prayer

Preparing for Morning Meditation Time

/ nagneberg48 / 8 Comments

July 16, 2024

NOTE: If you have already received this post, my apologies. I am trying to fix some technical difficulties.

Some mornings need no preparation.

I make the bed and brush my teeth and head into the snug for my morning meditation time. I read a devotion or two, write in my journal, and sit in the silence, praying with words or simply an open heart. Closing my eyes, I breathe in and out, gently, finding my own rhythm.

Some days I sit there longer than others, but no matter the length of time, I feel more prepared for the day. More open to whatever is planned. And whatever is unplanned. I have learned over the years that if this morning time is absent from my day for more than two or three days, I am not as present to the movement of God in my life or even my own movements. I tend to trip or slip or become fuzzy or light-headed–metaphorically, but sometimes even actually. This morning time is key to my functioning, to my balance, to finding my own rhythm and being able to respond to the rhythms swirling around me.

But some days I need to prepare myself for the ritual preparation for the day. Yesterday was one of those days perhaps because of the upsetting weekend events and the ensuing commentary and knowing that the Republican convention was about to begin.

I knew I needed to calm myself before I could calm myself!

Shouldn’t making my bed and going for a walk be enough? Well, no, for frankly those feel like “shoulds” in my life. I wish I didn’t think about my morning walk in that way, but as long as this heat smolders me, I’m afraid the walk is something to check off my list more than a pleasure. I plod forward and try to remind myself to notice the gardens and wish summer blessings to dog walkers and those dashing to their cars with kids destined for daycare, but I just feel sweaty.

Sometimes I admit there is an unexpected delight. One morning last week I was trudging along, wishing I was on the return route, and I heard a sweet, slightly off tune voice singing “Old MacDonald Had a Farm.” A little girl, maybe age 4, and her Daddy were walking behind me to the daycare center across from the Catholic church in our neighborhood. She repeated the verse about the cow several times and didn’t always include “E-I-E-I-O,” but no matter, I was honored to be her audience. I felt blessed.

Unfortunately, I experienced no such treat Monday morning and felt only self-righteous about exercising in spite of the heat and the on-again, off-again sprinkles. I was not ready to enter meditation and I knew it. What to do?

I cut daisies for a new bouquet on the dining room table.

I swept the walk and the steps leading to our front door.

I took a shower.

And then I was ready, and I entered the snug and my morning meditation time.

Now I realize that morning meditation time does not require preparation. It is normally a “come as you are” activity, but sometimes I know I will benefit even more from that time if I can bring some small slice of serenity into the space. These brief clearing the space moments are not distractions. They are not ways of putting off what I know I must do, but, instead they are part of a progression, a procession into the meditation time.

Prayers for These Days

Turning to the light
the light turns to us.
Moving toward the source
the source moves us.
Holding on to hope
hope holds on to us.
            Padraig O'Tuoma in Being Here, Prayers for Curiosity, Justice, and Love

Prayer of the Day, Sunday, July 15, 2024
O, God, from you come all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works. 
Give to us, your servants, that peace which the world cannot give, that our hearts may be set to obey your commandments; and also that we, being defended from the fear of our enemies, may live in peace and quietness, through Jesus Christ , our Savior and Lord. Amen.

An Announcement and a Request

I learned last week, thanks to a reader, that my posts are not appearing on my website. Those who subscribe or find me on Facebook or are on my email list receive the posts, but if anyone goes to my website https://livingonlifeslabyrinth, the last post published was on June 13, 2024. I have requested help from WordPress, but that was not helpful, and I have watched some YouTube videos, which also did not solve the problem. I may end up using the Geek Squad at Best Buy, but that involves leaving my laptop with them, and that just isn’t convenient right now.

So here’s my plan: a time-out. I always wonder when these kinds of interruptions and/or technical issues arise if I am getting a message to do something else or not do anything at all. I have been a blogger for 15 years or so and perhaps it is time to end that chapter of my life. I don’t think so, but I need to sit with that question. Summer seems like a good time to do that.

So I am taking a break.

At the same time if anyone in the St Paul area has a suggestion about someone who is in the business of solving all things technical and will make a house call, I am open to recommendations.

May all be well with you and I wish you summer blessings.

An Invitation

What activities prepare you or lead you to times of focused meditation? I would love to know.



The Necessity of Prayer

/ nagneberg48 / 14 Comments

October 17, 2023

Last week was busy, but in ways that enrich and fulfill.

It was a week of sacred encounters: time with a spiritual directee who is blossoming into a different stage in her life, a lively and engaging conversation about community during a 3rd Chapter event at church, a session on re-examining our own stories with the contemplative writing group I facilitate, and a reinforcing time of connection with friends who live at a distance.

It was a week of spaciousness: A full day to write, to prepare sessions I lead, and other times to read.

It was a week of the ordinary: Kitchen time, making applesauce and a big pot of soup for more than one meal. Paying bills and running errands. Returning library books and picking up others waiting for me. Dusting and vacuuming and doing a slight bit of rearranging along the way.

