Our next Community of the Lamb offering will be:
Summer Retreat Day
A Drop in the Bucket
Saturday, June 28
9:00 AM to 3:00 PM
St Dunstan Episcopal Church
722 N 45th St, Shoreline
The theme will be "A Drop in the Bucket," in reference to how individuals often feel about their efforts in comparison with huge need. In the face of "compassion fatigue" and being overwhelmed by all the areas of the world where disasters have occurred and human suffering is great, take a day to be compassionately with yourself and this universal intercession of the Prayer of the Lamb.
Please make reservations by email at PrayeroftheLamb1@mac.com or by phone 206-713-5321.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Support for Practice
Not everyone who prays the Prayer of the Lamb has been through the comprehensive 12 week course, but all have received some sort of training, teaching and initiation into the practice. Whenever I teach the Prayer of the Lamb I also make myself available for follow up for questions and consultation regarding practice. I also make a point of saying that the Prayer of the Lamb is a form of spiritual practice that needs to be incorporated into daily practice and ideally connected to a community of others engaged in the same spiritual practice. Meditation to be fruitful is best connected to a teacher and community. When practiced alone as individuals there are many ways in which we can simply strengthen our own ego identification, miss our self delusion, use the meditation only as a relaxation technique, make assumptions about spiritual attainment, or misinterpret experiences that may occur during meditation.
In meditation we sit with openness to the Holy Spirit and trust in our Lord. The more we sit in this faith, the more we may come to recognize that underneath the initial peace and relaxation lie fears, anxieties, hopes, anger, despair all waiting to be compassionately addressed. Hence the need for the resource of guidance in practice.
Also we have a tendency to take a particular spiritual practice and the teaching which defines it, and adapt it to our own preferences. This most usually hinders the potential and potency of the practice as it has been developed from its tested and proven source tradition.
If any of you have questions or would like consultation about how your meditation practice is going, you may email me at PrayeroftheLamb1@mac.com or call 206-713-5321.
In meditation we sit with openness to the Holy Spirit and trust in our Lord. The more we sit in this faith, the more we may come to recognize that underneath the initial peace and relaxation lie fears, anxieties, hopes, anger, despair all waiting to be compassionately addressed. Hence the need for the resource of guidance in practice.
Also we have a tendency to take a particular spiritual practice and the teaching which defines it, and adapt it to our own preferences. This most usually hinders the potential and potency of the practice as it has been developed from its tested and proven source tradition.
If any of you have questions or would like consultation about how your meditation practice is going, you may email me at PrayeroftheLamb1@mac.com or call 206-713-5321.
Offering Outreach Ministry Through the Prayer of the Lamb
Over the last seven years I have been privileged to share the Prayer of the Lamb with almost 1,000 persons through seminars, workshops, retreats, 12 week groups, and ongoing groups, not to mention an equal number who have received malas (prayer bead bracelets), each mala having been used in meditation with the Prayer of the Lamb for at least one hour. Members of the Community of the Lamb are those who meditate with the Prayer of the Lamb, and a number of you have taken part in preparing malas for others to use. We did this for those attending General Convention in 2003, for members of St. Paul, New Orleans, as part of the “We Will Stand With You” campaign, and for inmates at the state prison in Monroe.
Now we have received a new request. It is a modest request, not a large project, and members of the St. Dunstan ongoing group are already engaged in make malas and meditating with them for this latest project.
The Diocese of San Joaquin has gone through a tremendous shaking during the last several months. After the bishop and most of the congregations chose to disassociate from the Episcopal Church, much work has been done through the offices of the Presiding Bishop and the Episcopal Church Center to support and reconstitute the diocese around those congregations and individuals who wanted to stay. New mission congregations have been forming. Interestingly those who had not identified themselves with previous parishes of the diocese, now are seeking to become members of the newly forming congregations.
