Silence, Solitude, Solidarity, Service
Thomas Keating’s Experiment extracts from an article written by Thomas in 1993
“I envisage Contemplative Outreach as an experiment to see if the fruit of the contemplative experience that I received in the monastery can be made available to people who are leading an ordinary life outside the monastery. It was not with a view to forming a community that we started. Rather we began in the usual way that retreats have been given for centuries.”
“My conviction grew that we could not introduce the contemplative life for people without some kind of on-going formation or support system. Actually, that was the original purpose of the primitive monastic life whether it was conscious or not.”
Observing the great influx of Eastern masters and the great attraction they had for young people in the 60’s and 70’s, a few of us at St. Joseph’s Abbey, Spencer, Massachusetts, USA, who were exposed to their wisdom, started asking ourselves whether it would be possible to put the contemplative monastic tradition into a form that ordinary people could understand and practice. Encouraged by the Vatican Council which urged the Church to try to express theology and Christian doctrine in modern terms and in contemporary language, it seemed to me that something similar should be done for spiritual theology and the contemplative tradition of the Church. It was then that Fr. William Menninger worked on a “how-to” method which was aimed at expressing the richness of the Cloud of Unknowing, by an unknown 14th Century author, in a form that would make it available to people in our day. Without some how-to method of contemplatively oriented prayer, people were being attracted in great numbers to the well thought out and well-presented methods of the Eastern masters who were arriving in increasing numbers in the USA. This was no passing fancy. It is estimated that ten thousand young people went to India every summer in search of spirituality and a guru, none of whom thought of inquiring at a Benedictine or Cistercian monastery about whether they could find a form of spirituality there.
The contemplative tradition was believed to be locked up in cloisters. Even there, it existed in various truncated forms with an over -emphasis on monastic observances rather than on interior transformation. I felt that it was an acute situation that cried out for some response from the contemplative monks. Although we started off in the early 70’s imaging that it would be of interest to priests in active ministry and religious women, we did not envisage that it would be of much interest to lay people. They had been thoroughly convinced by their Catholic education that any aspiration for contemplative prayer could only be realised in a cloister. Thus, we saw the original movement toward contemplative prayer that had come from lay people looking for a structure that would be most helpful to support their spiritual aspirations, winding up over
the centuries as the preserve of an institution with the unquestioned assumption that it could not be found anywhere except in a cloister, if indeed it could be found there.
This has left us in our time without a sense of the immense possibility that the Gospel opens out to lay peoples and indeed almost commands them to pursue. Evelyn Underhill is one of the outstanding mystics and writers on mysticism of our era. She offers a parable of the spiritual journey that might be apropos to repeat here. She wrote that the spiritual journey is like the migration of the English swallow, each weighing about an ounce and a quarter, who twice each year take off into the unknown, committing themselves to the air and flying over the ocean where there are no landmarks to give them guidance. And yet without any hesitation, every Fall, thousands of them and in spring return to England undergoing the same hazards. This journey she claims is a good example of what the spiritual journey is all about. We have no idea where we are going. There are all kinds of difficulties that we cannot foresee. The birds commit themselves to the elements by way of blind trust in their inner inspiration. The spiritual journey is basically a surrender to the inner conviction, that what we hope to find in the journey, we either already have or will certainly find. But there is no guarantee that we will get there on the basis of the evidence or our circumstances. We must let go and let the wind (the Holy Spirit )
Take us where we hope to go.
One of the reasons why contemplatives have always been in the minority in this world is because contemplation involves a surrender of one’s whole self, not just a period of time each day devoted to some form of prayer or meditation. It is a commitment of immense proportions and hence it requires trust of an eminent character, faith that God will bring us where we hope to go if we submit to this inner conviction or urging that we have to start. It does not matter how many difficulties there are, we have to go. There is no turning back once we have started because the atmosphere is a big place, and we had better stay with the flock. It is a movement of the Spirit rather than a movement of instinct as in the case of the Swallows.”
“ In the early days of teaching Centering Prayer, I perceived that people had to have some kind of adequate support system if they were going to persevere in the practice.”
“Naturally a lot of ordinary lay people stop when they get the message that Centering Prayer is not just a method of prayer that may provide a few months of peace before the real trials and difficulties begin. It requires dedication, hence some people are going to back out. It involves a commitment of the whole person, body, soul and spirit. Centering Prayer is totally in the service of sustaining us in a transformation process which is anything but secure, easy or certain.”
“I turned for a conceptual background to certain psychological paradigms because I think that very few seekers are going to start the spiritual journey today by reading the spiritual classics. I wonder if anyone would have started Centering Prayer f I had not put it into a psychological frame of reference that he or she could identify with. I don’t think the old classics are the way to start unless you are in a monastery where you have easy access to books.”
“The Christian Tradition has always been somewhat limited in methodology.”
“When I resigned from St. Joseph’s Abbey in 1981 and moved to St. Benedict’s Monastery, Snowmass, Colorado, I never intended to teach Centering Prayer. I got back into teaching Centering Prayer by being invited by the local pastor to give a course in something during the month of May 1982. Later an opportunity opened up to give a lengthy Intensive Retreat. I had always wanted to see what would happen to Christians if they meditated five or six hours a day. The retreat was a watershed. That experience convinced me that the same dynamics were available if Christians could be persuaded to do a form of non-conceptual prayer over a period of two weeks.
