great depth of spiritual truth and illumination.
It has now been a year since the first introductory seminar about the Prayer of the Lamb, and in that year’s time there have been 9 full seminars of 8 hours each in Washington and Idaho, 3 follow up Community of the Lamb 12 week groups, and 9 other different presentations in the form of retreats, adult education classes and forums, and the first reunion Supper of the Lamb eucharist. This summer the presentations and gatherings continue, and the fall schedule is already filling up.
I am as surprised as anyone at the continuing interest displayed regarding finding a form of spiritual practice that is outwardly focused while also inwardly transforming. With the Prayer of the Lamb the outward focus is in the service and ministry of interceding for the needs of the world, while at the same time offering the inward benefit of healing and transformation for the open heart. But the main element of the effective potency of this spiritual practice is in its setting in community.
Jesus said, “Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” [Matthew 18:19-20] What if we were to take that statement seriously and trust that this might be so? This implies that gathering in community would not only be a good idea, it would be our planned strategy for making an impact, for being faithful disciples, for realizing greater good. But for two persons, the minimum size for a community, to ask in that Holy Name for mercy for the world, there needs to be agreement. That is why when we gather as the Community of the Lamb praying, “Jesus, Lamb of God, have mercy on us,” we all use the same words, the same form of the prayer. We have a shared understanding of meaning and context of this prayer in baptismal identity. We have a common practice. We are on the same path.
So it should be evident that praying in this way is more effective than in a gathered group in which each person in prays or meditates differently from every other person. This is not to say that each person’s prayers and intentions are not valuable, but that when there is the shared intention and shared practice, there is greater purity in the asking and greater potency for transformation. What comes evident to me in this is the significance of shared practice. That means that I take care not to diffuse this meditational prayer practice with other styles of prayer practice. I do not make a sampling of various prayer or meditation techniques or practices, coming up with an eclectic mixture attractive to my particular tastes or interests, or even my felt needs. What I have been learning is the deep truth of committing to one particular practice and finding much greater realization, awareness and illumination that way, than I would from being a spiritual dabbler, knowing many practices some, but none well.
I share this with you as encouragement in your own practice of the Prayer of the Lamb. As I say during the introductory seminars, this is not a prayer to try out once to learn what it is about. This is a prayer that produces its fruit over sustained use over sustained time and with the support of a community. But the fruit that comes is worth the practice. That is the nature of embarking on a spiritual path. Happy trails.
He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”
Meditation can be compared to the rising of the dough, letting the Life of the Resurrection Spirit of Yeshua move within us, for awakening, for revelation.
Colossians 3:17
And everything whatever you do, either what you say or what work you do, do it all in the Name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
With each introductory seminar and presentation about the Prayer of the Lamb that I make, I continue to learn, as the old maxim goes regarding learning by teaching. This is not just learning about how to present the Prayer of the Lamb to others, but it is more about discovering new aspects and applications of the Prayer of the Lamb, discovering more of its great depth of spiritual truth and illumination.
It has now been a year since the first introductory seminar about the Prayer of the Lamb, and in that year’s time there have been 9 full seminars of 8 hours each in Washington and Idaho, 3 follow up Community of the Lamb 12 week groups, and 9 other different presentations in the form of retreats, adult education classes and forums, and the first reunion Supper of the Lamb eucharist. This summer the presentations and gatherings continue, and the fall schedule is already filling up.
I am as surprised as anyone at the continuing interest displayed regarding finding a form of spiritual practice that is outwardly focused while also inwardly transforming. With the Prayer of the Lamb the outward focus is in the service and ministry of interceding for the needs of the world, while at the same time offering the inward benefit of healing and transformation for the open heart. But the main element of the effective potency of this spiritual practice is in its setting in community.
Jesus said, “Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” [Matthew 18:19-20] What if we were to take that statement seriously and trust that this might be so? This implies that gathering in community would not only be a good idea, it would be our planned strategy for making an impact, for being faithful disciples, for realizing greater good. But for two persons, the minimum size for a community, to ask in that Holy Name for mercy for the world, there needs to be agreement. That is why when we gather as the Community of the Lamb praying, “Jesus, Lamb of God, have mercy on us,” we all use the same words, the same form of the prayer. We have a shared understanding of meaning and context of this prayer in baptismal identity. We have a common practice. We are on the same path.
So it should be evident that praying in this way is more effective than in a gathered group in which each person in prays or meditates differently from every other person. This is not to say that each person’s prayers and intentions are not valuable, but that when there is the shared intention and shared practice, there is greater purity in the asking and greater potency for transformation. What comes evident to me in this is the significance of shared practice. That means that I take care not to diffuse this meditational prayer practice with other styles of prayer practice. I do not make a sampling of various prayer or meditation techniques or practices, coming up with an eclectic mixture attractive to my particular tastes or interests, or even my felt needs. What I have been learning is the deep truth of committing to one particular practice and finding much greater realization, awareness and illumination that way, than I would from being a spiritual dabbler, knowing many practices some, but none well.