Grace Episcopal Mission in Bakersfield is one of these new faith communities. On June 22 over 20 persons will be baptized, confirmed or received into the Episcopal Church. One of those being baptized is related to one of the clergy of this diocese. Observing both this priest’s spiritual process of responding to a call to serve in ordained ministry and the emergence of this new congregation has lead to a commitment of faith in our Lord Jesus. In support for this we have been requested to provide a mala for each of those being presented to the bishop recently appointed to oversee the diocese. (There is synchronicity in that this bishop’s name is Lamb!) My colleague will be attending this event and taking malas representing our prayer support for the individuals making faith commitments and for the congregation as it lays a new spiritual foundation.
As is the case every time we offer the Prayer of the Lamb in intercession, we ask for God’s mercy without agenda or qualifications. There are no assumptions about rightness or religious political positions of belief. There is simply the plea for that abundant, unconditional, compassionate mercy to pour over them and us, that mutually we may wake to the reality of Yeshua’s Resurrection Life. Please remember Grace Episcopal Mission in your intercessions.
Now we have received a new request. It is a modest request, not a large project, and members of the St. Dunstan ongoing group are already engaged in make malas and meditating with them for this latest project.
The Diocese of San Joaquin has gone through a tremendous shaking during the last several months. After the bishop and most of the congregations chose to disassociate from the Episcopal Church, much work has been done through the offices of the Presiding Bishop and the Episcopal Church Center to support and reconstitute the diocese around those congregations and individuals who wanted to stay. New mission congregations have been forming. Interestingly those who had not identified themselves with previous parishes of the diocese, now are seeking to become members of the newly forming congregations.
Grace Episcopal Mission in Bakersfield is one of these new faith communities. On June 22 over 20 persons will be baptized, confirmed or received into the Episcopal Church. One of those being baptized is related to one of the clergy of this diocese. Observing both this priest’s spiritual process of responding to a call to serve in ordained ministry and the emergence of this new congregation has lead to a commitment of faith in our Lord Jesus. In support for this we have been requested to provide a mala for each of those being presented to the bishop recently appointed to oversee the diocese. (There is synchronicity in that this bishop’s name is Lamb!) My colleague will be attending this event and taking malas representing our prayer support for the individuals making faith commitments and for the congregation as it lays a new spiritual foundation.
As is the case every time we offer the Prayer of the Lamb in intercession, we ask for God’s mercy without agenda or qualifications. There are no assumptions about rightness or religious political positions of belief. There is simply the plea for that abundant, unconditional, compassionate mercy to pour over them and us, that mutually we may wake to the reality of Yeshua’s Resurrection Life. Please remember Grace Episcopal Mission in your intercessions.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Agnus Dei Vol. 6.1 Easter 08 Ecological Intercession
Biological life on this planet, as far as I know, exists solely within a thin surface layer of earth, water and air. Relative to the size of the planet, this zone of habitation is miniscule, fragile and exposed. Yet billions of different life forms thrive in this biosphere. This planetary surface is so thin in comparison to the rest of the mass of Earth that it might be considered insignificant if it were not for the fact that this is where we humans live. We have a vested self-interest, therefore, in the condition of this biosphere.
When I teach about the Prayer of the Lamb, I talk about how this is an ecological form of meditational prayer, that this spiritual practice interconnects within the ecological system, that the context for meditation is a context of the whole. We cannot separate out this activity of meditation from the rest of the environment.
Another way of expressing this is: “It’s not about me.” It’s about us. I may think that I meditate for my own good, and yes, that it so. But whatever is for my own good is also for the good of all because we are intrinsically interrelated. Indeed when we continue long enough in this spiritual practice we can come to experience, not just have an insight about, but know experientially the unity of all manifest being. Then the only way we can offer the Prayer of the Lamb is to pray “have mercy on us.”
