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Marc Chagall, Cain and Abel, 1960
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"We often project onto others what we most dislike in ourselves. This is why to bring our prayer life into confrontation with the reality of daily life, with its unexpected happenings and ups and downs, is a very important part of the purification and transformative process, and has been called 'the discipline of the Holy Spirit'."
Thomas Keating
Heartfulness: Transformation in Christ
($6 USD; available as hardcopy and digital PDF)
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Q: ... During the last few months I get very sleepy during the prayer (especially the second session) and I very often fall asleep, sometimes even for a few hours. I understand it is fine to fall asleep during the prayer. However, falling asleep after the prayer is inconvenient and it makes me feel the prayer is “stealing” my free time this way. ...
A: Read the full question and Joy's response here.
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Have questions? Submit your questions about your Centering Prayer practice or other contemplative practices, the spiritual journey and the contemplative life to any of our contributors by emailing pamela@coutreach.org. The full archive of Q&As can be found here. |
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Here are some of the ways your general donations help to share Centering Prayer and other contemplative practices near and far, supporting the world-wide community in living the contemplative life:
- the FREE mobile app is 10 years old and is currently offered in three languages with two more on the way. Every year, new downloads exceed 45,000 and it supports over 4 million sessions of Centering Prayer.
- The CO YouTube channel has over 32,000 subscribers, 990 videos and between 69,000-85,000 views per month, all FREE and accessible in multiple languages.
- The FREE podcast "Opening Minds, Opening Hearts" provided spiritual enrichment to over 59,000 during seasons 1 and 2.
- The website provides a wealth of FREE resources and contact information to global volunteers; 150,000 resources have been downloaded and over 100,000 people participate each year.
- Volunteer enrichments, online courses, outreach to younger contemplatives, translation of Thomas Keating's teachings ... and more.
Please support the transformative work of Contemplative Outreach. You may donate here. Any amount is greatly appreciated and well used. |
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"Thomas Keating: The Making of a Modern Mystic — A Dialogue with Cynthia Bourgeault and David Frenette.”
Tuesday December 10 via Zoom
1-2pm Eastern Time (6pm GMT, noon CT, 11am MT, 10am PT)
Free; $25 suggested donation
This event will be recorded
Cynthia Bourgeault’s new book, Thomas Keating: The Making of a Modern Mystic, is a much-anticipated portrait of Thomas Keating's remarkable evolution during the last decades of his life into a fully realized modern-day Christian mystic. The book has received rave reviews from Richard Rohr, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Rami Shapiro and more. The book is available for preorder on Bookshop (for those who prefer independent booksellers) or here on Amazon. It will ship on November 26, 2024.
On the auspicious day of December 10, the 56 th anniversary of Thomas Merton’s death, Cynthia and David Frenette will meet together on Zoom to discuss the book, the parallel lives and vision of Keating and Merton, and evolution of the Christian contemplative journey into unitive and nondual consciousness. This discussion celebrates the continuation of these teaching and practices in each of our lives and on behalf of the world.
Please register here for the Zoom link. Please donate here; donations of any size are greatly appreciated and will be shared with the presenters.
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Hosted by Pastor Tia Norman, friend of Contemplative Outreach and Centering Prayer Facilitator
In contemplative community, diversity is essential. By providing a platform for Black contemplative speakers and teachers, this first of its kind summit will center Black voices offering the wider contemplative community language and tools that may help in our efforts to include, invite and diversify the conversation on spiritual growth, transformation and practice.
Early bird registration is only $99 until December 15th. Registration is open to ALL and may be done here. This event will be recorded.
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“A Rising Tide of Oneness: Unity Consciousness for a World in Bits and Pieces"
Day-Long Symposium on March 7, 2025
Garrison Institute in Garrison, New York
Centering Prayer Retreat to follow, March 7-12
A day-long symposium to explore and celebrate the spiritual legacy of Fr. Thomas Keating: Trappist monk, enlightened spiritual master, founder of the Centering Prayer movement, and a pillar of contemplative inter-spiritual dialogue. The symposium will weave together teaching, practice, panel discussions, and provocative immersion sessions as we dive deeply into Fr. Thomas’s prophetic vision of Oneness as both an inner state of consciousness and an outer pathway of planetary healing.
Optional Centering Prayer retreat to follow, the evening of March 7 through the afternoon of March 12, co-led by Cynthia Bourgeault and David Frenette.
Go here to add your name to list to be notified when registration opens.
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SAVE THE DATE for United in Prayer Day, which has been moved to March 14-15, 2025.