I share this with you as encouragement in your own practice of the Prayer of the Lamb. As I say during the introductory seminars, this is not a prayer to try out once to learn what it is about. This is a prayer that produces its fruit over sustained use over sustained time and with the support of a community. But the fruit that comes is worth the practice. That is the nature of embarking on a spiritual path. Happy trails.
Agnus Dei Vol 1:2 Easter 02 Paschal Feasting
Revelation 5:11-12
Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, singing with full voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain…”
"The risen Christ appeared several times under an aspect which was no longer the one his disciples knew…We should approach all men and women…with the Name of Jesus in our heart and on our lips. We should pronounce His Name over them all, for their real name is the Name of Jesus. Name them with his Name, within His Name, in a spirit of adoration, dedication, and service. Adore Christ in them, serve Christ in them. In many of these men and women – in the malicious, in the criminal – Jesus is imprisoned. Deliver Him by silently recognizing and worshiping Him in them."
[“On the Invocation of the Name of Jesus” by Lev Gillet, a Monk of the Eastern Church, Praying the Name of Jesus]
During this Easter Season when we celebrate for 50 great days the triumph of the Paschal Lamb of God over sin and death, I have found my meditational practice of the Prayer of the Lamb to be like being carried along by the Prayer, riding or resting on the flow of intercession for the world. What comfort there is in that, because otherwise I, and many of us, could feel overwhelmed by urgency for intervention in more than one place in the world or circumstance of need. To pray “Jesus, Lamb of God, have mercy on us” with gentleness and ease is to express profound trust that the effectiveness of intercession does not rest on my shoulders. All that is needed is a place, a location, a vessel through which the Resurrection Life of Yeshua can flow. I say to myself, “Be still. This isn’t about you. Simple pray the Prayer and let the Spirit of the Risen Lord do the work.” No work is necessary on my part.
No work is necessary. Despite our ability to comprehend this mentally, few of us are able to reflect this truth in our behavior in waking life and during meditation. We are too acculturated with the dogma of busy-ness. Whom do we value for their contributions to society or to church? Those with the longest list of accomplishments, those who are able to do so much, those whose schedules are full of worthwhile activities. When was the last time you heard someone praised for only having one thing to do, or for saying no to all but a very few activities? We may envy their choices, but also judge them as being self-centered and negligent of civic responsibilities.
So there is a tension created between the cultural norms regarding doing and busy-ness, and the practice of sitting and being a place where Someone Else is at work. This can show up in how we pray the Prayer of the Lamb at those times when we sit in silence each day. Thoughts crowd in, each with its own sense of urgency. A long “to do” list waves itself before our closed eyes nagging at us about how pressed for time we are. Even the emphasis on production quotas, picked up from the work place, tempts us to evaluate our meditation on the basis of quantitative results.
Meditation is a faith practice and an act of devotion. When we sit in meditation we trust that the One, to whom we are devoted and who is devoted to us, is utterly capable and utterly dependable. So then we practice in such a way that we are attentive to the moment when we recognize self-conflict with those cultural norms of industrious enterprise, and when we spot self-affliction arising from judging ourselves. When we notice this, without holding or judging and with simple acknowledgment of the apparent truth of the situation, then the way is open for a return to ease of flow, openness of heart and surrender of self-concern. Then we are freed of our self-conflict, and we experience what Resurrection Life in Yeshua is.
The Easter Season is a celebration of the Risen Lamb of God in which the Church looks toward the heavenly banquet of the Lamb. Let us feast on the Name of Yeshua/Jesus in our hearts with joy and thanksgiving.
The Rev. Beverly Hosea
Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, singing with full voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain…”
"The risen Christ appeared several times under an aspect which was no longer the one his disciples knew…We should approach all men and women…with the Name of Jesus in our heart and on our lips. We should pronounce His Name over them all, for their real name is the Name of Jesus. Name them with his Name, within His Name, in a spirit of adoration, dedication, and service. Adore Christ in them, serve Christ in them. In many of these men and women – in the malicious, in the criminal – Jesus is imprisoned. Deliver Him by silently recognizing and worshiping Him in them."
[“On the Invocation of the Name of Jesus” by Lev Gillet, a Monk of the Eastern Church, Praying the Name of Jesus]
During this Easter Season when we celebrate for 50 great days the triumph of the Paschal Lamb of God over sin and death, I have found my meditational practice of the Prayer of the Lamb to be like being carried along by the Prayer, riding or resting on the flow of intercession for the world. What comfort there is in that, because otherwise I, and many of us, could feel overwhelmed by urgency for intervention in more than one place in the world or circumstance of need. To pray “Jesus, Lamb of God, have mercy on us” with gentleness and ease is to express profound trust that the effectiveness of intercession does not rest on my shoulders. All that is needed is a place, a location, a vessel through which the Resurrection Life of Yeshua can flow. I say to myself, “Be still. This isn’t about you. Simple pray the Prayer and let the Spirit of the Risen Lord do the work.” No work is necessary on my part.
