Meg Lacy Vega Church Business, Soul Care

Soul Care Week Five: Getting Lost

Join us on the podcast this week as we talk about the spiritual practice of getting lost, learning to navigate the wilderness of place and soul.

The wilderness

holds answers

to more questions

than we have yet

learned to ask.

– Nancy Newhall

Pray as you go: The Welcoming Prayer

Sink into this three part prayer that helps us welcome uncomfortable feelings and experiences and find God in the midst of one.

First, feel and sink into what you are experiencing this moment in your body.

Next, “welcome” what you are experiencing this moment in your body as an opportunity to consent to the Divine Indwelling.

Finally, Let go by saying “I let go of my desire for security, affection, control and embrace this moment as it is.”

“Start practicing the  Welcoming Prayer with the little things in life  — small,  everyday frustrations like sitting in traffic or waiting in line at the grocery store.  Practicing with the small things prepares us for the bigger upsets.”

Learn more about The Welcoming Prayer at ContemplativeOutreach.org.

FAMILY PRACTICE: COLORING PAGE

Grab some crayons,
markers,
or colored pencils
and retreat into your
spiritual,
emotional,
psychological
cave as a family
and color a picture
of a Wild Cactus
together.

Meg Lacy Vega Church Business, Leadership Roundtable, Soul Care

Soul Care Week Two: Wearing Skin

Are our bodies important for our spiritual lives?

Join us on the podcast this week as we muse about how wearing skin, being peoples of flesh and blood, can shape and nurture our spiritual lives.

The miracle

is not

walking on water,

but on

the earth.”

-Thich Nhat Hanh

Pray as you go: Walking Meditation

Today, notice what its like to walk on the earth.

Stand outside.
Feel the soles of your feed on the ground.
Take slow movements.
One foot.
Then the next.
Slow down the breath.
Look around you.
What do you notice?
Look within you.
What do you notice?

Give thanks for your body, for all that it does for you, for how God created you and calls your body “good.”

“Walking meditation, whether in a labyrinth or in a park, is a physical expression of the interior journey towards Christ. Like a pilgrimage, forms of walking meditation evoke our earthly journey towards heaven while simultaneously giving us time and space to listen and respond to God.”
– Stephen Barany

Family Activity: NATURE SCAVENGER HUNT

This week’s family activity invites you to walk in nature.

You can do this in your back yard, at a park, or around your neighborhood.
As you walk, be willing to slow down, to observe, bend and reach and notice how your body opens and relaxes in the process of finding the things listed in the Nature Scavenger Hunt card.

At the end, have each family member name on thing they are grateful their body can do, and give thanks to God.

Meg Lacy Vega Church Business, Media, Soul Care

Soul Care Week One: Becoming Present

The best preparation 

for a life of prayer

is simply to become

more intensely human


-Kenneth Leech

The practice of presence is about paying attention, waking up to the world around us. Each day this week we will post meditations, images, poetry and activities inviting us to become present–in our surroundings, with our deepest selves, and with the Spirit of God.

Pray As You Go: Breath Prayers

Breath prayers are brief prayers found in scripture that we can offer in any moment, using the inhale and exhale of our breath. They are a link that help us stay connected to God’s presence within us, and within the world. Below are some examples of prayers, but there are limitless possibilities if there is a particular Scripture you wish to pray. Each of these prayers follows the rhythm of the breath, the first line being offered on the inhale and the second line being offered with the exhale.

When I am afraid,
I will trust in you.

The Lord is my Shepherd,
I shall not want.


Be still,
and know.

Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
(this is a form of the Jesus prayer)

Family Activity: BLOWING BUBBLES

Rainbow bubbles, bouncing bubbles, big bubbles, and small bubbles — bubble blowing can be  fun family activity as the weather gets warmer. This practice brings awareness to your breath and your child’s breath as they blow out bubbles. “Listen to your breath” is a gentle way to focus attention on Practicing the Presence.