REMEDY: Contemplation Practice for Week Six

Non-Judgement

For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “Yes!” And through Christ, our “Amen” (which means “Yes”) ascends to God for his glory.

2 Corinthians 1:20

According to Richard Rohr;

"Presence is experienced in a participative way, outside the mind. The mind by nature is intent on judging, controlling, and analyzing instead of seeing, tasting, and loving. This is exactly why it cannot be present or live in the naked now. The mind wants a job and loves to process things. The key to stopping this game is quite simply, peace, silence, or stillness."

If we want to learn to be truly available to God to reach the world around us, a good first step is to learn this practice of living in the moment and putting our self-made barriers of judgement in their proper place. In order to truly love others, we must be willing to put aside our knee-jerk reaction of judging them.

Practice

1. Find a place with a fair amount of other people you don't know (mall, airport, gym, etc.)

2. Sit in a comfortable position. Silently say a prayer - ask God to open your eyes to the world around you.

3. For 10 minutes, simply watch as people pass around you. Note your thoughts as you see them.

Do you make immediate judgements about them ("Wow, he's fat." "She is so ugly." "That's a hideous outfit.")?

Or, are you able to accept them as they are, children of a God who loves them? Are you able to say "Yes" to their presence and existence?

4. At the end of 10 minutes, thank God for the opportunity to be His ambassador to the world around us and ask Him to continue to open your heart to love others.

REMEDY: Journaling Practice for Week Six

Discover the Rhythms of Deep Interiority

A Deeper Look
After being forcibly removed from his country and home, Daniel was given a prestigious education and high-level job in government. The pressure on him to conform to the pagan values of Babylon was great. Our text gives us insight into one of the secrets of his faithful devotion to God.

Read

• Daniel 6:6-10

Study

• How do you think this practice anchored Daniel in God and enabled him to resist the great pressure he was facing?
• What costs were involved for Daniel?
• What are the greatest obstacles preventing you from stopping to be with God two or three times a day?

Journal

• What questions, concerns or fears do you have that keep you from making this practice a part of your weekly rhythm?
• What are some steps you can take to begin to incorporate more time between you and God?

-- adapted from Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Workbook by Peter Scazzero

REMEDY: Lectio Divina Practice for Week Six

Psalm 84: Singing with the Sparrow

There are a lot of ways you can pray Scripture but the tradition of Lectio Divina uses the following four phases, these are the ones used in the classical Benedictine model established in the sixth century. Lectio offers a natural flow from one phase to the next rather than a lock-step march.

Phase One - Lectio: reading

What does the text say?

TURN to the text and read it several times slowly, gently, out loud. Savor the reading, feel the words in your mouth, listening for the “still, small voice” of a particular word or phrase that says, “I am for you today.”

Phase Two - Meditatio: meditation

What does the text say specifically to me at this point in my life?

TAKE the word or phrase into yourself. Slowly repeat it to yourself, allowing it to interact with your inner world of concerns, memories and ideas. Let your imagination engage the text. Images are not necessarily distractions, but invitations into dialogue with God.

Phase Three - Oratio: prayer

What does God say to me and what do I say to God through the text?

SPEAK to God. Interact with God as you would with one who you know loves and accepts you. Experience this God-breathed word or phrase as a means to bless and transform the thoughts and images that God’s Word has awakened in you. Give to God what you have found in your heart.

Phase Four - Contemplatio: contemplation

Being still, resting in God’s presence, and letting God work through your mind and heart.

REST for 10 minutes in God’s embrace. Let go of words and images. Rejoice that God is with you in silence, spiritual rest, and inner receptivity.

REMEDY: Fasting Practice for Week Six

The Spirit Is Willing

And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.

—Romans 7:18–20, NLT

There’s an internal war that rages within each of us. Paul described this so well in Romans 7. Though we desire to do the right thing, we don’t have the power to do so in our own efforts and we mess up.

