To be eirenic is to be aimed at peace, oriented toward reconciliation. As a centering prayer I have adopted the prayer attributed to St. Frances, Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. So, that is why I call my website Eirenicole – a composite of eirenic and Nicole.
For Lent, we are using the book, The Art of Lent: A Painting a Day From Ash Wednesday to Easter, by Sister Wendy Beckett. This week, the theme is joy. Our meditation for today is entitled, “Radiant Truth,” and the focus of our attention will be on the painting, Pink Bowl With Green Grapes, 1992, Craigie Aitchison. The image is included in the post for this podcast, and accompanies the places where this is posted. If you do not have access to the photo, but do have access to internet, you can google “Pink Bowl With Green Grapes, 1992, Craigie Aitchison.”
So as you settle in your space, pay attention to your breathing.
Notice your breath as it passes in through your nose, out through your mouth.
Pay attention, slowing your breath a bit.
Rest in the stillness, be at ease in quietness
Settle into your space and notice your shoulders.
Are they raised a bit? The neck muscles coiled?
Allow your shoulders to pull away from your ears?
Where do you notice tension in your body?
Mentally scan from the top of you head, neck, shoulders, back, stomach
hips, legs, feet.
Breathe out as you release clenched muscles.
Breathe in the grace that God fills you.
As you breathe out, exhale a prayer of trust.
Continue breathing in and out, allow the Spirit to saturate, to fill you with peace.
Pay attention to God’s invitation to be present.
Settle into the peace of Christ as you listen. Hear the mediation and notice what the spirit of God draws your attention to in this painting. What is Jesus speaking to you here, now?
“Regardless of the title of this painting …. in our very bodies, that this is the truth of it.”
Sister Wendy Beckett, The Art of Lent
We carry so much in our bodies, often without realizing,
until the pain begins to radiate through the back of your head
and then everything seems so very wrong.
When truth comes to light, our bodies know it. So why is it
that we are afraid of the truth? Or, at the very least, ignore it?
What compels us to move through life, through the day,
through a moment senselessly, unaware, untethered to the soul?
What will the truth ask of us?
Even in our confinement, it’s a simple thing, effortless, to acclimate
to move through the tiny spaces in mindless madness
attempt to outrun illumination that does nothing itself, only
reveal.
And this truth is…? What are you afraid of seeing?
A grudge that you cannot relinquish? A wound you cannot bear to greet?
The truth that no matter how much you do, it will never be enough?
The light of truth is brilliant, sure. Still, light carries
in every wave
on each particle it strokes
an infinite spectrum of dazzling color
Relentless, exposing beauty in the midst of whatever it is we were afraid to see.
Until, at last, rest-in-stillness gifts us
overwhelming joy
we know in our very bodies.
How is your body knowing joy today?
May you rest in the radiance of truth, and may you walk at the pace of grace.
