Holy Wednesday: A Journey Through Holy Week

A Journey Through Holy Week
Written By Cynthia Bourgeault

Passion Libretto Part II: Gethsemane

This is day three of a six day free Holy Week offering. On this Holy Wednesday, in the Passion LibrettoPart II: Gethsemane, Cynthia brings us to Jesus’ struggle and anguish in the Garden of Gethsemane. She says it is a day when the lights go out and all is winding down before things go completely dark. It is a spiritually generative yet excruciating birthing time when Jesus looked to the support of his friends to stand by and stay awake with him in the pain, yet they could not be present to him. From this place of desolation and disappointment, he still offers himself through self-sacrifice, self-abandonment, and kenotic love. He is somehow held in the midst of it all. We are invited to ponder this in our own lives and see if we can hold both sides of the paradox, the intense human pain, betrayal, desolation, and disappointment right alongside the comfort that it is divinely being held.

As a way of meditatively engaging this material, we invite you to light a candle, take a few conscious breaths, find your feet, and sink into the quiet that always exists deeply within the sanctuary of your heart. Then, as you are ready, begin to listen to Cynthia’s commentary from the ear of your open heart awareness. Today’s video is about 10 minutes. 

Cynthia also offers a gesture that encapsulates the paradox she is talking about. Take some time in that gesture yourself before working with the text for Part II by way of the practice of Lectio Divina using this simple modified version:

Read the text or portion of the text, paying attention to what word or phrase stands out to you and allow yourself to repeat it briefly.

Read it a second time, slowly listening and paying attention to what is resonating within, what is troubling, what speaks directly to the heart even if we don’t understand or know why. Listen with your three centers noticing how the text lands in your body in sensation, gestures, postures as well as emotions and feelings that emerge. Allow your mind to ponder the thoughts, associations, and images that arise. Reflect on what comes up and whether there is a specific way it is speaking directly to you. Listen for what is relevant to your life right now.

Read it a third time, noticing whether a prayer or mantra emerges that can be offered on behalf of you, others, the world, or God.

Listen to the music of Part II of “The Passion,” allowing it to wash over you, resting collected as all that has taken place in the inner sanctuary of your heart continues to settle and assimilate, as you simply sit in the mystery allowing it to draw you deeper. Today’s music is about 12 minutes.

If this audio file does not work in your browser, click here to play the music.

Finally, write down some of what spoke to you from this reflective meditation. What does today’s material teach you about substituted love? 

A blessed Holy Week,

Cynthia Bourgeault & Wisdom Waypoints Board

Cynthia Bourgeault https://cynthiabourgeault.org
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Holy Tuesday: A Journey Through Holy Week