My Beloved is the mountains, The solitary wooded valleys, The strange islands, The roaring torrents, From The Canticle by St. John of the Cross.
LETTING GO OF THE SELF -MADE SELF. BY Thomas Keating OCSO.
Without thinking or feeling some emotion, there is just awareness. There is then no desire for bliss, enlightenment, or to teach others. Things are just as they are. In that so-called emptiness, enjoyment arises of itself. As soon as we try to enjoy, the enjoyment ceases. Somehow at the bottom of emptiness (openness, pure awareness,) there is the Divine Presence and the peace that surpasses all understanding.
If you bring the same emptiness and freedom to each moment and its content, you will be happy even in the midst of suffering. Accept everything and everyone just as they are, where they are, and try to act as lovingly as possible in every situation. Be ready to be led you know not where or when. Hush the discriminating mind dividing things into good or evil for me.
Fear draws us to the centre we have created the ego self. Divine Love expands from our real centre, the true self.
One feels the pain of others and must reach out to help them even when they are unaware of their pain. But one is content and at peace because one does not discriminate.
The true self is all colours of the rainbow and must expand to experience the whole of one’s being. One is not limited to one or two colours. One need not reject any colour but is to become all of them. The more colours one manifests, the more one manifests the Light that we are and the Light that we share.
Ladders and stages suggest leaving behind the previous rung or stage. Actually, one adds new dimensions to what one is, like a tree adds rings.
Take and accept yourself just as you are, where you are. If you are aggressive, lustful, fearful, or shy and withdrawn, notice your feelings before, during and after each incident, without emotional reactions of blame, shame, anger, or discouragement. Let God work with your faults and limitations. Just recognise them and be with them, without trying to correct them. As you watch them, feel them, accept them, their force and exaggeration will gradually diminish.
Keep moving to the centre of your being where Divine Love is and whatever bodily feeling or emotion that is happening. The present moment contains all we need to be happy. Only our attitudes have to change.
Solitude by Chris Roe
Over the wooden gate,
Across the meadow
To the pond,
Surrounded by trees and bushes,
Tall grass and nettles,
And weeds of all descriptions.
Then, across the bridge,
Made of old tree trunks.
And dead branches,
Leading to the island.
From here we fished.
Hours of peace.
The silence disturbed
Only by a moorhen,
Or fish and line
Upon the surface of the pond,
Perhaps a swallow,
In the late evening sun,
Flying low across the water,
Catching insects on the wing.
This was a secret place,
Away from the world.
A first glimpse of solitude,
So essential
For the journey to come.
In Memoriam
Fr. William Meninger OCSO died Sunday morning, February 14th at age 88 in his infirmary room at St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts. The day before his death he led an international Zoom talk on the gospel of Mark.
Fr. Meninger was born in 1932 in Malden, Massachusetts, USA. He entered St. Joseph’s Abbey in 1963, made his solemn profession in 1970, changed stability to Snowmass in 1982 and changed his stability back to Spencer in 2020. He had been ordained a priest of the Diocese of Yakima, Washington in 1958. He had been in monastic vows for 55 years and 63 years a priest when the Lord called him.
The Human Condition Weekend Retreat.
I, along with other Contemplative Outreach U.K. members recently attended an online retreat looking at ‘The Human Condition’. We were reminded of the key to our Centering prayer, that is, our INTENTION; here is our starting place, that place of consent to God’s will, action and presence which is where transformation and the healing of our woundedness happens.
Elizabeth guided us through two developmental models, the existential and evolutionary. This was the meat of the retreat and was absolutely fascinating as we explored how, as we go from birth and onwards to young children and beyond, we go through several layers of consciousness and all that comes with these layers … behaviours, needs, instincts, actions etc. As we did this, I was able to look back at myself in this period of development and could see these active levels and how they affected me, and where some of the behaviours were still being modelled in me… my own woundedness. Our memories are likened to computerised data files and are held within us in our unconsciousness from the womb, right up to the present day. Some memories will have a very strong emotional charge. As Elizabeth rightly and wisely reminded us, “… self-knowledge is very important, if we want to change and continue on our spiritual journey.”
We looked too at how helpful an ‘active prayer’ can be. These are short phrases of no more than 5-9 syllables that we can use throughout our day when our minds are not fully occupied, e.g., walking, housework, gardening etc. As we get used to repeating this prayer over and over, gradually, over time (and by this, I mean anything from 1-2 years), it becomes embedded within us in our unconscious and will naturally arise and thus begin to erase the ‘negative tapes’ that have played within us since early childhood. This takes time Elizabeth reminded us, but it sounds like an extremely useful tool to have in our practice, I have introduced my own active prayer phrase this week, “You are here, and I am with You.”