No work is necessary. Despite our ability to comprehend this mentally, few of us are able to reflect this truth in our behavior in waking life and during meditation. We are too acculturated with the dogma of busy-ness. Whom do we value for their contributions to society or to church? Those with the longest list of accomplishments, those who are able to do so much, those whose schedules are full of worthwhile activities. When was the last time you heard someone praised for only having one thing to do, or for saying no to all but a very few activities? We may envy their choices, but also judge them as being self-centered and negligent of civic responsibilities.
So there is a tension created between the cultural norms regarding doing and busy-ness, and the practice of sitting and being a place where Someone Else is at work. This can show up in how we pray the Prayer of the Lamb at those times when we sit in silence each day. Thoughts crowd in, each with its own sense of urgency. A long “to do” list waves itself before our closed eyes nagging at us about how pressed for time we are. Even the emphasis on production quotas, picked up from the work place, tempts us to evaluate our meditation on the basis of quantitative results.
Meditation is a faith practice and an act of devotion. When we sit in meditation we trust that the One, to whom we are devoted and who is devoted to us, is utterly capable and utterly dependable. So then we practice in such a way that we are attentive to the moment when we recognize self-conflict with those cultural norms of industrious enterprise, and when we spot self-affliction arising from judging ourselves. When we notice this, without holding or judging and with simple acknowledgment of the apparent truth of the situation, then the way is open for a return to ease of flow, openness of heart and surrender of self-concern. Then we are freed of our self-conflict, and we experience what Resurrection Life in Yeshua is.
The Easter Season is a celebration of the Risen Lamb of God in which the Church looks toward the heavenly banquet of the Lamb. Let us feast on the Name of Yeshua/Jesus in our hearts with joy and thanksgiving.
The Rev. Beverly Hosea
Agnus Dei Vol 1:1 Lent 2002 First Newsletter
From The Ladder of Paradise, John Climacus, c. 580-650, abbot of the convent of Saint Catherine, Mount Sinai:
May the name of Jesus be united with your breath; then you will understand the value of solitude (Step 27).
Sharing with others about the Prayer of the Lamb is a tremendously satisfying form of offering ministry. The more I study in preparation for various presentations and seminars, the more I myself learn about the depth and range of this simple, easily accessible prayer. The above quotation from the writings of John Climacus is but one indication of the long spiritual tradition from which the Prayer of the Lamb has come. To pass on the wisdom and power of this prayer discipline to others is a joyful service, especially when I receive comments such as the following from a participant in one of the presentations: “Your prayer session with us re-confirmed in me how we are Eucharist and that intercessory prayer does effect all reality.… And the prayer for mercy helped clarify to me why prayer is so effective--because we… let God do the work.” (Karen 11/15/01)
Indeed it is helpful to continue in regular practice of the Prayer of the Lamb, both as the place to put our attention during formal mediation and in practice of the prayer in the midst of daily activities, because this is a way that has been provided for us for perceiving the revelation that it is not our prayers that are effective, but God who is effective. It can seem to take a long while for us to notice this revelation, and when we do, we discover new freedom and expansiveness in the practice of this prayer discipline. When we sit as a community praying in silence this prayer, we become channels through which God works, and we become places where intercession is occurring.
For this ministry of intercession for the world, consider the example of one who practiced the prayer of the heart, St. Seraphim of Sarov [born July 19, 1759, Kursk, Russia – d. January 2, 1833].
"… For each who asked, he prayed and lit a candle, so that his cell now always shone with candlelight. Asked why he burned so many candles, he said: “They bring me oil and candles, and ask me to pray for them. When I read my office, I remember them at the First Hour, each individually. But since I cannot complete my rule of prayer if I repeat the names of each at every appropriate time, I set all these candles for them as an offering to God…And when the time comes in the service to remember them, I say: ‘Oh, Lord, remember all these people, the work of Thy hands, for whose souls I, lowly that I am, have lit unto Thee these candles.’” For each and for all he offered himself as a living prayer."
[Constantine Cararnos and Mary-Barbara Zeldin, St. Seraphim of Sarov, Modern Orthodox Saints, Vol. 5, Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, Massachusetts, c. 1980, pages 78-79]
So also can we continually offer our intercessions for all those for whom our prayers are asked as we recite inwardly the Prayer of the Lamb, an interior candle, throughout the day. This is the devotion of faith, trusting in the abundance of God’s mercy and love.
