We know that Jesus was especially drawn to the outcasts in his society: sinners, tax collectors, prostitutes, the blind, the lame, itinerants. These were the people on the margins of Jesus’ society, the ones who would have...
For use in your prayer practice, we offer “The Pearl of Great Price” by artist Daniel Bonnell. What does this image awaken in you? In your prayer life? What new insight does this ...
The things that can distract us during our contemplative prayer periods are many and varied. While we certainly can find our attention divided by internal struggles and the “monkey mind” hopping from thought to another, external stimuli provide plenty of distractions of their own. Early in the contemplative journey, simple sounds like...
Your (Imperfect) Contemplative Prayer Life So…you have practiced Centering Prayer and you know what it is – a method to lead you to contemplative prayer – but doing it two times a day every day eludes you. When you sit down to do Centering prayer, your thoughts are rattling around in your head and it might take 20 minutes just to...
Fr. Ed Hays offers this meditation on what he calls the “Prayer of Napping”: A Prayer for Nap Time (or for any time when we desire to be “out-of-control” or to do “nothing-of-profit.”) Well, Lord, it’s not yet time to quit— all around me life is ...
Friendship can be a contemplative practice in itself. Irish poet and philosopher John O’Donohue (1956–2008) offers this piece on the blessings of an “anam cara” (soul friend). He adds, “Prayer is the ...
E. Reninger suggests walking meditation as a way to focus on the Divine Presence in the here and now: It’s wonderful to practice walking meditation any time that we are walking. When we're first learning the practice, however, it's best to set aside a particular time for it - say, first thing in the morning, or during your lunch break, or right before...
Welcome, allow, surrender, and permit are all words very closely associated with contemplative practice. All of these words point to the fact that there is very little doing on our part in the practice, other than to be present to the total reality of the moment as it unfolds before us. Our “job” in contemplative practice is simply to be, in the midst of all else that is…
This week, we offer a song to incorporate into your practice. The audio recording with full lyrics can be found on YouTube, or on the MMOC Contemplative prayer webpage at https://marymother.org/contemplative-prayer. An excerpt from the song is featured here. THE CHRIST HYMN music and chorus by Alana Levandoski poetry by Malcolm Guite, Scott Cairns, Joel McKerrow, Luci Shaw Everything holds together, everything, From stars that pierce the dark like living sparks, To secret seeds that open every spring, From spanning galaxies to spinning quarks, Everything holds together and coheres,...
Have we really learned to let God lead the way in our prayer lives? It is worth repeating that one of the most difficult aspects of a maturing faith in general, and contemplative practice specifically, is...
Fr. Richard Rohr introduces a contemplative practice known as The Welcoming Prayer: I’d like to offer you a form of prayer—a practice of letting go and forgiving—called The Welcoming Prayer. First, identify a hurt or an offense in your life. Remember the feelings you first experienced with this hurt and feel them the way you first felt them. Notice how ...