The Importance of Contemplative Practices and Centering Prayer BY JENA MORRISON MIND-BODY-SPIRIT “Be still and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10
pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in se- cret will reward you.” (Matthew 6: 5-6) In this passage Jesus is direct - ing us to go into the inner room of ourselves to be alone with the Holy One. Through contemplative prayer we are able to spend intentional, undistracted time in interior prayer to connect with that of God in the deepest part of our being. The Desert Fathers, early Christian hermits and ascetics, knew this. Abba Isaac, one of the Desert Fathers and a member of a fourth-cen - tury lay contemplative movement explained, “We pray with the door shut when, without opening our mouths and in perfect silence, we of- fer our petitions to the One who pays no attention to words, but looks hard at our hearts.” As in centering prayer, he says our basic disposi- tion is, “Fill me with your Holy Spirit, the supreme Gift, according to your promise. I don’t know how to ask rightly, so I sit here waiting, asking you to pray in me, asking for what you most want to bestow, your Holy Spirit.” Centering Prayer: Cultivating An Inner Stillness, Di- vine Connection and Healing Centering prayer is one such contemplative practice. The root word of discipline is ‘disciple’. As disciples we can come to prayer through this discipline of Centering Prayer. Discipline means not to have con - trol over but to create space for . Centering prayer creates space for God. It allows us to make space for God in a unique way, and to get to know God as God really is, not as we’ve constructed. It allows us to spend time with God without trying to define God.
The mystical life is beyond feelings and beyond thoughts. Solitude — stillness and silence — is the place we go in order to hear the truth about ourselves — that we are BELOVED, worthy of love and belong - ing, and needed to help heal the world. Solitude asks us to let go of the other ways of proving and defining who we are, which are a lot more satisfying. The voice that calls us the beloved and shows us our True Self is not the voice that satisfies the senses. It is the voice that satisfies our soul at its deepest level. To attune to that voice, we must be still. Contemplative prayer al- lows us to do this. Only contemplative prayer, or meditation, invades, touches, and heals the unconscious, which is where all the wounded- ness lies, but also where God dwells and reveals “in that secret place” (Matthew 6:6). What is contemplative prayer? I’m going to define it here as such: The power of prayer beyond words or thoughts or feelings, as a way to connect with, attune to, and be transformed by Divine Presence. Dr. James Finley, a clinical psychologist, student of Thomas Mer - ton (an American monk and scholar of comparative religion), and a faculty member at the Center for Action and Contemplation, says, “A contemplative practice is any act, habitually entered into with your whole heart, as a way of awakening, deepening, and sustaining a contemplative experience of the inherent holiness of the present mo- ment.” Saint Teresa of Avila said, “Just these two words God spoke changed my life: ‘ Enjoy Me .’” “But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and
Thomas Keating, who was an American Catholic Monk and one of the founders of the Centering Prayer Movement, said of contemplative prayer, “It is the opening of mind and heart — our whole being — to God, the Ultimate Mystery, beyond thoughts, words and emotions. Through grace we open our awareness to God whom we know by faith Soul Source ~ discover your soul’s plan for this lifetime Past Life & Life Between Lives Regression ~ Spiritual Counseling ~ Soul School
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28—PATHWAYS—Fall 24
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