Category Archives: Thomas Keating

De La Curación A La Santidad_1

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Un punto que deseo tocar hoy es sobre  la metáfora que usa el padre Thomas Keating del terapeuta Divino:

“Dios es como un terapeuta divino”, es lo que sostiene Thomas Keating; está hablando en el lenguaje de la poesía, no de la ciencia. Sin embargo nos  ayuda a entender el proceso que ocurre durante la Oración Centrante. Si se la toma demasiado literalmente o se la lleva demasiado lejos, puede terminar distorsionando el camino que está tratando de iluminar.

Hay que recordar que:

  “La psicoterapia clásica tiene lugar dentro del dominio del funcionamiento egoico; su objetivo es mejorarlo. A través de la terapia, las personas heridas y disfuncionales obtienen la ayuda que necesitan para vivir una vida mejor adaptada y más exitosa. Los egos débiles y dañados ganan autoestima, y los demasiado defendidos aprenden a relajarse y disfrutar del viaje.”

“El trabajo espiritual clásico, sin importar cuál sea la tradición religiosa, se trata de trascender el ego. Busca despertar dentro de una persona algo que se reconozca como “verdadero yo” o Yo superior. Esto no significa necesariamente eliminar el ego, sino más bien desplazarlo como asiento de la propia identidad personal. El proceso es como descubrir que la tierra gira alrededor del sol y no al revés.”

En la versión del viaje espiritual de Keating, cuando uno emprende este viaje para “desmantelar el falso yo”, ¿qué es exactamente lo que se está desmantelando? Y cuando ha sido desmantelado, ¿quién o qué es el yo que queda?

El término falso yo no se origina con Thomas Keating; lo encontrará extensamente en los escritos de Thomas Merton y otros escritores espirituales. Pero casi siempre se usa en un sentido genérico, más o menos sinónimo de funcionamiento egoico en sí mismo. 

Al adaptar el término a su propia enseñanza, Thomas Keating añade un matiz muy significativo. En su versión, el falso yo siempre está herido; surge específicamente como un mecanismo de defensa contra las amenazas y privaciones percibidas durante la infancia y la primera infancia (e incluso en el útero). 

 El falso yo es, por definición, neurótico y, al menos en teoría, es un error prevenible, ya que sus raíces se encuentran en última instancia en las deficiencias de la crianza (ya sea intencional o no). El falso yo de Keating no es solo un funcionamiento del ego per se, sino una función del ego particularmente inadaptada que necesita un diagnóstico y tratamiento adecuados.

Este uso más restringido del término encaja muy bien con la psicología clásica del desarrollo. Pero inadvertidamente introduce otra posibilidad en la ecuación. Si el falso yo se define como una manifestación distorsionada del ser egoico, entonces la inferencia demasiado obvia es que el verdadero yo sería el ego curado de sus distorsiones y defensas, o en otras palabras, el ego sano.

Si se comete este error, la trascendencia del ego desaparece del cuadro, y “la terapia divina” se convierte simplemente en una vieja terapia. La individualidad trascendente del ego no ocurre. Simplemente  ocurre un funcionamiento egoico elevado. Sucede que disminuyen las partes negativas de los programas del falso yo y por lo tanto se abre la capacidad de abrirse éxito en el mundo.

El “verdadero yo” cuando se describe teológicamente, operativamente implica el cambio a un tipo diferente de conciencia llamada no dual o “unitiva” en la terminología  cristiana clásica, que fluye desde un lugar más profundo dentro de nosotros.

La evolución  de nuestro viaje interior casi siempre comienza a través de un despertar de la conexión con esa conciencia más profunda e ilimitada dentro de nosotros, como ocurre en la práctica de la Oración Centrante.

