Tag Archives: Centering Prayer
A Prayer for Living and Dying
Contemplation: Week 1 A Prayer for Living and Dying Thursday, December 13, 2018 A friend and former CAC Board Member, Susan Rush, has served many years on hospice and palliative care teams. She has also worked closely with Contemplative Outreach, an organization founded by Thomas Keating and others to renew the Christian contemplative tradition by… Continue Reading A Prayer for Living and Dying
Centering Prayer
Contemplation: Week 1 Centering Prayer Wednesday, December 12, 2018 My good friend Thomas Keating (1923–2018), who recently passed away, dedicated the last several decades of his life to inter-spiritual dialogue and to teaching Centering Prayer, which he developed with William Meninger and Basil Pennington. Keating explained this contemplative practice in this way: Centering Prayer is… Continue Reading Centering Prayer
Joy and Hope: Weekly Summary
Joy and Hope Summary: Sunday, November 25-Friday, November 30, 2018 The Gospel is primarily communicated by highly symbolic human lives that operate as “Prime Attractors”: through actions visibly done in love; by a nonviolent, humble, and liberated lifestyle; and through identification with the edged out and the excluded of the world. The very presence of… Continue Reading Joy and Hope: Weekly Summary
Healing Our Social Wounds
Nonviolence Healing Our Social Wounds Friday, September 22, 2017 Today’s meditation is longer than usual, but important. Many people associate the word “justice” with the penal system and retributive justice. Yet the prophets and Jesus clearly practiced what we now call “restorative justice.” Jesus never punished anybody. He undercut the basis for all violent, exclusionary,… Continue Reading Healing Our Social Wounds
Centering Prayer: Weekly Summary
Centering Prayer Summary: Sunday, February 12-Friday, February 17, 2017 This week guest writer Cynthia Bourgeault explored the contemplative practice of Centering Prayer. Thomas Merton, Thomas Keating, and John Main recognized meditation not as a newfangled innovation, let alone the grafting onto Christianity of an Eastern practice, but rather, as something that had originally been at… Continue Reading Centering Prayer: Weekly Summary
A Seamless Whole
Centering Prayer A Seamless Whole Friday, February 17, 2017 Guest writer Cynthia Bourgeault continues exploring the contemplative practice of Centering Prayer. The fruits of Centering Prayer are found in daily life. Do not look for signs that this prayer is working for you in your subjective experiences during the prayer period. The place to look… Continue Reading A Seamless Whole
Pure Awareness
Centering Prayer Pure Awareness Thursday, February 16, 2017 Guest writer Cynthia Bourgeault continues exploring the contemplative practice of Centering Prayer. Attention, as we normally understand it in the West, is implicitly an energy connecting subject to object: “I pay attention to my driving.” “I pay attention to the lecture.” “I pay attention to my breathing.”… Continue Reading Pure Awareness
Intention
Centering Prayer Intention Wednesday, February 15, 2017 Guest writer Cynthia Bourgeault continues exploring the contemplative practice of Centering Prayer. “Centering Prayer is not done with attention but with intention,” Thomas Keating repeatedly reminds us. Unlike other methods of meditation, Centering Prayer does not furnish an object for your attention—whether it be repeating a mantra, following… Continue Reading Intention
Re-patterning Our Life
Centering Prayer Re-patterning Our Life Tuesday, February 14, 2017 Guest writer Cynthia Bourgeault continues exploring the contemplative practice of Centering Prayer. In Centering Prayer, the letting go of thoughts is seen as “consenting to the presence and action of God.” It carries that core sense of “Not my will but thine be done, O Lord,”… Continue Reading Re-patterning Our Life