Please note the summary of presentations that have been given in the last six months. As I look at the full schedule through Lent and Easter, it would appear that the Prayer of the Lamb is being received as a needed and desired prayer practice. May I suggest ways in which you can support this ministry.
1. Personally participate in the shared practice of the Prayer of the Lamb.
2. Arrange for an introductory seminar and 12 week Community of the Lamb course in your congregation.
3. Pray for and give financial support to the Community of the Lamb Prayer Ministry.
All peace and joy to you in Jesus, the Lamb of God.
The Rev. Beverly Hosea
May the name of Jesus be united with your breath; then you will understand the value of solitude (Step 27).
Sharing with others about the Prayer of the Lamb is a tremendously satisfying form of offering ministry. The more I study in preparation for various presentations and seminars, the more I myself learn about the depth and range of this simple, easily accessible prayer. The above quotation from the writings of John Climacus is but one indication of the long spiritual tradition from which the Prayer of the Lamb has come. To pass on the wisdom and power of this prayer discipline to others is a joyful service, especially when I receive comments such as the following from a participant in one of the presentations: “Your prayer session with us re-confirmed in me how we are Eucharist and that intercessory prayer does effect all reality.… And the prayer for mercy helped clarify to me why prayer is so effective--because we… let God do the work.” (Karen 11/15/01)
Indeed it is helpful to continue in regular practice of the Prayer of the Lamb, both as the place to put our attention during formal mediation and in practice of the prayer in the midst of daily activities, because this is a way that has been provided for us for perceiving the revelation that it is not our prayers that are effective, but God who is effective. It can seem to take a long while for us to notice this revelation, and when we do, we discover new freedom and expansiveness in the practice of this prayer discipline. When we sit as a community praying in silence this prayer, we become channels through which God works, and we become places where intercession is occurring.
For this ministry of intercession for the world, consider the example of one who practiced the prayer of the heart, St. Seraphim of Sarov [born July 19, 1759, Kursk, Russia – d. January 2, 1833].
"… For each who asked, he prayed and lit a candle, so that his cell now always shone with candlelight. Asked why he burned so many candles, he said: “They bring me oil and candles, and ask me to pray for them. When I read my office, I remember them at the First Hour, each individually. But since I cannot complete my rule of prayer if I repeat the names of each at every appropriate time, I set all these candles for them as an offering to God…And when the time comes in the service to remember them, I say: ‘Oh, Lord, remember all these people, the work of Thy hands, for whose souls I, lowly that I am, have lit unto Thee these candles.’” For each and for all he offered himself as a living prayer."
[Constantine Cararnos and Mary-Barbara Zeldin, St. Seraphim of Sarov, Modern Orthodox Saints, Vol. 5, Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, Massachusetts, c. 1980, pages 78-79]
So also can we continually offer our intercessions for all those for whom our prayers are asked as we recite inwardly the Prayer of the Lamb, an interior candle, throughout the day. This is the devotion of faith, trusting in the abundance of God’s mercy and love.
Please note the summary of presentations that have been given in the last six months. As I look at the full schedule through Lent and Easter, it would appear that the Prayer of the Lamb is being received as a needed and desired prayer practice. May I suggest ways in which you can support this ministry.
1. Personally participate in the shared practice of the Prayer of the Lamb.
2. Arrange for an introductory seminar and 12 week Community of the Lamb course in your congregation.
3. Pray for and give financial support to the Community of the Lamb Prayer Ministry.
All peace and joy to you in Jesus, the Lamb of God.
The Rev. Beverly Hosea
Sitting Still with Life and Death, Chapter 6, The Practice
For the days and weeks and then the entire following year my life became very regular and steady. The six hours of meditation a day stretched frequently to seven. The regularity of the daily schedule assisted the spiritual process that was going on within me during the meditation sittings. It was a time of shedding. As the meditation practice continued to refine, I noticed a trend - the gradual departure of everything from my daily attention that was extraneous to my central focus of devotion to Jesus through silence. One might think that there would be a few things important to keep hold of, just for personal entertainment and keeping "well rounded." But the sort of things I would have valued--the occasional movie or concert, the favorite TV show, the newspaper and NPR, and being behind the wheel of a car--all these left my grasp with not even a whimper of complaint or regret. One could say that my life got very narrow. It was more a matter of becoming clearer about a single focus.
"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it." (Matthew 13:44-46)
The meditation process that I was committed to was and continues to be like a treasure that I am willing to sell all I have in order to live in meditation. My relationship with Jesus is a pearl of great value, or great price, worth giving my all to. A journal entry from those months read, "Narrow door--you can't bring other things with you through that door. To squeeze through it, other stuff gets brushed off of you in the passing. There is room for very little else in my life but this practice and what is directly related to it. That seems to be just fine with me." I saw the need in my own life to go deeper and to leave more behind. I noticed that some of what I was attached to was good, but it was also diverting from keeping my eyes upon Jesus alone. So that too I was willing to let go of.
