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The Voice
A Quarterly e-Newsletter for Volunteers
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What you will find in this newsletter:
- A word from Marie Howard, Coordinator of volunteers
- Attend the Contemplative Outreach International Conference
- Explore our new website
- Why and when to form a chapter?
- The Living Flame on the Zoom platform
- The new 12-Step Outreach brochure
- New video resources on YouTube
- The Contemplative Outreach June newsletter
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A message from Marie Howard
Coordinator of Volunteers
 We hope you are planning to join us for our bi annual international conference in September. This conference is a time for our Centering Prayer community to come together to renew friendships and meet new friends, as well as to remember those who have passed on since our last conference in 2017. If you have someone from your chapter you would like us to remember at this conference, please send their name, date of their passing and the name of the chapter by August 15th. If you have a picture, you may include that as well. My email address is: MRHfamlife@aol.com.
If you have questions please email me or contact me at: 973.838.3384 ext. 5. Looking forward to seeing you in Denver in September. Please share the conference invitation information with others from your chapter prayer groups.
Blessings, Marie
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 You are invited to attend the Contemplative Outreach International Conference:
September 19 - 22, 2019
"Contemplative Outreach: Evolution, Transformation, Service"
Denver Airport Marriott at Gateway Park
Denver, Colorado
Space is limited. Click here for more information and to register.
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What's new ?
- A clean, simple contemplative aesthetic
- An emphasis on the three main practices of Centering Prayer, Lectio Divina, Welcoming Prayer
- The Leadership Resources page is renamed as Volunteer Resources. When logged in, you'll find it in the same place under Resources>Volunteer Resources.
- To post an event to the online calendar, log-in and hover your cursor over Events and click on the Create an Event link. Please contact Pamela at pamela@coutreach.org if you need assistance.
- This is only the beginning ... more to come.
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Contemplative Outreach "God is Love Retreat", May 2019
Transformation Through Centering Prayer
and Contemplative Service
Why Form a Chapter?
by Ruth Hofmann
At some point in our lives, we were given the gift of Centering Prayer. We were touched by both the prayer and the giver of that gift. For some, it was through the Centering Prayer Introductory Program provided by commissioned presenters within an already existing chapter. People in new areas could have learned the practice through the program Centering Prayer: A Training Course for Opening to the Presence of God. Others might have read Open Mind Open Heart by Thomas Keating while being supported by a local Centering Prayer group. The gift of Centering Prayer can be transmitted in many different ways. No matter how we were introduced to the practice, we are grateful to those who led us on this path, and to the members of our prayer groups.
Once three or more Centering Prayer groups are established in an area, volunteers are encouraged to work together to form a chapter with a coordinating team and a coordinator. The chapter provides support and enrichment to the prayer groups. The purpose of a chapter is to offer the Centering Prayer Introductory Program, to form Centering Prayer groups and to provide support to the local Centering Prayer groups and their facilitators.
The coordinating team along with facilitators and prayer group members experience a sense of community that is interactive, interconnected, interdependent, international and dynamic. A chapter aspires to function without a hierarchical structure and is designed to share Centering Prayer and its contemplative vision as widely as possible.
Theological Principle #13 is an important teaching about contemplative service: Following the teaching of Jesus, we endeavor to exercise leadership in a spirit of service, utmost charity, and unity. Through both Centering Prayer and our service as coordinators, facilitators, treasurers, presenters, hosts, newsletter writers, prayer group members, etc., we are transformed.
Theological Principle #13’s commentary states: Leadership is a necessary function of the human condition and of society. Following Jesus’ example and teaching, we aspire to exercise leadership as a way of serving, of taking the lowest place, and of living ordinary life with extraordinary love. Utmost charity is more than ordinary charity. It is to love one another as Jesus has loved us, that is, with all our faults, limitations, and at times outrageous behavior. It is to forgive completely and from the heart everything and everyone. This is the path of unity.
