May 2019


A Contemplative Exercise for May 

The following is a possible framework for the Witnessing of the Word. It can be personalised, or altered: its purpose is to serve as an example of how this Saying might be used primarily in the context of a Prayer Group, but it may be used by individuals if so wished. It is not intended to be definitive.

In the context of a group: the periods of silence should be appropriate for your group - probably not less than 5 minutes, or more than 15 minutes.

 

Saying for the month

 “Behold I am alive for ever more”                             Revelation 1.18 (RSV)   

 

To begin the exercise, first spend a short while in relaxation and preparing to be still; become aware of the sounds around you and put them aside; offer this time of prayer to God.

 

Say this introductory invitation to prayer, then keep a further minute or two of silence:

"Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest"   Matthew 11.28 

 

Introduction to the first silence - a preparation for listening with the mind:

“Behold I am alive for ever more”     

The first chapter of Revelation sets the tone for the whole book; and it also chimes with John’s Gospel in style, with its emphasis on the relation between death and eternal life. Here we have several key things…

First, the opening verse – ‘The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place’. The chapter lays before us the truths of our faith:  that Jesus Christ loves us, and has by his death freed us from our sins; that glory and dominion belong to him and to God, his Father; that he will come again; that he died but is alive for evermore; that he was and is and is to come, the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega. This promise of the eternal nature of God is here at the beginning and again at the end of the book – in the first few verses and in the last few: it is something with which John is profoundly concerned.

So in our time of thinking we begin to wrestle with this idea of eternity and with what that means for us, essentially time bound humans – existing so much in the here and now, but struggling to come to terms with the mysteries of the eternal: the incarnation, the life, the death and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and his relationship with the Father and the Spirit.

We are now working up to Ascension Day, Pentecost and Trinity Sundays - huge challenges to our human understanding and indeed maybe things that we can never understand and should not expect to. During the church’s year we return to these themes in the course of the great festivals but they never lose that mystery: I heard a sermon one Trinity Sunday from someone who said it was the 40th time he had preached on the Trinity and he was still wrestling with it. So each Lent we re-visit Jesus’s wilderness experience, the temptations, his passion and crucifixion – and each Lent there is a new discovery, a fresh revelation, born so often of some very human experience which helps to reveal the divine.

And then comes the resurrection – the greatest mystery of all, the paradoxes of dying to live, of a defeat being a victory, of joy as the companion grief, of earthly life existing within the context of eternal life. And all that was, and is to come, contains within it that which is: the ‘sacrament of the present moment’.

Here, now, we rest in that present, which is as much a part of eternity as all other moments. And the command here has an element of immediacy: ‘Behold’. We listen now with all our faculties, not just our ears; we give our full attention to these words spoken to John and handed on through him with such urgency. We try to enter as fully as possible into that present – we don’t think, or struggle to understand, we just rest in that presence which is the living Word: “Behold I am alive for evermore”  

 

A time is now kept for silence of the mind - between 5 and 15 minutes

Silent repetition of all or part of the Saying can be helpful as we listen to the Word


The silence concludes with a short thanksgiving, and/or repeat the Saying

 Father, we thank you for the gift of your Word.

 “Behold I am alive for ever more”   

 

Introduction to the second silence - a preparation for listening with the heart:

In our second time of silence we will try to take this living word deeper – not just into our thinking part, our mind, but into our selves, our hearts, our being. I find that some times when I am trying truly to contemplate this is easier than at others – sometimes the words themselves seem to strike a deeper chord, to set up a greater resonance within me than at others. It is a real form of exercise, this contemplation, and practice does make it easier!

And these words will, I’m sure, have different resonances for each of us: as we try and make them a part of our self, the experiences of that self will have left the ground into which the words sink in different states. Crucifixion can come to each of us in so many different guises – illness, bereavement, material loss, emotional or other crises – one can add many more. And whilst earthly life is finite and must end, eternal life stretches not only ahead of us but backwards – and is able to be entered into here and now. And so whatever form our crucifixion takes, we are able to begin now to live in the realm of eternal life if, as John says, we have faith. He writes in John 5.24 ”Anyone who gives heed to what I say and puts his trust in him who sent me has hold of eternal life”.

I sometimes think of the huge challenge the resurrection must have been for the women who first saw the empty tomb; for Mary who met the resurrected Christ in the garden; for the disciples on the Emmaus road, and then those hiding away behind the locked doors through which Christ entered. The challenge must have been almost greater for them, who experienced the human life and death of Jesus at first hand, than for Christians who came later hearing the story as a whole. We are naturally bound by our experiences and find it hard to leap into the world that exists beyond them. But this is what we are commanded to do by Jesus – to come to him and listen to him as he says  “Behold I am alive for evermore”. Deep down within ourselves we take these words into our hearts, whatever our experience, whatever crucifixion we may have encountered. We listen to him saying them to us, here and now with absolute assurance:  “Behold I am alive for evermore”


A time is now kept for silence of the heart - between 5 and 15 minutes.

Again, you could use a silent repetition of the words of the Saying to help you listen to them

 

Conclude the silence with a short thanksgiving and/or repeat the Saying:

 Father, we thank you that your Word is alive and within us. 

“Behold I am alive for evermore”

 

Introduction to the time of intercession – we use our will to reflect God’s Word outwards.

We now come to our time of intercession, allowing God to speak the same words through us to those for whom we wish to pray. We remain focussed on the saying and at the same time we bring alongside us the person, concern or situation for whom we wish to pray. In God’s name, we speak the Word to them, a kind of spiritual loudspeaker broadcasting to those in need…

Say the name; then, after a moment of silence, repeat the saying - let the words flow through you to them.

 

Conclude the time of intercession with words of thanksgiving: 

Father, we thank you that your Word has gone out through us to those for whom we pray.

Use the Fellowship Prayer or another closing prayer to conclude your time of contemplative prayer.

Loving Heavenly Father, we thank you for all your unsearchable riches which pour forth from you as light from the sun, in boundless profusion and generosity, whether received, ignored or rejected. And now we offer to you, in so far as we are able, as an emptiness to be filled with your divine fullness, ourselves, our souls and bodies; all that we are, all that we have and all that we do. Amen

 

 You may wish to say the Grace together before departing.  

  

Using the Watchword….

During the days and weeks ahead, you can use a shortened form, or part, of the Saying as a Watchword – for brief moments of prayer, whilst walking or working, at moments when they come to mind or seem especially appropriate for a particular situation:

‘…Behold…’     ‘… I AM …’     ‘…I am alive…’


This month’s exercise was contributed by CO