Dear Friends,

 We pray you are safe and well.

Today's Meditation is a continuation of the talk about the Earth as our Spiritual Director. What is the Earth teaching you? How is the Earth guiding you? Christine Valters Paintner tells a wonderful wisdom story of learning how to pray from the earth.

 We invite you to join us as we commit ourselves to working tirelessly to end systemic and structural racism in our society, in healthcare, in the workplace, in the Church--wherever it shows up so that everyone may come to have more abundant life. May this meditation nourish our contemplative-active hearts and sustain all of us in action.

In the spirit of our philosophy of co-creating community and our awareness that the Spirit speaks through each of us, we invite you to share your meditations with us as well. We truly believe that in God’s economy of abundance, when we share our blessings, our thoughts, our feelings, we are all made richer.

We hope and pray that you and your loved ones experience genuine peace of mind and heart, and remain in good health during this challenging time.

In this time of Lenten Pilgrimage may you find peace, healing, hope, and the infusion of joy in your life!

With our love and care,

Ron & Jean

Meditation 289: The Earth teaches us how to pray (Christine Valters Paintner)

"In the opening pages of Being Still: Reflections on an Ancient Mystical Tradition, Orthodox theologian Jean-Yves Leloup tells the story of a young philosopher who comes to Father Seraphim, a wise guide, to learn about the prayer of the heart. Father Seraphim says that before he teaches him this way of prayer, he must learn to meditate like a mountain. He is sent off to learn stability of posture and grounding from the mountain, the weight of presence, and the experience of calmness and stability. He enters into the timeless time of mountains and experiences eternity with and around him while also learning the grace of the seasons.

Next Father Seraphim sent him to learn how to mediate like a poppy flower taking his mountain wisdom with him. From the poppy, he learns to turn himself toward the light and to orient his meditation practice from his inner depths toward radiance. The poppy also teaches him both uprightness and the ability to bend with the wind.

While the mountain taught him about the eternal, the poppy teaches him about the finitude of our days as the blossom began to wither. He learns that meditation means experiencing the eternal in each fleeting moment.

He is then sent to the ocean to learn the wisdom of ebbing and flowing. He learns to synchronize his breath with the "great breathing rhythm of the waves," as he floats on the sea, he discovers the great calmness of the sea below its undulating surface; he also learns to hold awareness of his own distinct self without being carried away by the rhythm of breathing.

Father Seraphim finally directs him to learn to pray like a bird, saying that in the Hebrew Scriptures, the Prophet Isaiah (31:4, 38:14) describes meditation as the cry of an animal like a roaring lion or the song of a dove. The bird teaches him how to sing continuously, repeating the name of God in his heart without ceasing. The invocation of the divine name leads him to a deep place of stillness.

Earth and its creatures teach us how to pray, how to worship and praise. Mountain and flower, ocean and bird are the original spiritual directors and guides...the primal source of wisdom."