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Chronic Pain and Chronic Illness: Wisdom for the Journey
by Kimberly Yaeger, Grand Island, New York, USA
" ... I’m not sure how to describe it, but there’s a way in which the point of pain becomes this direct connection to God, this thing that, when you open yourself up to it, stop resisting it, and consent, obliterates all other thoughts and leaves just this deep, strong, almost electric connection. Often I find it arcing through from my seat of intuition to the place(s) of pain. In Open Mind, Open Heart, Fr. Thomas distinguishes non-disturbing versus disturbing thoughts and how each can be let go, which sums up my experience ..." Read more here >>>
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The full archive of community articles can be found here. If you would like to share your reflections and experiences about the contemplative life, please email your submissions to Pamela Begeman.
image: Jakob Böhme, Tetragrammaton Within the Human Heart
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The gift of Centering Prayer for me is ...
... a reflective space and deep connection to God.
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... a path to inner freedom and being in the presence of what is seen and unknown.
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... to present my body as a living sacrifice and be transformed by the renewal of my mind.
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... Divine ... sacred ... rest.
- Submitted by four Centering Prayer practitioners
Please share your one-sentence nugget
on the gift of Centering Prayer in your life here.
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Season 3 has now launched and is available on your favorite podcast platforms or on our YouTube channel here.
During season three, we are shifting the dialogue to honor Thomas Keating‘s legacy of hosting interspiritual dialogues by embracing guests from various spiritual traditions. We want to learn about contemplative prayer from their perspective. In Keating’s later works and teachings, found in books like Reflections on the Unknowable, God is All in All, and his poetry penned in The Secret Embrace, Fr. Thomas explores Christian nonduality, or unitive consciousness, experienced as a Oneness with God and with all of creation. Our conversations this season are grounded in these common “points of agreement” that emerged amidst Father Thomas and his friends at the Snowmass Conferences held between 1984 and 2004.
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Advent begins Sunday December 1, 2024
If you would like some support in intentionally engaging the liminal and sacred time of Advent, we offer you a 40-day praxis booklet (above; also in digital PDF) or these choices for a self-guided online retreat. Many of these e-retreats engage different contemplative practices. CEUs for chaplains are available.
- The Grace of the Four Consents: The four consents are invitations to welcome all of life – birth, growth, suffering, dying and death – as God’s precious gifts and to appreciate the universe with all its beauty and potentialities.
- Lumen Divina: this e-retreat focuses on Mary the Mother of God as the model of consent, and provides contemplative engagement with Scripture, art, and music, as well as the teachings of Fr. Thomas Keating and other mystical writers.
- Lux Divina: a quiet, spacious, reflective e-retreat focusing on the great themes of the season through scripture and the teachings of Fr. Thomas Keating and other mystical writers as well as the reflective practices of Lectio Divina, Visio Divina and Musica Divina.
- Advent of the Heart: explores the path of heartfulness using excerpts from the Thomas Keating Heartfulness video series.
Partial scholarship are available for any of these retreats here.
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The Contemplative Outreach YouTube channel offers a treasure of free videos of shorter and longer lengths.
Recently added:
An Interview with Fr. Thomas Keating by Tami Simon
https://youtu.be/aBYWDojFUrg (about 27 minutes)
As shown at the recent CO conference, in this deeply personal and moving interview, Fr. Thomas discusses the dark night of the soul, what happens at the time of death, his experience at Anzio Beach, and the awesome love of God for each one of us and the universe.
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CLEARANCE SALE
We are clearing out excess inventory. All hardcopy DVD and CD products are FREE. You only pay for shipping. Go here to browse and purchase.
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More in-person retreats are being posted on the Contemplative Outreach event calendar each week, as well as one-day retreats, workshops and online offerings. Check back often for updates.
Go here to browse the calendar.
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Under the Community section of the Contemplative Outreach website, you may find U.S. contacts, a link to the Extensión Contemplativa Internacional website, links to all international contacts and websites, and more.
If you are looking for a Centering Prayer group, you may wish to join Meditation Chapel. Read more here on how to get started.
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You can now self-manage what emails you receive from Contemplative Outreach when you click the update your preferences link in the footer of this email be;pw. Those in the mainland US can also mange postal correspondence. You'll then be sent a confirmation email (check your junk folder), which will allow you to edit your communication preferences.
Using the link below you can self-manage your subscription to:
1. This Monthly e-Bulletin with practical supports for the contemplative life.
2. A quarterly email, The Voice for those who volunteer their service among, with and for our community.
3. Infrequent emails specifically for those interested in Enrichment opportunities and events.
4. Finally you may wish to subscribe to the free Word of the Week which is emailed each Sunday. It includes an online forum and two live Centering Prayer groups with Lectio Divina and sharing.
To self-manage what emails you receive from Contemplative Outreach simply click the update your preferences link in footer of any email you receive from us and check the communications you wish to receive or uncheck to stop receiving. If you prefer to receive a paper copy of the bi-annual Newsletter or Donation Request mailings by postal mail, please provide your mainland USA postal address.
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