People throughout the world, from different spiritual traditions and cultures, meditate as part of their spiritual practice. One of our sisters, Corrie van den Bosch MSS, discerned over some time in prayer, that if all meditators, each in his/her own place and tradition, could do their meditation with one intention on one day, “we would generate a tidal wave of spiritual energy for the healing of the world”.
It is in this spirit, that we invite you to participate in one hour of meditation on Sunday 4th October, the Feast Day of St Francis of Assisi. St Francis lived 800 years ago and was a man of great love, especially for the poor and for the Earth and its creatures. He was also an ambassador of peace.
If you don’t practice meditation, perhaps you could dedicate an hour of your day to the intention of sending out love to the world? Whatever you are involved in during that hour, do it consciously and with love.
Many years ago Teilhard de Chardin wrote:
Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, humans will have discovered fire.
We have come a long way in harnessing the energies of wind and tides and gravity, but we have not yet learned to so live that every being in the world can flourish. For this we need to harness the energies of God’s love for the healing of the world and the flourishing of all beings. The energies of Love are the life-force of the Universe. They lie deep within us, the Source of Life, of our life.
When you meditate on 4th October, we invite you to consciously unite with meditators throughout the world, and to focus your awareness on the energies of Love within you. As you breathe in, invite the energies of Love to fill you. As you breathe out, send the energies of Love into the world, bringing healing and peace to all beings and to the Earth itself.
You are very welcome to join in a one-hour online meditation on Zoom, led by Corrie van den Bosch MSS, from 4:00pm – 5:00pm (AEST) on the 4th October.
Alternatively, you might pause a few moments during the day to pray the prayer of St Francis with that same intention. May his prayer become your prayer and a guide for the way you live.
Prayer of St Francis 
Lord,
make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant
that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying
that we are born to eternal life.
Download the invitation here.
The day of prayer is auspiced by the Missionary Sisters of Service, Contemplative Evolution Network and Highways and Byways – a Community of Service.
Image of gum trees by Maureen Hickling MSS.