Pero una vez que se ha experimentado esto, el cambio del yo egoico al yo trascendente o “verdadero” se  lleva a cabo tradicionalmente en el trabajo interior a través del desarrollo de un  observador interior, cuyo propósito es hacer un seguimiento del panorama general y mediar entre estos dos sentidos legítimos pero muy diferentes de la individualidad. El punto principal es cuando trabaje con la metáfora de la terapia divina, es que se tenga en cuenta que el objetivo de esta “terapia” se extiende mucho, mucho más allá de la terapia tal como se ha constituido tradicionalmente. Se trata realmente de la santificación. Es la “terapia” del Misterio de Cristo.

Referencia: Bourgeault, Cynthia. Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening. Cowley Publications, 2004, Chapter 10, From Healing to Holiness p.101-110 

Creación De La Practica De la Oración Centrante como Método Devocional y Psicológico

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Método desarrollado específicamente como un diálogo entre el lenguaje clásico del camino espiritual cristiano y los modelos psicológicos contemporáneos.

En la década de los 60 Fr. Keating y los hermanos de la Abadía de St. Joseph en Massachussets, comenzaron a desarrollar una renovación de la oración contemplativa de manera de poder responder a la deserción masiva de católicos  a caminos espirituales orientales. Se basó en el uso de un libro llamado “ La Nube del Desconocimento” de autor anónimo del siglo XIV. 

La Oración Centrante, como se llamó el método, era un método devocional puro y simple. Una forma de profundizar e intensificar la relación con Dios. En ese momento no había ninguna base psicológica.

En el verano de  1983, Fr. Keating organizó el primer retiro Intensivo en La Fundación Lama en San Cristóbal, New Mexico, por un periodo de 2 semanas, en donde se pudiera tener una inmersión profunda.

Los efectos fueron impresionantes al ser expuestos a 5 horas diarias de meditación.     Lágrimas, recuerdos reprimidos, intuiciones profundas, todo mezclado en la superficie, junto con una sensación de catarsis y vínculo entre los 12 participantes .

 Fr. Keating hace referencia de haber visto a las personas pasando en 10 días lo que les hubiera costado 20 años en el monasterio. ¿Qué había sucedido? Fr. Keating se dió cuenta que el método de la Oración Centrante había producido estos efectos.

La Oración Centrante es un método de rendición, o, para describir este mismo movimiento desde un punto de vista psicológico más que un punto de vista teológico, un método receptivo. No implica una concentración sino una relajación de la atención para que ya no haya un foco unidireccional para la mente.

La Psicología Transpersonal estaba en ese momento todavía en su infancia, pero 

desde entonces ha confirmado lo que Keating descubrió a través de observación: cuanto más receptivo es el método de meditación, mayor y más inmediata es la implicación del inconsciente. 

Los métodos concéntrativos, que implican siempre un cierto grado de esfuerzo egoico, tienden a retardar la participación del inconsciente. Los métodos receptivos, por otro lado, lo fomentan, particularmente en una situación de grupo intensivo como el retiro pionero.

Pero el verdadero salto intuitivo de Keating fue reconocer la importancia de esta observación: esta “descarga del inconsciente”, como él la llamaría más tarde, no era un efecto secundario intrascendente, sino un proceso de purificación significativo en el trabajo. De hecho, este fue el vínculo de conexión que había estado buscando durante mucho tiempo, entre la purificación tal como se presenta tradicionalmente en la enseñanza cristiana (como una reprogramación de la motivación consciente, o la lucha contra el pecado), y la realización de la psicología contemporánea que tal reprogramación va sólo superficialmente y, de hecho, puede causar graves daños si se utiliza para la represión y la negación de los impulsos inconscientes. “La verdadera ascesis es la purificación de los motivos inconscientes”, había argumentado Keating durante mucho tiempo, pero ¿cómo llegar a ellos? Con la Oración Centrante como catalizador del inconsciente, encontró su herramienta y su paradigma.

