Through the scriptures, Christians are encouraged to meditate. I have through trials realized there is no one way to meditate. However, I have found great use of the spiritual guidance provided by St. Francis de Sales through his book “Introduction To The Devout Life” and I think it would be useful to anyone in confusion as to what Christian Meditation may feel like. Below are the areas of our earthly lives St. Francis de Sales would prefer we focus on when we meditate.
“I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways.”
— Psalm 119:15
MEDITATE ON OUR CREATION
Preparation
Place yourself in God’s presence.
Ask God to inspire you.
Thoughts
- Think of the time before you were born. Where was your soul then?
- The world existed, but it saw nothing of you.
- Out of his goodness, God pulled you out of that void and made you
who you are. - Think of the possibilities God has placed in you.
Responses and Resolutions
- Be humble before God. “O my soul, you would still be a part of that nothingness if God had not pulled you out of it. You would be neither conscious nor active.
- Thank God. “My good Creator, I owe you a tremendous debt. You made me what I am. How can I ever express my thanks?”
- Reprimand yourself. “I have run far away from my Creator and sinned. I have not respected his goodness. Beginning now, I will admit that I am nothing.
- How can dust and ashes take pride in itself? I want to change my life. I will follow my Creator.
Conclusion
Thank God. Offer yourself to him. Ask him to help you keep your resolutions.
When you have finished your prayer, go back through it, and pick a few flowers.
Make a devotional nosegay, a spiritual bouquet to enjoy all day long.
MEDITATE ON THE PURPOSE OF LIFE
Preparation
Place yourself in God’s presence.
Ask God to inspire you.
Thoughts
- God did not put you in the world because he needed you. He made you for the purpose of working his goodness in you by giving you his grace.
- He has given you a mind to know him, a memory to recall his favors, a will to love him, eyes to see what he does, a tongue to sing his praise. This is the reason you are here. Anything that hinders it must be avoided.
- Think of the unhappy people who miss this point and live as though they were here only to construct houses, plant trees, accumulate money, and waste themselves on the trifling.
Responses and Resolutions
- Scold your soul with humility. Remind it that until now it has been so miserable that it hasn’t thought much about these things.
- Ask yourself, “What did I think about when I did not think about God? What did I remember when I forgot God? What did I love when I did not love God?”
- Hate your previous behavior. “I am through thinking shallow thoughts and making futile plans. I renounce bad friendships, ugly deeds, and self-indulgence.”
- Turn to God. “My Savior, from now on you will regularly be in my thoughts. I will stop thinking about evil things. I will remember your mercy toward me every day. The vanities I used to chase after disgust me.”
Conclusion
Thank God for your purpose in life. Ask him to help you to measure up to it.
Pick some spiritual flowers.
MEDITATE ON GOD’S BLESSINGS
Preparation
Place yourself in God’s presence.
Ask God to inspire you.
Thoughts
- God has blessed you with a body and everything necessary to sustain life.
- Think of those less fortunate than yourself.
- Think about the clarity and capacity of your mind. God has blessed you.
- Remember that some are not so fortunate.
- Think about your spiritual blessings, Philothea. You grew up in the church.
- You have heard about God from childhood. Notice the small things and see how gentle and kind God has been in your life.
Responses and Resolutions
- Let God’s goodness astonish you. “How good God has been to me! How merciful! How generous!”
- Let your gratefulness astonish you. “Why did you care about me, Lord? I am not worthy. I have thrown your blessings away like so much trash. I have not been thankful for it all.
- Declare a resolution. “I resolve to stop being unfaithful, ungrateful, and disloyal to God.”
- Go to church. “I will pray and observe the sacraments. I will hear your holy word and make it a part of my life.”
Conclusion
Thank God for what you see now. Offer your heart to him. Ask him to help you keep your promises.
Pick a little spiritual bouquet.
MEDITATE ON SIN
Preparation
Place yourself in God’s presence.
Ask him to inspire you.
Thoughts
- Remember when you first began to sin and how your sins increased over the years.
- Think about your sins toward God, yourself, your neighbors.
- Think about the things you have done, spoken, desired, fantasized.
- Think about how lightly you have handled holy things and how you have run to escape God even as he was looking for you.
Responses and Resolutions
- Let this trouble you. “Dear God, how can I let you see me? Not one day of my life is spotless! Is this how I pay you back?”
- Ask God to forgive you. “Like the prodigal son, like Mary Magdalene, I throw myself down before you and ask for mercy on a sinner, my Lord.”
- Promise to live a better life. “With your help, Lord, I will not sin again. I hate my sin. I will admit each sin and drive it out of my life. I will start by weeding out the most troublesome. I will make amends where I can.”
