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Come and be renewed!
Thomas Keating says that in Christianity intention is everything!
Contemplative service is the
God in us serving the God in others
Thomas Keating
There was a famous correspondence in The Times of
London on “What’s wrong with the world?” Probably the
most penetrating of all the letters was from G K
Chesterton: “Dear Sir, I am. Yours sincerely“
That is precisely the answer.
David Watson
One of Norman McNally’s favourites:
Where we go hereafter depends on
what we’re after here!
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ope springs from the continuing experience of
God's compassion and help. Patience is hope in
action. It waits for the saving help of God
without giving up, giving in, or going away.
Thomas Keating, excerpted from "Guidelines for Christian Life,
Growth and Transformation, #37," Open Mind, Open Heart
Life… in union with God… is full of surprises.
You can be sure whatever you expect
to happen will not happen.
That is the only thing of which you can be
certain n the spiritual journey.
Open mind Open Heart by Thomas Keating
O Holy Spirit, free us from all
the emotional programs for
happiness that feed our false
selves and grant us the
restfulness of detachment from
their restless energy.
Journey to the Center by Fr Thomas Keating
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Earth’s crammed with Heaven
and every common bush afire with God;
but only s/he who sees
takes off their shoes,
the rest sit around it
and pick blackberries.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
We read under the eye of God
until the heart is touched
and leaps to flame
(Dom Marmion,
an early French Benedictine Monk)
ATTITUDE
IS MORE IMPORTANT
THAN ABILITY
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\\\
Disciplined Silence
“This disciplined silence is not an embarrassing silence, but a silence in which
together we pay attention to the Lord who calls us together. In this way we come
to know each other not as people who cling anxiously to our self-constructed
identity, but as people who are loved by the same God in a very intimate and
unique way…….”
The Only Necessary Thing by Henri Nouwen
The Lord will guide you continually,
And satisfy your needs in parched plains,
And make your bones strong:
And you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters never fail.
Isaiah 58:11
Mind Spring
Wind wobbles the trees
and soft rain moves in…
The seasoned, dull veneers have gone;
raw green appears:
the spirit lives
and bright ideas are shone…
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HELP TO FIND GOD WITHIN
We are enfolded in the Father,
we are enfolded in the Son and
we are enfolded in the Holy Spirit.
And the Father is enfolded in us,
and the Son is enfolded in us and
the Holy Spirit is enfolded in us.
Julian of Norwich
To enter within and lose myself in those who are there.
I feel God so alive in my soul that I have only to recollect myself
in order to find Him within me.
(Elizabeth of the Blessed Trinity)
Wherever you are, whatever you do, He never leaves your soul. Stay always near Him. Enter
into the depths of your soul. You will always find Him there longing to do you good
(Elizabeth of the Blessed Trinity)
He is within you holding you in love
(Julian of Norwich)
With thanks to Sister Emmanuel, Coolock House
To handle yourself, use your head,
To handle others, use your heart.
Eleanor Roosevelt 1884-1962
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God Gives every bird it's food,
but He does not throw it into its nest.
Attributed to J G Holland with an allusion to the Book of Proverbs
but I cannot find any similar saying in online Bibles
The Eternal Word of God has always been speaking to us interiorly, but we have not been able
to hear his voice. When we are adequately prepared, the interior Word begins to be heard.
The external Word of Scripture and the interior Word arising from the depths of our being
become one. Our inner experience is confirmed by what we hear in the liturgy and read in
Scripture.
The ideal disposition for the divine encounter is the gathering together of one's whole being in
silent and alert attentiveness. The practice of interior silence produces gradually ... the
capacity to listen. It withdraws the false self from its self-centeredness and allows the true
self to emerge into our awareness.
Thomas Keating, The Mystery of Christ
As your sensitivity to the spiritual dimension of your being develops through the daily practice
of this {centering} prayer, you may begin to find the awareness of God’s presence arising at
times in ordinary activity. You may feel called to turn interiorly to God without knowing why.
The quality of your spiritual life is developing and enabling you to pick up vibrations from a
world you did not previously perceive.
Without deliberately thinking of God, you may find that He is often present in the midst of
your daily occupations.
Open mind Open Heart by Thomas Keating
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As a magnifying glass concentrates
the rays of the sun into
a little burning knot
that can set fire to a dry leaf
or a piece of paper,
so the mysteries of Christ in the Gospel
concentrate the rays of God’s light and fire
to a point that sets fire to the spirit of [a person].
“Seeds of Contemplation” by Thomas Merton
God has been the common Saviour to the entire world
and this fact delights me much more
than if God had saved only me.
† † † † † † †
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There is always change. Change for the better (because of our divine nature)
and change for the worse (because of our human nature). This struggle goes on
in us continually. St. Paul confessed to this, didn’t he? While he wanted to do
nothing but good, he said, his fallen nature led him the opposite way.
Fr. Jude Fernando, TOR
{excerpt from a talk given at a Day of Renewal}
The way of pure faith is to persevere in contemplate practice without worrying about
where we are on the journey and without comparing ourselves with others or judging
others’ gifts as better than ours… In pure faith, the results are often hidden even
from those who are growing the most.
Fr Thomas Keating “Invitation to Love” (Pg 118)
The failure of our efforts to serve
teaches us how to serve: that is, with
complete dependence on divine inspiration.
That is what changes the world.
Invitation to Love by Thomas Keating
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Centering
Prayer
activates an existential
relationship with Christ as one way of receiving
the fullness of unconditional love pouring out of
the depths of the Trinity into creation and into
us. As we sit in Centering Prayer, we are
connecting with that immense flow of the divine
life within us. It is as if our spiritual will turned on
a switch, and the current (the divine life) that is
present in our organism, so to speak, goes on and
the divine energy flows. It is already there
waiting to be activated.
Thomas Keating, "The Mystery of the Trinity," in the
December 2010 issue of The Contemplative Outreach News
Fear knocked at the door
Faith answered……
No-one was there
(Author Unknown)
With acknowledgements to COSA Western Cape
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The experience of the transforming union is a way of being in
the world that enables us to live daily the invincible conviction
of continuous union with God. It is a new way of being in the
world, a way of transcending everything in the world without
leaving it.
Invitation to Love by Thomas Keating
CONTEMPLATION
The Master would often say that Silence alone brought transformation.
But no one could get him to define what silence was.
When asked he would laugh, then hold his forefinger up against
his tightened lips - which only increased the bewilderment of his disciples.
One day there was a breakthrough when someone asked:
And how is one to arrive at this silence that you speak of?
The Master said something so simple that his disciples
studied his face for a sign that he might be joking.
He wasn’t. He said, “Wherever you may be, look when there is
apparently nothing to see: listen when all is seemingly quiet”.
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TRANSFORMATION
To a disciple who was forever complaining
about others, the Master said: “If it is
peace you want, seek to change yourself,
not other people. It is easier to protect
your feet with slippers than to carpet the
whole of the earth”.
Far beyond the externals of fasting and abstinence, Lent focuses on an
internal change of heart. Jesus went into the desert for forty days and
forty nights. Elijah walked for forty days and forty nights to God’s
mountain, Mount Horeb. The Israelites wandered for forty years in
the desert before they reached the Promised Land.
Father Keating regards the biblical desert not so much a geographical
location but a process of interior purification leading to the complete
liberation from the false-self system with its programmes for
happiness that cannot possibly work.
excerpt from Jenny Akal’s letter
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