Meditation

There is competition for our focus. Much of the noise in the city demands our attention, and it is seldom easier within ourselves. We have had to develop the ability to prioritize and juggle many things. Meditation invites us into a time when we reclaim our focus and attention. Here, we choose what we seek. In the midst of all the demands made of us, in meditation we declare what it is that we long for. We focus on what is most important to us when we meditate.

Most simply, meditation prayerfully brings your body, mind, and spirit into focus on or towards something specific.

Whenever we set time aside to meditate, we proclaim the importance of what we will focus on. Many of our prayer practices include elements of meditation. We do this when we dwell deeply on scripture, a part of God’s character, or search within ourselves. There is intentionality to meditation as we do this together with the Holy Spirit. We have chosen where we will place our focus. As we begin thinking about our chosen focus, we have begun to meditate. Soon enough, our focus wanders, and we need to lovingly and gently return our focus. Invite the Holy Spirit to help prompt you when your focus wanders. Mediation involves a dance between restfully focusing and actively returning our focus. In all things and in all moments, our God is with us.

In meditation, you will notice that your focus has drifted. It is a personal journey to discover the ways you help your focus return. You may need to acknowledge what took your attention and then choose to set that down. Be kind and gracious with yourself. Our lives are full, and there is much to do. Giving ourselves to this kind of focused attention is foreign to the other things we ask ourselves to do. Our whole selves have been trained to respond to this restful focus by moving on to the next thing to do. Yet, this is time that you have devoted to prayerfully allowing your focus to rest on this. Think of your intentional focus again. It is common to need to feel like you are starting over because your body has begun to move on. Meditation is a discipline because it takes practice and it transforms us.

As you spend more time meditating, your body will begin to understand what you are doing. It will slowly become easier to let your focus rest where you have placed it. The work of meditating is changing you. It is giving you another way of being in our world and of being with yourself.

Meditation helps us grow in other ways too. As we memorize scripture, prayers, and liturgies to meditate on, they slowly become a part of us. With time, the things that we choose to focus on mold and shape our hearts. The very same hearts that Jesus tells us ‘out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.’ It is all too easy to allow ourselves to be trapped by anger, fear, and hatred. The scriptures tell us that the heart of our God is love, and that the sacred heart of Jesus abounds in mercy and grace. If our desire is to be like Christ, then let us choose to meditate on who Jesus is. Let us invite God to help us become more like Himself.

Our God is with us in all things. Whenever you give yourself time for meditative prayer, invite our God to be present. You can always ask the Holy Spirit to assist you and to be your guide. God longs to be with you.