As well as teaching there were times of group Centering Prayer interspersed throughout the two days as well as time for a Q&A on both days. All in all, it was a great weekend of fellowship and teaching, and I would encourage you, to consider coming along to one of the next online retreats, there is so much we can learn and share with one another… but be warned it can be mentally tiring, so make sure you rest and prepare for these retreats, so that you get the best out of them. BUT Elizabeth was so helpful in reminding us that in all of this we should, ‘take the gentle path’. Allow God to lead you and ask Him what you should notice and take away with you.
Thank you, Elizabeth, and all of the fellow retreatants, for sharing such wisdom and real insight into this topic, it left me with much to reflect upon and ponder. I am now really looking forward to my next retreat ‘The False Self’, and I would recommend it to you all… come and join us. By Sandra Woodhall
Other comments on the weekend:
Thank you for a great learning experience last weekend. I found it very helpful returning to the teaching in a more up to date form. That took a lot of hard work so thank you again.
By Margaret Bowers
It was good to be a part of such an informative and uplifting weekend. I find the opportunities to gather in this way so life-giving and am I sure that there is a cumulatively positive effect as each encounter builds upon the others!
By Rev. David McCormick
A Holy Week Reflection
Imagine you are with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane after the Last Supper. The air is thick, the night, pitched dark. From his words at dinner, you have finally begun to realise that the end about which he has preached so much over the past few months is now at hand. Jesus is in obvious anguish as he contemplates the days ahead, with full knowledge of what will befall him. You overhear him praying that “this cup be taken from me…”, and his voice seems to trail off.
At this point what would you do? How would you react? Would you reassure, sympathise, moralise…try to relieve him of the agony? Would you have reflexively acted as a Rescuer?
What if you had rescued him? If you had been successful and talked him down from the Cross, what would have happened? How would his history—and—ours—have been different?
As Rescuers, at times we could be “saving” others from the mystery of their own transformation, which comes about through life’s little deaths and resurrections, all of which are part of the spiritual journey toward union with God.
Perhaps the best we can do, with an open heart, is to let others be. Be open to them—to their pain and their joy, and act as midwives to their spiritual rebirth and ongoing conversation.
We simply cannot know the brilliant function of another’s pain, how it is transforming their lives, how it may be the very agent to bring them to a fuller union with God. How God’s blessing may be hidden beneath seemingly distressing and agonizing circumstances.
Irene’s Updates
1. A group meets in The Meditation Chapels (Wisdom), at meditationchhapel.org every Friday 4.30pm -5.30pm who are studying Booklet 4, “Contemplation he Divine Therapy”.
2. A Durham prayer group meets every fourth Friday and they are beginning study of Transcript Part Two. “Models of the Human Condition” in May, contact peterbrookestrim@hotmail.com
3.On Spirituality and Practice website there is, The Spiritual Journey- Formation in the Christian Contemplative Life, with Contemplative Outreach. A one-year e-course.
U.K. Zoom Support Groups.
1. Monday Afternoon Centering Prayer Group contact Hugh Reid at hugh_reid2@yahoo.co.uk
2. Thursday fortnightly Centering Prayer Group contact Sandra at sandra.ford32@gmail.co.uk
3. Wednesday Centering Prayer Group contact Elaine at elainewatson387@yahoo.co.uk
On You-Tube at Coutreach are all of The Spiritual Journey videos to view.
Zoom Weekend Retreats.
If you are interested in any of these, please e-mail infocouk@btinternet.com quoting the weekend or weekends you wish to join.
The weekends will involve talks, 2 periods of Centering Prayer together each day. On the Sunday there will be time for questions. These weekend were first given as Retreats when silence was kept between the talks. You are invited, if your personal circumstances allow, to join these weekends as part of a Retreat at Home. You can also just do the course.
We ask for a small donation for these events to continue the work of Contemplative Outreach UK. e.g., £20 for a weekend. Do not let cost put you off, pay what you can, concessions available.
Bank transfer; HSBC; account 84444108 Sort code:40 37 25.
Cheques to Contemplative Outreach UK at 10 Hawthorne Ave, Higher Walton, PRESTON. PR5 44ED
Weekends -usually Saturday to Sunday.
Weekends.
1. Sat. 24th to Sun. 25th – April- The False Self, with Elizabeth Smith.
The self-enhancement motive is powerful and deeply engrained. It can hijack methods intended to transcend the ego and, instead, adopt them for its own service. This is what Thomas Keating called the False Self. This weekend looks at how the false Self is made and ways to dismantle it.
2. Sat. 26th JUNE to Sun.27th JUNE St John of the Cross, with Elizabeth Smith. This is an introduction to St. John of the Cross. The Canticle by St John besides being a beautiful poem takes us on an overview of the Spiritual Journey.
There are more weekends planned.
The biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand. We listen to reply.
Models of the Human Condition
Sold by Contemplative Outreach UK. £12.50 incl. p+p. UK. only Information from infocouk@btinternet.com