Así, la Oración Centrante renació no sólo como un método devocional sino también psicológico. En la década que siguió a ese primer retiro de Lama, reconociendo la necesidad de proporcionar apoyo y un marco conceptual para las crecientes filas de practicantes de Oración Centrante, Keating produjo la primera cinta de 24 serie de videos, luego una serie de libros: Mente Abierta, Corazón Abierto (1986), El Misterio de Cristo (1987), Invitación al Amor (1992) e Intimidad con Dios (1994), en las que despliega una visión cada vez más cohesiva y sutil del “viaje espiritual” cristiano: el camino de la sanación interior y la transformación que comienza cuando uno adopta una práctica regular de la Oración Centrante.

Hoy día, es por esta enseñanza que es principalmente conocido  y sobre la que descansa su enorme popularidad como maestro espiritual. En sus palabras, “El Método de la Oración Centrante se desarrolló específicamente como un diálogo entre los modelos psicológicos contemporáneos y el lenguaje clásico del camino espiritual cristiano”.

En una síntesis ambiciosa e innovadora, Keating entrelaza la sabiduría tradicional de Tomás de Aquino, Teresa de Ávila y Juan de la Cruz con las ideas contemporáneas de Ken Wilber, Michael Washburn, Jean Piaget e incluso el Método de los Doce Pasos de los Alcohólicos Anónimos. El resultado es un paradigma psico-espiritual integral que comienza en la herida y termina, si una persona está dispuesta a llevarlo tan lejos, en la unión transformadora. Él lo llama la Terapia Divina.

Referencia: Bourgeault, Cynthia. Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening. Cowley Publications, 2004, p.91-99. 

Las Actitudes Hacia Dios

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De manera de continuar la iniciación del paso espiritual cristiano debemos de entender nuestra actitud hacia Dios. El padre Thomas Keating desarrolla este tema en su libro “Intimidad con Dios”, (p.10-14). Aqui el desarrolla la idea de como hemos sido educado en nuestra formación cristiana con actitudes que provienen de un modelo occidental de espiritualidad donde los actos exteriores son más importantes que los interiores, el yo inicia las buenas obras y Dios recompensa por ellas, un interés omnipresente por ir al cielo más que por ejercitar el amor a Dios y al prójimo aquí y ahora, en el que tanto insiste la predicación de Jesús.
“El modelo bíblico de espiritualidad redescubierto por los estudiosos cristianos y ratificado con insistencia por los documentos del Concilio Vaticano II, permitió a la Iglesia reconocer, captar de nuevo y comenzar a renovar la enseñanza y los valores cristianos a partir de la fuente pura de la Escritura. Se puede decir que, gracias al estudio exegético del significado original de las palabras y del contexto cultural en que se escribieron los libros bíblicos, probablemente tenemos en nuestro tiempo una comprensión mejor de la verdadera intención de los autores bíblicos que todas las gene- raciones posteriores a la muerte de los apóstoles.”

“El modelo bíblico representa un giro de 180 grados con respecto al modelo occidental. La Escritura enseña que la motivación interior es más importante que los actos externos.”

“La tradición cristiana es la experiencia viva del Evangelio. Su práctica destruye el sistema del falso yo, con sus valores falsos y sus exigencias ex- cesivas basadas en un sentido deformado de quiénes somos y de nuestra necesidad consiguiente de compensar. La tradición se vive. La persona la expresa en su vida y en sus reacciones ante la vida.”

“No es el modelo occidental del “yo fuera de Dios” el que inicia la obra verdaderamente ins-piradas por Dios, sino el “yo en Dios” y “Dios en el yo”. En el modelo bíblico de espiritualidad el Espíritu habita en nosotros como la fuente dinámica de inspiración para todas nuestras buenas obras, y nosotros consentimos…”

“El modelo bíblico de espiritualidad pone el acento en el desarrollo de la unión con Dios aquí y ahora y en el trabajo al servicio de los necesitados.”

“…el modelo bíblico de espiritualidad presenta es la necesidad de cultivar el amor de Dios aquí y ahora más que el trabajar por una recompensa futura o por amontonar garantías celestiales.”

“Es muy difícil comenzar bien el camino espiritual si llevamos un peso de actitudes negativas no examinadas y no cuestionadas hacia Dios.”

