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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 19h

TUESDAY MEDITATIO I love my clever notions in worship my discursions are ingenious, surely no one else can invent such insights 👀 (& btw I’m a genius) how can my marvels be bad? Why the need to stuff my messages into the cushion of liminal overlap, Indeed why stop going down the rival hole?

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 19h

Tuesday Lectio (Cloud) "& that done me much good. & therefore me thinketh tht he should on nowise be evil; & if he be good, & w his sweet tales doth me so much good withal, then I have great marvel why tht thou biddest me put him down & away so far under the cloud of forgetting?”

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 19h

Tuesday Lectio (Cloud) "or sometimes me think tht it is a passing comfort to listen after his tales. For he will sometime, me think, make me weep full heartily for pity of the Passion of Christ, sometime for my wretchedness, & for many other reasons, tht me thinketh be full holy...

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 19h

Tu Lect (C) BUT now thou askest me, “What is he, this tht thus presseth upon me in this work & whether it's a good thing or an evil? & if it be an evil thing, then have I marvel,” thou sayest, why tht he will increase a man’s devotion so much or sometimes me think tht it is a passing comfort

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 19h

Tuesday Lectio (Cloud) HERE BEGINNETH THE 8th CHAPTER "A good declaring of certain doubts that may fall in this word treated by question, in destroying of a man’s own curiosity, of cunning, and of natural wit, & in distinguishing of the degrees & the parts of active living & contemplative.

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Monday Meditatio the sacred Word comes direct to now & to the Eternal Now the Word pushes thru the rival hole, down, beyond…to Centering let no fancy morphology or etymology interfere a simple sacred syllable = logos In the beginning was the Word & the Word was w God & the Word was God. Amen.

mermaid mosaic on the malecon in Guayaquil

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Monday Lectio (Cloud) "...say him: Tht thou wilt have it all whole, & not broken nor undone. & if thou wilt hold thee fast on this purpose, be thou sure, he will no while abide. And why? For that thou wilt not let him feed him on such sweet meditations of God touched before."

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Monday Lectio (Cloud) "Insomuch, tht if any thought press upon thee to ask thee wht thou wouldest have, answer them w no more words but w this 1 word. & if he proffer thee of his great clergy to expound thee tht word & to tell thee the conditions of tht word...

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Monday Lectio (Cloud) "w this word, thou shalt beat on this cloud & this darkness above thee. W this word, thou shall smite down all manner of thought under the cloud of forgetting.

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Sunday Meditatio my fav part these sweet words 🌟 I fold my purpose into 1 word & place my intention & calling there too just a syllable w a little meaning & fasten the word to my heart as my shield my sword & spear to prick the cloud of unknowing & refocus my attention on the stillness within. 🌟

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Sunday Lectio (Cloud) "& fasten this word to thine heart, so tht it never go thence for thing tht befalleth. This word shall be thy shield & thy spear, whether thou ridest on peace or on war."

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Sunday Lectio (Cloud) "& if thee list have this intent lapped & folden in one word, for thou shouldest have better hold thereupon, take thee but a little word of one syllable: for so it is better than of two, for ever the shorter it is the better it accordeth w the work of the Spirit.

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

I am learning shape-note singing aka sacred harp. I love it. No singing skills required just enthusiasm so I am okay 👍 Just gotta learn the shapes

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Saturday Meditatio Disciple, ur attention pls. Here it is 🪧 in these precise words-- 👉purpose, calling, intent👈 there u have it be intentional abt prayer 🙏 choose the prayer life do the Work lift up ur heart & be willing (if not able) it’s more than sufficient to start w an intention try it now

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Saturday Lectio (Cloud) "...& tht graciously hath called thee to thy degree, & receive none other thought of God. & yet not all these, but if thou list; for it sufficeth enough, a naked intent direct unto God w o any other cause than Himself."

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Saturday Lectio (Cloud) "Therefore what time tht thou purposest thee to this work, & feelest by grace tht thou art called of God, lift then up thine heart unto God w a meek stirring of love; & mean God tht made thee, & bought thee...

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Friday Meditatio AnonMonk be writing straight to me thru time: triggered by a message in mtg my brain get lost in clever theology my body enters a nervous quaking yet all this fancy stuff must be stuffed down 💪 into the cushion of unknowing smite it w o mercy or quarter. 🤺 it’s ego not Love. 🌟

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Friday Lectio (Cloud) "...nevertheless to leave them & put them & hold them far down under the cloud of forgetting, if ever he shall pierce the cloud of unknowing betwixt him & his God."

