Last weekend, Holy Family hosted its first annual Centering Prayer Retreat. In the coming years, we hope more of our friends will join us in this transformational prayer practice.
Centering prayer is like coming home. It helps me remember who I am. In a world that has so many claims on us and pressures us to be other than who we “truly” are, it is the place of reminder that we are a loved being of God. We realize and remember that we are literally breathed by Another and connected to all others in a web of care. All of our strivings for security and safety, affection and esteem, power and control are meaningless outside of God’s love. It is the ultimate rest stop on our journey, where we bring “nothing” and receive everything.
When I first started Centering Prayer I was at once greeted by my “monkey mind” jumping all over the place from one thought to another--each shouting for attention. My head was a roomful of noise and it was almost painful to try and sit quietly. Twenty minutes seemed like an eternity. Yet with faithfulness and the help of the sacred word bringing me back and back and back—it became a door—an icon of entry into the one true thing in my life—the presence of God.
Coming to this Presence daily I learned there is never a condition on God’s love. Every day, whether I am happy, sad, angry, afraid. I am never “not good enough”---the door is never closed. And gradually the seeds planted during this time reached out into all of my life. All I need to do is pause and remember the Presence of God in who I live and move and have my Being. Being deeply loved, I love deeply.
As Father Thomas Keating put it so succinctly in our retreat day in Bar Harbor last summer--”just sit down and shut up”--and be transformed by God’s love.
A centering prayer group meets at Holy Family on the first and third Thursdays in the Public Chapel at 7:00 p.m. Contact Joann Norr for more information at: norr31@comcast.net
For resources on Centering Prayer visit the Contemplative Outreach website at http://www.centeringprayer.com
Sue Morse
