March/April  2005

Contemplative Christianity: The old made new again

By Roz Brown

When Thich Nhat Hahn visited Boulder in 2002, he led participants attending his workshop on a walking meditation. The traditional Buddhist exercise was obviously a new experience for many, but one they appeared to enjoy nonetheless. At about the same time, stories about labyrinths being dedicated or installed at traditional Christian churches were in the news with increasing frequency. Again, a mystical walking tradition designed to promote reflection—a path to a more peaceful existence.

A resurgence of interest in ancient religious practices is also central to contemplative Christianity—sometimes called spiritual Christianity or mystical Christianity—a modern take on a centuries-old style of worship that incorporates meditative and contemplative practices.

The cornerstone of contemplative Christianity is the regular practice of centering prayer. The practice is "a very simple method in which one opens oneself to God and consents to His presence in us and His actions with us," according to Father Thomas Keating, the co-founder of the Centering Prayer Movement and Contemplative Outreach.

In other words, it emphasizes prayer as a personal relationship with God, to understand the will of God. In practice, it looks much like Eastern religions that encourage cultivating compassion and a peaceful mind through meditation. It has also been described as listening to scripture passages as if they were a conversation with Christ and He were suggesting the topics of conversation.
The resurgence of contemplative prayer is recent. In 1944, at the age of 21, Keating entered a Rhode Island Trappist monastery, an order of monks noted for austerity and a vow of silence. Trappists are the common name for monks with the Order of Reformed Cistercians, a monastic community started in France in 1098. They are committed to material and spiritual sharing, celibacy, and a life of simplicity. At the core of their practice is the act of praying together, three times each day.

In 1961, nearly two decades after joining the Trappists, Keating was named the Abbot of St. Joseph's, a large Cistercian monastery. It was there that his colleague, Father William Meninger, discovered a book called The Cloud of Unknowing in the abbey library. The anonymous text, written by an English mystic in the 14th century, promoted contemplative meditation as a teachable method for the ordinary person to experience union with God. Meninger and Keating used the text to begin teaching contemplative prayer methods to the monks at St. Joseph's.

The teachings were, in fact, exactly what Keating was looking for; he had become increasingly concerned about young Catholics who were abandoning their faith for Eastern meditation techniques. Keating wanted to offer those who were seeking a deeper spiritual experience a contemplative practice within their own tradition. During the late 1970s, Keating re-introduced Lectio Divina, a form of reading or "listening" to the words of the scriptures. The method originated in the Benedictine tradition, but had gradually been replaced by rote-style prayer that was limited to four meditations following a fixed, church-prescribed method.
In 1981, Keating retired to Snowmass, Colorado, where he established a program of 10-day retreats in the practice of Centering Prayer Movement as well as Contemplative Outreach, now an international organization that teaches centering prayer. Shortly thereafter, in 1986, Keating published Open Mind, Open Heart: The Contemplative Dimension of the Gospel in which he traces the history of contemplative Christianity.

Early Christian prayer was deeply reflective in nature, based on the directive from Psalm 46: "Be still and know that I am God." But around the 16th century, following the Reformation, prayer came to be viewed as less receptive, and more systematic, a method to occupy the conscious mind. In short, the Roman Catholic Church, attempting to rein in what it considered threatening fringe elements, discouraged contemplative practices, going so far as to label them arrogant and even dangerous—a sort of grace reserved for priests.

There's nothing magical about centering prayer, but there are some basic guidelines. The goal is to "be with God," to move beyond images, emotions and thoughts. In that vein, the phrase "unloading" is familiar to practitioners of centering prayer. Modern contemplative tenants say unloading is the process of releasing the emotional junk of a lifetime—a lifetime that may include pain, fear, resentment, anger and mistrust. The goal is to be as silent as possible, without analyzing thoughts, while at the same time not pushing them away. If that sounds vaguely familiar, centering prayer is indeed similar to other meditative methods, like Buddhist Vipassana meditation.

Here's the basic method: those who wish to practice centering prayer are encouraged to set aside two 20-minute periods each day. Intention is integral, and the first directive is to choose a sacred word as the symbol of your intention to experience God. For example, that word might be Jesus, Father or Mother, or nouns such as love, peace or shalom. Then, much like in the practice of meditation, you would sit comfortably with your eyes closed and introduce the sacred word, repeating it silently again and again. If the mind wanders, return to the sacred word, and at the end of the prayer period, remain in silence for a few minutes.

The transformational aspects of center prayering are experienced in daily life, and not during the prayer time itself. Those who practice it, says Keating, will "move beyond mere tolerance of religious diversity to a place of respect and deeper understanding of differences by standing on the common ground of contemplation and the gift of silence."

Today, there are chapters of Contemplative Outreach in 38 states and 22 foreign countries; the practices often include many mainstream Catholics, Episcopalians and Methodists. Keating believes the popularity of the practice has been embraced because of our troubled modern world: terrorism, war and the enormous problems of daily life have compelled people to seek a more authentic, aligned life, based on wholeness and devoid of contrivance.

"Noble-minded people or those in ministry sense that, to avoid burnout, they must deepen their union with Christ—their prayer life," says Keating. He believes in a true self and a false self. The false self, according to Keating, stems from needs not met in childhood that lead people to grasp for power, control, affection, self-esteem and security. To that end, he believes contemplative prayer can derail compulsive behaviors by allowing individuals to experience a deep silence that brings peace and calm through the awareness of God's presence.

Practitioners of centering prayer are encouraged to view their discipline as a way to "rest in God" or "divine therapy." But they are also instructed as to what centering prayer is not. As defined by Keating, it is not a technique, or a relaxation exercise. It is not a form of self-hypnosis. It is not a charismatic gift or a para-psychological phenomenon. It is not discursive, or rote meditation, nor is it affective prayer in which something is asked of God.

Keating is unusually open-minded towards the meditative practices of other traditions and has studied with spiritual teachers from a variety of Hindu and Buddhist lineages. In 1982, he organized the Interreligious Conference in Snowmass, which in turn led to the establishment of Contemplative Outreach, headquartered there. In its literature, the center describes itself as "a spiritual network of individuals and small faith communities committed to living the contemplative dimension of the Gospel in everyday life through the practice of centering prayer."

The Contemplative Outreach Center offers centering prayer workshops, intensives and support groups in various locations. Traditional Taize' music is often incorporated. In March, the 2005 annual conference will be held in Denver, and feature a dialogue about Christian and Jewish mysticism between Father Keating and Rabbi Rami M. Shapiro, founder of the One River Foundation and the One River Center for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions. Keating will also be part of a Buddhist-Christian dialogue conference sponsored by Boulder's Naropa University, March 4 to 6.

Resources, local and beyond

For more information on centering prayer and contemplative Christianity, see the following resources:

• www.centeringprayer.com
• www.thecentering.org
• www.contemplativeoutreach-co.org
• The Cloud of Unknowing (Paulist Press, 1982)
• Contemplative Prayer, by Thomas Merton (Image, 1971)
• Open Mind, Open Heart: The Contemplative Dimension of the Bible, by Thomas Keating (Continuum International Publishing Group, 1994)
• When the Soul Listens: Finding Rest and Direction in Contemplative Prayer, by Jan Johnson (Navpress Publishing Group, 1999)

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