It was a week of paying attention: The golden light of autumn filtered through the falling leaves. The temperatures required a sweater or a shawl and socks. The neighborhood erupted with pumpkins on steps and black cats and dragons and witches on front yards.

It was a week of feeling blessed.

It was also a week of wondering how I dared to move through my days so effortlessly. How dare you, I asked myself, have such an easy life when there is so much strife and fear and injustice and uncertainty in this world?

That’s why it also needed to be a week of praying.

As I often do when world events are overwhelming, I turned to two books of prayers, Illuminata, A Return to Prayer by Marianne Williamson and Life Prayers From Around the World, 365 Prayers, Blessings, and Affirmations to Celebrate the Human Journey, edited by Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon. Both books open automatically to prayers I have read so often, too often.

from Illuminata

Dear God,
There is so much danger in the world today.
There is so much insanity, so much darkness and fear...
Dear God,
Please send a miracle.
Into every country and every home, into every mind and every heart, may the power of Your spirit now trigger the light, activate our holiness remind us of the truth within. 
May a great love now encompass us, a deep peace give us solace.
For Lord we live in fearful times, and we long for a new world....
May the world be reborn.
Help us forgive and leave the past behind us, the future to be directed by You...
Amen.

from Life Prayers, a prayer from The Terra Collective

May our eyes remain open even in the face of tragedy.
May we not become disheartened. ...
May we discover the gift of the fire burning
     in the inner chamber of our being--
     burning green and bright enough
     to transform any poison.
May we offer the power of our sorrow to the service
     of something greater than ourselves.
May our guilt not rise up to form
     yet another defensive wall.
May the suffering purify and not paralyze us.
May we endure; may sorrow bond us and not separate us.
May we realize the greatness of our sorrow
     and not run from its touch or its flame.
May clarity be our ally and wisdom our support....
May we be forgiven for what we have forgotten
     and blessed with the remembrance
     of who we really are.

This week is busy, too. Appointments with directees and one with my own spiritual director. Time with both writing groups–the one I lead and the one in which I am a participant, receiving and offering support. A haircut and also flu and booster shots are on the schedule. And there will be some time to read and to do the ordinary stuff of life.

And time to pray.

An Invitation

What prayers are on your lips? I would love to know.

A Week in Review

/ nagneberg48 / 4 Comments

May 23, 2023

Have you noticed how some weeks just glow? The days flow with a kind of ease. Perhaps there are more than your usual share of special moments or perhaps the ordinary becomes extraordinary. This past week was one of those weeks, beginning with Mother’s Day and rich family time and ending on Saturday with a top-down drive in my husband’s Miata to a favorite nursery and an outdoor lunch in small town on the St Croix River.

In between I enjoyed productive writing time–writing my posts for the week, as well as working on an essay to submit to a publication. Oh how good it was to write in “Paris.”

I met with my spiritual director and we explored the ways I am lightening my life as I age, including a shorter haircut –silly or trivial as that may sound. I met with spiritual direction clients and the writing group I facilitate. The moments of silence, of sitting with one another open my heart and clear the space for what most needs tending. Such a privilege those times are.

The grandkids delivered homemade cookies one evening (delicious) and another evening we had dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Sea Salt overlooking Minnehaha Falls. I walked every morning and read on the patio. Finished a book and started another.

We attended a gala for Theater Latte Da, a local theater that specializes in musicals, often new and never before produced, and enjoyed time with friends but also the wonderful musical entertainment. Once I figured out what I was going to wear, all was well!

One morning I went to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA) to see an exhibit called “Eternal Offerings, Chinese Ritual Bronzes.” Yes, the objects created to honor ancestors or to communicate with the spiritual world were beautiful, but the atmosphere created —sound, murals on the walls, lighting— all added to the appreciation of the objects. I took my time moving through the rooms–allowed myself to relax into the beauty and the history, as well as the spiritual life of a culture not my own. I had not been to MIA for a long time and made a mental note to return soon.

The Foundation of Each Day

I began each day reading a meditation from You are the Beloved, Daily Meditations for Spiritual Living by Henri J. M. Nouwen, compiled and edited by Gabrielle Earnshaw. Perhaps this past week shimmered for me because each of those readings so resonated with me, beginning on Sunday, May 14 when Nouwen writes about prayer as a “careful attentiveness to the Presence of Love personified inviting us to an encounter.”

I felt as if I encountered God each day, wherever I was, whatever I was doing, and whomever I was with.

Contemplative prayer can be described as an imagining of God’s Son, Jesus, letting him enter fully into our consciousness so that he becomes the icon always present in the inner room of our heart.

May 15

…many words from the Scriptures can reshape the inner self. When I take the words that strike me during a service into the day and slowly repeat them while reading or working, more or less chewing on them, they create new life.

May 16

But when we believe that we are created in the image of God himself and come to realize that Christ came to let us reimagine this, then meditation and prayer can lead us to our true identity.

May 17

Listen to your heart…Praying is first and foremost listening to Jesus who dwells in the very depths of your heart.

