Crucifixion – Rouault

Here’s a meditation we did last year in a worship gathering. It seemed like the approach to Good Friday and Easter is the right time to post it. One of the most important things to do when contemplating is to leave time for it. I’ll let the ambiguity of that phrase stand. Be still. Don’t rush on to the next thing. Ask God to help you be present to Him as completely as you can, rather than dividing your time and attention. Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart. In fact, approaching this meditation from the context of Colossians 3:15-17 is the way to go:

Let the peace of Christ be in control in your heart (for you were in fact called as one body to this peace), and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and exhorting one another with all wisdom, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, all with grace in your hearts to God. And whatever you do in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Music

Meditation

Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.

My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart
you, God, will not despise.
-Psalm 51:1,17

[quiet contemplation]

Prayer

If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you
there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared. I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen
wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. Almighty
God, our Redeemer, in our weakness we have failed to be your messengers of
forgiveness and hope. Renew us by your Holy Spirit, that we may follow your
commands and proclaim your reign of love, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who
lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

[Journey to the Cross, p.64]

Our creative team is always looking for ways to engage people in worship differently. Here is a multi-sensory meditation from Sunday’s worship gathering. As we explained Sunday, it’s great to be able to participate in spiritual practices together as a church body at our “family feast”, but also the goal is to learn to practice them at home as individuals, continuing to “feast on the abundance of [God's] house” throughout the week (Ps 36:8). “Late Have I Loved You” is from Gungor’s Beautiful Things.

First, wait a minute in silence before God, and then briefly express praise and thanks to Him.

Meditate on the beginning of this reading in silence, and then press play and meditate on the rest of the reading and the image as you listen. Take your time.

The Conversion of Saint Paul

“O eternal Truth, true Love, and beloved Eternity, you are my God, and for you I sigh day and night….

“I looked for a way to gain the strength I needed to enjoy you, but I did not find it until I embraced the mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who is also God, supreme over all things and blessed for ever….

“Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you…. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace.“

-The Confessions of Saint Augustine

Going further: Read and meditate on the account of Saint Paul’s conversion in Acts 9