Week 4 - God’s presence in my life

Welcome to this Friday evening meditation in our beautiful Stanislas Chapel. God is happy to see me here: to see all of us here. He invites me to be close to Him here. I spend a few silent moments in order to realize this fully and draw myself closer to Him.

The theme this week is “God’s presence in my life”.

Theme:

I look at my own life-story in order to discover God’s presence in my life; my life with its good times and its bad times, with light and with darkness.

What I may wish to ask/ what I desire:

That I have the courage to look at the reality of my own life with everything that encompasses. That I can accept my life with all that has happened in it until now. That I may recognize God’s presence in my life as it has been until now.

Whatever happens, wherever I find myself, whatever I am feeling, He remains close to me.

Music: Nada te turbe. Taizé

Nada te turbe,

nada te espante,

quien a Dios tiene,

nada le falta.

Nada te turbe,

nada te espante.

Solo Dios basta.

Nothing can trouble,

nothing can frighten.

Those who seek God

shall never go wanting.

Nothing can trouble,

nothing can frighten.

God alone fills us.

Spotify Link:

https://open.spotify.com/track/281RJANb5cPMJe7fH0Vku3?si=f088b8ed1efc49ee

 YouTube Link:

https://youtu.be/go1-BoDD7CI?feature=shared

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.

I have decided to spend time with God by doing this meditation. Now is the time when I can become fully aware of being present here, by God who is looking at me with love.

Ecclesiastes 3, 1-8

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
a time to rend, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.

I look back over my life and focus on the ups and downs. Which moments of my life draw my attention now? I let these particular moments of my life quietly pass through my mind and I try to discover where God was at those times? Do I recognize God’s presence in my life, both in times of mourning and in times of dancing?

I look at my life now at this moment in time and I try to find out what time I am living in just now? Which feelings do I associate with the time I am living in at the moment? Can I allow these feelings to be?

Ecclesiastes 3, 11

God has made everything beautiful in its time; not only that, He has put eternity into man’s mind, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. 

Can I admit that God is always present in every moment of my life, even when I am unable to experience His presence, even when I can’t understand that He is actually present?

Music: Nada te turbe. Taizé