A Sacred Gaze

encountering Jesus through art

in Lent or in Ordinary weeks

This series of eight meditations draws on the art of Sieger Köder, selections from Psalm 107, and passages from the gospel as aids to being open to God, encountering God’s presence and love, and reflecting on personal and global issues.

The meditations can be used through Lent, Holy Week, and the week after Easter, but can also be used at other times throughout the year, as a series, or as individual meditations.

Each meditation is ‘located’ in a particular time of day, but can be used at whatever time works best for you.

It is our prayer that you will find them a helpful source of inspiration, comfort and challenge.

Click here to go to the meditations

December 30, 2015

the time of your life : three meditations for the new year

“Live your life on purpose: this is the time of your life!”

“Look at those children, they’re having the time of their lives”

And you? Watching you, are you having the time of your life?

Am I living the life I love? Or loving the life I’m living?

Or are we scrambling about on the edges of our lives?

Frustrated and dissatisfied somehow – this wasn’t how it was meant to be.

“Something is pushing them

to the side of their own lives.”

-Philip Larkin

It’s time to stop, pause and watch ourselves.

Somewhere in the leisurely days of Christmas and New Year, there is a pausing time, and quiet space …

Claim it!

Click below to open three short meditations for the new year:

Pausing at New Year

March 29, 2015March 13, 2015

Go simply in your spirit

Holy Week.

The excitement of Palm Sunday and Jesus’ entry to Jerusalem

The culmination of three years of journeying

The perplexity of those last days

The anguished grief of Good Friday

The empty waiting…

We journey this week with some of the women who had accompanied Jesus over those three years, and who stayed with him to the very end.

Can we learn from them a simplicity of spirit that will stay with us, whatever life may bring?

Click here to go to this week’s meditations

March 15, 2015March 1, 2015

Go simply with your culture

Tomorrow is the start of the fifth week of Lent.

Our prayer this week is that we may hear our heart’s truth.

Can we live within our culture yet challenge it?

Can we learn from Nicodemus, the Pharisee, who came to Jesus in the dead of night?

Click here to go to this week’s meditations

February 14, 2015March 1, 2015

Go simply with yourself

Tomorrow begins the third week in Lent. During this week we will journey with Mary Magdalene: Mary, the one afflicted by seven demons; Mary, the one set free; Mary, the one whose name Jesus spoke – tenderly, lovingly.

We are invited to simply be ourselves,

not needing an exciting lifestyle, busy schedules,

comfort foods, or approving relationships

in order to know and live out

our belovedness,

our true identity, our worth, our life tasks.

Click here to go to this week’s meditations

February 7, 2015February 16, 2015

Go Simply: Reflections for Lent

A series of Lenten reflections to attend to our doing and being, the active and contemplative

Traditionally, there are 40 days of Lent, from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday (not counting the Sundays of Lent), which means February 18 to April 4 in 2015. Starting from Ash Wednesday, 18th February, we will be posting a series of reflections for the seven weeks of Lent. Each week explores a different aspect of simplicity, and focuses on someone, or some people who featured in Jesus’ life.

These reflections take the form of a simple liturgy for the week, with five readings to help you be still in God’s presence: to pause; to listen; to be.

The seven weeks

Week One: Go simply in your belief – Thomas’ Journey

Week Two: Go simply with your possessions – Judas’ Journey

Week Three: Go simply with yourself – Mary Magdalene’s Journey

Week Four: Go simply in your lifestyle – With the Bethany Family, Mary, Martha and Lazarus

Week Five: Go simply within your culture – Nicodemus’ Journey

Week Six: Go simply in your vocation – With Mary, Jesus’ Mother

Week Seven: Go simply in your spirit – With Joanna and the women who accompanied Jesus