Co-Create the Cosmos together with God

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“[T]he peacemaker is one who has established peace within oneself. Peace is not a naïve simplicity, but the perfect harmony of immense complexity. It is the delicate balance of all the faculties of human nature totally subject to God’s will and transformed by Divine Love into a finely tuned instrument.

“Peacemaking is the normal overflow of rootedness in Christ. Peacemakers are those who have the assurance of being the children of God. They are ones who in a sense are God acting in the world. They pour into the world the being they have received from God, which is a share in God’s divine nature.

“Today, God seems to be urging us to take more initiative in dealing with global problems and to take part in the transformation of society, beginning of course, with what is closest to us. … The power of the stars is nothing compared to the energy of a person whose will has been freed from the false-self system and who is thus enabled to co-create the cosmos together with God. … The commitment to the spiritual journey is not a commitment to pure joy, but to taking responsibility for the whole human family, its needs and destiny. We are not our own; we belong to everyone else.”
– Thomas Keating, The Mystery of Christ

Page 104

About this edition

ISBN: 9781441114907, 1441114904

Page count: 142

Published: July 15, 2010

Format: Ebook

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Language: English

Author: Thomas Keating

The Spiritual Journey Series: Part II, Model of the Human Condition, online video

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The Spiritual Journey Series: Part II, Model of the Human Condition, online video

– Model of the Human Condition

Contemplative Outreach YouTube channel here.

Set includes:

  The Human Condition: The Evolutionary Model
  Formation of the Homemade Self: The Existential Model
  The Pre-Rational Energy Centers
  Frustrations caused by the Emotional Programs
  Dismantling the Emotional Programs
  The False Self in Action

This is part two of the “The Spiritual Journey” video series.

Guidelines for Christian Life

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Guidelines for Christian Life, Growth and Transformation

  The following principles represent a tentative effort to restate the Christian spiritual journey in contemporary terms. They are designed to provide a conceptual background for the practice of centering prayer. They should be read according to the method of lectio divina.

1. The fundamental goodness of human nature, like the mystery of the Trinity, Grace, and the Incarnation, is an essential element of Christian faith. This basic core of goodness is capable of unlimited development; indeed, of becoming transformed into Christ and deified.

2. Our basic core of goodness is our true Self. Its center of gravity is God. The acceptance of our basic goodness is a quantum leap in the spiritual journey.

3. God and our true Self are not separate. Though we are not God, God and our true Self are the same thing.

4. The term original sin is a way of describing the human condition, which is the universal experience of coming to full reflective self consciousness without the certitude of personal union with God. This gives rise to our intimate sense of incompletion, dividedness, isolation, and guilt.

5. Original sin is not the result of personal wrongdoing on our part. Still, it causes a pervasive feeling of alienation from God, from other people and from the true Self. The cultural consequences of these alienations are instilled in us from earliest childhood and passed on from one generation to the next. The urgent need to escape from the profound insecurity of this situation gives rise, when unchecked, to insatiable desires for pleasure, possession, and power. On the social level, it gives rise to violence, war, and institutional injustice.

6. The particular consequences of original sin include all the self serving habits that have been woven into our personality from the time we were conceived; all the emotional damage that has come from our early environment and upbringing; all the harm that other people have done to us knowingly or unknowingly at an age when we could not defend ourselves; and the methods we acquired–many of them now unconscious–to ward off the pain of unbearable situations.

7. This constellation of prerational reactions is the foundation of the false self. The false self develops in opposition to the true Self. Its center of gravity is itself.

8. Grace is the presence and action of Christ at every moment of our lives. The sacraments are ritual actions in which Christ is present in a special manner, confirming and sustaining the major commitments of our Christian life.

9. In Baptism, the false self is ritually put to death, the new self is born, and the victory over sin won by Jesus through his death and resurrection is placed at our disposal. Not our uniqueness as persons, but our sense of separation from God and from others is destroyed in the death dealing and life-giving waters of Baptism.

