Suggested Reflection Time ~30 Minutes

Preparation (~ 5 minutes)

Take a few moments to center yourself and create a space to listen and imagine. Some techniques that others have used include:

• Deep Breaths
• Repeating a word or phrase that has a holy or spiritual connotation for you.
• Imagining yourself in a space you find tranquil and comfortable.
• Making a physical gesture of reverence or placement.

Opening Prayer (~ 1 minute)

___________, open me to your presence. Help me create or find a space to hear you calling me by name.

Reflection Text:

O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.

For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed. How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! I try to count them—they are more than the sand; I come to the end—I am still with you.

(Psalm 139:1-5, 13-18)

Reflection (~20 minutes)

I desire to hear how I am known and loved.

I read the Reflection Text to consider God's presence in my creation and life.

I imagine myself in a setting that resembles where I am at emotionally and spiritually. I take in my surroundings, consider the sensation of the place. I let my isolation seem in. Then I imagine someone searching for me, and embrace the warmth when they find me and join with me in this place.

I consider the presence of a constant love, one which reminds me that I am amazing every moment of the day. Someone who knows what I think before I do, and delights in every stray thought.

I bask in the overwhelming sensation of being so intimately known, of being so fully loved.

I imagine myself before I was born. I see the cells divide, the growth as organs form. I picture a presence in that place, a hand directing each step. I dwell on the stages of growth, the miracle of skin, bones and organs growing together, each part dependent on another. I see the beauty in the process, in the becoming of myself.

Praise and thanks spill forth as I remember that I have been created, made to be whole and loved. I hear you name me wonderful, with the authority of one who knows me better than I can know myself. I imagine myself being made, the secret process guarded from all view. All view except yours, whose caring presence shaped every part of me.

I imagine myself even before this process of creation. I feel myself as nothing in a place of nothingness, and yet sense that I am known and loved. I see the pages of your book, feel the parchment heavy, and thick. The words describe every step of my journey. The pages turn so quickly that I cannot read them. But you can, for they are transcribed in your hand.

I try to gather all of this, all of you within me, and feel your presence burst forth. All this goodness, this energy this creativity is too much for me. I try to count, to number, but cannot. Even as I fail to know your bounds, I do know that I am not alone. Your presence lingers with every breath, every sigh, and every step I take.

Conversation (~3 minutes)

I end in a short conversation with ____________, giving thanks.