Selected Passages For Meditation

There is interest in our adult faith class to learn meditation, and hesitation or real difficulties in learning to contemplate in silence without words. So I will select some passages from our Scriptures and other spiritual texts to assist you in learning to meditate actively.  Here is how to use these passages: choose one passage for a given session.  Read it over several times, until it is clearly in your mind. Then turn off the light, ask God to assist you, and think about the passage. The goal is to listen to what God might be saying to you in and through these words, stories, images. A session could last about 10-15 minutes initially, about 30 minutes as you get more skilled and comfortable with it. This exercise is intended as “training wheels” towards silent contemplation. You already pray in words. This exercise uses your mind both to think about what the words mean, and to listen for what God may be telling you. Towards the end of the session, you may usefully distill your thoughts in a single, crisp sentence, pulling the session together.  Give thanks to God for assistance. I recommend that you keep still, upright, alert throughout this meditation, to serve the better for concentration, and to move you towards the silence of God. Here are a few passages with which you may begin. Or, you could select your own from the bible or other spiritual texts.

(1). “Philip said to Jesus, `Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.’  Jesus said to him, `Have I been with you all of this time, Philip, and you still do not know me?  Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.  So how can you say, `Show us the Father?’ Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?”  (John 14:8-10a)

(2).  “Be still, and know that I am God:  I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted on the earth.”  (Psalm 46)

(3).  “O God, you are my God, I seek you.  My soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land without water.”  (Psalm 63)

(4).  “Jesus asked his disciples, `Who do you say that I am?’  Peter answered him, `You are the Christ.’  And Jesus charged them to tell no one about him.” (Mark 8:29-30)

(5).  “Jesus said, `For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.’ Some of the Pharisees near him heard this, and they said to Jesus, `Are we also blind?’  Jesus said to them, `If you were blind, you would have not guilt; but now that you say, `We see,’ your guilt remains.” (John 9:39-41)

(6). “This is the judgment:  that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.  For every one who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light lest his deeds should be exposed.  But he who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God.” (John 3:19-21)

 (7). “Jesus said to Simon, `Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a catch….’ When Simon Peter saw the great catch of fish, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, `Depart from me, O LORD, for I am a sinful man.’” (Luke 5:1-8, passim)

(8). “Jesus said to Mary Magdalene, `Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, `My lord, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ Jesus said to her, `Mary. She turned around and said to him in Hebrew, `Rabboni!’ (which means, Teacher)…” (John 20:11-18, passim)

(9). “Jesus stopped, and commanded that the blind man be brought to him; and when he came near, Jesus asked him, `What do you want me to do for you?’ He said, `Lord, let me receive my sight.’  Jesus said to him, `Receive your sight; your faith has made you well.’ And immediately the man received his sight and followed Jesus, glorifying God; and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.” (Luke 18:35-43, passim)

(10). “Be still before the Lord and wait in patience; do not fret at one who prospers.” (Psalm 37:7) 

(11). “ The thirst [craving] of a heedless person grows like a wild vine; he runs from life to life, like a monkey seeking fruit in the forest.”  (Dhammapada #334)

(12).  “Through meditation wisdom is won; through lack of meditation wisdom is lost.  Let a man who knows this double the path of gain and loss so conduct himself that wisdom may grow.” (Dhammapada #282)

(13). “Come now, friend, turn aside for a while from your daily employment, escape for a moment from the tumult of your thoughts.  Put aside your weighty cares, let our burdensome distractions wait; free yourself awhile for God, and rest awhile in him.  Enter the inner chamber of your soul, shut out everything except God, and that which can help you in seeking him, and when you have shut the door, seek him.”  (Proslogion of St. Anselm, chap 1)

(14).”O Lord my God, teach my heart where and how to seek you, where and how to find you. Lord, if you are here but absent, where shall I seek you?  But you are everywhere, so you must be here; why then do I not see you?  Surely you dwell in light inaccessible—where is it?  and how can I have access to light which is inaccessible?” (Proslogion, chapter 1)

(15). “Lord, you are not only that than which nothing greater can be thought; you are also greater than can be thought.”  (Proslogion, chap 15)

(16). “Everywhere you are entirely present, yet I cannot see you.  In you I move and have my being, and I cannot come to you.  You are within me and around me, and I have no experience of you.”  (Proslogion, chap 16)