centering
From Superficial to Real: A Guided Lenten Practice for March 5
Mar. 03, 2025 11:16 Filed in: Spiritual Practice | Audio
Matthew 6:1-6,16-21
“Whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.” In this passage, Jesus calls his friends not to performative religion, but to genuine, humble practice. Our Sunday worship can easily become a superficial ritual without the intention to let God transform our hearts and our daily lives.
[ Listen to Audio Version ]
How might God be calling you into deeper …?
Find a comfortable spot in your space. Sit or lie down in a way that allows your body to fully relax. Take your time, making any necessary adjustments. If your body offers you guidance about what it needs to fully soften into this moment, heed its advice.
Once you're feeling supported and settled, gently shine the flashlight of your awareness onto your breath, be curious--- what do you find? Is it smooth and even? Are you craving a deeper inhale or more luxurious exhale? Does it reach to your belly or is it living up and among your collarbones? Invite your breath to soften and lengthen – signaling to your mind and nervous system that it’s ok to drop into this moment, there is no place else to go, nothing else to do.
Release your awareness from your breath and trust it to do what needs to be done to breathe your body.
Now, again using your awareness like a flashlight, bring your awareness to your feet. Check in with the soles of the feet, the tops of the feet, the ankles. Let your noticing gradually pull upwards, checking in with your calves, shins, and knees.
Consider the strong muscles of your upper leg – the hamstrings, quadriceps, all the tendons. Notice any tension still present and gently soften deeper into your seat.
Bring your awareness to the hips, pelvic bowl, seat...imagine the light of your awareness working its way into the intricate workings of your hip sockets, softening whatever tightness you may find.
Let the awareness move up now into the belly bowl, the lower back. Fill the whole lower torso with breath and the light of awareness.
Let it continue up, checking in with the diaphragm, the rib cage, the lungs – take some time to saturate all the vital organs and muscles in your chest cavity with awareness and breath.
Notice now as the flashlight of awareness gently rises to fills in the space around the collarbones, the shoulder blades, and pools along the strong muscles atop your shoulders. Imagine your awareness cascading down each arm – touching your biceps, triceps, elbows, forearms, wrists…hands and fingers. Notice as any tension or tightness drips out the tips of the fingers and returns to the earth.
Train your gentle awareness on your neck and let it fill and move along the muscles on the front of the neck, the sides, the back. Release the root of the tongue, release the jaw. Let the muscles of your face and scalp soften, giving some extra noticing to your temples, the tiny muscles across your forehead, and the deep pockets of the eye sockets.
Good – now notice as your entire human form is full of gentle awareness and breath. Just breathe into the shape of you for another moment.
Now, into this soft, supported, and open human consciousness space, consider your relationship with God.
Where do you spend the most time with God?
As you consider your time with God - in church, in contemplation, in prayer, in community, notice any sensations that arise in your body.
Can you feel your feet on the floor as God holds you up from the core of the earth? Does your heart flutter with hope and grief? Does your hand want to move to your belly to connect with the deepest sense of “I AM?” Or maybe there is sensation at the crown of your head - the celestial antenna reaching to the heavens.
What sensations arise? Colors? Memories?
Using the same flashlight of your awareness, search out God’s dwelling places within your own human body. There is no right or wrong – just be curious.
Now, set your intention to invite your experience of God more fully into someplace specific in your embodied human experience. This might look like focusing on the flutter of hope in your belly and letting that sensation grow more intense, more vivid while inviting God in. Or it may look like finding a secret room in your mind – one that is safe and cozy and private – can you open the door and invite God more fully into that room?
Use your intention of deepening into private relationship with God to draw deeper into this space.
What is it like to invite this sacred relationship more fully into your being, the parts only you know and access? How does this intimacy with the divine change your awareness of your human body? What does this private closeness with God call you to do in the world? Who does it call you to be?