10. The Eucharist is the celebration of life: the coming together of all the material elements of the cosmos, their emergence to consciousness in human persons and the transformation of human consciousness into Divine consciousness. It is the manifestation of the Divine in and through the Christian community We receive the Eucharist in order to become the Eucharist.

11. In addition to being present in the sacraments, Christ is present.

12. Personal sin is the refusal to respond to Christ’s self-communication (grace). It is the deliberate neglect of our own genuine needs and those of others. It reinforces the false self.

13. Our basic core of goodness is dynamic and tends to grow of itself. This growth is hindered by the illusions and emotional hang-ups of the false self, by the negative influences coming from our cultural conditioning, and by personal sin.

14. Listening to God’s word in scripture and the liturgy, waiting upon God in prayer, and responsiveness to his inspirations help to distinguish how the two selves are operating in particular circumstances.

15. God is not some remote, inaccessible, and implacable being who demands instant perfection from His creatures and of whose love we must make ourselves worthy. He is not a tyrant to be obeyed out of terror, nor a policeman who is ever on the watch, nor a harsh judge ever ready to apply the verdict of guilty. We should relate to Him 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.

16. Divine love is compassionate, tender luminous, totally self-giving, seeking no reward, unifying everything.

17. The experience of being loved by God enables us to accept our false self as it is, and then to let go of it and journey to our true Self. The inward journey to our true Self is the way to divine love.

18. The growing awareness of our true Self, along with the deep sense of spiritual peace and joy which flow from this experience, balances the psychic pain of the disintegrating and dying of the false self. As the motivating power of the false self diminishes, our true Self builds the new self with the motivating force of divine love.

19. The building of our new self is bound to be marked by innumerable mistakes and sometimes by sin. Such failures, however serious, are insignificant compared to the inviolable goodness of our true Self. We should ask God’s pardon, seek forgiveness from those we may have offended, and then act with renewed confidence and energy as if nothing had happened.

20. Prolonged, pervasive, or paralyzing guilt feelings come from the false self. True guilt in response to personal sin or social injustice does not lead to discouragement but to amendment of life. It is a call to conversion.

21. Progress in the spiritual journey is manifested by the unconditional acceptance of other people, beginning with those with whom we live.

22. A community of faith offers the support of example, correction, and mutual concern in the spiritual journey. Above all, participating in the mystery of Christ through the celebration of the liturgy, Eucharist, and silent prayer binds the community in a common search for transformation and union with God. The presence of Christ is ministered to each other and becomes tangible in the community, especially when it is gathered for worship or engaged in some work of service to those in need.

23. The moderation of the instinctual drives of the developing human organism for survival and security, affection and esteem, control and power allows true human needs to come into proper focus. Primary among these needs is intimacy with another or several human persons. By intimacy is meant the mutual sharing of thoughts, feelings, problems, and spiritual aspirations which gradually develops into spiritual friendship.

24. Spiritual friendship involving genuine self-disclosure is an essential ingredient for happiness both in marriage and in the celibate lifestyle. The experience of intimacy with another or several persons expands and deepens our capacity to relate to God and to everyone else. Under the influence of Divine Love the sexual energy is gradually transformed into universal compassion.

25. The spiritual radiation of a community depends on the commitment of its members to the inward journey and to each other. To offer one another space in which to grow as persons is an integral part of this commitment.

26. Contemplative prayer, in the traditional sense of the term, is the dynamic that initiates, accompanies and brings the process of transformation to completion.

27. Reflection on the Word of God in scripture and in our personal history is the foundation of contemplative prayer The spontaneous letting go of particular thoughts and feelings in prayer is a sign of progress in contemplation. Contemplative prayer is characterized not so much by the absence of thoughts and feelings as by detachment from them.

