Though Christianity has deep contemplative roots, contemplative insights and experiences can radically alter our concepts and perceptions of God to something beyond those typical to the Western Christian culture in which most of us were...

God’s mercy is freely given – perhaps the deepest meaning of the cross. The only “barrier” to God’s mercy is our willingness to allow, accept, and welcome it. Yet, this “barrier” proves significant to so many, who have misunderstood mercy as somehow a response to some intention or behavior on our part, rather than as intrinsic to the Triune God, whose very nature it is to pour forth in love. We who...

Centering Prayer is an apophatic form of prayer – prayer without the use of words and images. There are also cataphatic forms of prayer, which involve the use of words and images as part of the substance of prayer. Prayer forms such as Lectio Divina, the Rosary, and probably most other common prayers in recent history are ...

A Book Review For those wanting to enhance their spiritual awareness and response to the world we live in, I recommend “We Make the Road by Walking” by Brian D. McLaren. Brian is an author, speaker, activist and public theologian as well as...

It is a testament to our incarnate nature that our spiritual lives and prayer practices impact our physical bodies. Anxiety and joy, spiritual wounds and healing a carried in the body – as the shallow breath of excitement, the sweaty palms of nervousness, and the ...

The chief dispositions of Centering Prayer and other contemplative practices are welcoming and detaching from all that we receive – without judgement, hesitation, or expectation. These dispositions do allow us to withstand the difficulties and celebrate the blessings of life without becoming bogged down in either, but welcoming and detachment represent so much more than spiritual self-help techniques. These two...

Blind Man’s Bluff I spend so much time Feeling around in the dark, Hoping that I will blunder Into the arms of God....

The use of the sacred word in Centering Prayer practice is designed to facilitate a comfort with detachment – a disposition of not possessing or clinging – by supporting the...

Life experience will tell us that prayer does not erase suffering and hardships. In fact, the great irony is that prayer often calls us more deeply into them! As we grow in our contemplative practices, a common fruit is...

Fr. Steve recently offered a homily on the value and significance of silence in the mass. This emphasis on silence as a means and medium of c...

Fr. Richard Rohr elaborates on St. Paul’s instruction for praying contemplatively: Paul says that you should “Pray with gratitude, and the peace of God which is beyond all knowledge, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7). First, you must begin with the positive, with...

One of the creative tensions that the contemplative practitioner faces continually is the tension between means and end. On the one hand, contemplative practices, which count among their ranks participation in the Eucharist, are a manifestation and actualization of our relationship with Divine Love, expressions of the communion that simply is. On the other hand, every contemplative practice can just as rightly be ...

Contemplative author Carl McColman reflects: How do we pray to the God who is Love/Lover/Beloved? To answer this question, I’d like to propose three ways of thinking about — and encountering — God, right here in our own bodies. These three ways of encountering God correspond to the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity. Remember,...

All contemplative practice hinges and capitalizes on the revelation of the indwelling Spirit of God. The typical dualistic, rational mind can recognize God in some sense, but always as an “Other,” in the heavens, in the cathedral, in the Scripture – and God is truly to be found there by those seeking with open hearts. But,

Christian teacher and Roma Waterman offers more practices to help us preserve the spirit of Easter: Scripture Anchors: Write a scripture on a ...

From blogger Roma Waterman: Not everyone experiences Easter the same way. For some, it’s a table full of family and laughter. For others, it’s serving in church, pouring out...

In an interview before his passing, Centering Prayer pioneer Fr. Thomas Keating shared his thoughts on dying to encourage others to engage the “small deaths” of contemplation: Most of our troubles are in the brain. Those are the habits of thinking that are unquestioned, or that have been habits of years. When the brain dies, all of the background material and context, or the unconscious [and other] influences, everything is gone. So for the first time in our conscious life, we can make a ...

When we say that God is ineffable, unsearchable, unknowable, we are perhaps trying to express the notion that we can never reach the full depth of God’s love – somehow, there is always more to God’s love than what we’ve already uncovered. This is perhaps why there is always a yearning associated with ...

Contemplative practice is our best attempt to allow ourselves to be fully seen and known by God. Therein lies one of the great challenges of contemplative practice, as we are well-conditioned to hide our wounds – the fear...

Suddenly As I had always known he would come, unannounced, remarkable merely for the ...