The theme for this month of May is a reflection on the Power of Slowing, using themes from Gerald May’s book, The Wisdom of the Wilderness, with epigraphs from Saint John of the Cross, a sixteenth-century Spanish Carmelite friar.
Gerald May says:
- The call of wilderness is very familiar to me. In one way or another, it is probably always calling. Sometimes I have felt it inwardly as an old familiar longing, a passion unfulfilled – that no language could ever express. At its most powerful, however, the call seems to have come from outside me, from some wild place and Presence – a true “ call of the wild.” The image that comes to me is of a mountain forest opening invisible arms to me, inviting me to enter into its secret places so deeply and completely that I finally disappear – and there, in soft, rich lostness, I will be healed; my own true nature will be restored.
- All I know is there’s confidence in this moment, lightness inside and out. I have been slowed down. I have been slowed down by a Power.
- Wild untamed emotions are full of life-spirit, vibrant with energy of being. They don’t have to be acted out, but neither do they need to be tamed. They are part of our inner wilderness; they can be just what they are. God help me to join not separate. Help me to be with and in, not apart from. Show me the way to savouring…
As you begin to relax now in body and mind, slow your breathing, and enter your meditation, centering your prayer, let us remember the words from St John of the Cross…
…to the mountains and to the hill, / to where the pure water flows, / and further, deep into the thicket… There you will show me / what my soul has been seeking…Oh guiding night! / Oh night more lovely than the dawn!
Love and every blessing, Kathryn, Meditation Leader.
References:
Gerald May, The Wisdom of Wilderness: Experiencing the Healing Power of Nature, Harper Collins, 2006, NY.
The Collected Works of Saint John of the Cross, Translated by Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez, ICS Publications, 1991, USA
Remember to watch an introduction to Centering Prayer Meditation with Kathryn. You can see it here
Kathryn Pile leads a meditation on the first Tuesday of the month at 1:00pm in the Malone Room (214 Richardson Street, Middle Park). It runs for 50 minutes and is followed by an invitation to spent time together socially.