The good news is that we don’t have to rely on our own strength to make right decisions. We don’t have to be dominated by our sinful nature and end up doing the things we don’t want to do. But the only way we can live this kind of life is by yielding to the Holy Spirit and relying on the strength of Jesus Christ, not our own.

When we’re facing struggles, we must rely on God’s power alive within us through the Holy Spirit. When we are born again, the Holy Spirit resides in us and places in us the desire to do what is pleasing to God (Hebrews 10:16). The Holy Spirit always wants to do what is right and to uphold the perfect will of God, pleasing the Father in every way.

When we’re facing struggles, we must rely on God’s power alive in us through the Holy Spirit.

It is our job to lay down our stubborn fleshly will and yield to the will of God. In that moment, the Holy Spirit will be there to help us. Let’s learn to yield to and become totally reliant upon the Holy Spirit. [Prayer] turns ordinary mortals into men of power. It brings power. It brings fire. It brings rain. It brings life. It brings God.

—Samuel Chadwick

Prayer Focus: Are there areas in your life causing an internal struggle? Make a decision today to yield to the Holy Spirit and lean on His strength, not your own, and to overcome obstacles of sin and selfishness in your life. Surrender and release those areas to God, knowing He will help you.

--adapted from Awakenings 2011 fasting devotional

REMEDY: Divine Hours for Week Five

Fixed-hour Prayer

The Divine Hours is a soul-training practice for fixed-hour prayer. It presents the prayers to be prayed at the divine hours of every day:

• Morning prayers, for prayer between 6 and 9;
• Midday prayers for praying between 11 and 2; and
• Evening prayers to pray between 5 and 8, and help us gently close the day.

A website to help you with the Divine Hours can be found here. This website also provides an iPhone app which you can download here. If you know of apps on other platforms (Android, Windows Mobile, Blackberry) please let us know, and we will try to pass that info along as well.

REMEDY: Journaling Practice for Week Five

Enlarge Your Soul Through Grief and Loss

A Deeper Look
The end of Jesus’ vibrant, popular, earthly life and ministry appeared to be an enormous loss to his disciples and followers. In this passage we will observe two very different approaches to that loss - the apostle Peter and Jesus.

Read

• Matthew 26:31-44

Study
Here is a list of common defenses we often use to protect ourself from grief and loss: denial, minimizing (admitting the loss but in such a way that it appears less serious than it actually is), blaming others or God, “over-spiritualizing,” blaming yourself, rationalizing (offering excuses and justification), intellectualizing (giving analysis and theories to avoid personal awareness or difficult feelings), distracting, becoming hostile and medicating (addictions).

• Which defenses does Peter appear to use?
• What defenses to you tend to use when dealing with loss and setbacks, and why?

Journal
Divide your journal into three columns (the far left being small, the other two equally sized) vertically and five equal sections horizontally. In the top left box write Ages 3-12, then label each box descending 13-18, 19-25, 25-40 and 40 and older, respectively.

In the first box to the right in each age range, write down any significant losses/disappointments you experienced. In the last box to the left in each age range, write down your response at that time. Do the same for each age range as you work down the page.

• What was the experience of filling out the chart like for you?
• Did it reveal anything new to you? Explain.
• Are there any losses you have not yet embraced where new life is waiting to be birthed?

-- adapted from Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Workbook by Peter Scazzero

REMEDY: Lectio Divina Practice for Week Five

Psalm 63: Longing for God

There are a lot of ways you can pray Scripture but the tradition of Lectio Divina uses the following four phases, these are the ones used in the classical Benedictine model established in the sixth century. Lectio offers a natural flow from one phase to the next rather than a lock-step march.

Phase One - Lectio: reading

What does the text say?

TURN to the text and read it several times slowly, gently, out loud. Savor the reading, feel the words in your mouth, listening for the “still, small voice” of a particular word or phrase that says, “I am for you today.”

