Hello friends and welcome to this meditation.
And again today I'm recording in the garden.
So you may hear the sounds of nature,
You may hear a car go by,
An aeroplane overhead.
I invite you to let these sounds become part of the meditation to enrich your experience,
To welcome them as they come.
And as we begin I also want to say just a few words on language.
I'm rooted in the Christian tradition and as such I mostly use Christian language.
God,
Jesus,
Holy Spirit.
Please do exchange these words for any that resonate with you.
Divine Holy Love is universal and not confined to any particular language or tradition.
So this meditation is allowing God's unconditional love to meet us as we are in any given moment.
I wonder how many of us can really say that we know what it is to be unconditionally loved by God.
We may have a sense of it in our head or heart,
But do we know it in those deeper places within?
Do we know it in those moments when we behave in ways that we don't like?
In those places where we feel as if we've messed up for the thousandth time?
In those moments when we're angry,
Afraid and frustrated?
In those times and places when we find it difficult or even impossible to have compassion for ourselves,
Can we make ourselves vulnerable and consent to God's unconditional love for us?
When we're confronted by our weaknesses or by our own challenging behaviours,
By our propensities to selfishness,
Comparison or lashing out,
We can often want to fix ourselves,
To pray these parts of ourselves away,
To do something to eradicate what we don't like about ourselves.
Carmelite nun Ruth Burrows says,
What is the core,
The central message of the revelation of Jesus?
Surely it is of the unconditional love of God for us,
For each one of us.
God the unutterable,
Incomprehensible mystery,
The reality of all reality,
The life of all life.
And this means that divine love desires to communicate its holy self to us,
Nothing less.
This is God's irrevocable will and purpose.
It is the reason why everything that is,
Is,
And why each of us exists.
We are here to receive this ineffable,
All transforming,
All beautifying love.
We must realise therefore that what we have to do is allow ourselves to be loved,
To be there for love,
To love us.
We can so often be our harshest critic and find it easy to treat ourselves with unkindness and a lack of compassion.
We get frustrated with those parts of who we are that are still in transformation and feel stuck in ways of behaving that we find difficult to accept.
We can sometimes get into a fight with these parts of ourselves,
To chastise them,
To feel shame about them,
Or to want to push them away.
In this meditation I invite you to bring all of you to the table,
The good,
The bad,
And the ugly.
I invite you to come without shame,
Letting go of the fight for it to be any different.
I invite you to receive the fullest,
Warmest,
Hugest welcome from God,
To deeply hear that welcome and to say yes to it.
Unconditional love reaches every part,
Welcomes every part,
Responds with grace and acceptance to every part.
There isn't any part of us,
However broken,
Stuck or angry,
That God does not accept love and holy welcome.
Not one part of who we are is rejected or dismissed.
There is nothing,
No thing about us,
No part of us that God cannot look upon and love,
Accept and be in the very centre of.
Can we receive the grace to allow ourselves on our worst days and in our worst moments,
To be welcomed by God and then to receive the grace to give the same welcome to ourselves?
It's in this place of radical,
Extravagant compassion and unconditional love that real change can be received.
This radical welcome is to be vulnerable enough to let all of ourselves be seen.
It takes courage to be seen so fully.
And yet when we let this happen,
The harshness towards ourselves softens,
Graciously letting be what is,
Knowing that we are loved in every moment of life,
Whatever that looks like.
This isn't resignation,
This isn't a decision to stop the work of transformation.
This isn't to deny that some of our behaviours and attitudes hurt ourselves and others.
It is allowing everything at the table.
It is to acknowledge without judgement or criticism every part of who we are.
It is to extend extravagant grace to ourselves as we receive it from God.
It is to accept that we're human and to be human isn't going to look like perfection or a removal of the shadow parts of ourselves.
So come to the table of grace,
Every part of you,
And feast on the love and compassion that is waiting there.
We're going to end this meditation with some stillness and a short time to practice this radical,
Generous welcome.
So I invite you to settle into stillness.
You may want to notice the gentle inhale and exhale.
And as you follow the rhythm of your breath,
Allow it to bring you into your body.
And as you become aware of your body in this moment,
Wherever you find yourself,
Let yourself sink and settle.
Know yourself to be rooted and grounded.
As thoughts and distractions come,
Simply observe them,
Acknowledge them and let them pass.
Receive the grace to be present here in this stillness.
I invite you to take some moments to think back over the last few days.
As you do this,
Notice how you've been treating yourself,
Especially in those moments that have felt not as you'd like them.
In those moments when you've behaved in a way that you would rather have not.
Notice how you've responded to yourself at those times.
Do you notice that you can be harsh towards yourself?
Do you notice that you can be harsh towards yourself?
It may help you to name any behaviours and attitudes that you'd rather not have had.
In these moments,
I invite you to allow all of yourself to be seen,
Including any behaviours.
Do you notice that you can be harsh towards yourself at those times?
Do you notice that you can be harsh towards yourself at those times?
Receive the grace to extend this same kindness and compassion.
Do you notice that you can be harsh towards yourself at those times?
Receive the grace to extend this same kindness and compassion.
Receive the hug of unconditional,
Accepting love.
That love that welcomes and accepts you exactly as you are,
Every part.
Be blessed friends.
May you know a deepening acceptance of love,
A deepening awareness and knowing of your belovedness and grace as you continue through your day.
May you know a deepening acceptance of love,
A deepening awareness and grace as you continue through your day.