This sort of undertaking, this letting go of life style and habits and the usual activities in this culture is something one rarely has the opportunity to follow, even though many have expressed desire to do just that.
Now I was fortunate to actually be fulfilling this desire. For some time I had wanted to work on the refinement of the ministry I offered in the faith community; I had desired purification of service. If I really wanted to be a faithful priest, then I needed to be willing to let go of a lot of my own "stuff," a lot of ego-invested personal agenda, and accept the Holy Spirit's agenda.
This time was for God's stewardship of me. We as human beings, unlike other portions of creation, have the ability and opportunity to cooperate with God's stewardship of us. We can work in harmony with the way God nourishes, sustains, guides and directs us. We can do this through voluntary submission to discipleship and surrender to the way life is, and when we do we discover that this is the way to cooperate with the offering God has already made to us. God’s stewardship and offering to us is for our cultivation--for being roto-tilled, fertilized, weeded, pruned, and watered. What was crucial was the fruit to be produced.
My response to God’s work of grace in me as God’s stewardship made the most of the opportunity through the meditation practice. So I reflected carefully on the meditation practice and shared that with my teacher in spiritual direction and through a rich email correspondence we carried on. His guidance and advice continually pointed me to certain fundamental themes or areas to pay attention to, most of which were directing me toward a very clean, unadorned practice. He wrote:
“Hold attention gently in the heart. That is the practice--holding attention gently in the heart. Is the heart doing the thinking? A distinct awareness develops that the heart is thinking the name in coordination with the flow of the beads.” Therefore I sat with a small circle of wood beads that he gave me, and recited silently the Name of Jesus while bringing attention to the heart.
A word needs to be said about the form of the Name of Jesus that I have used throughout my own personal meditation practice. Jesus is the form of the Name most commonly used in English-speaking faith communities. This spelling and pronunciation evolved through Greek and Latin and variations within the long, evolving development of the English language. The ancient Hebrew form of the Name for Jesus was Yeshua. This is the form of the Name that I engaged for use in my meditation practice.
Think of the Name “Jesus.” The meaning may be very rich for us through association of experiences. We may have often, or never, prayed with this Name and known miracles to happen, or nothing to happen. We may have had a joyful, fulfilling church experience where this Name is the focus for worship, blessing, and loving guidance for our life. Or in a community proclaiming this Name as the way and truth of salvation we may have suffered judgment, alienation and abuse. And as we read the Bible and engage in theological study about Jesus as the incarnation of the second person of the Trinity, we add imaginative and conceptual significance to the Name. All these experiences, either positive or negative, or merely intellectual, serve to compose the meaning of the Name “Jesus.” Then as we think about the person who bears this Name, we may feel comfort, joy, awe, or fear, or we might be affirming the theological ultimacy, or irrelevance, of the Name to our world view and life course. This is “associative” meaning. Its content varies with each unique person. It cannot be legislated or fixed, and it evolves through time.
Understanding associative meaning attached to the Name has great significance for spiritual practice. If we think about practice as devotion, then associative meaning will pre-scribe the person to whom we are devoted. Our attitude in devotion, including our emotions, sense of obligation, and consequences or out-comes, will be strongly conditioned by the meaning we attach to the Name in this way. We may then be very concerned to approach the Name, and thus the person named, by composing the correct attitude, believing that if we do not, we will not be acknowledged and cared for, or we may even give some offense.
Here it should be obvious that our practice has become a matter of self care focused on worthiness and need. This is so even though we have composed, or felt arise in us, a strong loving surrender to the person we know and Name as Jesus. It is then a romance of devotion that can seem so rewarding and spiritually fulfilling by which we define our spiritual practice. To practice on this basis may provide essential inspiration but it does not provide a stable and dependable ground for devotion as a crucial element of life.
The mantric value of the Name gives a different picture of how meaning arises, and what the value of the Name is for practice. Mantric value has to do with a natural vibratory (or sound wave) influence on the mind, body, and the more subtle energy centers of the body as the Name is held in awareness. If we chose mantric, rather than associative, value to understand and support our spiritual practice, then we will be able to look at the character of the immediate, natural effect of the Name without concern for accumulating emotional, imaginative and conceptual meaning around it. In this way we acknowledge the spiritual function of the Name itself, while neglecting any effort on our part to compose ourselves in such a way for practicing the meditational use of the Prayer of the Lamb or the Name, so that we are properly able to honor the meaning our life experience has given to it. Thus, by focusing on mantric value, we give a clearer significance to grace as we entrust ourselves to the person whose Name we take up in practice.
In mantric practice, we hold faith that the One who is present in the Name, and to whom we are devoted, will be revealed to us. We do not begin with the hope, or assumption, that the associations the Name carries for us are sufficient to determine either the attitude of practice or the truth of the be-loved. That is, whatever we do have in terms of associative meaning are necessarily limited, incomplete and insufficient to express the whole truth of the Name. So in this way we free ourselves of the limiting aspect of the psychological and historical values around the Name, and we access the mantric or natural revelation available through the devotion of practice.