The Prayer of the Lamb, “Jesus/Yeshua, have mercy on us,” begins with an appeal for mercy to intervene in our condition, our situation, our environment. It is offering an intercession for what is seen as a need, and in saying “have mercy on us” it acknowledges that I myself am also impacted by the need seen in another. And continuing in meditation we can come to realize that the mercy, compassion, care, wisdom and grace needed are already abundantly present and available. In truth there is no separation or alienation from the compassion of God, just as much as it is not possible for any organism to exist separate from its ecosphere.
A key scripture text to support this is the first chapter of the Gospel of John.
3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being
4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.
5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
The darkness, may I suggest, is not some evil force or enemy, something that would pose a threat to the light, but nothing, no thing. What we objectify as darkness is rather our assumption that darkness is substantial and able to bind and limit life. It is our supposed separation and alienation from God. To quote my own teacher, “Darkness is a function of our ignorance about the truth of life. We think the world is dark, because we are dark in our awareness, and yet the world is all light, one radiant wholeness of love.” It is salvation to be freed of this self-limiting ignorance.
The condition of ignorance and darkness is within the state of awareness of the whole of our species. As our spiritual practice brings awakening, so too the compassion of this abundant mercy empowers us in our actions, translating meditation into compassionate service not only for other human beings but for the whole of the biosphere. The fruit of meditation is action on behalf of the whole bio-system intervening into the darkness of human hearts, shifting callousness, despair, rage, hatred, envy and greed into life-sustaining directions.
Each time you sit to meditate is a turning toward the light and a cooperation with divine self expression. Every time you meditate you are adding to growing awareness about the illusion of our separateness. Every time in meditation the individual, separate "I" of self identity is no more, and "we" as the miraculous union of all unique beings in the divine radiance of Yeshua becomes the substance of creation. Keep meditating!
When I teach about the Prayer of the Lamb, I talk about how this is an ecological form of meditational prayer, that this spiritual practice interconnects within the ecological system, that the context for meditation is a context of the whole. We cannot separate out this activity of meditation from the rest of the environment.
Another way of expressing this is: “It’s not about me.” It’s about us. I may think that I meditate for my own good, and yes, that it so. But whatever is for my own good is also for the good of all because we are intrinsically interrelated. Indeed when we continue long enough in this spiritual practice we can come to experience, not just have an insight about, but know experientially the unity of all manifest being. Then the only way we can offer the Prayer of the Lamb is to pray “have mercy on us.”
The Prayer of the Lamb, “Jesus/Yeshua, have mercy on us,” begins with an appeal for mercy to intervene in our condition, our situation, our environment. It is offering an intercession for what is seen as a need, and in saying “have mercy on us” it acknowledges that I myself am also impacted by the need seen in another. And continuing in meditation we can come to realize that the mercy, compassion, care, wisdom and grace needed are already abundantly present and available. In truth there is no separation or alienation from the compassion of God, just as much as it is not possible for any organism to exist separate from its ecosphere.
A key scripture text to support this is the first chapter of the Gospel of John.
3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being
4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.
5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
The darkness, may I suggest, is not some evil force or enemy, something that would pose a threat to the light, but nothing, no thing. What we objectify as darkness is rather our assumption that darkness is substantial and able to bind and limit life. It is our supposed separation and alienation from God. To quote my own teacher, “Darkness is a function of our ignorance about the truth of life. We think the world is dark, because we are dark in our awareness, and yet the world is all light, one radiant wholeness of love.” It is salvation to be freed of this self-limiting ignorance.
The condition of ignorance and darkness is within the state of awareness of the whole of our species. As our spiritual practice brings awakening, so too the compassion of this abundant mercy empowers us in our actions, translating meditation into compassionate service not only for other human beings but for the whole of the biosphere. The fruit of meditation is action on behalf of the whole bio-system intervening into the darkness of human hearts, shifting callousness, despair, rage, hatred, envy and greed into life-sustaining directions.
Each time you sit to meditate is a turning toward the light and a cooperation with divine self expression. Every time you meditate you are adding to growing awareness about the illusion of our separateness. Every time in meditation the individual, separate "I" of self identity is no more, and "we" as the miraculous union of all unique beings in the divine radiance of Yeshua becomes the substance of creation. Keep meditating!