Anyone who does any kind of serious prayer practice has to have a conceptual background to explain it to themselves if not to other people. I knew that this need would be in great demand rather soon if people kept doing Centering Prayer. I tried to bring the Christian contemplative tradition in dialogue with contemporary science especially developmental psychology, anthropology and physics. I did not expect at first that anyone would be interested in it -certainly not lay persons. But I soon found out that lay persons were much more interested than the average priest or religious. I also became aware that people of other Christian denominations were interested too because they never had a contemplative tradition in their denominations (or at least not one for a very long) and they were beginning to feel the need of something. Many priests and bishops were beginning to question whether the way to reconvert people was to start with the Eucharist or Christian doctrine. Some kind of prayer experience looked a more promising way to begin.”
To be continued in the next Newsletter ……
MONDAY AFTERNOON – Weekly.
Every Monday at 3pm. Twenty minutes of Centering Prayer followed by a time for sharing and discussion. Normally finishes by 3:40pm. To participate send an email to Hugh Reid at hugh_reid2@yahoo.co.uk.
WEDNESDAY MORNING – fortnightly.
Wednesday Meeting
Fortnightly on Wednesdays at 11 am. Twenty minutes of Centering Prayer then space to share for those who wish until 11:45 am. Contact Elaine at elainewatson387@yahoo.co.uk.
WEDNESDAY AFTERNOONS – fortnightly.
Fortnightly on Wednesdays from 3:30 to 4:30. Twenty minutes Centering Prayer.
Followed by a discussion based on a chapter from Thomas Keating’s book, “Open Mind: Open Heart”.
To participate send an e-mail to David McCormick at davidfrancistssf@gmail.com.
THURSDAY AFTERNOON – fortnightly.
Fortnightly on Thursdays at 2pm. Twenty minutes of Centering Prayer. After the time of silence one of the ‘Guidelines for Christian Life, Growth, and Transformation’ from Thomas Keating’s book ‘Open Mind, Open Heart’ is read out. Participants then discuss the guideline. The meeting finishes at 3pm.
To participate send an email to Sandra Ford at: sandra.ford32@gmail.com
THURSDAY EVENING – fortnightly.
Fortnightly on Thursdays from 7 pm till 8 pm. Twenty minutes of Centering Prayer followed by a discussion based on a chapter from Thomas Keating’s book ‘Open Mind, Open Heart’.
To participate send an email to David McCormick at davidfrancistssf@gmail.com.
A new Calendar page on the website will keep you updated on Zoom Groups and Events.
Contemplative Outreach Retreats. Due to the Pandemic, it is difficult to organise residential retreats.
The Formation for Contemplative Service has been successfully completed via Zoom. If you are interested contact infocouk@btinternet.com
Dawn
A gift,
An empty space
To retreat,
To rethink, respond,
To recall, understand.
Stand still and listen,
The wind,
The voice of the trees,
Words of love
You should have spoken,
Pathways still to follow.
Stand still and listen again,
To the silence
You have yet to hear,
The song,
The blackbird,
The dawn.
Poem and picture by Chris Roe.
“I am not bound by thought or sense or shape:
I live in the glory of the Infinite.
I am near to the Nameless and the Unknowable,
The ineffable is now my household mate.”
Savitri
Irene’s Updates.
The Spiritual Journey – Formation in the Christian Contemplative Life.
This e-course which was available from Contemplative Outreach Ltd on
the Spirituality and Practice website, is now being offered for free on the CO website.
News of Centering Prayer in mainland Europe.
On Sunday 7th November it was a great pleasure to talk with Kirsti, Sirkku and Kristel via Zoom. Like all of us the Pandemic has affected what they have been able to do. Estonia has been particularly hit hard by the pandemic. Sirkku and Kirsti have done a two week retreat together. Kirsti is talking with someone from a silent prayer group in a day or two. Sirkku is planning a two-year training course.
To remind you,
- Kirsti lives in Oslo, Norway
- Sirkku lives in Tuusula, Finland and will be introducing Centering Prayer in her area. Sirkku also will be translating the teaching into Finnish.
- Kristel Ehala-Aleksejev lives in Tallinn, Estonia and will be introducing Centering Prayer in her area. Kristel with the help of Sirkku will be translating the teaching into Estonia.
We will have another Zoom Meeting in six months.
If you have news of any other groups in mainland Europe, please email infocouk@btinternet.com with the information. Thank you.
The transcript is sold by Contemplative Outreach UK.
£12.50 incl. p + p. UK. only.
You can also email for more information – infocouk@contemplative-outreach-ukThey are also available from – Elizabeth Smith,10 Hawthorne Ave, Higher Walton. PRESTON, PR5 4EE
We have more on our website click HERE to go to our site.
Both Philip and James are married with children and live in the USA
James Arraj is a Jungian psychologist. He has written a number of books on psychology and spirituality.
Philip St Romain is an author, spiritual director, and retreat leader.
Kindle edition £5:20
Part 1 introduces us to three modern attempts to renew the Christian life of prayer.
Part 2 allows us to meet people today who have had Christian experiences of prayer and contemplation.
Part 3 explores how the renewal of the Christian contemplative life is interacting with Eastern forms of meditation.
The wide-ranging debates found here are the result of the Christian mystical tradition trying to wake up and throw off the torpor of a sleep that has lasted more than 300 years. And the most amazing thing about these discussions is that they are taking place in a new context which is not a theoretical theological analysis of the spiritual life, but among people who are concerned with how one would go about living the contemplative life day by day, and who are actually trying to do it. In short, we face the first sustained practical interest in contemplation since the end of the 17th century, but already this enthusiasm has raised critical questions that need to be addressed lest these new beginnings go astray.
The material here came originally from www.shalomplace.com and www.innerexplorations.com