Pope Francis

Sunday 13 July 2014

Christian Meditation

Meditation is simply sitting attentively, thanking God for all that we discover, breathing, physical sensations, the movements of the mind, the spiritual discoveries...

How should you begin? For small spaces of time and starting with simple things: being with attention to breath for a period of ten seconds, twenty seconds, thirty seconds is a good way to start.

When the thought goes away, grab it again to breath. Then go constantly increasing the time devoted to attention, breath, thank God, the saliva in your mouth, the food we eat, thank God, to odors, even though almost imperceptible, that surround us, the sensations on the skin, starting by the feet, the legs, the trunk, the arms, the head, always slowly, thank God, by the sounds we hear, the silence of a church or our bedroom, with the distant sounds of the hustle of the city or the birds chirping , thank God, we see the beautiful landscapes, the small details, a flower, a bird, a stone, a work of man, thank God...

Attention, meditation, is to be with God.

There are three levels of attention.

On a first level, inattention is almost complete, is when we are almost entirely in the hands of evil.

On the second level, we concern ourselves in "be careful" but is a worldly attention that in which we are focused, the concern is controlling, to pay attention to that "things are not going wrong." In this second level, even when we are concerned about the welfare of others (and not caught up in a purely selfish attention), we are still playing on the ground of evil, sometimes anxious, frustrated elsewhere; although we have some maneuverability (which we have not when we are simply inattentive), we continue to play in the enemy's ground, and it is he who determines most of our actions.

At a third level, we are mindful, simply attentive, attentive to everything and every detail. Without judging. Without worrying. Knowing that everything is in God's hands and that the best way we can help is to be with the utmost attention to everything, especially to the little things, the simple things. As if we were God's eyes, God's ears, the smell of God, the skin of God, the taste of God, the breath of God, the body of God, the thought of God.

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