28. The goal of genuine spiritual practice is not the rejection of the good things of the body, mind, or spirit, but the right use of them. No aspect of human nature or period of human life is to be rejected but integrated into each successive level of unfolding self-consciousness. In this way, the partial goodness proper to each stage of human development is preserved and only its limitations are left behind. The way to become divine is thus to become fully human.

29. The practice of a spiritual discipline is essential at the beginning of the spiritual journey as a means of developing the foundations of the contemplative dimension of life: dedication and devotion to God and service to others. Our daily practice should include a time for contemplative prayer and a program for letting go of the false self.

30. Regular periods of silence and solitude quiet the psyche, foster interior silence, and initiate the dynamic of self knowledge.

31. Solitude is not primarily a place but an attitude of total commitment to God. When one belongs completely to God, the sharing of one’s life and gifts continually increases.

32. The Beatitude of poverty of spirit springs from the increasing awareness of our true Self. It is a nonpossessive attitude toward everything and a sense of unity with everything at the same time. The interior freedom to have much or to have little, and the simplifying of one’s life-style are signs of the presence of poverty of spirit.

33. Chastity is distinct from celibacy, which is the commitment to abstain from the genital expression of our sexuality. Chastity is the acceptance of our sexual energy, together with the masculine and feminine qualities that accompany it and the integration of this energy into our spirituality. It is the practice of moderation and self-control in the use of our sexual energy.

34. Chastity enhances and expands the power to love. It perceives the sacredness of everything that is. As a consequence, one respects the dignity of other persons and cannot use them merely for one’s own fulfillment.

35. Obedience is the unconditional acceptance of God as He is and as He manifests Himself in our lives. God’s will is not immediately evident. Docility inclines us to attend to all the indications of His will. Discernment sifts the evidence and then decides, in the light of the inward attraction of grace, what God seems to be asking here and now.

36. Humility is an attitude of honesty with God, oneself, and all reality. It enables us to be at peace in the presence of our powerlessness and to rest in the forgetfulness of self.

37. Hope springs from the continuing experience of God’s compassion and help. Patience is hope in action. It waits for the saving help of God without giving up, giving in, or going away, and for any length of time.

38. The disintegrating and dying of our false self is our participation in the passion and death of Jesus. The building of our new self, based on the transforming power of divine love, is our participation in his risen life.

39. In the beginning, emotional hang-ups are the chief obstacle to the growth of our new self because they put our freedom into a straight jacket. Later, because of the subtle satisfaction that springs from self-control, spiritual pride becomes the chief obstacle. And finally, reflection of self becomes the chief obstacle because this hinders the innocence of divine union.

40. Human effort depends on grace even as it invites it. Whatever degree of divine union we may reach bears no proportion to our effort. It is the sheer gift of divine love.

41. Jesus did not teach a specific method of meditation or bodily discipline for quieting the imagination, memory, and emotions. We should choose a spiritual practice adapted to our particular temperament and natural disposition. We must also be willing to dispense with it when called by the Spirit to surrender to his direct guidance. The Spirit is above every method or practice. To follow his inspiration is the sure path to perfect freedom.

42. What Jesus proposed to his disciples as the Way is his own example: the forgiveness of everything and everyone and the service of others in their needs. “Love one another as I have loved you.”

More information can be obtained by reading the bookOpen Mind Open Heart by Fr. Thomas Keating. 

Thomas Keating – A Life Surrendered to Love

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Contemplative Outreach has created a wonderful video titled Thomas Keating – A Life Surrendered to Love. I highly recommend it. It is a great tribute to a man who has lived a life of love and contemplation, and has profound messages from a contemplative as he approaches the end of his time on earth. You can view the video here: https://vimeo.com/297436953

The diaspora of the Being of Fr. Thomas

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The diaspora of the Being of Fr. Thomas Keating is happening. Each of us have already received it — and will receive more as our consent deepens. We have been breathed upon. Now it’s up to us — through our practice, presence and participation, the transformative work of the Spirit will grow, unify and uplift the whole.

May the will of God be done in and through us.
Amen.