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Friday Lectio (Cloud) "& the great goodness, & the worthiness of God coming before, surely he shall err & fail of his purpose. & yet nevertheless it behoveth a man or a woman tht hath long time been used in these meditations...

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Friday Lectio (Cloud) "& yet nevertheless the thing tht he said was both good & holy. Yea & so holy tht what man or woman tht weeneth to come to contemplation w o many such sweet meditations of their own wretchedness, the passion, the kindness...

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Thursday Lectio Disciple, don’t go down the rival hole 😕 don’t see, answer, welcome, intrusive thoughts good or bad, they will turn against u. Put the 1st thought in a bubble fly away 2nd on a leaf float away down a stream 3rd under a stone of forgetting 4th bury in a deep grave & so forth☁️

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Thursday Lectio (Cloud) "...hast dwelt in before this time. So tht at the last, or ever thou wit, thou shalt be scattered thou wottest not where. The cause of this scattering is, tht thou heardest him first wilfully, then answeredest him, receivedest him, and lettest him alone.

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Thursday Lectio (Cloud) "& there will he let thee see the wonderful kindness of God, & if thou hear him, he careth for nought better. For soon after he will let thee see thine old wretched living, & peradventure in seeing & thinking thereof he will bring to thy mind some place tht thou...

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Wednesday Meditatio AnonMonk identifies the perpetual rival: thought aka thoughts aka thinking discursive or narrative or semantic (how delicious it is to digress & lose track) ➡️push it all down w a tender smite ➡️tread on it no matter how sweet bc this is not a Meditation on Christ’s Passion.

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

W Le (Cl) "...diverse full fair & wonderful points of His kindness & say tht He's full sweet, & full loving, full gracious & full merciful. & if thou wilt hear him, he coveteth no better; for at the last he'll thus jangle ever more & more til he bring thee lower, to the mind of His Passion."

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Wed Lect (Cloud) "...thee to thy degree & in Him,” say “thou hast no skill.” & therefore say “Go thou down again” & tread him fast down w a stirring of love, altho he seem to thee right holy & seem to thee as he would help thee to seek Him. For peradventure he will bring to thy mind...

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Wed Lect (Cloud) "& ask thee saying “What seekest thou & what wouldest thou have?” say thou tht it is God tht thou wouldest have. “Him I covet, Him I seek, & nought but Him.” & if he ask thee “What is tht God?” say thou tht it is God tht made thee & bought thee & tht graciously hath called...

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Wed Lectio (Cloud) "HERE BEGINNETH THE 7th CHAPTER How a man shall have him in this work against all thoughts & specially against all those tht arise of his own curiosity, of cunning & of natural wit. & if any thought rise & will press continually above thee betwixt thee & that darkness...

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Tuesday Meditatio AnonMonk, some of these word pics are strange to my modern eyes—pierce, smite, dart 🤺 & yet consider sweet cupid’s arrow piercing my heart 💘 striking my mind’s eye 👁️w Love & Desire for union w the Divine in Centering Prayer. so dart away, valentine, w a tranquilizer anesthesia

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Tuesday Lectio (Cloud) "& thou shalt step above it stalwartly, but Mistily, w a devout & a pleasing stirring of love, & try for to pierce tht darkness above thee. & smite upon tht thick cloud of unknowing w a sharp dart of longing love; & go not thence for thing tht befalleth."

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Tuesday Lectio (Cloud) "& therefore, although it be good sometime to think of the kindness & the worthiness of God in special, & altho it be a light & a part of contemplation: nevertheless yet in this work it shall be cast down & covered w a cloud of forgetting.

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Monday Meditatio Disciple thinking is overrated even abt God it gets u noplace bc the Divine cannot be apprehended w words or concepts 😵‍💫 there is no way to understand, leave wht u think & choose to love wht u cannot think. embrace ur double consciousness: u & ur beLoved fused in ur attention 🌟

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Monday Lectio (Cloud) "but of God Himself can no man think. & therefore I would leave all tht thing tht I can think, & choose to my love tht thing tht I cannot think. For why; He may well be loved, but not thought. By love may He be gotten & holden; but by thought never."

