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( Excerpt from Breathing Yeshua- Christian Meditation in the Way of the Heart )
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Calling on the Name of Yeshua
(updated April 22, 2007)
Yeshua is the personal face of God turned towards us. Yeshua tells us, "Receive me, receive me in your humanity. Live me in your human life each moment. I am accessible to you in the most personal and the most intimate way. "In John's Gospel He says, " I will not abandon you, I will not leave you orphaned. My spirit will be within you. Because I live, you will live.” (John 14:8) That’s a wonderful promise, isn’t it? “Because I live, you will live." He promises us "Your true life is My life," so let it be, let it happen, let it take place within you. Receive me because I want to give myself to you."When we want to be close to someone, really close, when we want to really be in their presence, the first thing we often do is think of their name, isn’t it? In the Judeo-Christian tradition to be called by name means a condition of intimacy and the scriptures speak again and again about being called by name by the living Lord. So it is also the reason why we choose a name as our prayer word in Prayer of the Heart. Scripture invites us to call upon the name of the Lord. That very act then makes us accessible to the Divine. The Lord is already here, so it’s not as though the Lord is around the block or somewhere and you’re whistling, saying, "Hey, over here!" Yeshua is already here and ready to offer Himself, and *is* offering Himself. By invoking the name of Yeshua, the name of the Lord, we are given to God and our longing for God, we make ourselves accessible. This is Breathing Yeshua. Returning again and again and again to the name of our Beloved makes us accessible to the Beloved. The name of Yeshua and breath become our anchor in the middle of life so that we are not overwhelmed by the culture we live in and the culture we carry around in your mind.
In the Abrahamic Faiths prayer takes place in the invocation of the name of the Holy One. In the Prayer of the Heart, the name of Yeshua, the personal manifestation of the Holy One, the Christos, the Risen One of our heart is our anchor and the One in whom our self-offering is continually expressed. In Breathing Yeshua, every breath, every invocation of the Holy Name, carries with it in our intention of self-offering. "Here I am, I am yours."
In human relationships, isn’t that what we do when we are really in relationship and in union with another human being? We say, "Here I am – I am yours, I give myself to you." How much more it is in the relationship with Christ! "Here I am, I join my life with your life. We are not separate. Your life is my true life." Thomas Merton says that to find who you truly are, to find your true heart and your true spirit within you, is to find Christ. In our practice of breathing Yeshua, we breathe and give ourselves to the reality of the Living One within us, who is our true Life, and we receive the gift of God, the Living Water of Christ, who suffuses our humanity from within– this is the receptive interior movement of our life in Christ. We are all like Mary of Bethany and Mary of Magdala, who receive and heal in His presence and say: "Yeshua is enough! The fullness of my Heart's desire is here and now in Yeshua." There is no magic; there is no technique. There is just this opening in utter trust to receive the One who continually offers Himself. This opening to the personal and intimate love that Yeshua gives in Himself, opens us to the Universal Heart of Christ that embraces the Universe and all Creation.
By William Ryan, M.A. L.P.C.
Bill's Spiritual Direction and Counseling Site
William T.
Ryan is co-director of
Contemplative Ministries of the Pacific Northwest