Fr. Thomas Keating: Reflection From Cynthia Bourgeault

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From Cynthia Bourgeault:
Fr. Thomas Keating and Cynthia Bourgeault

Thomas Keating has been my teacher, friend, and spiritual mentor for more than thirty years. It is he who laid the spiritual foundations of both my teaching and my practice and who launched me on my own path as a spiritual teacher and writer. He will be remembered as one of the giants of contemporary contemplative spirituality, not only for his groundbreaking work in Centering Prayer—which made contemplation truly accessible to Christian lay people for the first time—but also for the breadth and depth of his interspiritual vision, which kept growing in luminosity and compassion right up to his very last breath. I have never witnessed a more triumphant and powerful conscious death, modeling for us all the wingspan of spirit that can dwell in a life courageously and recklessly tossed to the winds of God.

https://cac.org/father-thomas-keating-memorial-service/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2018-11-01%20Thomas%20Keating%20from%20Richard&utm_content=2018-11-01%20Thomas%20Keating%20from%20Richard+CID_b1ff5e2b1f010306ba869fe8f654e0a3&utm_source=Campaign%20Monitor%20Google%20Analytics&utm_term=Click%20here%20to%20watch%20and%20read%20short%20reflections%20by%20CAC%20faculty%20Cynthia%20Bourgeault%20James%20Finley%20and%20me%20in%20which%20we%20share%20more%20about%20Keatings%20gifts%20to%20Christianity%20and%20the%20world#reflections

Fr. Thomas Keating Passing Away

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Fr. Thomas Keating

March 7, 1923 – October 25, 2018

To the worldwide community of Contemplative Outreach,

It is with deep sorrow that we share the news of the passing of our beloved teacher and spiritual father, Thomas Keating. Fr. Thomas offered his final letting go of the body on October 25, 2018 at 10:07pm at St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts. He modeled for us the incredible riches and humility borne of a divine relationship that is not only possible but is already the fact in every human being. Such was his teaching, such was his life. He now shines his light from the heights and the depths of the heart of the Trinity.

The monastic community from St. Benedict’s Monastery will join together with the Contemplative Outreach community for a memorial service in Denver, Colorado. The location, date and time of the memorial service will be announced shortly. The Center for Action and Contemplation will live-stream and record the service so that anyone who wishes may join remotely.

Details will be forthcoming for a 24-hour, worldwide prayer vigil, as well as suggested schedules and enrichment for local gatherings.

Please respect the privacy of St. Benedict’s Monastery and St. Joseph’s Abbey and do not call with questions.

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Fr. Thomas was born in New York City in 1923 and remembers having an attraction to religious life from a young age. He started college at Yale University and then graduated from an accelerated program at Fordham University. While in college, a spiritual director at a camp where he worked took the counselors to Our Lady of the Valley Trappist Monastery in Rhode Island, which he ultimately joined in 1944. He was ordained a priest in 1949. He first came to Snowmass, Colorado in 1958 as the appointed superior to help build and run the new monastery, St. Benedict’s. In 1961 he was called back to St. Joseph’s Abbey and served as the abbot for 20 years. During that time, he was invited to Rome in 1971, following the Second Vatican Council where Pope Paul VI encouraged priests, bishops and religious scholars to renew the Christian contemplative tradition. As an answer to this call, Fr. Thomas, along with William Meninger and Basil Pennington, drew on the ancient practice of Lectio Divina and its movement into contemplative prayer, or resting in God, to develop the practice of Centering Prayer. The initial idea was to bring the contemplative practices of the monastery out into the larger Christian community by teaching priests, religious and ultimately, laypersons. After 20 years as abbot, Fr. Thomas resigned and returned to St. Benedict’s Monastery. He became more fully immersed in bringing the contemplative dimension of the Gospel to the public by co-founding Contemplative Outreach in 1984.