Gently, with curiosity, spend the next 5 minutes inviting God deeper into your felt experience. As your awareness moves away from this, just notice and return, keeping breath steady and body relaxed.
“Whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.” In this passage, Jesus calls his friends not to performative religion, but to genuine, humble practice. Our Sunday worship can easily become a superficial ritual without the intention to let God transform our hearts and our daily lives.
[ Listen to Audio Version ]
How might God be calling you into deeper …?
Find a comfortable spot in your space. Sit or lie down in a way that allows your body to fully relax. Take your time, making any necessary adjustments. If your body offers you guidance about what it needs to fully soften into this moment, heed its advice.
Once you're feeling supported and settled, gently shine the flashlight of your awareness onto your breath, be curious--- what do you find? Is it smooth and even? Are you craving a deeper inhale or more luxurious exhale? Does it reach to your belly or is it living up and among your collarbones? Invite your breath to soften and lengthen – signaling to your mind and nervous system that it’s ok to drop into this moment, there is no place else to go, nothing else to do.
Release your awareness from your breath and trust it to do what needs to be done to breathe your body.
Now, again using your awareness like a flashlight, bring your awareness to your feet. Check in with the soles of the feet, the tops of the feet, the ankles. Let your noticing gradually pull upwards, checking in with your calves, shins, and knees.
Consider the strong muscles of your upper leg – the hamstrings, quadriceps, all the tendons. Notice any tension still present and gently soften deeper into your seat.
Bring your awareness to the hips, pelvic bowl, seat...imagine the light of your awareness working its way into the intricate workings of your hip sockets, softening whatever tightness you may find.
Let the awareness move up now into the belly bowl, the lower back. Fill the whole lower torso with breath and the light of awareness.
Let it continue up, checking in with the diaphragm, the rib cage, the lungs – take some time to saturate all the vital organs and muscles in your chest cavity with awareness and breath.
Notice now as the flashlight of awareness gently rises to fills in the space around the collarbones, the shoulder blades, and pools along the strong muscles atop your shoulders. Imagine your awareness cascading down each arm – touching your biceps, triceps, elbows, forearms, wrists…hands and fingers. Notice as any tension or tightness drips out the tips of the fingers and returns to the earth.
Train your gentle awareness on your neck and let it fill and move along the muscles on the front of the neck, the sides, the back. Release the root of the tongue, release the jaw. Let the muscles of your face and scalp soften, giving some extra noticing to your temples, the tiny muscles across your forehead, and the deep pockets of the eye sockets.
Good – now notice as your entire human form is full of gentle awareness and breath. Just breathe into the shape of you for another moment.
Now, into this soft, supported, and open human consciousness space, consider your relationship with God.
Where do you spend the most time with God?
As you consider your time with God - in church, in contemplation, in prayer, in community, notice any sensations that arise in your body.
Can you feel your feet on the floor as God holds you up from the core of the earth? Does your heart flutter with hope and grief? Does your hand want to move to your belly to connect with the deepest sense of “I AM?” Or maybe there is sensation at the crown of your head - the celestial antenna reaching to the heavens.
What sensations arise? Colors? Memories?
Using the same flashlight of your awareness, search out God’s dwelling places within your own human body. There is no right or wrong – just be curious.
Now, set your intention to invite your experience of God more fully into someplace specific in your embodied human experience. This might look like focusing on the flutter of hope in your belly and letting that sensation grow more intense, more vivid while inviting God in. Or it may look like finding a secret room in your mind – one that is safe and cozy and private – can you open the door and invite God more fully into that room?
Use your intention of deepening into private relationship with God to draw deeper into this space.
What is it like to invite this sacred relationship more fully into your being, the parts only you know and access? How does this intimacy with the divine change your awareness of your human body? What does this private closeness with God call you to do in the world? Who does it call you to be?
Gently, with curiosity, spend the next 5 minutes inviting God deeper into your felt experience. As your awareness moves away from this, just notice and return, keeping breath steady and body relaxed.