Entry Points for Contemplation
Photo thanks to Betty D. Thompson
It isn’t complicated. Treat yourself to 5 minutes a day – or much longer – of quiet openness to God, using any of these ways.
Theologian Mary E. Hunt gives a quick, simple, contemplative methodology in her "meditation on one blueberry."
My favorite entry point? It’s opening anything in my pile of reflective journals and periodicals from the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR). The daily reflective journals are intimate and incisive, with brief, very personal meditations by individual sisters, art, and gentle, important questions by editor Sister Annmarie Sanders. Order LCWR’s annual reflective journals and twice-yearly Occasional Papers (with articles that feed me stimulating, unexpected ideas), including many back-issues. LCWR’s contemplative notecards can also lead into contemplation, coupling fine photography with eloquent wisdom-quotes from LCWR annual assembly groups (and they’re lovely greeting cards, of course).
Another entry point: Brief daily prayers from the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange began as “100 days of prayer” and keep growing, always aware of the vulnerable in our society and seeking unity and reconciliation.
Read and enter into visual and audio invitations to meditation / contemplation from the Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual. Beautiful.
Brief and changing daily -- Read or listen to invitations to meditation / contemplation at Sacred Space, from the Irish Jesuits. Each day brings a guided meditation that includes daily scripture. Visit, or subscribe for a daily email link. One begins:
As I sit here, the beating of my heart,
the ebb and flow of my breathing, the movements of my mind
are all signs of God's ongoing creation of me.
I pause for a moment, and become aware
of this presence of God within me.
Everything can invite us to contemplative joy in God. The superb, huge website Spirituality & Practice describes hundreds of practices rich with God’s Spirit (plus much more, other than contemplation). Some practices have long roots in Christian and other religious traditions, like the Enneagram, rosary (and prayer beads in other traditions), the Daily Office, Lectio Divina, or the labyrinth. But why stop there? Look at everything as a spiritual practice and you may find yourself drawn to gardening, play, eating, ikebana flower-arrangement, pottery, etc. This is a site worth returning to again and again and again, whether you’re looking for something specific or just exploring the wealth of film reviews, book reviews, quotes from wisdom leaders, blogs, videos, e-courses, more.
Follow Benedictine contemplative ways, find (or sign up for) great reflections, and, if you choose, find online or local companions by joining Sister Joan Chittister's Monasteries of the Heart. If you register, a wealth of inspiration, challenge, and community will open for you, with a weekly email and more than 14,000 companions worldwide. If you participate in an e-retreat, you’ll find companions with names, insight, and openness.
Tell lies about yourself as a way to know truths? It's working for me and it's fun! From Sister Mary Lou Kowacki ("Old Monk") at Monasteries of the Heart: "Probably the best way I 'walk toward myself' is through writing. I try different writing practices to keep myself interested and on the edge. Last year I read an article in Parabola by Betsy Cornwell, a writing teacher who starts each new course by asking students to lie to her. She has them write a three-sentence life story and, except for their names, nothing can be true. Her point was that no matter how fanciful or outlandish the lies, they reveal some insight about what’s happening in our lives. It’s less threatening than sitting down to write a three-sentence factual autobiography and it’s just as truthful, maybe more so. Old Monk [the title under which Sister Mary Lou Kowacki writes at online Monasteries of the Heart] is having a great time writing lies. She is always surprised at what finds its way onto paper. Here’s one: Once when no one was looking, Mary Lou buried her mother in the backyard. From that time on she has become the gravedigger for people who died but were never buried. Mary Lou became very rich."
Sister Nancy Sylvester’s Institute for Communal Contemplation and Dialogue offers an invitation to join with 800+ people throughout the world in a contemplative sitting network.
Blessings can be refreshing, renewing cascades of grace. Jan Richardson’s blessings are beautifully expressed in both words and art, closely tied to the liturgical year, and full to the brim with compassion for people, unity with creation, and faith in God. She shared her personal journey of contemplative transformation as keynote speaker at the 2017 LCWR Assembly. Subscribe (or just visit) for powerful weekly reflections in art and word at Jan Richardson's The Painted Prayerbook.
Find engaging, beautiful one-page reflections in art and word from the School Sisters of Notre Dame's Central-Pacific Province: Sunday readings and daily blessings, current and archived.
