“… God is too big to be contained in one religion. Contemplative Outreach is a voice crying in the wilderness of the violence and disunity that still exists among the religions of the world. Contemplative prayer as the special gift from God is one that has been given… Growing in interior silence seems to be the best means of opening to the divine presence as we move inwardly to “pray in secret,” as Jesus invites us in Matthew 6:6. What Contemplative Outreach is trying to transmit is something greater than any one religion.
Human beings at their root are contemplative. Other religions are also serving the awakening of that transformative movement that goes with all humans born into this world. The contemplative life is the heart of the world. In becoming a contemplative, one manifests the face of God more vigorously than in the practice of one's religion without that dimension. It is urgent and crucial that we make this basic teaching available in every language and in every culture…
The Catholic tradition has a rich teaching about the mystical life and its stages and difficulties. Contemporary psychology has reinforced the teaching about the dark side of humanity that some in psychological circles call the “shadow,” and which in theological language form the three consequences of original sin. These are illusion—not knowing what happiness is; concupiscence—looking for it in the wrong places; and weakness of will—the experience that we cannot change or heal our unmanageable lives without the grace of God. The fact that we cannot fix anybody, not even ourselves, is itself a precious insight. There are negative energies deep within us that we are not even aware of. The shadow side is extremely subtle and can even get into ministry in various ways. It can also insinuate itself one's prayer life; hence the urgent need of purification, or what John the Baptist called repentance.
The Christmas liturgy reveals the spiritual life through the language of symbol and liturgical rituals. As a manifestation of their sacred desire, the Magi, who hold a prominent place in the Christmas liturgy, came from the ends of the earth to Israel in search of the messiah. They represent genuine seekers of the truth from every time and place. After immense difficulties and trials they found the Babe of Bethlehem, the Source of all creation, in a manger… As long as we live, God keeps lovingly, but relentlessly, bringing to our attention everything that is an obstacle to pure love.
Saint Thérèse of Lisieux did not pray for the love of God that she could feel, but that God might give her his own love with which to love him. Notice that her confidence was not based on any act of her own, but instead on her surrender to divine love. She received one of the greatest graces that accompanies the mystical life, which is called the “wound of love.” Saint Teresa of Ávila experienced it as the piercing of her heart by an arrow. The Blessed Mother experienced it as a sword. Evidently, there are different degrees of this “wound of love…”
God keeps moving to more intimate levels of attachment, because detachment from our desires brings the ultimate freedom that will enable us to be transformed and our ministry to be most effective. Of course, in daily life difficulties will continue to come up. When you finally hit bottom, God will start functioning in a substantial way. The full force of God's help is most available all human help has been exhausted. Contemplation in prayer and practice is in the service of this detachment. If detachment is not sufficient, the false self will get in the way of relationships, and these can be especially delicate when it comes to people of another culture or religion.
Detachment from our inmost selves is the key to hearing what people of the local culture are saying or expecting, whether they are of a conservative or a liberal frame of mind… The human family as a whole is meant for transformation. That state of consciousness manifests the glory of God like nothing else can do. When we pray for God's glory, we are also praying for detachment from ourselves, so that God's presence may pour through us as a channel. A good practice is regularly to take stock of the things that are annoying us the most and to see if the cause might be something that we are not quite ready to let go of…
We are offering a method that works for most people most of the time; that's what a guideline is as distinguished from a rule. A guideline is a prudent way of going about something rather than a law or a rule. If we were raised in a culture ruled by kings or dictators, we have a hierarchical superego, so to speak, and a loyalty to the written word that may be compulsive. It is a beautiful thing to be loyal and grateful for something that we have benefited from. But it is not God. God does not feel bound by any means including the best means, and so in certain circumstances we have to listen to what the culture is saying. We must really hear the difficulties that meditators see in our teaching and have a positive and encouraging attitude toward the experience of the people we are teaching. We have to give the Spirit the chance to show us that there are other ways of meditating than ours…
Once in a while you may encounter persons who have been in another tradition or who have been exposed to prayer or meditation for a long time. In both cases they may have experienced similar forms of meditation oriented to contemplative prayer before coming to us. Their experience needs to be respected. The Spirit may be asking us to deal prudently with their situation and support it as much as we can, and if we make a mistake, we leave it to God to fix. Certain situations require an exception to what we usually ask people to do. The way that divine wisdom works in us is not always the path of conforming to a particular way of doing things…
The human body is a kind of paradigm of the spiritual communion of the human family with God. A sense of vocation may arise as time goes on. You may experience a calling for what you can contribute to this building up of the Body of Christ. If you can figure out what you want to do, like to do, and have the talent to do, then why not do it? Every cell in the human body has its purpose: it has a vocation, to put it in spiritual terms. Contemplative Outreach is an organ in the Body of Christ, which comprises all of humanity, past, present, and to come…”
~ Thomas Keating, Consenting to God As God Is
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