The Center for contemplative practice
A Lay Cistercian Looks at Spiritual Reality
WHAT DO YOU SEE?
What we see we do not see. What we hear we do not hear. Read Mark 8:17-19 New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)
“And becoming aware of it, Jesus said to them, “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18 Do you have eyes, and fail to see? Do you have ears, and fail to hear? And do you not remember?”
- With hardened hearts, we cannot approach Christ because we lack humility and obedience to the openness of God’s will.
- We use our physical eyes, our mind can translate these visual cues into meaning for us, but we cannot make the jump to what is spiritual or mystical because our hearts are hard.
- As a Lay Cistercian, one of the precious moments is when my heart waits to be near to the Heart of Christ, whenever and wherever that may be.
- I can’t be open to this possibility if my heart of hardened.
- I cannot see, if my heart is incapable of recognizing The Master, or the Master’s authorized representatives.
- I cannot contemplate what is nor move t what could be without faith. Faith is the energy of God, something we need daily in our lives, something God gives us unconditioinally each time we move closer to His Heart.
EXERCISE TO MOVE CLOSER TO THE HEART OF CHRIST
STEP ONE;
- Seek a place of silence and solitude where you can meet Christ for the next twenty minutes.
- Look at the picture of the cup for five minutes. Don’t turn away from it. Ask yourself what you see. Ask it over and over, like you do with Lectio in the Lectio Divina. Five minutes. Write only what you see.
- Write down ten words that came to you during this prayer that you associate with this cup. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
STEP TWO:
- Seek a place of silence and solitude where you can meet Christ for the next twenty minutes.
- Look at the picture of the cup for TEN minutes. Don’t turn away from it. Think of yourself as the cup. It is your life. What is in the cup? The surroundings are your life. Now, ask yourself what you see. Ask it over and over, like you do with Lectio in the Lectio Divina. TEN minutes. Write only what you feel in your heart about your life.
- Write down your feelings about you as the cup.
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STEP THREE:
- Seek a place of silence and solitude where you can meet Christ for the next twenty minutes.
- Look at the picture of the cup for FIFTEEN minutes. Don’t turn away from it. Think of yourself as the cup. It is your life. What is in the cup? The surroundings are your life. Now, ask yourself what you see. Where is Christ? Ask it over and over, like you do with Lectio in the Lectio Divina. FIFTEEN minutes. Write only what you feel in your heart about your being next to the Heart of Christ.
- Write down your feelings about who you are with Christ in your cup?
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Praise be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and forever. The God who is, who was, and who is to come at the end of the ages. Amen and Amen. — Cistercian doxology.
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