Spirit Journal - July 2017 -

Preview

This issue fills in the details on the topics planned for our Sixth Annual One-Day Fall Workshop. Discounted early bird registration for the Fall Workshop is available through July 31 only, so there is just a little more time to plan ahead and save.

Also featured in this month’s issue: Alan Krema offers a reflection on “Conscious Work” as a key part of the Wisdom journey, and asks for your feedback on an idea for taking the next step in our evolving Living Wisdom program.

As usual, we call your attention to a number of upcoming activities, events, retreats, and conferences you may wish to attend. It’s wonderful to see how this list is expanding over time as interest in contemplative topics grows across our region and beyond. July’s Insights come from Thomas Merton, Thomas Keating, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Rabindranath Tagore.

Please continue helping us make Spirit Journal a valuable interactive forum for the members and friends of Contemplative Outreach – Chicago. Use the email address provided at the end to send in your responses, ideas and insights. We love hearing from you!

Here Are All the Details on Our 2017 One-Day Fall Workshop!

Register Now – Early Bird Discount Ends July 31

Discounted “early bird” registration is available now through July 31, online or by mail, for Contemplative Outreach – Chicago’s sixth annual One-Day Fall Workshop, which will take place Saturday November 4 at Benedictine University in Lisle.

Right now, you can sign up for the sessions that interest you most for only $50. On August 1, the price will increase to $60, and then to $65 right before the event.

Please visit the Event page now to take advantage of the registration discount.

Fall Workshop Agenda: Devote the Entire Day to an Introductory Centering Prayer Workshop, or Choose Two of the Four Available Half-Day Sessions

Introduction to Centering Prayer (Full Day)

This all-day workshop offers an opportunity to learn the method of Centering Prayer or, for those already practicing, an opportunity to deepen the practice. In the early 1970s, Trappist monk and priest Thomas Keating and two other Trappists, Fr. William Meninger and the late Fr. Basil Pennington, worked to bring people living outside monasteries a form of silent prayer now known as Centering Prayer. With roots in the fourteenth century book, The Cloud of Unknowing, this kind of prayer allows people to sit silently and become receptive to God’s gift of contemplation. Of course, contemplation has been an important part of Christianity from the beginning; Centering Prayer presents the teachings of earlier times in an updated form. This method of prayer is both a relationship with God and a discipline to foster that relationship. The presenters for this workshop are Heath Missner and Phil Jackson (see below for bios).

Merton on Yoga (Half Day – Morning)

Thomas Merton wrote, “There is no salvation without yoga.” To date, however, little work has been done to explore and explain this aspect of Merton’s spiritual legacy, despite its importance to him. This workshop will introduce participants to Merton’s interest in Yoga Philosophy and Practice, which eventually led to the pilgrimage to Mahabalipuram and his last poem, entitled “The Kandy Express.” In addition, the workshop will include an introduction to yoga meditation, as Dr. Belcastro believes Merton understood it. Presenter: David Belcastro (see below for bio)

Sacred Breath, Sacred Chant (Half Day – Morning)

Explore contemplative chanting through guided group practice as a means of: expanding attention and presence; deepening embodied spiritual awareness; and freeing body, mind, and emotions from habitual ‘blocked’ energies and conditioned attitudes. Whether you’re a confident singer or a hesitant one, a person who’s always enjoyed singing in choir, or one who hopes no-one will hear you, yet longs to join the music, this workshop will bring you closer to your true voice. Anyone seeking a deeper, more embodied spirituality, will have the opportunity to discover, in a supportive group setting, how sacred chanting can enliven your practice of prayer and meditation, and enrich its outward expression in service to the world.

Read more...

Our practice together will draw from the chants of Taize, the ancient tradition of psalm antiphons, and a growing body of newly-composed Christian interspiritual chant being used in Wisdom Schools worldwide. Prior experience or training in singing may enrich the group experience, but is absolutely not necessary for participation, and may even get in the way. Presenter: Darlene Franz (see below for bio)

Perennial Wisdom (Half Day – Afternoon)

In this interactive session, Rabbi Rami Shapiro will offer an opportunity to explore the “Perennial Wisdom” that serves as the foundation of all true religion. He will also introduce us to the practice of “Passage Meditation,” using the World Wisdom Bible as our text.

Rabbi Rami feels that humanity stands at a crossroads between horror and hope. For the first time in history the spiritual wisdom of all humanity is available to all humanity. For some, this is frightening, and fuels an ever more violent “circling of the wagons” in defense of the parochial. For others this is exhilarating, calling us to reclaim and proclaim the Perennial Wisdom found in every religion.