May 18

Prayer allows us to lead into the center of our hearts not only those who love us but also those who hate us. This is possible only when we are willing to make our enemies part of ourselves and thus convert them first of all in our own hearts.

May 19

Just because prayer is the most precious expression of being human, it needs the constant support and protection of the community to grow and flower.

May 20

Here it is day three of the current week, and my days continue to flow, to glow, to shimmer, to open me to the movement and presence of God. Ah, how grateful I am.

An Invitation

What do you notice as you review your days? I would love to know.

How to Mourn?

/ nagneberg48 / 8 Comments

May 31, 2022

Part One

I tried to write in my journal, but nothing.

I have grieved the loss of parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles.

I have grieved the loss of friends who died far too young and hospice patients with whom I sat at the end of their lives.

I have grieved the impending loss of others who are facing serious health concerns.

I have grieved the loss of so many in our country killed unjustly. Murdered.

I have grieved roads not taken.

I have grieved unwelcome changes.

Grief is not an unknown in my life, and I know it is not unfamiliar to you, either.

But this…

Years ago in a class on spiritual practices I taught, the participants made their own string of prayer beads. I have used mine occasionally since then, but not regularly. Now seemed like the right time.

Sitting in silence, I fingered the beads; each one a symbol for one of the children slaughtered and their beloved teachers. My string of beads were not long enough and I returned to the beginning again and again, holding the loss of all those who loved them. I wish I could say I felt calmer as my fingers moved from bead to bead, but that was not the case. Instead, I felt the pain more deeply.

I think I am to feel that pain sear through my body, for only then can change begin to take shape.

I don’t know what kind of action that means for me, other than making donations to worthwhile organizations, but in the meantime I sit with the beads; the beads that leave an impression on my fingertips.

Part Two

I gave the weekly writing group I facilitate at church the following prompt:

Write what is on your heart. Write your tears, your rage, your fears. Write what is at the bottom of your heart, and write what is touching your heart. Write your prayers. Write your lament. Write as a mother. Write.

During the sharing/listening time, one of the participants, who gave me permission to share the following, said her adult daughter had asked her, “What did you worry about when we were growing up?” She admitted she had to think about her answer. She thought she had probably worried about her children getting good grades and using good manners and living with a love of God and family.

I am not a huge worrier, but I suspect I worried about our children doing well in school and having good friends and making good decisions about difficult choices.

Not once did I worry about our children being murdered at school. That never occurred to me.

Part Three

Does anyone else see the irony, the inconsistency with the NRA forbidding the presence of weapons at their convention in Texas this past weekend, but at the same time they think providing teachers with weapons in the classroom is the answer?

Part Four

Pray AND…

You decide what that means; what action you can perform. Begin with prayer and then…

An Invitation

So many wise and important words and reflections have been offered in recent days, and I am grateful for how they have helped me sit with what we have created and allowed to happen in this country. I wonder what has been meaningful to you these past days and now where the wisdom gained will lead you. I would love to know.

Prayers Around the Cross

/ nagneberg48 / Leave a comment

On Wednesday evenings during Lent our congregation extends an invitation to gather at the cross, to pray and light candles. Solemn, quiet moments. Moments when I not only hear my own heartbeat, but the yearning heartbeats of all those around me.

Each of us brings our own cares and concerns. Each of us brings hopes for safety and peace and life and love. We light a candle and lift the distress we feel.

And then we go home. Some of us may feel lighter. Some of us may experience clarity. Some of us may continue to feel the burdens we brought with us, but are at least grateful for the silence and beauty of those moments.

Feeling the warmth of the gathering, some of us feel even more grateful for the warmth of the homes to which we return.

A writer friend recently wrote these words in a new poem, “Doing Something,” about the war in Ukraine:

              I lit a candle
              I scrubbed the kitchen floor
              I scoured the bathtub
              I carried out the garbage
              I wiped out the refrigerator.
                                                                   
              Not because I loved the doing.
              I still have my home.
              I can do the ordinary. 
                                   Linda Schaeffer


"I can do the ordinary."

As I age, I am learning not only to appreciate the ability to do the ordinary stuff of life, but I am learning to do those tasks, those day-to-day routines, with prayerful intention. As I carry bags of groceries from the car to the house, I can carry prayers for all those who wonder where they will get their next meal. As I place clean clothes in my dresser drawers, I can pray that all those who have left all their belongings behind will be offered what they most need. As I retrieve the daily mail, I can send into the world prayers for protection and well-being. 

I know "ordinary" isn't enough, but I also know that extraordinary responses and efforts and solutions and changes are built on the ordinary. My prayerful ordinary moments along with your prayerful ordinary moments create room for the extraordinary to grow and thrive and make a difference. 

I believe that with all my heart. 

Wednesday evening I will return to the cross. Once again I will lift the yearnings of my heart and light a candle, but in the meantime, I will move through my ordinary days, praying for the extraordinary.

An Invitation:

What are your prayers as you move through the ordinary moments of your days? I would love to know.

Note:

You may find this link interesting–the poet Matthew Guite reflects on what C.S. Lewis has to say about living in the midst of war. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngGozM0ZMG8