In coming together we form the converging tributaries that make up the mighty stream of people flowing home to God.

- Diana Hayes

Guided Meditative Prayer

Audio Recordings

This is a community service offering at Snoqualmie Valley Alliance (SVA) church in Fall City, Washington and it is available to anyone world-wide to participate, regardless of religion. If you are seeking love, unity, and connection to the Divine, please join us online. If you would like to receive the Zoom link to participate, email reminders, and schedule changes, become a member of the practice through SVA by clicking below.

Join Through SVA

If this is your first time, please read about the Guided Meditative Prayer practice: the description, guidelines, how to cultivate a contemplative attitude, and the 2022-2023 schedule below:

Description

We are born immersed in unity with Holy Spirit, innocent and only are the present moment. As we develop, we learn quickly to see distinctions and divisions in who we are in contrast, comparison, and competition to the people around us. We learn to see the world through differentiation and negation, who we are not. In part, we learn to forsake our bodies (emotions and physical sensations) for efficiency and success. This mind-body split is the veil that separates us from our True Self in God.

Guided Meditative Prayer is a spiritual practice to experience the stillness at the center of our being, our True Self in God who just is and is content as Christ’s beloved. As you meditate on God-inspired words, you will be guided to pause and listen to your body-mind-spirit. Our body, in contrast to the egoic mind, is the pathway into the most complex, refined, and harmonious totality of Life, the mystery of God.

Our body, in essence, is a crowd of different members who have opposing worries, fears, longings, and heartaches. Our Savior is within. When we empathically listen to our inner world, we invite God to be with us as vital information is revealed. In finding peace and harmony within, we become a child of God and find our true contentment in who we are, beloved in an intimate, palpable way.

Come as you are with an open mind and heart.

Guidelines

  • We only share what we want about the content of our experiences.
  • We do not comment on the content of other’s experiences.
  • What we share here is confidential.
  • We have mutual respect for our and other’s boundaries.
  • We take care of ourselves and ask for help.

Cultivating a Contemplative Attitude

Very simply, you will be invited to be present, disengaging from the busy mind to just be, attentive to your body, heart, and mind. When you are present to your inner world, you are like an observer, noticing what is there and allowing whatever is there to be as it is – not changing it, challenging it, and judging it but letting it be exactly how it is. You are listening, noticing, and acknowledging how your body, heart, and mind are responding. Try to soften your eyes, your gaze, and turn towards it quietly with an attitude of openness, curiosity, empathy, and compassion. YOU are present with something that is there within. You are forming a relationship with something, befriending it, sitting with it, and attending to whatever is there. It could be a thought, a feeling, an emotion, a physical sensation, a visual image, a memory, a metaphor, a song, a phrase… As you are sitting with it, you are waiting to see what evolves and unfolds, what does it want to tell you or show you?

Schedule

Weekly, Thursdays September 8, 2022 - June 15, 2023
8:30 - 9:15am PST

Audio Recordings

2021-2022 Audio Recordings of Guided Meditative Prayer

  • Sophia’s Love Song:
    Inspired by Sara Bareilles’ song Orpheus

  • How Great Your Faithfulness:
    A Reflection of Henri Nouwen’s quote from his book Burning Hearts: A Meditation on the Eucharistic Life (1994), Eugene Peterson (2012), The Message, Lamentations 3:22-24 and his commentary, p. 1261

  • Our Unique Divine DNA:
    A Reflection of Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation, Trusting our Essential Self, Sunday, February 27, 2022, and Ephesians 1:4-5 (MSG)

  • Sustained Mutual Presence:
    The Insights of Tilden Edwards from Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation, Prayer of Mutual Presence, Tuesday, February 15, 2022 and Ephesians 3:18-19 (MSG)

  • The Unforced Rhythms of Grace:
    The Insights of Wayne Muller from his book, How, Then, Shall We Live?, (pp. 182-183) and Matthew 11: 28-29 (MSG)

  • Effortlessly:
    A Poem by Mechthild of Magdeburg, a Christian Mystic, 1207-1282

  • The Power of Faith:
    A Musing by Leslie Savage on Genesis 1:1-2 (MSG)

  • Armored in Love:
    A Felt Experience by Leslie Savage, including Isaiah 43:2-3 (MSG) and Psalms 139:11-12 (NRSV)

  • The Light and Our Shadow:
    A Reflection of The Inner World by Carl Jung, Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation, The Shadow Work in the Gospels, Wednesday, November 24, 2021, and Isaiah 43:2-3 (MSG)

  • The Inner World:
    A Poem by Carl Jung and a reflection of Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation, The God Archetype, Monday, November 22, 2021