Tag: Soul Space

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New Contemplative Reflections on Psalm 16 and Philippians 4:6-9

My partners and I at Soul Space released a new reflection yesterday! Featuring Psalm 16, it invites us to make God the center of our hope and trust, to follow him in his way of life and joy, and to see the abundant ways he is already present in our lives. 

Last month, we also released a reflection on Philippians 4:6-8, a contemplation to help us cope with anxieties and fear by following the Apostle Paul’s RX for peace: gratitude, prayer, and focusing our thoughts on all that is good and comes from God. 

In the meantime, we are also planning more reflections for the fall! Starting in November, we are hoping to release a series of 5 meditations per month. One will continue to be free, and the other four will be behind a paywall of some sort – we’re still working out the details. Our first series will be in November, on Gratitude (of course!), and in December, an Advent series entitled, “Opening Ourselves Up . . . to God’s Holy Disturbance.” Each month will include four different types of prayer based on the month’s theme: an Ignatian imaginative prayer, a Daily Examen, a breath prayer, and a Lectio Divina. 

We’ve gotten some really great feedback on what we’ve done so far, so thank you to all who have listened, responded, and shared with your friends and family! All of us have had our lives and relationships with God changed by contemplative practices (and by spiritual direction) and are passionate about bringing them to as many people as possible. – Carrie

Find me on Instagram @ravishedbylight

Find SoulSpace on Instagram @soulspacecenter

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An Invitation to Rest (New Guided Reflection On Isaiah 43)

It’s been a while since I updated, but my partners and I at Soul Space have continued to release at least a recording a month. If you haven’t checked our site lately, this is good news for you! You’ll find a Daily Examen as well as a guided imaginative meditation on Matthew 11:28-29 that invites you to bring your burdens to Jesus and exchange them for his rest. This month, our new reflection takes you through Isaiah 43:1-4, a beautiful and mysterious passage in which God promises his people that neither fire nor flood will harm them nor separate them from his love and promises. (I could be wrong, but I think I remember one of the characters in one of my favorite childhood books, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, by Madeline L’Engle, quoting this verse to someone he loves.)

As always, I hope our meditations will help you experience the peace and presence of the Holy Spirit within you, calming your fears, building your faith and trust, and growing you in inner freedom and joy.

Find me on Instagram at @ravishedbylight and @soulspacecenter

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A Meditation for Advent

The people who walk in darkness will see a great light.
For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine. 
Isaiah 9:2     

This year, these words from Isaiah seem more resonant than ever. 2020 has been – and continues to be – in some ways darker than imaginable. With the first vaccines being administered, a glimmer of light is beginning to make its way through, but we almost certainly still have long months of fear, loss, and isolation to go.

At Christmas, we celebrate the arrival of Jesus, the Light of the World, the one who brings us hope and salvation, but we also acknowledge the loss and the brokenness he came to redeem. What has your experience of the darkness been this year? Where has God been present to you in suffering and mourning, and who has he been to you?

I invite you to listen to this meditation from the spiritual directors at Soul Space on Isaiah 9:2-7.  Let Scripture, music, and the Holy Spirit move you to reflect on the character of God and what it means to hope in God in the midst of a season of darkness and waiting.  

May you have a blessed Advent season and may the light of Christ fill your heart and sustain you with life, peace, and love.

Visit the Soul Space website here: soulspace.center.

Find me on Instagram @ravishedbylight and on @soulspacecenter

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A Meditation for Thanksgiving (plus a bonus!)

This meditation, written and narrated by Janine Rohrer and with music by David Buchs, my partners at Soul Space, might be just what you need for the holidays. It invites you to reflect on God’s faithfulness even in times of struggle, sorrow, and loss and to offer praise – not out of ignorance or forced cheerfulness, but out of a deep encounter with God’s care and love. I hope it will help you find strength and peace as you celebrate Thanksgiving this year.

There’s also another new meditation up on soulspace.center! (Scroll down to see it.) This one is a guided Daily Examen. This prayer practice developed by St. Ignatius of Loyola creates a rhythm of looking back at each day with God, to find where he was present, where we were present to him, and where we might have lost sight of him and his desires for us. Practiced regularly, the Examen builds awareness of God’s continual abiding with us no matter what our external circumstances and grows us in love, joy, patience, and all the fruits of the Spirit. I encourage you to commit to praying the Examen at least a few times a week – the perspective and immersion in God’s presence it offers is a much-needed gift in these uncertain days. (For those with little people, here’s an earlier post I wrote on doing the Examen with kids, along with a review of a book that can help.)

