While contemplative practice may be a recent discovery for many of us in Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular, it has deep roots in scripture and the Catholic Tradition. God exhorts us through the psalmist to...
Our way of seeing reality changes in this [contemplative prayer] process. The statement above is an excerpt from the definition of contemplative prayer given by Contemplative Outreach – St. Louis. It points to one of the ...
To “pray contemplatively” is more about the disposition we bring to prayer than it is about the particular method, style, or process we use in our prayer. The key is that...
Contemplative Corner #195 On this day, we celebrate the revelation and realization of Jesus’ full identity: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased” (Mk 1:11). After a lifetime of praying, learning, and gradually opening to the Divine Presence that he is and always has been, Jesus emerges from his baptism fully conscious of his place in the Trinity, of his union with Father and Spirit. It is this full awareness of his True Self that empowers Jesus to move forward in his ministry of “reconciling all things to himself” (Col 1:20). The true purpose of our contemplative practice is to lead us to an awareness like what Jesus experienced at his baptism. In fully opening our hearts, minds, and bodies in contemplative practice, we open to our own participation in the Trinitarian Flow of love given and love received. We too experience what St. John of the Cross called our “substantial union” with God – the indwelling Spirit that is our life, given to us moment by moment. From this place of consciousness of ourselves and all creation as expressions of the Love of God, we receive the grace to play our part in the reconciliation of the world. Our doing flows from our being!