There is another important aspect of the mantric value of the Name. In the story of creation, the various forms of life emerge from divine utterance. Elohim (the Hebrew word for God used in Genesis 1) speaks a name, which is a vibration of ruach or spirit, and a form manifests or comes into being and shows itself. Primal languages, such as Sanskrit and Hebrew, are said to be mirrors of the vibratory structure of creation. The spiritual cultures evolved with these languages study creation and specify spiritual processes, which assist the move of attention from the manifest form to the unmanifest source, through the practical analysis of the vibratory influence of letter sounds and their combinations in words and grammatical structures. Spiritual practice that employs names and words from these primal languages of creation, therefore, has a more potent, natural influence to expand awareness, than the derivatives of these same names and words in other languages. Understand that this potency, or its diminishment, is not a matter of conceptual precision or the rich associative meaning that has emerged from the life experiences of individuals and whole cultures that use the primal or derived languages. It is simply a matter of the immediate vibratory effect on mind, body, and the more subtle energy centers of the body through the prescribed forms of spiritual practice.
This teaching favors the Name Yeshua, which means in Hebrew “the one who saves,” rather than Jesus, the English derivative of the Hebrew form. Closer analysis of the Name in terms of the Hebrew letters that compose it reveals that “Y-SH-A” is a vibratory code for the Kingdom of God, or the reality of God’s pervasive presence in all that is, or enlightenment. We could conceptually unfold that code by indicating that the meaning of the three given letter sounds is “God awakening as Spirit in self-awareness.” In this case we can say that enlightenment for the human individual is surrendered, fully wakeful participation in self-awareness of the Absolute. In the biblical and spiritual tradition of Israel, Yeshua fully realized and now lives the truth of enlightenment, and offers that truth unconditionally to be lived by each of us. He could have received only that Name. Yeshua was prescribed by angels for the child born of Mary, and the Name that the apostolic community proclaimed in Israel as the way of healing and salvation. These things may or may not be of interest to us, since they give associative (rather than mantric) validation to the Name. And, obviously, for most people Jesus has much greater and more potent associative meaning than Yeshua, and thus may seem a more natural focus of practice.
However, it is the form of the Name as Yeshua that has the more comprehensive and integrative effect on the whole structure of the human person. For instance, by a specific procedure that reveals the vibratory value of sound or mantric forms, we find that the name Yeshua releases a wave of energy in the whole body from the base of the spine to the crown of the head. As this energy moves from bottom to top, it serves to enliven and integrate the body on the way. This procedure thus demonstrates that the Name Yeshua has a natural, mantric significance for the whole-ness of each person. To awaken and live that wholeness through the grace offered by the Name in spiritual practice may be understood as the restoration of the image of the divine in the human, and thus as an essential resource for realization of enlightenment. Theologically, Yeshua, or incarnate divine self-awareness (Word/Logos), has fully realized and applied to all creation the immense creative potency available in the manifest divine image of the Creator. This is his work of “salvation.”
To conduct our spiritual practice so as to bring this Name into our awareness in the gentleness and innocence of devotion, free of all concern for worthiness, or experiences relevant to associative meaning, or results, is thus the simple way of faith and grace. By offering innocent attention to the Name either in the repetitions of the Name or Prayer of the Lamb with the circle of beads, or the free flow of meditation, we exhibit our faith that the greatest care we could need or want will be provided through the Name and person of Yeshua. In this way of practice, the revelation of Yeshua fulfills the intention of devotion, so we will want to practice with the greatest possible purity of means and meaning. That is, we resist adding associative meaning as a part of the basic meditational process, or making the practice more complex or adding requirements for ourselves to do. Purity of practice assures that our individual limitations with respect to self-value and self-image do not obscure the realization of the pure, eternal presence of the “manifest divine” who is Yeshua.
Holy One, loving God, you have created me the way I am, and then throughout my entire life you have expressed your love to me in subtle but very real ways, supporting the uniqueness you created in me. It is not that I am any more special than anyone or anything else, but that you love what you have created, the whole of creation, and you sustain and nurture each part of it with what befits that unique being. From my side I see this as answered prayers and as "love notes" from you, which I have frequently interpreted as special treatment. But no, rather it is appropriate treatment for me, not special treatment. Let my response always be wonder, awe, thanksgiving, worship and devotion.
