Category Archives: The Grace of Lent: Foundations for Contemplative Living with Fr. Thomas Keating

E-Course by Contemplative Outreach Sessions 12,13 and 14

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E-Course by Contemplative Outreach
 
Session 12:  Companions in Grace
Session 13:   The Lord Is Near to All Who Call
 
These sessions focus on The Spiritual Journey and Centering Prayer – the prayer of consent to be totally taken over by the divine goodness,  to grow in humility, self knowledge and divine love.  This consenting to God’s presence and action within is the essence of the Centering Prayer practice.  We are encouraged to reflect on where we are with our daily spiritual practice.
 
“Sitting comfortably and with eyes closed, settle briefly and silently introduce the sacred word as the symbol of your consent to God’s presence and action within”
 – Centering Prayer – Second Guideline
 
A Lenten Meditation
 
“I am totally present now,
with the whole of my being, 
in complete openness, in deep prayer.
The past and future –time itself –are forgotten.
I am here in the presence of the Ultimate Mystery.
Like the air we breathe,
this divine Presence is all around us and within us,
distinct from us, but never separate from us.
I sense this Presence drawing me from within, 
as touching my spirit and embracing it, 
carrying me beyond myself into pure awareness.
 
I surrender to the attraction of interior silence,
tranquility ad peace.
I do not try to feel anything,
reflect about anything.
Without effort, without trying,
I sink into this Presence,
letting everything else go by.
Let love alone speak:
the simple desire to be one with the Presence, 
to forget self,
and to rest in the Ultimate Mystery.”
 – adapted from Thomas Keating, Open Mind, Open Heart
 
E-Course by Contemplative Outreach
 
Session 14:  A Heart Illumined
 
As we move closer to Holy Week we reflect on the process of purification and illumination which according to Fr. Thomas is both an upward and downward movement of grace.   This session includes a 14 minute video of Fr. Keating from the film Invitation from God  entitled  The Spiral Staircase and the Paschal Mystery.  
 
“There are two spiral staircases you might say.  One seems to go down in humiliation (purification) and one seems to rise in ever deepening levels of freedom, of affirmation, of transformation (illumination) and …they become one in some way…love and humility become the same thing…freedom into an inner resurrection.”
 – Thomas Keating, Living the Paschal Mystery:  Hope and Redemption
 
The beautiful Frederick Franck art reflection is Station XI Jesus is Nailed To The Cross.  We continue our practice of seeing/drawing this image on our hearts.  We are asked what does the image teach us about moving through the darkness, what does this image teach us about surrender?

 

E-Course by Contemplative Outreach Sessions 6, 7, 8, 9,10 and 11

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E-Course by Contemplative Outreach Sessions 6,7,8,9,10 and 11

 
Our Basic Core of Goodness

 
“This basic core of goodness is capable of unlimited development;
indeed, of becoming transformed into Christ
Our basic core of goodness is our True Self.
The center of gravity is God. …God and our True Self
are not separate.”
 – Guidelines for Christian Life, Growth and Transformation, #1-3 (excerpts), Open Mind, Open Heart
 
“And, hence, it’s the question of relaxing into the being that you actually are, or
relax into the ground of your being,
which is God’s expression of himself in our particular uniqueness.”
 – Thomas Keating, The Great Banquet:  All Are Invited
 
In Sessions 6 and 7 Father Keating emphasizes the joyful truth that we are
created in the image of God.  Session 6 includes an invitation to
join a teleconference with Fr. Keating, Gail Fitzpatrick-Hopler, and Fr. Carl Arico
and  Session 7 Includes  a 28 minute audio
interview  with Fr. Keating recorded on March 11, 2014.  We
are encouraged to practice contemplative listening or listening with the
ears of the heart.  We are encouraged to continue affirming our own
goodness and the goodness of others.
 
We =
are…
…GOOD
…CHOSEN
…KNOWN
…Infinitely loved as we are
…Invited into God’s own life:  the fulness of being
 
 
E-Course by Contemplative Outreach Session 8
Where Am  I?
 
“We have the choice of two identities:  the external mask which seems to be real and which
lives by a shadowy autonomy for the brief moment of earthly existence,
and the hidden, inner person who seems to us to be nothing, but who can
give himself eternally to the truth in whom he subsists.  It is
this inner self that is taken up into the mystery of Christ, by his
love, by the Holy Spirit, so that in secret we live in  ‘in Christ’.
-Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation
 
“The marvelous story of creation is not just about Adam and Eve.  It is really about
us…Where am I in relation to God, to myself, and to others?
These are the basic questions of human life.  God is asking
us to face the reality of the human condition, to come out of the woods
into the full light of intimacy with him”
 – Thomas Keating,  The Human Condition
 
Session 8 includes a conversation from the
film Invitation from God.  In this short video
Father Keating explains five levels of consciousness that are possible
for human beings:
 
