Centering Prayer Practice - by Renee Miller

“Contemplative prayer is part of a reality that is bigger than itself. It is part of the whole process of integration, which requires opening to God at the level of the unconscious.”  —Thomas Keating

We move at a pace in life that keeps our souls as busy as our bodies; our unconscious as full as our conscious mind. We are regularly challenged to switch between ideas, images, feelings, thoughts, and emotions with the speed of a computer alternating between programs. The effect on our souls is subtle

and stealthy. Over time, we find it difficult simply to be still. We find it difficult to pray or believe that we are centered in the Divine Presence during our prayer. When we are able to take the time to focus ourselves on communication with God, we find our minds assailed by those same ideas, images, feelings, thoughts, and emotions that plagued us before we sat down to pray. It seems that the moment we settle ourselves in God’s presence, we find that we are thinking about a meeting we need to prepare for, or a soccer practice we need to shuttle our child to, or something we have forgotten to purchase at the store, or the person in the hospital that needs a visit. We may force ourselves to complete the prayer period and wonder at the end of it if we’ve even prayed at all. Or, we may choose to truncate or postpone our prayer because we are frustrated by the constant chatter in our minds.

Centering Prayer, a contemporary version of the ancient practice of contemplative prayer, is not only a way to pray, but a way of prayer that has the potential to make a significant impact on the pattern of our lives when we are not praying. Thomas Keating, the Cistercian monk and master of Centering Prayer, says that we are not able to determine if the practice is making a difference in our soul based on what happens during the actual time spent in the practice. Rather, we know the prayer is effective in our lives by the comments we receive from others who see a difference in us over time. When we are faithful to simply sit in God’s presence and not leave, even when thoughts distract us, we will find that we are able to bring the practice into the situations of our everyday lives. Instead of becoming focused on what may 

Centering prayer is a simple, though hardly easy, practice. After settling ourselves in the presence of God, a sacred word is chosen as a symbol of our intent to remain in God’s presence during the course of the prayer period. As thoughts rise in us, we gently let them go and return to the sacred word.

Thomas Keating uses a potent image. He says that as thoughts float across our consciousness, they are like boats on the surface of a river. When we are focused on what is on the surface of the river rather than the river 

Those who are contemplative and reflective are easily attracted to this form of prayer. They find that it provides respite from the rigors of daily demands. On the other hand, those who are active and highly verbal might, at first, think centering prayer is unsuitable for their spiritual personality. After practicing 

SECOND READING

Reclaiming Your True Self Through Prayer - By Renée Miller 

We are people of patterns. We play out those patterns again and again in our lives, even when they are tiring or unhealthy. We play them out even while we are in the process of attempting to alter them. We may think we have dealt with some emotional issue in our life, only to find ourselves exhibiting the same behaviors and responses in another situation. We go to therapy, we read self-help books, we talk to friends and colleagues, we seek out life coaches, all in an effort to rid ourselves of the emotional baggage that is so pernicious. We want new patterns to be configured in us yet we wonder if we will ever break free from what keeps us bound.

We are not so unlike those individuals in Scripture who found themselves seeming victims of the vagaries of repetitive emotional responses. Consider Jacob, who couldn't break free of his need to deceive others because he was consumed with his own self-protection. Or, the elder brother in Jesus' story who couldn't let go of his resentment and anger against his younger brother. Or, the woman Jesus met at the well who struggled with fidelity and intimacy in her relationships. These problems are not so ancient that they have no bearing on us.  Most of us are able to recognize the same difficulties in our own lives, and we know that the development of our soul is hindered by them.   

Thomas Keating, Cistercian monk and master of prayer in the contemplative tradition, teaches that a separate self sense develops in us as children and this separate self sense causes us to act and respond in predictable patterns that keep our soul from developing and resting in Divine Love.  Even though we are designed for happiness, we seem to look for it in the wrong ways—in ways that keep us separated from the Other–from God.  As children, we confuse happiness with gratification of instinctual needs.  As we grow, the desire for security, power, control, affection, and esteem cause us to  develop patterns of responses that are less than optimal. We carry this baggage right into adult life, and our ego causes us to get further and further away from our true self, while our false self continues to develop in separateness. As Keating humorously remarks, this makes transformation difficult since there are 6 billion others in the world doing the same thing!

We are not consigned to live like slaves to our false self. We do not need to rely on emotional programs for happiness that developed in us as children. Our true self waits to be discovered and claimed. There is a simple, but not easy, solution that will help lead us from our separateness to identification with the Holy. The practice of contemplative prayer has the capacity to place our soul into the sustained presence of divine love, where all the emotional baggage that we lug around inside our being can gradually be metabolized and shed.  In the security of the divine presence, we can learn to let go of the emotional responses that keep us feeling like a  rat in a trap, a fish in a bowl, a tiger in a cage.  

As we engage in the practice of centering prayer, we simply notice when thoughts arise and begin to exert their seductive influence. We notice when feelings of boredom, anger, or resentment take over our mind-space. We notice when old hurts and past betrayals press upon us. We notice when existential dread and loss of faith disturb our peace.  And, when we notice all these thoughts, we let them go.  Centering prayer is the practice of letting go.  We let thoughts go and renew our attention to the divine by recalling the sacred word as a symbol of our intent to be present to God.  