"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it." (Matthew 13:44-46)
The meditation process that I was committed to was and continues to be like a treasure that I am willing to sell all I have in order to live in meditation. My relationship with Jesus is a pearl of great value, or great price, worth giving my all to. A journal entry from those months read, "Narrow door--you can't bring other things with you through that door. To squeeze through it, other stuff gets brushed off of you in the passing. There is room for very little else in my life but this practice and what is directly related to it. That seems to be just fine with me." I saw the need in my own life to go deeper and to leave more behind. I noticed that some of what I was attached to was good, but it was also diverting from keeping my eyes upon Jesus alone. So that too I was willing to let go of.
This sort of undertaking, this letting go of life style and habits and the usual activities in this culture is something one rarely has the opportunity to follow, even though many have expressed desire to do just that.
Now I was fortunate to actually be fulfilling this desire. For some time I had wanted to work on the refinement of the ministry I offered in the faith community; I had desired purification of service. If I really wanted to be a faithful priest, then I needed to be willing to let go of a lot of my own "stuff," a lot of ego-invested personal agenda, and accept the Holy Spirit's agenda.
This time was for God's stewardship of me. We as human beings, unlike other portions of creation, have the ability and opportunity to cooperate with God's stewardship of us. We can work in harmony with the way God nourishes, sustains, guides and directs us. We can do this through voluntary submission to discipleship and surrender to the way life is, and when we do we discover that this is the way to cooperate with the offering God has already made to us. God’s stewardship and offering to us is for our cultivation--for being roto-tilled, fertilized, weeded, pruned, and watered. What was crucial was the fruit to be produced.
My response to God’s work of grace in me as God’s stewardship made the most of the opportunity through the meditation practice. So I reflected carefully on the meditation practice and shared that with my teacher in spiritual direction and through a rich email correspondence we carried on. His guidance and advice continually pointed me to certain fundamental themes or areas to pay attention to, most of which were directing me toward a very clean, unadorned practice. He wrote:
“Hold attention gently in the heart. That is the practice--holding attention gently in the heart. Is the heart doing the thinking? A distinct awareness develops that the heart is thinking the name in coordination with the flow of the beads.” Therefore I sat with a small circle of wood beads that he gave me, and recited silently the Name of Jesus while bringing attention to the heart.
A word needs to be said about the form of the Name of Jesus that I have used throughout my own personal meditation practice. Jesus is the form of the Name most commonly used in English-speaking faith communities. This spelling and pronunciation evolved through Greek and Latin and variations within the long, evolving development of the English language. The ancient Hebrew form of the Name for Jesus was Yeshua. This is the form of the Name that I engaged for use in my meditation practice.
Think of the Name “Jesus.” The meaning may be very rich for us through association of experiences. We may have often, or never, prayed with this Name and known miracles to happen, or nothing to happen. We may have had a joyful, fulfilling church experience where this Name is the focus for worship, blessing, and loving guidance for our life. Or in a community proclaiming this Name as the way and truth of salvation we may have suffered judgment, alienation and abuse. And as we read the Bible and engage in theological study about Jesus as the incarnation of the second person of the Trinity, we add imaginative and conceptual significance to the Name. All these experiences, either positive or negative, or merely intellectual, serve to compose the meaning of the Name “Jesus.” Then as we think about the person who bears this Name, we may feel comfort, joy, awe, or fear, or we might be affirming the theological ultimacy, or irrelevance, of the Name to our world view and life course. This is “associative” meaning. Its content varies with each unique person. It cannot be legislated or fixed, and it evolves through time.
Understanding associative meaning attached to the Name has great significance for spiritual practice. If we think about practice as devotion, then associative meaning will pre-scribe the person to whom we are devoted. Our attitude in devotion, including our emotions, sense of obligation, and consequences or out-comes, will be strongly conditioned by the meaning we attach to the Name in this way. We may then be very concerned to approach the Name, and thus the person named, by composing the correct attitude, believing that if we do not, we will not be acknowledged and cared for, or we may even give some offense.
Here it should be obvious that our practice has become a matter of self care focused on worthiness and need. This is so even though we have composed, or felt arise in us, a strong loving surrender to the person we know and Name as Jesus. It is then a romance of devotion that can seem so rewarding and spiritually fulfilling by which we define our spiritual practice. To practice on this basis may provide essential inspiration but it does not provide a stable and dependable ground for devotion as a crucial element of life.
The mantric value of the Name gives a different picture of how meaning arises, and what the value of the Name is for practice. Mantric value has to do with a natural vibratory (or sound wave) influence on the mind, body, and the more subtle energy centers of the body as the Name is held in awareness. If we chose mantric, rather than associative, value to understand and support our spiritual practice, then we will be able to look at the character of the immediate, natural effect of the Name without concern for accumulating emotional, imaginative and conceptual meaning around it. In this way we acknowledge the spiritual function of the Name itself, while neglecting any effort on our part to compose ourselves in such a way for practicing the meditational use of the Prayer of the Lamb or the Name, so that we are properly able to honor the meaning our life experience has given to it. Thus, by focusing on mantric value, we give a clearer significance to grace as we entrust ourselves to the person whose Name we take up in practice.