Ordinary Awareness
 
Spiritual Awareness
 
True Self
 
Ground Unconscious
 
Divine Indwelling
 
Again, throughout all of the sessions we are encouraged to join in the practice of image gazing
with Frederick Franck’s beautiful Tao of the Cross:  IV Jesus Meets His Mother,
V  Simon of Cyrene Helps Him Carry the Cross and
VI Veronica Wipes His Brow
We ask ourselves how unity in community supports humanity
and how are we called to serve one another in love
E-Course by Contemplative Outreach Session 9
What God Wants Is You
E-Course by Contemplative Outreach  Session 10
The Old and the New
E-Course by Contemplative Outreach  Session 11
The Healing Remedy
These  sessions teach about the human condition, how our false selves develop and the impact of the
false self on every day life – separation from God, other people and all
creation.  When we repent or change the direction we are looking for happiness
we are led into deeper levels within our
True Self…
“As soon as you let go of even a little bit, a crack occurs in our consciousness and some of the divine
presence insinuates itself…The longing for God breaks through the
crust of the false self and our defense mechanisms…And you (begin to)
get an authentic, integrated view of yourself that is very realistic
about your faults and over dependencies…
What He wants is you — that is, the deep you, the you that is beyond the superficial self of
your resume and the ego self of your emotional life –the you of
the True Self, which is a manifestation of God’s image in you.  The
spiritual journey is about finding out who you really are.”
 – Thomas Keating, Transformation in Christ
Father Keating describes how
the Divine Therapist  leads us over time into liberation and empowerment.
But we must face the dark side of our
personalities in all of its forms of self centeredness…unless you
deny your inmost self you cannot be my disciple.
 
…”If we truly love God, we can love our neighbor as we love our True Self.  The whole
movement from the tyranny of Egypt to the promised land in the book of
Exodus is a parable of the movement from the tyranny of the false self
through the desert of purification into (illumination and beyond) –the
promised land of interior freedom.
…To love one another as Jesus has loved us…. This is to love others in their individuality,
uniqueness, personality traits, temperamental biases, personal history,
and in the things that drive us up the wall, to love our neighbor, in
other words, just as they are with each one’s grocery list of faults,
unbearable habits, unreasonable demands, and impossible characteristics.
The new commandment is to accept others unconditionally;
that is to say, without the least wish to change them.”
-Thomas Keating, Awakenings
Post by Nancy Moran

 

 

E-Course by CO Sessions 2-5

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E-Course Sessions 2-5

This rather is the fasting that I wish:
releasing those bound…
breaking every yoke; sharing your bread…
sheltering the oppressed
clothing the naked…
not turning your back…

Isaiah 58: 6-9

 

PRACTICE DEEP LISTENING

 Session 2 includes the artistically beautiful 28 minute film Invitation from God
with Father Keating at St. Benedict’s monastery in Snowmass, Colorado.  Here
we are encouraged to practice deep listening which is one of the
foundations of the contemplative life.  The film is meditative and
includes beautiful photography from nature as well as the monastery.

 Another way to practice deep listening “with eye and ear of the heart” is
through image gazing.  Each of the 5 sessions I  view  include a
different stained glass image by Frederick Franck, titled Tao of the Cross.  I
find these images  to be quite powerful, disabling my defenses and
speaking directly to my heart.  We are encouraged to interact with each
image in unique ways.  These experiences open up intuitions into Christ’s
passion in new ways for me.  As I read the reflections of others in the
Practice Circle I become aware that many others are powerfully affected by the Tao
of the Cross.


Session 3 encourages us to examine our attitudes toward God using affirmation
and gesture as effective ways of embodying a truth.  Session 4 includes  delightful
teachings from Thomas Keating about how the Divine playfully interacts
with us:

 

“We should relate
less and less in terms of reward and punishment
and more and more on
the basis of the gratuity – 
or the play – of divine love.”
-Guidelines for
Christian Life, Growth and Transformation,

Open Mind, Open Heart

 

Perhaps the sense of
God’s playfulness would help up to realize
that the spiritual
journey is mostly God’s work.”

-Thomas Keating,
unpublished interview with Fr. Carl Arico, July 2013

 

Excerpts from Thomas
Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation  introduce Session 5:  The
Great Banquet – All Are Invited

Merton lyrically writes of God’s playfulness in the garden of creation inviting us all
to hear his call and “follow him in his mysterious, cosmic dance…For the
world and time are the dance of the Lord in emptiness.  The silence of the
spheres is the music of a wedding feast.”   

Nature, art, music, the play of children – all are ways of helping us glimpse into
God’s nature.  This is how this wonderful retreat is allowing me to
experience Lent in a new and beautiful way.  

Post by Nancy Moran

E-course By Contemplative Outreach Session 1

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E-Course offered by Contemplative Outreach and Spirituality and Practice

 
Introduction and Session 1 –
Short Summary and Impressions
 
     This E-Course is an online retreat that will continue throughout Lent.
I have never taken an E-Course before so I am looking forward to
a new form of spiritual enrichment.  Participants receive 3 emails
a week that include course material and links to an online Practice
Circle that provides access to live video and audio programs.  In
the Practice Circle participants are invited to read and share responses
to the material.   This E-Course offers opportunities to discover
how beauty, nature, art and music can develop our capacity to see
God in new ways.  Included in the sessions are images from
Frederick Franck, an artist and mystic and author of several books,
including The Zen of Seeing:Seeing/Drawing as Meditation.
 
 Session 1:   “Ash Wednesday – Entry Into Lent – Deep Listening”
 
Even now, says the Lord,
Return to me
with your whole heart
…rend your hearts, not your garments.
Joel 2: 12-13
 
The Father Thomas Keating course material from Heartfulness:
 Transformation in Christ sets the tone for a contemplative lenten
retreat experience…How will silence be a part of our Lenten journey?
We are encouraged to visit the Practice Circle, introduce ourselves and
state our intentions.  When I go to the Practice Circle for the first time
I have a sense that I am connected to a global contemplative community. 
A video featuring Gail Fitzpatrick-Hopler  prepares us for the weekly
excerpts we will receive from a film entitled Invitation from God  with
Father Keating and the Danish filmmaker Marie Louise Lefevre.I am
only beginning the course but I am  hopeful that it will afford a uniquely
contemplative Lenten experience.

Post by Nancy Moran