October 2024: Ambient Prayer
A low-key service with space to think, ponder and pray. There will be images, music and occasional guiding thoughts. Join us for space to think.
For a general explanation and setup see Ambient prayer 1.
Afterparty playlist here on Apple Music
Welcome
This is the 4th of our ambient prayer services – meant to be a lightweight service giving each of us space to think, contemplate and pray.
Tonight’s meditation was initially inspired by a recent holiday in Greece where we found ourselves walking through a parched and dry land – the hills were mainly rocky and most of the vegetation was crisp and burnt up. But as autumn comes in some plants begin to revive – particularly the sea squills, their bulbs resting on the rocky ground find the energy and resources to throw out their tall flowery stems. Perhaps the world always feel likes a hard place but in recent years I have frequently felt a panic that we are descending into chaos and a world I don’t feel I want to live in. Contemplating the desert seems to have something to say about where we find the strength to go on in times of bleakness.
Settle
Light candle in the centre and place a plant bulb next to it.
Opening prayer
Here in the dark do not speak.
Only listen, hold your peace
And wait for the wordless gift:
The lifting of the lark’s voice,
Choice and sweet, repeating its high note of love,
Speaking your name,
Calling you over and over again.
Do not speak
Let the visiting bird, silence, do her work:
Sift your heart,
Heal what is broken,
Sundered apart,
Restore what is plundered
Repair the rift,
Knit to one piece the unravelled mind,
Scattered and split.
Wait for the gift,
The lifting of the warm
Beating wings,
The sudden shelter
Under the brooding breast,
You must enter
Here in the dark
Where the heart sings.
Do not speak.
(Nicola Slee, Dark, Malling Abbey Church)
Holy god, open our hearts to your silent presence.
Collect
Though our world seems turbulent or empty, help us to trust
Though our lives are hectic or boring, help us to trust
Though our minds are swirling or silent, help us to trust
Amen
Descent
Make sure you are sitting comfortably. Put your feet on the ground - feel it supporting you. Hold your head up and feel the seat supporting you. Find a comfortable position for your hands – in your lap or arms crossed. Relax.
Notice anywhere in your body which is feeling tense or uncomfortable and try and relax it.
Close your eyes or focus on the candle
Become aware of your breathing, breathe normally. Notice the air moving in and out of your lungs and how your body responds.
Rest quietly in your breathing, aware of how alive your body is in the stillness.
Keep focussing on your breath.
Collect
Though our world seems turbulent or empty, help us to trust
Though our lives are hectic or boring, help us to trust
Though our minds are swirling or silent, help us to trust
Amen
Meditation
What does the word desert conjure up in your mind? Empty, barren, quiet, big. Where do you turn to in a desert.
Imagine you are somewhere that you consider to be a desert – imagine the sky, the ground.
As you open your eyes what can you see?
What are the noises in your ears?
How does the ground feel beneath your feet?
Can you feel the air around you?
What are the scents and smells of the day?
Are your alone or with others?
Are your frightened or content?
There is space here to simply wait and be. There is nothing to do
What are you waiting for?
What do you need to begin to flower in your desert?
What does the world need for repair and regeneration?
At your feet is a bub – brown and papery dry
Watch as it begins to sprout, the stem emerges and grows tall,
Tiny buds appear on the stem and open, many white star shaped flowers on each plant - creating a pyramid of flowers.
Consider about their beauty as they spread across the hillside.
The flowers wither and fall. Green leaves begin to appear out of the bulb – till they make the hillside green.
But then you see the leaves turning brown. Becoming dry and papery.
And at your feet is a bulb, dry and brown.
What might your flowering look like? What do you need to be completely yourself?
Wilderness and desert will sing joyously, the badlands will celebrate and flower
Like the crocus in spring, bursting into blossom, a symphony of song and colour.
Mountain glories of Lebanon — a gift.
Awesome Carmel, stunning Sharon—gifts.
God’s resplendent glory, fully on display.
God awesome, God majestic.
Energize the limp hands, strengthen the feeble knees.
Tell fearful souls, “Courage! Take heart!
God is here, right here, on his way to put things right
And redress all wrongs.
Isaiah 35 1-4 (The Message)
Collect
Though our world seems turbulent or empty, help us to trust
Though our lives are hectic or boring, help us to trust
Though our minds are swirling or silent, help us to trust
Amen
Silence
10 minutes
Bell to end silence
Collect
Though our world seems turbulent or empty, help us to trust
Though our lives are hectic or boring, help us to trust
Though our minds are swirling or silent, help us to trust
Amen
Ascent
Music
Pray together:
Holy god
As we leave this space, let us take some of the stillness with us.
As we leave this space, help us to look for signs of life in the wilderness.
As we leave this space, help us to live with the hope that one day the desert will bloom.
And as we leave this space, may we take the love of Christ into a parched and thirsty land.
Amen