Advent Saturday Prayer

A Morning of Woven Prayer

This Silent Saturday will unfold in a flowing, contemplative rhythm.

Fr. Aten will offer brief reflections interwoven throughout our periods of Centering Prayer — not as a separate talk, but as part of the same living prayer of the heart.

Theme for Our Morning

Be who you are…

the living flesh of Christ.

Your cross is His cross.

Your wounds are His wounds.

Your heartbeat is His heartbeat —

for your heart is not two, but one.

“It is not my heart that lives;

it is the Heart of Christ that is beating,

and that rhythm is all that I know.”

Throughout the morning, we will rest in that interior place

where silence becomes teacher,

Christ becomes breath,

and the one Heart becomes known.

Scriptural Foundations for This Contemplative Reflection

Here are the Scripture passages that ground this reflection deeply within the Christian contemplative tradition. Each verse speaks to the mystery of indwelling, union, shared identity, and the oneness of heart between the believer and Christ — themes long affirmed by the mystics, the early Church, and our own lived experience of prayer.

These verses illuminate the lines of the reflection, helping us see that this language of shared heart, shared life, shared wounds, and shared breath is not poetic exaggeration but the very heart of the Gospel.

1. Galatians 2:20 — The clearest parallel
“It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”
This is the direct source for the line:
“It is not my heart that lives; it is the Heart of Christ that is beating.”
Paul is naming the union of hearts — the interior oneness you are expressing.

2. 1 Corinthians 6:17 — Oneness of spirit
“But whoever is united with the Lord is one spirit with him.”
This is a biblical grounding for:
“Your heart is not two, but one.”

3. Romans 8:16–17 — Shared identity, shared suffering, shared glory
“The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
And if children, then heirs — heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ,
if indeed we suffer with him…”
This supports:
“Your cross is His cross. Your wounds are His wounds.”
Because Scripture says we co-suffer and co-inherit with Christ.

4. 2 Corinthians 1:5 — Sharing Christ’s sufferings
“For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow into our lives,
so also through Christ our comfort overflows.”
This echoes:
“Your wounds are His wounds.”

5. Colossians 1:27 — Christ in you
“Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
This pairs beautifully with:
“Be who you are… the living flesh of Christ.”

6. John 15:4 — Mutual indwelling
“Abide in me, and I in you.”
This supports the imagery of shared breath, shared life, shared heartbeat.

7. John 17:21–23 — The prayer for oneness
“That they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you…
I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one.”
This is the deepest biblical grounding for:
“Your heartbeat is His heartbeat.”

8. Ezekiel 36:26 — A new heart within you
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you.”
This is a contemplative foundation for the transformation into Christ’s heart.

9. Philippians 2:5 — The mind/heart of Christ in us
“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.”
A scriptural reason to say:
“Be who you are… the living flesh of Christ.”

10. 1 John 4:16 — God dwelling in us
“Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.”
This supports the entire reflection — union, indwelling, oneness of love.

Come as You Are

Come into the silence that welcomes everything.
Come into the union that has always been yours.
Come into the Heart that beats as your own.

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