Week 1 -God in me

I want to learn to look at my life much more through the eyes of my faith, and discover how God is working in me.

Welcome to our beautiful Stanislas Chapel. It is so good to be able to come together here, in silence and stillness, under the loving gaze of our God.

In a moment we will start the meditation with a song and a bible text. Every few minutes during the next half hour I will give an impulse to help contemplation of the text. Don’t feel you have to follow all the suggestions I make during this meditation. Pay attention to which words in the song, in the Bible text or in my suggestions touch you and allow your thoughts and prayer to centre around those particular words. It is good to focus only on the words which affect or touch you in some way while here in the presence of God. Let Him help you to see and feel why they affect you at this moment in time. Let’s begin the first meditation now.

Take a moment to become fully present in this Chapel and in this circle of people who share a desire to seek God more deeply. I become aware that God is looking at me lovingly and I try to accept and receive that love knowing He is present in me and all around me.

Song: Ubi caritas Taize

CD Laudate omnes gente

https://open.spotify.com/track/0tyuFpDQqlbyj2oWZCgmqJ?si=c50cb84e677c4d98

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP50P66aj2Y

Ubi caritas et amor
Ubi caritas, Deus ibi est

Where charity and love are, there God is.

Text: 1 Samuel 3, 1-10

Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. And the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision. At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim, so that he could not see, was lying down in his own place; the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down within the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. 

I use my imagination to see what is happening in this story in the middle of the night. I see the two men: the old man, Eli, whose inner light is fading and the young man, Samuel, whose inner light has not yet been ignited. I see the lamp of God flickering gently in the darkness. It has almost gone out. I try to step into this scene in imagination and use all my senses to bring it to life. What can I feel? What do I hear? What can I smell? What do I see?

What effect does this scene have on me?

*

Then the Lord called, “Samuel! Samuel!”[b] and he said, “Here I am!” and ran to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call; lie down again.” So he went and lay down. And the Lord called again, “Samuel!” and Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.” Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down; and if He calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for thy servant hears.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

At first, God’s calling is not recognized by the young man, Samuel, or the old man, Eli. I try to recall a time in my own life when the lamp of God, God’s light, was only just gently flickering. Was God calling me then? Was I aware of that myself or did someone else help me to recognize that God was calling me?

*

And the Lord came and stood forth, calling as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for thy servant hears.”

I can use the remaining time of this meditation to become fully aware of the presence of God’s light in the intimate, holy silence of this chapel and to open myself should God want to tell me something.