Fruit Of The Spirit Centering Prayer

This meditation centers on the Fruit of the Spirit, found in Galatians 5:22-23 in the Bible. Through my deconstruction from an evangelical Christian upbringing, this passage has helped me discern my own spiritual growth. Use this meditation to help bring you deeply into this present moment and cultivate more of the presence of God. A longer version with bonus materials will be available on my website soon.

Transcript

Welcome.

Today I'll lead you through a few different exercises.

First,

I'll lead you through a breathing exercise that is designed to help you be more present during your meditation.

Then we'll turn our attention to the fruit of the Spirit,

Which is found in the book of Galatians in the Bible.

The fruit of the Spirit is love,

Joy,

Peace,

Patience,

Kindness,

Goodness,

Faithfulness,

Gentleness,

And self-control.

This passage of Scripture has been familiar to me since my childhood,

And in recent years has become even more precious as I look for ways to define how God's presence has shaped me and the difference that following Christ has made in my life.

When we're led by the Spirit of God,

The Spirit of God grows these qualities in our lives,

And I hope that when I look back on my life,

I can see my growth in how I exhibited these qualities.

In the faith tradition that I was raised,

There was an emphasis on right belief in a certain way of viewing the Bible,

And a rigid definition of morality that is based on that reading of the Bible.

It felt like you had to believe a certain way in order to belong,

And then there was only really one quote,

Right way to act and be in alignment with God.

However,

Over the past at least five years,

We've seen so much fallout of these so-called Christian leaders who have actually been terribly abusive behind the scenes.

As I've tried to grapple with the reality that many of the people I was supposed to look up to bear really rotten fruit,

It's helped me to recenter back on this passage as a measure of what it means to be led by God,

And how can we know that we are in relationship with God.

Instead of having to profess certain theological tenets to prove my spiritual worthiness,

Or my belonging with God,

Or my relationship with the divine,

I instead can look at the fruit of the Spirit in my life,

Both the qualities that I was born with that are inherent to me and come naturally,

And the qualities that I am actively trying to cultivate in my life,

And that I'm asking God to help me grow in.

Before we begin,

I would like to acknowledge that the style of meditation that I practice is kind of this mix of Christian contemplative practice and kind of classic mindfulness that comes from East and Southeast Asia,

And I want to express my gratitude for those who cultivated that knowledge and the practices that have now become so much more mainstream and available for us to incorporate into our spiritual practices.

So let's start with our breathing exercise.

Find yourself in a comfortable seated position,

Closing your eyes if that's comfortable for you,

And starting to scan your body,

Noticing what you find.

Make any adjustments in your seated or laying position that will allow you to be more comfortable.

The goal is to find ease in your body so that you can start to withdraw your awareness from your physical body.

Now I invite you to scan your thoughts.

What are you bringing in with you today?

Maybe you've had a hard day or maybe it's been a really great day.

Maybe you just woke up and you're coming in with all these things on your mind that you need to accomplish for today.

Can you start to let those things go and just focus on your breathing?

You don't need to change your breath in any way,

But simply just notice it.

Allow yourself also to notice any distractions of outside noise.

Maybe there's a fan going or a ticking clock.

Maybe you hear cars driving by or people inside or outside of your house.

Notice those things and allow yourself to acknowledge that you hear them.

And then it will become easier to let those things go and drift into the background.

The more that you fight your brain on noticing,

The more it will want to.

It's kind of like that old thing of if they say don't think of Abraham Lincoln naked,

You're definitely going to think of Abraham Lincoln naked.

So don't fight that process.

Know that throughout your meditation practice random thoughts will enter.

Our minds were made to process information and that's a really good thing.

The goal can't be that we're going to shut down our thinking processes,

But what our goal is is to notice when we're having thoughts and then let them go.

Just notice when we start to get distracted or when we're thinking about something else and then come back to the breath.

If you would like,

You can try this simple centering exercise with the goal just being to ground you into this moment to help you let go of your physical body,

The noises that are outside of you,

And the noise of your own thoughts.

So take a deep breath and on your next inhale fully focus on and experience that inhale.

When you've reached the top of the inhale,

You label it silently,

Inhale.

Then you let yourself fully experience the sensation of your exhale and at the bottom of your exhale label it exhale.

The temptation will be to name your inhales and exhales all the way up and all the way down.

So with this you're trying to wait.

Let yourself just experience the inhale and then once you have completed the inhale then label it.

And then the same thing with the exhale.

So go ahead and take a few minutes to try this exercise on your own.

Start to bring your awareness back to the sound of my voice.

We will start with a simple exercise to help us focus on the fruit of the spirit.

So with this first exercise I'm going to instruct you through inhales and exhales.

And what we'll do first is inhale each fruit of the spirit and then exhale out the opposite of each.

Let's begin.

Inhale love.

Exhale fear.

Inhale joy.

Exhale despair.

Inhale peace.

Exhale worry.

Inhale patience.

Exhale frustration.

Inhale kindness.

Exhale indifference.

Inhale goodness.

Exhale hypocrisy.

Inhale faithfulness.

Exhale disloyalty.

Inhale gentleness.

Exhale pride.

Inhale self-control.

Exhale impulsivity.

Next for the second exercise I'm going to read the list of the fruit of the spirit once more.

And I would love for you to choose the one that stands out to you.

Love,

Joy,

Peace,

Patience,

Kindness,

Goodness,

Faithfulness,

Gentleness,

And self-control.

Out of that list which one is calling to you?

Which one is interesting?

Maybe you have a favorite word out of that list.

Maybe there's one that you feel you're lacking.

I invite you to spend the next few minutes using that word as a centering point.

Let your mind be quiet and focus on your breath.

And anytime your mind wanders bring it back to your word.

This is a very simple version of a centering prayer.

Where the goal is again just to focus on your breath.

And of course throughout that time you will at some point notice that you have been distracted by thoughts.

Or a noise happening outside of you or an itch or pain in your body.

And that's okay you have your centering word.

And you can just repeat that internally to yourself and bring yourself back to this moment,

This breath.

If you would like you can choose a color that represents that word to you.

So for example maybe with love I would imagine a bright pink color.

And imagine that I'm surrounded by a cloud of that color.

And every time I inhale I'm bringing more of that love into myself.

So if you're a little more of like a visual person feel free to use that image.

I'll leave you here for a few minutes to focus on the word that you chose.

As the final exercise let's breathe in each fruit and breathe out the same fruit.

For me this serves as a reminder that I can take what I'm practicing during meditation and use it to better the world around me.

Again I will instruct you through the inhales and exhales and then I will ring the bell at the end.

You can choose to close your meditation at that time or if you would like to sit in silence for a little longer feel free.

Let's begin.

Inhale love.

Exhale love.

Inhale joy.

Exhale joy.

Inhale peace.

Exhale peace.

Inhale patience.

Exhale patience.

Inhale goodness.

Exhale goodness.

Inhale faithfulness.

Exhale faithfulness.

Inhale gentleness.

Exhale gentleness.

Inhale self-control.

Exhale self-control.

Reviews

Very powerful especially the exhale of the opposite of the fruits. Gives me a lot to think about. Thank you!

Ty! The fruits of the Spirit are one of my favorite daily prayers🙏🏻
We read today from the prophet Malachi that the religious leaders even thousands of years ago, can be corrupt. God is our Sovereign and only authority 🛐

Keep it up - traditional, Western religions need more integration with the rich heritage of the East. Consider spreading out the guided teachings so that everything moves slower and includes more quiet time.