In mantric practice, we hold faith that the One who is present in the Name, and to whom we are devoted, will be revealed to us. We do not begin with the hope, or assumption, that the associations the Name carries for us are sufficient to determine either the attitude of practice or the truth of the be-loved. That is, whatever we do have in terms of associative meaning are necessarily limited, incomplete and insufficient to express the whole truth of the Name. So in this way we free ourselves of the limiting aspect of the psychological and historical values around the Name, and we access the mantric or natural revelation available through the devotion of practice.
There is another important aspect of the mantric value of the Name. In the story of creation, the various forms of life emerge from divine utterance. Elohim (the Hebrew word for God used in Genesis 1) speaks a name, which is a vibration of ruach or spirit, and a form manifests or comes into being and shows itself. Primal languages, such as Sanskrit and Hebrew, are said to be mirrors of the vibratory structure of creation. The spiritual cultures evolved with these languages study creation and specify spiritual processes, which assist the move of attention from the manifest form to the unmanifest source, through the practical analysis of the vibratory influence of letter sounds and their combinations in words and grammatical structures. Spiritual practice that employs names and words from these primal languages of creation, therefore, has a more potent, natural influence to expand awareness, than the derivatives of these same names and words in other languages. Understand that this potency, or its diminishment, is not a matter of conceptual precision or the rich associative meaning that has emerged from the life experiences of individuals and whole cultures that use the primal or derived languages. It is simply a matter of the immediate vibratory effect on mind, body, and the more subtle energy centers of the body through the prescribed forms of spiritual practice.
This teaching favors the Name Yeshua, which means in Hebrew “the one who saves,” rather than Jesus, the English derivative of the Hebrew form. Closer analysis of the Name in terms of the Hebrew letters that compose it reveals that “Y-SH-A” is a vibratory code for the Kingdom of God, or the reality of God’s pervasive presence in all that is, or enlightenment. We could conceptually unfold that code by indicating that the meaning of the three given letter sounds is “God awakening as Spirit in self-awareness.” In this case we can say that enlightenment for the human individual is surrendered, fully wakeful participation in self-awareness of the Absolute. In the biblical and spiritual tradition of Israel, Yeshua fully realized and now lives the truth of enlightenment, and offers that truth unconditionally to be lived by each of us. He could have received only that Name. Yeshua was prescribed by angels for the child born of Mary, and the Name that the apostolic community proclaimed in Israel as the way of healing and salvation. These things may or may not be of interest to us, since they give associative (rather than mantric) validation to the Name. And, obviously, for most people Jesus has much greater and more potent associative meaning than Yeshua, and thus may seem a more natural focus of practice.
However, it is the form of the Name as Yeshua that has the more comprehensive and integrative effect on the whole structure of the human person. For instance, by a specific procedure that reveals the vibratory value of sound or mantric forms, we find that the name Yeshua releases a wave of energy in the whole body from the base of the spine to the crown of the head. As this energy moves from bottom to top, it serves to enliven and integrate the body on the way. This procedure thus demonstrates that the Name Yeshua has a natural, mantric significance for the whole-ness of each person. To awaken and live that wholeness through the grace offered by the Name in spiritual practice may be understood as the restoration of the image of the divine in the human, and thus as an essential resource for realization of enlightenment. Theologically, Yeshua, or incarnate divine self-awareness (Word/Logos), has fully realized and applied to all creation the immense creative potency available in the manifest divine image of the Creator. This is his work of “salvation.”
To conduct our spiritual practice so as to bring this Name into our awareness in the gentleness and innocence of devotion, free of all concern for worthiness, or experiences relevant to associative meaning, or results, is thus the simple way of faith and grace. By offering innocent attention to the Name either in the repetitions of the Name or Prayer of the Lamb with the circle of beads, or the free flow of meditation, we exhibit our faith that the greatest care we could need or want will be provided through the Name and person of Yeshua. In this way of practice, the revelation of Yeshua fulfills the intention of devotion, so we will want to practice with the greatest possible purity of means and meaning. That is, we resist adding associative meaning as a part of the basic meditational process, or making the practice more complex or adding requirements for ourselves to do. Purity of practice assures that our individual limitations with respect to self-value and self-image do not obscure the realization of the pure, eternal presence of the “manifest divine” who is Yeshua.
Holy One, loving God, you have created me the way I am, and then throughout my entire life you have expressed your love to me in subtle but very real ways, supporting the uniqueness you created in me. It is not that I am any more special than anyone or anything else, but that you love what you have created, the whole of creation, and you sustain and nurture each part of it with what befits that unique being. From my side I see this as answered prayers and as "love notes" from you, which I have frequently interpreted as special treatment. But no, rather it is appropriate treatment for me, not special treatment. Let my response always be wonder, awe, thanksgiving, worship and devotion.
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