Fr Philip Carter offers a ministry of spirituality, with a series of meditations on some questions that we may ponder as we consider our life in God.
You will find here his reflections and questions for meditation, images, music and poetry to enrich your life’s journey.
…what we’re seeking is an experience of being fully alive.
Joseph Campbell
Can I notice any difference between living out of the deep purposive movement of my soul and living out of my shallower, surface desires?
The saint is the person who has discovered his/her deepest desire. They then “do their own thing” which is also God’s thing. Their will and God’s will are in harmony, so that their lives an characterized by a continuous peace, tranquility, freedom and joy, even – perhaps especially – in crisis and suffering.
Gerard Hughes
Prayer is the place where we sort out our desires and where we are ourselves sorted out by the desires we choose to follow.
Ann and Barry Ulanov
Write your own obituary notice.
Do not write the obituary which you are afraid you might have,
but the kind of obituary which, in your wildest dreams, you would love to have.
Do not analyze it, or try to think it out too clearly,
but allow your fancy to run free.
Draw two columns on a piece of paper,
one headed ‘Events which bring me to life’ and the second ‘Events which deaden me’.
Become aware of those things in your life which are destructive;
which lead nowhere,
which are negative and deadening – which block, inhibit, rob or starve you of life.
These movements are often characterized by tear or anxiety.
Now listen for another movement within – often unnoticed,
drowned out by stronger, more insistent negative voices.
This is the movement towards life
and if given room is full of life and promise and hope and energy and purpose.
I ask Jesus our Lord that I might not be deaf to his call in my life and that I might be ready and willing to do what he wants.
Ignatius of Loyola
Discernment is at the heart of Christian discipleship. It is the practical and practiced way of living as congruently as possible in the way of Jesus. It is learning to respond in love to God, to others and to our world, and to our circumstances. It is about discovering who I really am, and what I really want.
The images in this post are by Greg Cibiel, a French land artist who creates new sculptures each day on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice. He says of his art
C’est à l’instant précis où je lâche la pierre que je sens la gravité ou le vent. Moi je suis accros au moment, plus qu’à la création en elle-même. Dès que je termine une création, je pense déjà à la prochaine. Je fais un peu comme un enfant qui s’invente un monde.
It is at the precise moment that I let go of the stone that I feel gravity or the wind. I am caught in the moment, more than by the creation itself. As soon as I finish a creation, I am already thinking about the next one. I act a bit like a child who invents a world for himself. Source franceinfo
For a printable PDF of the text of this meditation please click on the link below.