Fr. Richard Rohr’s Center for Action and Contemplation is both an Arizona retreat center and a website with readings, podcasts, and daily meditations via an email subscription option.
Krista Tippett, friend of LCWR and creator of the very popular series On Being, devotes a section of her website to contemplation. Her weekly On Being shows/podcasts always hold rich sources for reflection.
Try communal contemplation via conference call – Conference call? Contemplation? It sounds like a contradiction, but these monthly experiences are extraordinarily rich experiences. The Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual welcomes everyone who calls in, and that always includes some sisters. A theme is briefly presented, then a time of silence and reflection, then optional sharing.
Use (or subscribe to) daily 3-minute guided meditations with beautiful photos at Loyola Press.
Use the wonderful resources at Abbey of the Arts, or simply follow (on your own or with friends) the gentle disciplines in Christine Valter Paintner's related book, to nurture contemplative practice in the Benedictine tradition along with creative expression.
Daily guided meditation (online and podcast) as well as guides for preparing to pray and at the end of the day, from Pray As You Go, created by the Jesuits of the United Kingdom.
Daily Catholic readings and meditations at Living Faith feature some superstar writers like Sisters Macrina Wiederkehr and Joyce Rupp.
The list above includes several fine Jesuit links and podcasts. To know more about this spirituality, the foundation for many congregations of Catholic sisters, you can explore Ignatian spirituality (named for St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, who are formally called the Society of Jesus). The core daily practice is the examen, which is a specific form of reflection, not a test. The Ignatian Spiritual Exercises, a classic in-depth program of contemplation, are available through many retreat centers and universities all over the world.
It’s impossible to speak of contemplation without Thomas Merton. "It is true to say that for me sanctity consists in being myself and for you sanctity consists in being your self and that, in the last analysis, your sanctity will never be mine and mine will never be yours, except in the communism of charity and grace. For me to be a saint means to be myself. Therefore the problem of sanctity and salvation is in fact the problem of finding out who I am and of discovering my true self.” – Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation. Merton (1915-1968) was Trappist monk in Kentucky whose commitment to both contemplation and social justice continues to inspire. His autobiography, other writings, and much more are available at The Merton Center.
Pema Chodron is a Buddhist nun and another important teacher of contemplation. Tonglen is a way to practice loving-kindness through guided meditation (4:46).
Theologian Mary E. Hunt gives a quick, simple, contemplative methodology in her "meditation on one blueberry."
My favorite entry point? It’s opening anything in my pile of reflective journals and periodicals from the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR). The daily reflective journals are intimate and incisive, with brief, very personal meditations by individual sisters, art, and gentle, important questions by editor Sister Annmarie Sanders. Order LCWR’s annual reflective journals and twice-yearly Occasional Papers (with articles that feed me stimulating, unexpected ideas), including many back-issues. LCWR’s contemplative notecards can also lead into contemplation, coupling fine photography with eloquent wisdom-quotes from LCWR annual assembly groups (and they’re lovely greeting cards, of course).
Another entry point: Brief daily prayers from the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange began as “100 days of prayer” and keep growing, always aware of the vulnerable in our society and seeking unity and reconciliation.
Read and enter into visual and audio invitations to meditation / contemplation from the Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual. Beautiful.
Brief and changing daily -- Read or listen to invitations to meditation / contemplation at Sacred Space, from the Irish Jesuits. Each day brings a guided meditation that includes daily scripture. Visit, or subscribe for a daily email link. One begins:
As I sit here, the beating of my heart,
the ebb and flow of my breathing, the movements of my mind
are all signs of God's ongoing creation of me.
I pause for a moment, and become aware
of this presence of God within me.
Everything can invite us to contemplative joy in God. The superb, huge website Spirituality & Practice describes hundreds of practices rich with God’s Spirit (plus much more, other than contemplation). Some practices have long roots in Christian and other religious traditions, like the Enneagram, rosary (and prayer beads in other traditions), the Daily Office, Lectio Divina, or the labyrinth. But why stop there? Look at everything as a spiritual practice and you may find yourself drawn to gardening, play, eating, ikebana flower-arrangement, pottery, etc. This is a site worth returning to again and again and again, whether you’re looking for something specific or just exploring the wealth of film reviews, book reviews, quotes from wisdom leaders, blogs, videos, e-courses, more.
