Centering Prayer Network (Victoria)

26/07/2015

Thomas Keating :
" What contemplative prayer tells you is not so much your idea of God but it gives God a chance to introduce Himself to you as he really is. The secret of doing that is to stop thinking. Thinking is the way that we hinder the unconscious from coming to awareness and dealing with negative feelings and thoughts and attitudes from a truly wise perspective that is based on reason not emotion, and on faith not a false belief system that happened to be popular in our particular moment of history.

At some point, you want to enter into a friendship with Christ. You’ve reached a point where you can’t go backwards or forwards without a commitment. You can withdraw from a casual acquaintance easily enough if you decide you’ve changed your mind about the relationship. But you can’t withdraw from a friend without breaking somebody’s heart, perhaps your own. So, a friendship is characterized by a commitment. In the relationship to God, the commitment is the determination to pursue the journey through prayer and action in the service of God and the duties of our state of life, permanently.

It’s an enormous step forward. It’s like getting married. It’s a huge commitment.

I’m going to be faithful to this prayer every day. And I’m going to pursue the presence of God more and more in daily life because I know that God wants to be my companion in every detail of my life, and here I am. Let your will be done in me."

30/06/2015

20/06/2015

A Prayer for Our Journey

Holy Spirit of God,
Who is present in our inmost being,
fill us with your gifts.
Lead us into silence, quietness and peace.
Heal the wounds of a lifetime.
Take away those desires that are earthly created
and grant Your gift of wisdom,
Your goodness, Your truth...
This we ask in the name of Jesus Christ,
who expresses in infinite ways
the Silence that is sheer ‘isness.’
Amen.
-- Father Thomas Keating

26/05/2015

Nowhere is where God is most active
Thomas Keating | May 2003 (Vol. XVI, No. 5)
The ordinary circumstances of daily life bring back the same routines, and often the sense of going nowhere! But "nowhere" is where God is most active. God and daily life are always in dialogue and sometimes in a state of war. There is a struggle to figure out what god is saying in the events and circumstances of daily life and how daily life is meant to transform us... Listening to God in silent loving attentiveness, enables us to let go of our preconceptions and over-identifications with the events of daily life, which tends to dominate our emotional reactions rather than invite our free response.

St. Therese of Lisieux: A Transformation in Christ
By Thomas Keating

25/05/2015

Let us know what you think of the new NationalCPNA website: http://www.centeringprayernetworkaustralia.net/

Centering Prayer Network Australia

24/05/2015

29/04/2012

'The insight into Christ dwelling in every other person enables one to express love toward others with greater spontaneity. Instead of seeing only someone's personality, race, nationality, gender, status or characteristics (which you like or do not like), you see what is deepest - his or her union or potential union with Christ. . . .

Divine love is not an attitude that one puts on like a cloak. It is rather the right way to respond to reality It is the right relationship to being, including our own being. And that relationship is primarily one of receiving. No one has any degree of divine love except what one has received. An important part of the response to divine love, once it has been received, is to pass it on to our neighbor in a way that is appropriate in the present moment.'

Thoms Keating. Open Mind Open Heart. page 109.

08/01/2011

'Christ is the full expression of the Father. Jesus, the humanity of Christ, is the full manifestation of all that the Father is, insofar as this can be expressed in human nature. Jesus is the living symbol of God's love, mercy and incredible tenderness toward his creatures. He is also the way that God communicates divine life to us.' Thomas Keating. 'The Heart of the World' p.33

03/12/2010

"Jesus' last words to Peter are the same as the very first words he spoke to him long ago: 'Follow me.' ... What he is ultimately asking of any apostle is not what he has done, but whether he loves him. 'Do you really love me?' Peter's answer to that question is what makes a true apostle' T. Keating, 'Crisis of Faith, Crisis of Love' pp. 131-132

02/09/2010

'When we work to surrender our own desires, world-view, self-image, and all that goes to make up the false self, we are truly participating in Christ's emptying of himself.' Thomas Keating. The Heart of the World. An introduction to contemplative spirituality. p.25

07/07/2010

'To love one another as Jesus loves us is to love one another in our humanness - in our individuality, and opinionatedness, in personality conflicts and in unbearable situations. It is to continue to show love, no matter what the provocation may be to act otherwise.' Thomas Keating. Invitation to Love. p.109

11/06/2010

"Blest are they who who show mercy; mercy shall be theirs." 'This beatitude describes the result of moving beyond selfishness.... This means to love people not only in their hidden beauty as members of Christ, but in their concreteness and individuality; that is in their particular traits, idiosyncasies and opinions which we may find irritating or unbearable.' Thomas Keating. The Mystery of Christ.