Week 1 - My Desire

Week 1                                  My desire                                  25th October 2024

Theme:

Maybe there is a deep longing in me.

Who or what am I seeking?

Who or what would I like to find?

This week is for recognizing and

exploring this deep desire.

What I might wish to ask:

For an open mind and an open heart

Welcome in our beautiful Stanislas Chapel at the beginning of a new season of Ignatian meditations. The theme this week is “My desire”.

I focus first on what will help me with my meditation. I become aware of how I am sitting. It helps to sit with a straight back and my feet firmly on the ground. I might want to close my eyes or maybe watch the flickering flame of the candle. I become aware of my breathing: not to change that in any way but just to pay attention to the breaths I take which give me life. I become aware of how I am feeling, here in this circle of people and at this particular moment in time.

You will find the text and the impulses for prayer on the paper. Feel completely free to read the text or just to listen. Do whatever helps you the most. If there is a sentence, a word in the music or the text which touches you, stay with that and let my voice pass you by. The impulses for prayer are intended to help and are not an assignment. This is your meditation.

First, I consider how God is looking at me now. He is looking at me with love and friendliness. I try to really let His love for me sink in: to feel it and accept it. Whether I deserve it or not God is looking at me with deep love.

Let the music embrace you, immerse yourself in it.



Music: Confitemini Domino Taizé

Confitemini Domino

Quoniam Bonus!

Confitemini Domino

Alleluia!

Give thanks to the Lord

for He is good.

Give thanks to the Lord

Alleluia!

Spotify Link:

https://open.spotify.com/track/5gabLc6zgCvbLuF0tHTxQ7?si=ead03b91e8ae4e9d

YouTube Link:

https://youtu.be/TJnhO6FMks0?si=l2d3CksIE9Xxuq4P

Give thanks to the Lord for He is good. What would I like to thank God for? What came to mind while I was listening to the music? For which things at this moment in my life am I able to thank God? Maybe just for the fact that I am able to be here in this chapel tonight?

*

John 1, 35-39

The next day again John [the Baptist] was standing with two of his disciples; and he looked at Jesus as he walked, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 

I imagine that I am there, with the disciples on the banks of the river Jordan. What does John the Baptist see in Jesus which makes him draw the attention of his disciples to Him? And me? Do I also want to follow Jesus as the disciples do?

*

Jesus turned, and saw them following, and said to them, “What do you seek?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” 

What am I seeking? What is that unfulfilled longing, that desire in my own life?

*

He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where he was staying; and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. 

To follow Jesus just like that, to stay with Him. What would I do if Jesus said to me: “Come and see!”?

*

Music: Confitemini Domino Taizé