WELLSPRING MEDITATION

SATURDAY

September 12, 2009

This morning, we take a break from our mediation on “New Beginnings” and make our “Wellspring Meditation”.

Tomorrow is the 11^th anniversary of Wellspring being established in its present location. Much has happened since we began our ministry.
We have journeyed together and formed a praying, caring, serving and contemplative community where all can come to deepen their spirituality, learn the contemplative way and be actively in ministry.

We have walked with the virtues of justice, peace, hope, compassion, wisdom, faithfulness and this year prayerfulness and it is my hope that your journey at Wellspring has made a real difference in your life. It is a blessing to share this journey with you and to continue building this community of men and women who are contemplatives in active ministry.

Please join me in thanking God for all his blessings and Grace on our ministry.

Thank you for your presence, participation and support.

We will continue our meditation on “New Beginnings” next week.

Please make your meditation in a comfortable place as usual and meet at the usual gathering space at 7:35AM

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERFUL PRESENCE.

YOU ARE IN MY PRAYER.

Fr. Gus

WELLSPRING MEDITATION

BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD.

Be in your prayer space, follow the usual steps and settle into silence.

Sit still…..Relax…….Do not rush………

Take a couple of gentle, slow and deep breaths…becoming aware of your breath going in and out… stay focused on this breath of life……

Settle into silence, into peacefulness, into profound silence, into pure joy. Keep listening in such quietness and serenity. Come to that place, that space within, that place of deep silence, Solitude, to just being here and now without having to accomplish something.

Now from the depth of your heart begin to wish your mind well……….

Lord, I hunger for your presence!

I wait for your arrival!

I get up early, on Saturday morning,

I even, struggle to wake up and get ready,

I drive all the way to Wellspring,

I get into a comfortable position,

I wait with others….. for you……..I wait………I hunger……..I thirst……..

Meditative Reading and Prayer:

Loving God,

we gather in faith,

anxious to be together again,

desiring in our presence to one another,

your Presence.

God, we feel vulnerable and very human,

and our need for you is great,

and so is our need for each other.

For the gift of life and love,

thank you.

Open to us, reveal to us, your wisdom,

that we may live your gift of life,

gratefully, gracefully, lovingly, justly, peacefully, wisely and faithfully.

Abide in this thought for some time!

Begin Again……

For the mystery and miracle of your Church,

and our faith community, WELLSPRING,

where, when one of rejoices, all of us rejoice,

and when one of us suffers, all of us suffer,

we thank you.

We are always moved by the faith, the hope, the love and the joy,

as well as the loneliness, disappointment, pain and sorrow,

of those with whom we live and have our being in this community.

They have become for us your blessings and grace,

encouraging, calling and challenging us.

Their faces have become faces of Christ to us.

We remember Jesus,

being washed in the waters of the Jordan,

immersed in the life-giving water,

filled with the Holy Spirit,

moving into the desert to contemplate and fulfill his mission,

We remember the blind man,

who washed in the waters of Siloam,

and had a new vision and new spirit.

We remember the Samaritan woman,

drawing water from Jacob’s well,

only to hear the call to the Wellspring,

to drink the life-giving water,

which becomes a fountain within,

leaping up to provide eternal life.

We remember our own baptismal waters,

cleansing us, gracing us, immersing us,

into the mystery of your gift of life and love,

calling us by name into a community,

empowering us to live the “Christ-Life” to its fullness.

Lord, bless our gathering now,

and make it a pool of life-giving water,

bearing your grace, your love, your peace – Your Presence.

Abide in this thought for some time!

Lord, we gather again at Wellspring,

Affirming again that there is a spring within!

Deep, down there, there is a wellspring!

Look beyond…don’t ever stop looking, because it is there.

Abide in this thought for some time!

Listen to the master calling: Give me a drink! I thirst!

Not now! May be tomorrow…may be in the spring! My Well is closed for the winter!

Gospel call comes again and again: Give me a drink! I thirst!

It’s never out of season to give a drink….never out of season or too late to be a well for our brothers and sisters – nor is it out of season or too late to receive from their wells…

There are wells hidden in the hearts of all the thirsty strangers we meet along the way. Sometimes our honest search for the living water can lead us to these wells. The woman at the well received her drink from Jesus and she became a well for others to drink from (Jn.4:39).

I want to call you to look for such wells along the way, on your journey and to be such a well for others to find (during the coming week). Deep, down there, there is a wellspring!

A faucet will do in a hurry, but what makes the world so wonderful is that somewhere it hides a well so deep, full of life-giving drink. Sometimes people are like wells, deep and real, natural (unpiped), calm, cool, refreshing, life-giving. They bring out the best in you. Some experiences are like that too. They are all wells of wonder, wells of hope, wells of joy, wells of courage and wisdom.

When you find such a well, drink deeply of the gift within. Then, may be soon, you will discover that you have become what you received. Then you will be a well for others to find.

Look beyond…don’t ever stop looking, because it is there.

Abide in this thought for some time!

Fr. Gus Tharappel,msfs