Follow Benedictine contemplative ways, find (or sign up for) great reflections, and, if you choose, find online or local companions by joining Sister Joan Chittister's Monasteries of the Heart. If you register, a wealth of inspiration, challenge, and community will open for you, with a weekly email and more than 14,000 companions worldwide. If you participate in an e-retreat, you’ll find companions with names, insight, and openness.
Tell lies about yourself as a way to know truths? It's working for me and it's fun! From Sister Mary Lou Kowacki ("Old Monk") at Monasteries of the Heart: "Probably the best way I 'walk toward myself' is through writing. I try different writing practices to keep myself interested and on the edge. Last year I read an article in Parabola by Betsy Cornwell, a writing teacher who starts each new course by asking students to lie to her. She has them write a three-sentence life story and, except for their names, nothing can be true. Her point was that no matter how fanciful or outlandish the lies, they reveal some insight about what’s happening in our lives. It’s less threatening than sitting down to write a three-sentence factual autobiography and it’s just as truthful, maybe more so. Old Monk [the title under which Sister Mary Lou Kowacki writes at online Monasteries of the Heart] is having a great time writing lies. She is always surprised at what finds its way onto paper. Here’s one: Once when no one was looking, Mary Lou buried her mother in the backyard. From that time on she has become the gravedigger for people who died but were never buried. Mary Lou became very rich."
Sister Nancy Sylvester’s Institute for Communal Contemplation and Dialogue offers an invitation to join with 800+ people throughout the world in a contemplative sitting network.
Blessings can be refreshing, renewing cascades of grace. Jan Richardson’s blessings are beautifully expressed in both words and art, closely tied to the liturgical year, and full to the brim with compassion for people, unity with creation, and faith in God. She shared her personal journey of contemplative transformation as keynote speaker at the 2017 LCWR Assembly. Subscribe (or just visit) for powerful weekly reflections in art and word at Jan Richardson's The Painted Prayerbook.
Find engaging, beautiful one-page reflections in art and word from the School Sisters of Notre Dame's Central-Pacific Province: Sunday readings and daily blessings, current and archived.
Fr. Richard Rohr’s Center for Action and Contemplation is both an Arizona retreat center and a website with readings, podcasts, and daily meditations via an email subscription option.
Krista Tippett, friend of LCWR and creator of the very popular series On Being, devotes a section of her website to contemplation. Her weekly On Being shows/podcasts always hold rich sources for reflection.
Try communal contemplation via conference call – Conference call? Contemplation? It sounds like a contradiction, but these monthly experiences are extraordinarily rich experiences. The Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual welcomes everyone who calls in, and that always includes some sisters. A theme is briefly presented, then a time of silence and reflection, then optional sharing.
Use (or subscribe to) daily 3-minute guided meditations with beautiful photos at Loyola Press.
Use the wonderful resources at Abbey of the Arts, or simply follow (on your own or with friends) the gentle disciplines in Christine Valter Paintner's related book, to nurture contemplative practice in the Benedictine tradition along with creative expression.
Daily guided meditation (online and podcast) as well as guides for preparing to pray and at the end of the day, from Pray As You Go, created by the Jesuits of the United Kingdom.
Daily Catholic readings and meditations at Living Faith feature some superstar writers like Sisters Macrina Wiederkehr and Joyce Rupp.
The list above includes several fine Jesuit links and podcasts. To know more about this spirituality, the foundation for many congregations of Catholic sisters, you can explore Ignatian spirituality (named for St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, who are formally called the Society of Jesus). The core daily practice is the examen, which is a specific form of reflection, not a test. The Ignatian Spiritual Exercises, a classic in-depth program of contemplation, are available through many retreat centers and universities all over the world.
It’s impossible to speak of contemplation without Thomas Merton. "It is true to say that for me sanctity consists in being myself and for you sanctity consists in being your self and that, in the last analysis, your sanctity will never be mine and mine will never be yours, except in the communism of charity and grace. For me to be a saint means to be myself. Therefore the problem of sanctity and salvation is in fact the problem of finding out who I am and of discovering my true self.” – Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation. Merton (1915-1968) was Trappist monk in Kentucky whose commitment to both contemplation and social justice continues to inspire. His autobiography, other writings, and much more are available at The Merton Center.
Pema Chodron is a Buddhist nun and another important teacher of contemplation. Tonglen is a way to practice loving-kindness through guided meditation (4:46).
Poetry, Nature, and the Arts
Why try poetry for reflection? Fine poets condense attentive experience into words. Reading poetry asks us to be attentive, to hold the words or ideas inside for a moment. God meets us wherever we are truly attentive.
We'd love to add your favorite below! Email us anytime.
Here are some we like a lot: Sarah Klassan’s Waging Peace, Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy's channeling of Rilke in You Are the Future, Alice Walker’s Our Martyr, Denise Levertov's To Live in the Mercy of God, Mary Oliver's Six Recognitions of the Lord, May Sarton’s Metamorphosis, Irene Zimmerman OSF's A Woman Taken in Adultery, Alice Walker’s You Want to Grow Old Like the Carters, William Stafford's You Reading This, Be Ready, Wendell Berry’s 1979, Rabindranath Tagore’s All That Is Joy, Denise Levertov's Excerpt from the Mass for the Day of St. Thomas Didymus, Wendell Berry's The Peace of Wild Things, Lucille Clifton's won't you celebrate with me, Thich Nhat Hanh’s The Good News, Gerard Manley Hopkins's Pied Beauty, Constantine P. Cavafy's Ithaca, Wislawa Symborska's Some People, e.e. cummings' my father moved through dooms of love, Hafiz' The Sun Never Says, Yehuda Amichai's The Place Where We Are Right… many more by Mary Oliver… many more still on bookshelves waiting to become links.
The wonderful site Spirituality & Practice offers many more sacred poems.
If you like a poem, go to sites like this to find more by the author: The Poetry Foundation, The Academy of American Poets, Poemhunter, and the Library of Congress' Poetry 180. Some sites will email you a poem every day.
If you want to know more about poetry, go deeper in understanding it, or maybe try writing yourself, here's a Poetry Writing and Analysis Guide -- many thanks to a reader for the tip!
We'd love to add your favorite below! Email us anytime.
Here are some we like a lot: Sarah Klassan’s Waging Peace, Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy's channeling of Rilke in You Are the Future, Alice Walker’s Our Martyr, Denise Levertov's To Live in the Mercy of God, Mary Oliver's Six Recognitions of the Lord, May Sarton’s Metamorphosis, Irene Zimmerman OSF's A Woman Taken in Adultery, Alice Walker’s You Want to Grow Old Like the Carters, William Stafford's You Reading This, Be Ready, Wendell Berry’s 1979, Rabindranath Tagore’s All That Is Joy, Denise Levertov's Excerpt from the Mass for the Day of St. Thomas Didymus, Wendell Berry's The Peace of Wild Things, Lucille Clifton's won't you celebrate with me, Thich Nhat Hanh’s The Good News, Gerard Manley Hopkins's Pied Beauty, Constantine P. Cavafy's Ithaca, Wislawa Symborska's Some People, e.e. cummings' my father moved through dooms of love, Hafiz' The Sun Never Says, Yehuda Amichai's The Place Where We Are Right… many more by Mary Oliver… many more still on bookshelves waiting to become links.
The wonderful site Spirituality & Practice offers many more sacred poems.
If you like a poem, go to sites like this to find more by the author: The Poetry Foundation, The Academy of American Poets, Poemhunter, and the Library of Congress' Poetry 180. Some sites will email you a poem every day.
If you want to know more about poetry, go deeper in understanding it, or maybe try writing yourself, here's a Poetry Writing and Analysis Guide -- many thanks to a reader for the tip!
(c) Betty D. Thompson
Have you noticed that many of the prompts for contemplation, both above and below, draw on nature? Put yourself consciously in creation. Feel your connections, your disconnections, your longing.
Add motion. It can be as simple as focusing on the motion of your lungs and your belly as you breathe. Walking is another traditional meditative practice, and Thich Nhat Hanh's Peace Is Every Step is full of beautiful inspirations. A walk in the park? A run under trees? It all works.