The Dalai Lama, another master of contemplation writes, “The answer to every problem is meditation.”  It may just be that when we learn how to let go in the presence of God, we will find ourselves letting go the next time we are ready to respond using the same tired emotional pattern that has held us captive for so long. What a moment of liberation that will be!

Creating Quiet Spaces for Retreats, Workshops, Churches and Personal Settings - by Gerrie Grimsley and Jane Young 

If our first personal gift was breath from Creator to creature, then life itself is a powerful link between us and the Source from which we came.  Perhaps this explains what many experience as a deep longing for relationship—a yearning much like that of a child for the comfort and love of a parent.  Jesus felt such longing, and we are told more than once that he went off “by himself to pray.”  The invitation to set aside time and space in which to sense and nurture that relationship has been spoken about in many ways and in many languages through the centuries. 

Those who want to respond positively to this invitation can access countless writings about the spiritual life and can find guides for specific practices on web sites and bookstore shelves.  Our offering for would-be practitioners is  Contemplative by Design: Creating Quiet Spaces for Retreats, Workshops, Churches and Personal Setting. The goal of this book is to offer guidance for creating what are most often called prayer centers or quiet spaces—places intentionally designed to invite Sabbath rest while encouraging reflection on, and quiet awareness of, the Spirit of God. 

Why a specific ‘quiet space’ when we can pray anytime, anywhere?  In a world where many of us run through our daily routines at record speed, Jesus’ words to Martha, "…you are anxious and concerned about so many things…” seem to be spoken directly to us, as if he had called our name instead of Martha’s.

It seems, in fact, that even at an uplifting spiritual event such as a conference or workshop, it is still possible to become so busy going from one meeting or event to the next that we miss opportunities to hear and respond to invitations to renewal.  One of the greatest gifts a conference or workshop organizer can provide is spaces prayerfully designed to offer moments of rest and reflection. Such spots allow digestion of words that have been heard with ears or whispered into hearts in the rush of the day, and can heighten awareness of the sacred within the experience as a whole. Contemplative by Design was written because those who attended the first conference for which we designed quiet spaces found them so meaningful that they requested written plans that could be adapted to their own churches and gathering places. The book's suggestions also can be used to create simple, intimate space for rest and reflection within a home, yard or garden. 

Creating your own spiritual Quiet Space does not have to be difficult or particularly time-consuming.  It will, however, require prayerful forethought if it is to provide the atmosphere needed to allow mind, body and spirit to be revived and rejuvenated by the One who is Peace, even within the tension and demands of daily life.

Our quiet spaces are designed to be used by one person at a time, and, when set in a public context,  to be visited by a series of individual seekers.  In a home setting, a quiet space can be very temporary, created using the simplest of aids to help you turn your awareness to the sacred within this particular moment of this ordinary day.

You are invited to:

Clear a space on the surface where your computer sits.

Bring in a leaf from outdoors or from a house plant, and place it on the surface you have cleared.

Place a blank sheet of paper and markers and/or a pencil or pen nearby.

Read the following, slowly and thoughtfully:

From Genesis on, the Bible calls us to awareness that the sacred is revealed through the world around us. Ancient passages speak of creation as praising God, and writers use nature vocabulary to poignantly image human experience.  Well-known examples of such are “shadow” and “valley” in the 23rd Psalm.  New Testament writings, too, resonate with images from nature.  Jesus, clearly an avid observer of the natural world, used trees, logs, splinters, seed, sheep, goats, and rocks to make his teachings clear and easy to remember. Through him, these everyday gifts have spoken to millions and helped them trek the centuries with a better sense of direction and a clearer understanding of themselves and their relationship to God.

Flowers, stones, leaves or other expressions of the ongoing process of creation are, therefore, commonly used to focus contemplative meditation. A single leaf can prompt vast considerations of life and death, our connection to our source, the beauty and complexity of our days, the significance of our place in the whole . . . and more. 

Precisely because nature is as common and essential to us as bone and flesh, it is easy for us to become oblivious to its revelations of the sacred.   Availability to such revelations requires mindfulness. 

Lift the leaf and hold it.  Turn it.  Feel it.  Let your thoughts roam freely.

After several minutes, use the following questions for further reflection:

How are this leaf and I alike?  How are we different?

What does the leaf reveal about God? What does it say about life and death?

Is the Creator speaking to me in some way through this creation?

When ready, move the paper and markers, pencil or pen onto your cleared space.  Write words, draw a picture, or simply use colors to express feelings or thoughts that came to you as you looked at the leaf.  

When through, place your paper on a nearby, easily-visible surface, and leave it there for a few days to remind you of your moments of reflection. *

Whether you create a small quiet space from a plan of your own or adapt a pattern from a source such as Contemplative by Design, your prayerful thought and attention to details will be time well spent.  The act of designing a space for personal retreat will result in a visual reminder to set the world aside for a few moments each day and respond to the Spirit’s invitation to enter into a time of quiet communion with God.  

Stop.  Listen.  There is something sacred in the moment, and it is calling your name.                                 —Karla Kincannon, Creativity by Divine Surprise