Brother Richard

Breathing in, I know that I am breathing in.

Breathing out, I know that I am breathing out.

And so gently, rooting oneself in this moment, but taking the learning of the meditation with us, we begin to move fingers and toes to give a stretch or a yawn.

To prepare now to come back from this time, we take a moment in gratitude that we were able to spend this time together.

And then gently we allow the sound of the bell to draw us back to the activity of the day.

Thank you.

Welcome back.

In today's meditation, we continue to follow the teaching of one of our great meditation masters in the Christian monastic tradition, St.

Therese of Lisieux.

In our earlier session, we introduced her little way, the way of putting love at the center of all things, the way of beginning again each day.

In today's meditation, we're going to look at the practice of consciously dedicating presence, no matter what we are doing or how we find ourselves.

So let's begin.

Arriving to this moment of meditation, just pause for a moment.

Consciously be aware that you are leaving one way of being and stepping into another for these few moments.

Really feel the transition from whatever came before to this moment.

Again, you might like to use a ritual gesture to mark the transition.

But you can also inwardly make the intention

to truly enter this time of meditation.

And then taking your seat or resting back in the seat that you're already in, we begin.

Sensing into the body, we feel its posture and we gently open the posture to one of awareness, wakefulness.