We are all invited to participate in the collaborative organism of Contemplative Outreach. Maybe it is time to have that conversation about growing into a chapter. If you would like to discuss this further, email Ruth Hofmann, Chapter Support Team Leader, at rchofmann47@msn.com. She will put you in touch with the mentor for your area.
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The Living Flame Program on the Zoom Platform
by Marilyn Webb
 The Living Flame Service Team, in conjunction with Contemplative Outreach leaders, is very interested in determining the practicality and effectiveness of offering the Living Flame program using Zoom video technology. Living Flame presenters could lead their presentation(s) remotely from their home computer and be seen and heard by the participants at the local Living Flame site.
Using this Zoom format, a chapter would continue to experience Living Flame within their own community setting, with a similar full-day schedule that would include periods of Centering Prayer, small and large group discussion, and whole group interaction. While we recognize the value of chapters being able to interact personally with our presenters, using Zoom technology could be a good alternative for chapters that are at a considerable distance from the U.S. and those who do not have the resources to offer the Living Flame program in its traditional format. Costs would be reduced since there would no longer be travel or housing costs for the presenter. Note that specific computer capabilities and audio equipment would be needed at the Living Flame site to enable this Zoom format.
Full details regarding the Zoom option for the Living Flame are included in the Living Flame Program Guidelines available on the website: https://bit.ly/2MsMyWX
If a current CO chapter is interested in presenting the Living Flame program using Zoom technology, please contact Marilyn Webb at marilynfwebb@sbcglobal.net
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12-Step Outreach Brochure
by Jenny Adamson
 A new 12-step Outreach brochure is available to everyone interested. This brochure uses 12-Step language to explain the method of Centering Prayer and is similar to the regular Centering Prayer brochure available from Contemplative Outreach. When presenting or hosting “Introduction to Centering Prayer Workshops”, you could make these brochures available for people who are in 12-Step recovery. They would be able to pick up a brochure privately for themselves, a friend or family member.
The brochures are available through different channels and are free of charge due to donations given to the 12-step service team.
The Contemplative Outreach store has them available in packets of 25. While the brochures are free, you will need to pay shipping charges. https://bit.ly/2x0LrmM
The brochure is also available in a PDF file that may be downloaded. You can send them electronically to your local printer or you can make copies with your own printer. However, it should be noted that this is a four-fold brochure and needs a printer that can use legal size paper (14 x 8 ½). The brochure also has color and looks best coming from a color printer. You can find it here. You can also find it on the 12 Step Outreach web page: cp12stepoutreach.org
If you have any questions, please contact Joelle Michell, Coordinator at mitjelle@sbcglobal.net or Therese Wagner at theresewagner3@gmail.com
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New Free YouTube Resources
+ Living Ordinary Life with Extraordinary Love, by Thomas Keating This is a record of Fr. Thomas' keynote address at the 2004 CO Annual Conference in Toronto. The theme of the conference was "Finding Peace at the Center: A Contemplative Response."
https://youtu.be/5yfbPWjaKt4
+ The Divine Therapy, Part 1: Lectio Divina, with Gail Fitzpatrick-Hopler
This and also parts 2 and 3 below were one video in a series titled "Transformation in Christ." https://youtu.be/Fs_phIv1c-0
+The Divine Therapy, Part 2: The Human Condition, with Gail Fitzpatrick-Hopler https://youtu.be/83lMWZ2Dyuk
+The Divine Therapy, Part 3: Q and A Session with Gail Fitzpatrick-Hopler https://youtu.be/79GJEKu3UDM
+Parable of the Great Banquet: Luke 14: 15-24, by Thomas Keating This is a recording of Fr. Thomas' homily from the mass at the 2002 CO Annual Conference in Nashville, TN. https://youtu.be/WifqW1Z-fvY
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"For those progressing on the spiritual journey, even when the consoling aspect
of the Divine Presence dissipates because of excessive activity or too much thinking,
an interior presence arises that becomes more and more permanent."
Fr. Thomas Keating
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