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Monday Lectio (Cloud) "...into tht same darkness & into tht same cloud of unknowing tht I would thou wert in thyself. For of all other creatures & their works, yea, & of the works of God’s self, may a man thru grace have fullhead of knowing, & well he can think of them:

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Monday Lectio (Cloud) "HERE BEGINNETH THE SIXTH CHAPTER A short conceit of the work of this book, treated by question. BUT now thou askest me & sayest, “How shall I think on Himself, & what is He?” & to this I cannot answer thee but thus: “I wot not.” "For thou hast brought me w thy question

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Sunday Meditatio thinking abt God in the Centering Work = learning a declension & thinking u are fluent studying a rule but cannot apply it so practice practice 🌟 sinking to the dark center over & over again where u contemplate Love as Love Truth as Truth in the empty stillness no distraction 🤲

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Sunday Lectio (Cloud) "For altho it be good to think upon the kindness of God, & to love Him & praise Him for it, yet it is far better to think upon the naked being of Him, & to love Him & praise Him for Himself."

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Sunday Lectio (Cloud) "...tht is to say, w a special beholding to them, as thou wouldest by that beholding feed & increase thy purpose. I trow tht on nowise it should help in this case & in this work."

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Sunday Lectio (Cloud) "Yea! & if it be courteous & seemly to say, in this work it profiteth little or nought to think of the kindness or the worthiness of God, nor on our Lady, nor on the saints or angels in heaven, nor yet on the joys in heaven...

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Saturday Meditatio easy for me to get wound up in what-ifs, ands, buts brooding & ruminating on my own mierda filling the nothing w an unholy buzz in my brain feeling unhappy 🥹 instead of attending to the stillest Truth the quietest Word in my heart soul a silentest whisper of Love there always💚

launching a fishing boat, lots of birds in the air

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Saturday Lectio (Cloud) "...as the eye of a shooter is upon the prick that he shooteth to. & one thing I tell thee, that all thing that thou thinketh upon, it is above thee for the time, & betwixt thee & thy God: & insomuch thou art the further frm God, that aught is in thy mind but only God."

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Saturday Lectio (Cloud) "For why? Memory or thinking of any creature that ever God made, or of any of their deeds either, it is a manner of ghostly light: for the eye of thy soul is opened on it & even fixed thereupon...

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Friday Meditatio Centering is arduous Work erasing the World frm ur heart/mind/body 🌟 to be in the temporal now & the Eternal Now together hidden in the darkcenter inside u put aside ur regrets & schemes they have no beeswax in this now/Now be soully devoted, or call it mindfulness, more trendy

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Fri Lec "whether they be good or evil: bt shortly to say, all should be hid under the cloud of forgetting in this case. For altho it be full profitable sometime to think of certain conditions & deeds of sme certain special creatures, nevertheless yet in this work it profiteth little or nought."

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Fri Lec Clo "As oft as I say, all th creatures tht ever be made, as oft I mean not only th creatures themselves, but also all th works & th conditions of th same creatures. I take out not 1 creature, whether they be bodily creatures or ghostly, nor yet any condition or work of any creature

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Thursday Mediatio In the Work, stay in the liminal overlap 🌟 forget the world (the good of nature & ppl & beauty & the evil of Mad$$Men trumpery ALL) let it all go bc such worldliness hijacks ur heart kidnaps ur soul away from the now/Now violates ur Self, leaving ur rest 🌟 restoration endangered

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Thu Lectio (Cloud) "...tht thou art full far frm God because tht this cloud of unknowing is betwixt thee & thy God: but surely, an it be well conceived, thou art well further frm Him when thou hast no cloud of forgetting betwixt thee & all the creatures tht ever be made."

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Thursday Lectio (Cloud) "...& work therein as I bid thee, thou behoveth as this cloud of unknowing is above thee, betwixt thee & thy God, right so | put a cloud of forgetting beneath thee; betwixt thee & all the creatures tht ever be made. hee thinketh, peradventure....

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Barbara Birch @barbarabirch.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Thursday Lectio (Cloud) "HERE BEGINNETH THE FIFTH CHAPTER Tht in the time of this word all the creatures tht ever have been, be now, or ever shall be, & all the works of those same creatures, should be hid under the cloud of forgetting. & if ever thou shalt come to this cloud & dwell...

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