Online Meditation

Guided Gospel Meditation in your own Home

Meditating on Jesus

Meditation is an ancient practice that has been helping people become more calm, focussed and compassionate for thousands of years. Meditation can be done in complete silence, or a facilitator can gently guide you into relaxation and visualisation.

Our guided meditation are based on a scene from the Gospels. Rev Margaret will guide you to visualise yourself in the scene and then give you some time of of silence to be in the conscious presence of Jesus, to ask your questions, express your needs, and listen for his responses.

Visualisation is different for everyone and, for each person, it can be different at different times. Occasionally when we close our eyes and imagine a scene we might see it vividly and clearly. More often, what we see in our mind is hazy. Some days we can’t see anything at all, and rely on pictures built of words alone. That is all fine.

Meditation as Practice

The biggest mistake people make about meditation is thinking that it is a skill – the skill of quieting your mind, the skill of visualisation, the skill of focussing on just one thing. Meditation is not a skill at all. It is a practice. It is about the Christian practice of metanoia – returning: “Oops. I was just asking Jesus about why there is so much sadness in the world and now I am making a shopping list. Back to Jesus now.” Wandering, noticing and returning is not a sign of failure. It is the practice. It is meditation.

We do not assume any level of experience in meditation at the start. It maybe that you are very experienced, and feel a little frustrated with the slow start, but we want to make this accessible for anyone who might join us. This means that at the start we have a long lead-in and only ten minutes of silence. As you move through the meditations you will find the lead-in becomes shorter and the time in silence becomes longer, as you develop your practice.

Keep in mind…

The meditations start by by helping you into a relaxed state, so please note:

1. Don’t ever listen to these while you are driving.
2. Though you will be relaxed, you will still be in control of your thoughts and actions. Some people can be open to suggestion when they are relaxed, so we are careful not to make any suggestions about anything you might do when the meditation is finished.

If in your imagination you hear Jesus speak to you, that can be very special, and often it is just what we need to hear. And it may even be that God uses this means to communicate with us. But of course we cannot assume we have heard a word from God, especially if it is about something specific – we will need to test it with Scripture, with our own wisdom and with the wise, mature people in our lives.

Spiritual Direction

If you would like to talk through any issues that these meditations might raise for you, our minister is available to offer spiritual direction in person or by Zoom.

Meditations: