July is still for Embodiment! (part three)
A final embodied practice for evening...
Our final Embodied Practice is for the evening: holy space to let go of the stresses of the day, receive the blessings, and prepare for a night of sleep. Rev Lisha leads a ten minute experience that helps us slow down our bodies, minds, and souls as the sun begins to set. Such a gift.
If you missed the first two, check out Ep 1: Morning Embodiment Practice and Ep 2: Midday Embodiment Practice.
Night Prayer
Compline is the final "prayer office” of the day, found in the Book of Common Prayer. Meant to be prayed right before bed, Compline helps us slow down, exhale, and release the day back into our Creator’s hands. It is an invitation into the peace of entrusting ourselves to the care of the One who sustains us as we rest.
If you long for quiet and holy space at the end of your day, Compline can be a life-changing experience. (In Prayer in the Night, Tish Harrison Warren wrote about Compline sustaining her during a season of deep loss and doubt. Highly recommended.)
And in 2022, a team of us recorded a 25 minute contemplative Compline liturgy called A New Liturgy No 10: Night Prayer. We offer it as a soundtrack to your evening prayers. First, you may recognize the music from these three embodiment videos! Especially that little piano vamp. Second, if you've been on a Pastors, Priests and Guides retreat, you will recognize the whole thing! We end the first day of retreat with this contemplative Compline liturgy.
No 10: Night Prayer aims to bring the historic wisdom of Compline into a flow of music, contemplation, and worship. Let it open you to the God who is already open to you. Let it accompany and empower you to release your burdens back into God’s hands. After a long and messy day, may it give you what you need to let it all go. Listen to the first nine minutes of the liturgy here…
And explore the full liturgy here…
The River of Grace is already flowing and you’re already completely in it. May we stop resisting and create a little space to swim each day.
Lisha
Finally, we think it’s really appropriate to thank Rev Lisha Epperson for guiding us so skillfully over this month. She has a very full life as priest and mother and wife and embodiment minister, and we deeply appreciate her time and incredible gifts. If you want to keep in touch with Lisha, you can follow her on Instagram…check out her work at St Peter’s Chelsea…or visit her website. She’d love to hear from you.
And of course, she is one of the guides at the Philly retreat (July 22-24) and the Malibu retreat (November 18-20). Come and practice with her!
Grace and peace,
Aaron and the PP&G Team