May your Thanksgiving be blessed with love, health, the warmth of friends and family (even if it’s through a Zoom screen!), and, above all, the grace and fellowship of the Lord.

Find me on Instagram @ravishedbylight and @soulspace.center.

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Listen to a New Guided Meditation at soulspace.center

I’m so excited to announce my friends and fellow spiritual directors Janine Rohrer and David Buchs have launched our new website, Soul Space. At Soul Space, we create room for your soul to breathe. Our vision is to make space for busy people to find rest, nourishment, and inspiration for their souls. We offer guided meditations, spiritual direction, and retreats.

To go with the new website, we’ve posted a new guided meditation, set to David’s ambient music. Based on Psalm 25, it leads the listener to prayerfully reflect on trust, hope, and repentance and on God’s guidance, compassion, and love.

Listen to it now and let your soul find rest from a busy day! We’ll be releasing a new recording next week, too!

You can also find archived reflections on our Soul Space page at Soundcloud.

Find me on Instagram @ravishedbylight.

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Contemplative Reflection for Pentecost

My friends and I at Soul Space have a new guided contemplation up just in time for Pentecost Sunday!

May you have a life-giving encounter with Jesus and the Holy Spirit as you listen to the Scripture (Acts 2:1-21) and use your imagination to enter into a time of reflection and prayer.

Created by Soul Space: Janine Rohrer (writing), Carrie Myers (narration), David Buchs (Original music and sound mixing)

P.S. I’ve been creating guided contemplative prayers every week for our virtual Sunday services at Vineyard One NYC. For those of you who are spiritual directors or prayer leaders, I’m going to start posting those scripts weekly, so stay tuned!

(If I can figure out how, I’ll post the recordings, too, but so far Audacity and I are not friends. Recording the Pentecost script required me to sit in my living room very late at night so noises were at a minimum, doors and windows closed, fan off, with my microphone in a box stuffed with pillows and there was still background noise that I do not personally know how to edit out.)

Find me on Instagram @ravishedbylight.

Find David Buchs at www.sleepwithmusic.com.

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Hope On Easter: A Guided Meditation on John 20:1-18

Many of us are in mourning this Easter — for our old way of life or for those who have left it, all swept away in the pandemic. In these troubled times, may you find comfort and purpose in remembering that, in Jesus, the darkness truly does precede the dawn, that dying is a prelude to resurrection. What could seem like a crass and empty cliché becomes exactly the opposite in light Jesus’ defeat on the cross of the power of sin and darkness. As we wait expectantly for the “already but not yet” of the new creation, what new life will emerge from the ashes of the coronavirus?

As you experience this Easter meditation, our prayer is that the story of the risen Christ will bring you peace and hope during a time of stress and anxiety. Don’t fear, there is Good News ahead of us!

– Written by Janine Rohrer and Carrie Myers. Voiceover and music by David Buchs.

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Find me (Carrie Myers) on instagram @ravishedbylight

Find more music by David Buchs and more meditations by Janine Rohrer and David Buchs at sleepwithmusic.com.

And keep an eye out for new guided meditations and prayers at our new website, soulspace.center, coming soon!

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Good Friday Contemplative Prayer

Today is a Good Friday unlike any I can remember. With the covid crisis still raging in New York City and hundreds of people dying every day, Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross feels very near. It feels less like an abstract religious idea and more like the reality for thousands of people all over the world who are sick or dying or losing loved ones.

My partners Janine Rohrer and David Buchs and I created this guided contemplative prayer from John 19:16-30 knowing that many of us are grieving and frightened, uncertain about the future, and needing to find solid ground. We invite you to breathe deeply of God’s presence: to walk with Jesus through his crucifixion, to speak to him out of your own emotions and experience, and to hear his loving words for you.

May you be blessed by Jesus during this time of prayer.

– Carrie

Find me on Instagram @ravishedbylight and on the blog at vineyardone.nyc.

Find David Buchs and other meditations by David Buchs and Janine Rohrer at www.sleepwithmusic.com.