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Agnus Dei Vol. 5:5 Advent 07 Christmas Light
During the Christmas season one of the things I enjoy seeing is all the Christmas lights decorating homes and in windows. In the long December nights these lights bring a cheerful confrontation to the dark. The daylight hours again lengthen, and we are amazed at how much impact the amount of light can have on a sense of well being and disposition.
All the Christmas light that is outside is a small fraction of all the Christmas light that is within you.
Jesus/Yeshua says to us, “I offer life which expands in radiance and peace. I offer this expansion of my life in the mind and heart and awareness of those devoted to me as a way of self forgiveness, forgiveness of others, and abundant life in my light.”
John’s Gospel says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it… The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world… to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.”
Light or radiance is the energy of communion and thus community. Each of us in Yeshua’s presence is a source of communion. Our meditation together enlivens the life communion between Yeshua and those who perform the devotional offering of meditation.
The radiant body of Yeshua goes beyond the physical body, and has a cosmic structure. That structure is manifest in each person as the image of God. But we live lives that are full of suffering, that are disoriented to the wholeness of the radiant body of Yeshua. That is why meditation is so important. In the spiritual practice and devotion of meditation we are in a process of consecration to God. This is healing and transcendence and awakening in the Mind of Christ.
When we meditate with the Name of Yeshua we are offering our suffering that has destroyed our wholeness, peace and joy into the Name for healing and release for liberation. The Name is the wholeness of radiance/light. Meditating with attention to this Name the flow of devotional love - the devotional love that Yeshua has for us, his devotion to and for us - serves to heal the areas of life which cry out in the heart’s desire. This flow of love achieves communion between the whole person and the wholeness of Yeshua. The word Yeshua orients the heart’s desire, purifies it. The response of love by Jesus always transcends the desire, meeting it in its own place with love. The response of Yeshua’s love offering is a beam of his heart’s radiance/light arising from the fullness of his Name.
All the Christmas light that is outside is a small fraction of all the Christmas light that is within you.
Christmas blessings in the Lamb
The Rev. Beverly Hosea
All the Christmas light that is outside is a small fraction of all the Christmas light that is within you.
Jesus/Yeshua says to us, “I offer life which expands in radiance and peace. I offer this expansion of my life in the mind and heart and awareness of those devoted to me as a way of self forgiveness, forgiveness of others, and abundant life in my light.”
John’s Gospel says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it… The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world… to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.”
Light or radiance is the energy of communion and thus community. Each of us in Yeshua’s presence is a source of communion. Our meditation together enlivens the life communion between Yeshua and those who perform the devotional offering of meditation.
The radiant body of Yeshua goes beyond the physical body, and has a cosmic structure. That structure is manifest in each person as the image of God. But we live lives that are full of suffering, that are disoriented to the wholeness of the radiant body of Yeshua. That is why meditation is so important. In the spiritual practice and devotion of meditation we are in a process of consecration to God. This is healing and transcendence and awakening in the Mind of Christ.
When we meditate with the Name of Yeshua we are offering our suffering that has destroyed our wholeness, peace and joy into the Name for healing and release for liberation. The Name is the wholeness of radiance/light. Meditating with attention to this Name the flow of devotional love - the devotional love that Yeshua has for us, his devotion to and for us - serves to heal the areas of life which cry out in the heart’s desire. This flow of love achieves communion between the whole person and the wholeness of Yeshua. The word Yeshua orients the heart’s desire, purifies it. The response of love by Jesus always transcends the desire, meeting it in its own place with love. The response of Yeshua’s love offering is a beam of his heart’s radiance/light arising from the fullness of his Name.
All the Christmas light that is outside is a small fraction of all the Christmas light that is within you.
Christmas blessings in the Lamb
The Rev. Beverly Hosea
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)