Yoga can be a formal spiritual discipline or a way of motion that opens our spirits. Except I know little about it. If you have tips for some links, let us know.
Add motion. It can be as simple as focusing on the motion of your lungs and your belly as you breathe. Walking is another traditional meditative practice, and Thich Nhat Hanh's Peace Is Every Step is full of beautiful inspirations. A walk in the park? A run under trees? It all works.
Yoga can be a formal spiritual discipline or a way of motion that opens our spirits. Except I know little about it. If you have tips for some links, let us know.
Dark Magenta Grasses (c) by Mary D. Ott
Some artworks -- like Mary D. Ott's graceful, evocative Dark Magenta Grasses (used with permission) -- pull me into attentiveness and reflection. Mary is a member of Solidarity with Sisters and created the artwork for our LCWR greeting cards to all US bishops. I often visit her work online.
Robert Connan's photographs put me in awe. An excellent place to be. Try Ethiopia, USA, Libya, Switzerland, Kuwait, anywhere. Stillness seeps into me. Vitality zings. Uncertainty of many kinds asks us to stop and pay attention. These are openings through which God can enter our awareness.
Another gorgeous visual entry into meditation: slideshow on Hildegard of Bingen's "viriditas," or verdancy. "Viriditas, a word coined by Hildegard von Bingen, describes the green force of life, expanding into the Universe. Hildegard saw the notion of 'Viriditas', or Greenness, penetrating every aspect of life. This 'Greenness' was the very expression of Divine power on Earth." - Photo and words by Light Spectral / Ismanah Photography - play as a slide show - or view individual photos with their poems.
Do you know of ways to use Instagram or other online resources for meditative experiences with art? Please tell us. We'd be glad to expand these ideas.
Soundscapes: "Good things come from a quiet place: study, prayer, music, transformation, worship, communion. The words peace and quiet are all but synonymous, and are often spoken in the same breath. A quiet place is the think tank of the soul, the spawning ground of truth and beauty." Here's an aural hike through the Hoh rain forest in Olympia National Park in Washington state.
Art: Making it, immersing yourself in it. Most large museums have images of their collections online. My hometown favorites are the National Gallery of Art; the Smithsonian's African Art Museum, Freer/Sackler Museums, American Art Museum, and Renwick Gallery. That art belongs to all of us; it’s owned by the US government.
You can use photography to invite yourself into God’s presence. Go deeper to notice what’s happening in you as you find yourself drawn to frame a particular space as a photo. Some use photography as a daily personal practice, and maybe invite a friend or two to share both your photographs and the reflections that flow from them.
Robert Connan's photographs put me in awe. An excellent place to be. Try Ethiopia, USA, Libya, Switzerland, Kuwait, anywhere. Stillness seeps into me. Vitality zings. Uncertainty of many kinds asks us to stop and pay attention. These are openings through which God can enter our awareness.
Another gorgeous visual entry into meditation: slideshow on Hildegard of Bingen's "viriditas," or verdancy. "Viriditas, a word coined by Hildegard von Bingen, describes the green force of life, expanding into the Universe. Hildegard saw the notion of 'Viriditas', or Greenness, penetrating every aspect of life. This 'Greenness' was the very expression of Divine power on Earth." - Photo and words by Light Spectral / Ismanah Photography - play as a slide show - or view individual photos with their poems.
Do you know of ways to use Instagram or other online resources for meditative experiences with art? Please tell us. We'd be glad to expand these ideas.
Soundscapes: "Good things come from a quiet place: study, prayer, music, transformation, worship, communion. The words peace and quiet are all but synonymous, and are often spoken in the same breath. A quiet place is the think tank of the soul, the spawning ground of truth and beauty." Here's an aural hike through the Hoh rain forest in Olympia National Park in Washington state.
Art: Making it, immersing yourself in it. Most large museums have images of their collections online. My hometown favorites are the National Gallery of Art; the Smithsonian's African Art Museum, Freer/Sackler Museums, American Art Museum, and Renwick Gallery. That art belongs to all of us; it’s owned by the US government.
You can use photography to invite yourself into God’s presence. Go deeper to notice what’s happening in you as you find yourself drawn to frame a particular space as a photo. Some use photography as a daily personal practice, and maybe invite a friend or two to share both your photographs and the reflections that flow from them.