Video:“Silence is God's first language; everything else is a poor translation.” |
Meditation:“St. Teresa of Avila wrote: 'All difficulties in prayer can be traced to one cause: praying as if God were absent.' This is the conviction that we bring with us from early childhood and apply to everyday life and to our lives in general. It gets stronger as we grow up, unless we are touched by the Gospel and begin the spiritual journey. This journey is a process of dismantling the monumental illusion that God is distant or absent.” |
Transcript:
Theologian Walter Brugeman’s definition of Contemplation might be my favorite definition, “A long loving look at the Real.” Three things to take note of in this definition. First, it takes time to contemplate. Perhaps even a “long” time. Second, the look is non-judgemental, rather it is loving. No matter what it is. Let that sink in for a moment. Lastly, we’re not sugar coating it or hyping it - we’re looking at something for its ISNESS… for the messy, natural state of REALNESS.
I had a teacher once say, if you don’t think you need a savior - try being quiet with your own mind for two minutes. It’s impossible. The Buddhists call it monkey mind cause it jumps from one branch to another branch willy nilly. When I was first introduced to Christian Centering prayer which is a contemplative prayer practice I was also studying Buddhist mindfulness practice. The two are actually very similar with one pretty huge caveat.
In both - the person praying - finds stillness, silence and solitude to notice the humming of their own thoughts and become a witness to those thoughts and gently, without judgement let them pass away. The goal is to practice this little act of letting go. Not attaching to things that, we as humans, find so important - OUR OWN THOUGHTS. But what we come to learn by practicing either mindfulness or centering prayer is that we are not our thoughts.
In AA programs there’s a saying, you are not responsible for your first thought, but you are responsible for your next and for the action that arises out of that thought. See our first thought is a reflex. It’s chemistry. Its synapses. We, Christians have spent a lot of time beating ourselves up for the sin of our first thoughts. Time to let that go. At the same time, we are not slaves to our thoughts. Just because we think something doesn’t mean we have to act on it. Or even attach ourselves to thinking it again. Rather, as if its a leaf on the river - just watch it pass by.
Now, the difference between Buddhist mindfulness meditation and Christian centering prayer practice, is that we set an intention at the beginning to consent to God’s presence and action within. We trust that in this small and yet very difficult act of letting go, God is doing great work in us. Father Thomas Keating calls it “Divine Therapy.”
Here are the steps to Centering Prayer:
If you’d like to learn more and go deeper into a centering prayer practice, I recommend taking one of the free workshops offered by Contemplative Outreach. They offer several two day workshops over the course of the year. There is also an 11th step Centering Prayer group in St. Louis if you are in a 12 step program and looking for a group to practice the 11th step with. They have retreats and are a very robust community.
Now, jumping into the reflection part. Over the course of the last few weeks hopefully you’ve been looking for times that you’ve fallen into old images of God in your life. (Just a side note here. If you continue to do centering prayer, or even mindfulness meditation for that matter, you’ll grow your capacity to notice details from your life like these. So if you found this action plan difficult, think about taking up a contemplative practice.)
The new questions I’d like you to think, journal, converse, discuss about are these:
Theologian Walter Brugeman’s definition of Contemplation might be my favorite definition, “A long loving look at the Real.” Three things to take note of in this definition. First, it takes time to contemplate. Perhaps even a “long” time. Second, the look is non-judgemental, rather it is loving. No matter what it is. Let that sink in for a moment. Lastly, we’re not sugar coating it or hyping it - we’re looking at something for its ISNESS… for the messy, natural state of REALNESS.
I had a teacher once say, if you don’t think you need a savior - try being quiet with your own mind for two minutes. It’s impossible. The Buddhists call it monkey mind cause it jumps from one branch to another branch willy nilly. When I was first introduced to Christian Centering prayer which is a contemplative prayer practice I was also studying Buddhist mindfulness practice. The two are actually very similar with one pretty huge caveat.
In both - the person praying - finds stillness, silence and solitude to notice the humming of their own thoughts and become a witness to those thoughts and gently, without judgement let them pass away. The goal is to practice this little act of letting go. Not attaching to things that, we as humans, find so important - OUR OWN THOUGHTS. But what we come to learn by practicing either mindfulness or centering prayer is that we are not our thoughts.
In AA programs there’s a saying, you are not responsible for your first thought, but you are responsible for your next and for the action that arises out of that thought. See our first thought is a reflex. It’s chemistry. Its synapses. We, Christians have spent a lot of time beating ourselves up for the sin of our first thoughts. Time to let that go. At the same time, we are not slaves to our thoughts. Just because we think something doesn’t mean we have to act on it. Or even attach ourselves to thinking it again. Rather, as if its a leaf on the river - just watch it pass by.
Now, the difference between Buddhist mindfulness meditation and Christian centering prayer practice, is that we set an intention at the beginning to consent to God’s presence and action within. We trust that in this small and yet very difficult act of letting go, God is doing great work in us. Father Thomas Keating calls it “Divine Therapy.”
Here are the steps to Centering Prayer:
- Choose a sacred word as the symbol of your intentions to consent to God’s presence and action within.
- Sitting comfortably and with eyes closed, settle briefly and silently introduce the sacred word as the symbol of your consent to God’s presence and action within.
- When engaged with your thoughts, return ever so gently to the sacred word.
- At the end of the prayer period, remain in silence with eyes closed for a few minutes.
If you’d like to learn more and go deeper into a centering prayer practice, I recommend taking one of the free workshops offered by Contemplative Outreach. They offer several two day workshops over the course of the year. There is also an 11th step Centering Prayer group in St. Louis if you are in a 12 step program and looking for a group to practice the 11th step with. They have retreats and are a very robust community.
Now, jumping into the reflection part. Over the course of the last few weeks hopefully you’ve been looking for times that you’ve fallen into old images of God in your life. (Just a side note here. If you continue to do centering prayer, or even mindfulness meditation for that matter, you’ll grow your capacity to notice details from your life like these. So if you found this action plan difficult, think about taking up a contemplative practice.)
The new questions I’d like you to think, journal, converse, discuss about are these:
- What limiting beliefs from childhood/young adulthood still exist in you today?
- What things would you like to work on letting go of?
- How are those beliefs affecting you and your relationship with God?
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