Conclusion
Thank God for patiently waiting for this moment. Offer you to him. Ask him to let it be as you have vowed. Seek his strength.
MEDITATE ON DEATH
Preparation
Place yourself in God’s presence.
Beg for his grace.
Imagine yourself bedridden with a terminal illness.
Thoughts
- Think of the unpredictability of the time of your death. You don’t know whether it will be summer or winter, day or night. Will it come suddenly or with time to prepare? Will it result from sickness or accident? You know nothing about what will kill you or when it will happen. All you know is that you will die.
- Think about how that will remove you from the world. All the little recreations of lite will evaporate. Only God will be important. Small sins will loom like mountains, and your devotion will seem very small.
- Think about your soul saying good-bye to your money, clubs, games, friends, parents, children, husband, wife, everyone. See it say good-bye to your body lying there ugly with the pallor of death upon it.
- Think of the speed with which others will take that lifeless body out to be buried. And when that job is done, consider how little the world will ever think of you again. It will remember you no more than you have thought of others who have died.
- Think about where your soul will go after leaving your body. Which path will it take? It will travel the same road it started to travel in this world.
Responses and Resolutions
- Run to God and let him hug you. “Lord, look out for me when I die. Make it a good experience”.
- Have no attachment to this world. “World, you are nothing ultimate for me. I have no permanent relationship with you.”
Conclusion
Thank God. Offer your desires to him. Ask him to make your death happy in Christ.
Gather a bouquet of myrrh.
MEDITATE ON JUDGMENT
Preparation
Place yourself in God’s presence.
Ask God to inspire you.
Thoughts
- When the earthly time has run out, this planet will be reduced to ashes by a raging fire. Nothing will escape.
- Think about the frightening words Scripture speaks to the evil “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41).
- Think about the opposite command that is spoken to the good, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world” (Matthew 25:34).
Responses and Resolutions
- Let these thoughts trouble you deeply. “O God, who will make me secure on the Day of Judgment?
- Judge yourself – now. “I will look for those things that stain my conscience and condemn them for you in advance, O Lord. I will contest my sins.”
Conclusion
Thank God. Offer him a penitent heart.
Gather a bouquet.
MEDITATE ON HELL
Preparation
Place yourself in God’s presence.
Humbly seek God’s help.
Imagine a dreary place crowded with trapped people.
Thoughts
- There is a punishment that suits the crime.
- Beyond all imaginable grief, there is separation from God.
- If an insect or a fever can make the night seem long, this eternal darkness is raw terror.
Responses and Resolutions
- Let the words of Isaiah make you tremble. “Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?
(Isaiah 33:14). It is unbearable to consider being permanently separated from God. - Admit that you deserve hell. “But from now on, Lord, I will be on another road. I have no desire for a trip to destruction.”
- Think of some specific ways you can improve your life. What can you do to protect yourself from temptation
Conclusion
Thank God. Pray.
MEDITATE ON HEAVEN
Preparation
Place yourself in God’s presence.
Appeal to his greater power.
Thoughts
- Imagine a clear, gorgeous night with a star-filled sky. Without losing that image, consider the beauty of a really nice day. Put it all together and you will still not have anything that compares with heaven.
- Think about all the good souls that inhabit heaven. Picture angels by the million. Such radiance! Such music! Such joy!
- They are blessed forever.
Responses and Resolutions
- Let it impress you. “You are beautiful, dear Jerusalem. There is nothing but happiness here.”
- Rebuke yourself for every step you have ever taken on a road in some other direction than here.
- Let it attract you.
Conclusion
Thank God. Pray.
THE DECISION TO LIVE DEVOUTLY
Preparation
Place yourself in God’s presence.
Humbly ask him to inspire this moment.
Thoughts
- Think about what it would be like to be alone in a big meadow. Your guardian angel is with you and shows you all heaven open before you as you conceived it in your last meditation. There below you is hell with all its torments. You are right in the middle. Both heaven and hell beckon. The choice is yours.
- Your decision has eternal consequences. God will grant you hell with his justice or heaven with his mercy.
- Something more important is at work here. God is eager for you to choose heaven. In a way you can barely imagine, God desires this for you.
- He will provide you with incredible grace and assistance.
- Jesus Christ mercifully invites you. “Come join me, here. I have lovingly prepared a place for you.”
- His mother sighs as your own mother would. “Listen to my Son.”
- Countless holy souls beg you to join them in praising and loving God.
- They explain that it is not as difficult to become one of them as you might think. They offer words of encouragement. “You can do it.”
May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, LORD, my Rock, and my Redeemer.
Psalm 19: 14