Phase Two - Meditatio: meditation

What does the text say specifically to me at this point in my life?

TAKE the word or phrase into yourself. Slowly repeat it to yourself, allowing it to interact with your inner world of concerns, memories and ideas. Let your imagination engage the text. Images are not necessarily distractions, but invitations into dialogue with God.

Phase Three - Oratio: prayer

What does God say to me and what do I say to God through the text?

SPEAK to God. Interact with God as you would with one who you know loves and accepts you. Experience this God-breathed word or phrase as a means to bless and transform the thoughts and images that God’ Word has awakened in you. Give to God what you have found in your heart.

Phase Four - Contemplatio: contemplation

Being still, resting in God’s presence, and letting God work through your mind and heart.

REST for 10 minutes in God’s embrace. Let go of words and images. Rejoice that God is with you in silence, spiritual rest, and inner receptivity.

REMEDY: Fasting Practice for Week Five

When Grace Comes Down

For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

John 1:17

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have a personal visit with God? What would He say about the state of humanity? about religion? about our propensity toward sin?
There is no need to wonder about what God is like or would say, because to know Him, we have only to look at Jesus. In Jesus we have received grace, but there is even something more we have received: truth. The kind of truth John spoke of in today’s scripture is not a list of laws and rules such as were given to Moses. Make no mistake—the revelation of God through the word of the Law was glorious. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai after receiving the ten commandments, his face shone so brightly with the glory of God that he had to wear a veil (Exodus 34:33-35). But the word of the Law cannot compare with the word of life that has been revealed through Jesus Christ!

In John 1:18 we learn that no one, not even Moses, has ever seen God. But Jesus has not only seen God—He is God. The truth that John was speaking about is a clear and unveiled vision of the true nature of God.

It is from a state of grace, not legalism, that we will find real and lasting transformation.

Looking at God through the lens of legalism and religion is like looking at Him through a veil. Only when we see Him though Jesus Christ can we truly get a glimpse into His heart. It is from a state of grace, not legalism, that we will find real and lasting transformation (2 Corinthians 3:7–18). I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am.

—John Newton

Prayer Focus: Have you been looking at God through the veil of legalism and religion? In Jesus, we see the full revelation of the nature of God: His love and holiness, mercy and justice, compassion and power all perfectly and beautifully expressed. Pray that the Holy Spirit will help you see God through the eyes of grace and truth given to us in Jesus Christ.

--adapted from Awakenings 2011 fasting devotional

REMEDY: Divine Hours for Week Four

Fixed-hour Prayer

The Divine Hours is a soul-training practice for fixed-hour prayer. It presents the prayers to be prayed at the divine hours of every day:

• Morning prayers, for prayer between 6 and 9;
• Midday prayers for praying between 11 and 2; and
• Evening prayers to pray between 5 and 8, and help us gently close the day.

A website to help you with the Divine Hours can be found here. This website also provides an iPhone app which you can download here. If you know of apps on other platforms (Android, Windows Mobile, Blackberry) please let us know, and we will try to pass that info along as well.

REMEDY: Contemplation Practice for Week Four

Contemplative Prayer

Contemplative prayer - sometimes referred to as centering prayer - is a method designed to deepen the relationship with God that has begun through the practices of fasting, lectio divina and spiritual journaling and to develop a practice of contemplative prayer (i.e. the antithesis of our silent and spoken prayers typically dominated by our speaking to God). It is not meant to replace other kinds of prayer; it simply puts other kinds of prayer into a new, and hopefully, more fuller perspective.

Practice

1. Choose a sacred word as the symbol of your intention to consent to God's presence and action within.

2. Sitting comfortably and with eyes closed, settle briefly, and silently introduce the sacred word as the symbol of your consent to God's presence and action within.

3. When you become aware of thoughts, return ever-so-gently to the sacred word.

4. At the end of the 10 minute prayer period, remain in silence with eyes closed for a couple of minutes.