Another outgrowth of Vatican II was that Catholics were given permission and encouraged to acknowledge the work of the Spirit in other religions. In God is Love: The Heart of All Creation, Fr. Thomas states, “No one religion can contain the whole of God’s wisdom, which is infinite.” One of Fr. Thomas’ lasting legacies is that for over 30 years, he convened inter-religious dialogue at St. Benedict’s, which became known as the Snowmass Conferences. It was an attempt to dialogue with and understand the contributions of the spiritual traditions of all religions and put to rest the cultural attitudes that lead to separation and violence.

As many of you know who have met him over the years, Fr. Thomas traveled worldwide to teach us about the Christian contemplative tradition and the psychological experience of the spiritual journey. He once told Mary Clare Fischer, a reporter for 5280 Magazine, that he thought the hardest thing about his commitment to monastic life would be the separation from the outside world because “I felt a great desire to share the treasures I had found in the way of a deeper relationship with God.” His seminal work on the Spiritual Journey Series is testament to his desire.

Within the last decade of his life, Fr. Thomas said, “I am at the point where I do not want to do anything except God’s will, and that may be nothing. But nothing is one of the greatest activities there is. It also takes a surprising amount of time! What time is left each day is an opportunity for God to take over my life more completely on every level and in every detail.” (God is Love: The Heart of All Creation).

Pat Johnson, a long-time friend and one of the founders of the retreat ministry at St. Benedict’s Monastery, had a recent conversation with Fr. Thomas wherein he expressed his gratitude for her service to Contemplative Outreach over many years. She says, “Here is this man at the end of his life, in pain, and still giving his all back into the universe. If ever I had an example of what it means to love unconditionally, this moment in time was one huge example. The greatness of his giving, the greatness of his humility, left me with nowhere to go, nothing to do, and the recognition that doing nothing takes a long, long time. … What an amazing model he is for all of us as we attempt to move through our lives with grace and strength!”

Fr. Thomas is now entrusting us to bear his message of love and transformation, to continue to pass on the wealth of the contemplative dimension of the Gospel and the method of Centering Prayer to the next generation. Just before Jesus was taken up from the disciples after his passion and resurrection, he said to them:

“It is not for you to know the times and the seasons,
which the Father has put in his own power.
But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you:
and you shall be my witnesses … to the ends the earth.
And when he had said these things, while they beheld,
he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight.”
– Acts 1: 7-9

Fr. Thomas is now taken from our sight. Let us open ourselves more than ever to the indwelling presence of the Trinity as we deepen our unity in prayer and service. Let us continue to persevere in our consent to the presence and action of God within us and among us and allow the inspiration and the breath of God to move us and guide us as we seek to embody and pass on the gifts we have been so privileged to receive.

With deep gratitude and hearts broken open,
The staff and governing board of Contemplative Outreach, Ltd

Memorial videos:

Thomas Keating:  A Life Surrendered to Love (19 minutes)

https://youtu.be/tJSGlqM3pxQ

https://vimeo.com/297436953

Sharing the Divine Nature – In Memory of Thomas Keating (2 minutes)

https://youtu.be/mHC9Afp5qKY

Centering Prayer:  Becoming Nothing – In Memory of Thomas Keating (2 minutes)

https://youtu.be/VA7A_Xjvr8o

Other:

From Rabbi Rami Shapiro: 

“I just learned that my friend, teacher, and mentor, Father Thomas Keating has died. I was with him months ago and asked him how he was preparing to die. He cupped his hands and raised them from his lap to his chest saying, “Every time Thomas comes up, I let Thomas go,” and then he uncupped his hands and let them fall back into his lap. “When I die, Thomas will cease to come up.”

“And where will you go when you die?” I asked him.

“When you no longer come up there is no need to go anywhere,” he said with a smile.

“I loved this man, and will continue to do so.”

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New York Times obituary

National Catholic Reporter article

The Crux article

Contemplative Light blog post

Letter to Fr. Thomas from Ken Wilbur

image courtesy of Cynthia McAdoo

https://mailchi.mp/coutreach/thomas?e=9e6f5a05f5