Since 1984, Rabbi Rami has been a friend and student of Father Thomas Keating, first through his Snowmass Group of gathered contemplatives, and then more intimately teaching with him and learning from him one-on-one. Rami produced a short video with Father Thomas and Reb Zalman Shachter–Shalomi entitled Kiss of God. The video and more information about Perennial Wisdom can be found 0n Rami’s website oneriverfoundation.org/. (The video can be accessed via a link on the “Holy Rascals” page.) Presenter: Rabbi Rami Shapiro (see below for bio)

Seeking the Risen Christ: Brother Roger of Taize (Half Day – Afternoon)

This session will focus on contemplative practices inspired by the thought and experience of Brother Roger, the Founder of the Taize community. We will explore some of Brother Roger’s writings on how we can encounter the God of love; we’ll pray with Taize songs, Scripture, and silence (no music expertise is needed); and we’ll discuss together some of the experiences that become possible through Taize modes of contemplative prayer and community encounter.

Taize is an ecumenical monastic community located in Burgundy, France. It currently includes about 100 brothers—including Catholics and members of various Protestant denominations coming from about 30 countries. Taize wants to be a sign of reconciliation among Christians and among all kinds of separated people. Since its founding shortly after World War II, the Taize community has developed a style of contemplative prayer characterized by the sung repetition of short and simple phrases, in many different languages, excerpted from the Bible and varied classics of Christian spirituality. Every year, thousands of young people visit Taize, attracted by this simple and beautiful worship and by the joy of making new friends and discovering that Christ can destroy every separating wall. Taize hymns and music have been adopted and are loved today in Christian churches all over the world.

At the heart of the Taize community’s contemplative practice is Brother Roger’s vision, and his focus on our modern experience of God’s presence and absence. For Roger, Jesus is consistently the risen Jesus, who loved us first. If we don’t always seem to know or hear Him, if what is essential about him sometimes seems hidden, it is because the humble and poor Jesus never imposes himself. He is always calmly “just there,” respectfully, whether we know or feel anything or not. On one level, Jesus is the Gospel Lord who takes on our burdens, takes charge of everything, and transfigures us. Christ loves me and gives his life for me. On another level, though, He is “alien” to us: he is “clandestine,” a stowaway in our hearts. He is the one we do not know. His presence is mysterious and incomprehensible, but it also burns—imagery of light and love, but also of searing pain. This God invites us again and again through song and silence: will you dare to move forward in trust? Presenter: Karen Scott (see below or bio)

Fall Workshop Presenters

Introduction to Centering Prayer

Heath Missner is a Spiritual Director, as well as a Commissioned Presenter of Centering Prayer. Heath recently retired from serving as Deacon at Christ Episcopal Church in Winnetka. She is an Oblate of the Order of Julian of Norwich, which has the intention to bring contemplative practice to The Episcopal Church. Heath also is a member of the Ceile De, a Celtic Christian contemplative tradition based in Scotland. She is the mother of five, and she loves yoga and being outdoors in the beauty and rhythms of the natural world.

Phil Jackson is a Commissioned Presenter of Centering Prayer and former Coordinator for Contemplative Outreach of Chicago. He has attended Thomas Keating’s two Advanced Studies, 16 and 10 days in an invitation-only monastic setting, spending other weeks in Snowmass. He is also a member of Richard Rohr’s Men as Learners and Elders (MALEs), a Spiritual Director and graduate of Catholic Theological Union. Recently returned from India, Phil is a father of four and a new grandfather. His hobbies include backpacking and he has spent weeks in the wilderness.

Merton on Yoga

David Belcastro, PhD, is Professor Emeritus at Capital University Department of Religion and Philosophy, Adjunct Professor of Theology in Ohio Dominican University’s Graduate Program, and Yoga Philosophy and Practice teacher at Marian Correctional Institution. David is a past President of the International Thomas Merton Society and Editor of The Merton Annual. He has authored numerous publications and presentations on Merton, Albert Camus and Czelaw Milosz, and holds a PhD from University of St. Andrews, Scotland in Patristic Studies. David loves Yoga, Gardening and Baking Bread.

Perennial Wisdom

Rabbi Rami Shapiro, PhD, is a Jewish practitioner of Perennial Wisdom and an award–winning author of more than thirty books on religion and spirituality. He received rabbinical ordination from the Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, and holds a PhD in religion from Union Graduate School. A chaplain with the USAF for three years, a congregational rabbi for 20, and a professor of religious studies for 10, Rabbi Rami currently helps direct the One River Foundation (www.oneriverfoundation.org), writes the Roadside Assistance for the Spiritual Traveler column for Spirituality and Health magazine, and hosts the magazine’s weekly radio show, Essential Conversations with Rabbi Rami. His newest book is The World Wisdom Bible (Turner Publishing, 2017).

Sacred Breath, Sacred Chant

Darlene Franz, D.M.A., is a freelance oboist, singer, music educator, and chant composer residing in Seattle Washington. Her chants are used in Wisdom Schools throughout the United States and beyond. She facilitates sacred chanting and chant workshops in the Pacific Northwest. One of Cynthia Bourgeault’s colleagues in the Sacred Chanting work of Wisdom Schools, Darlene is “a master at spiritual inquiry and healing.” Recordings of a sampling of her work may be found at wisdomchant.bandcamp.com.

Seeking the Risen Christ: Brother Roger of Taize

Karen Scott, PhD, is Associate Professor of History and Catholic Studies at DePaul University, where she teaches courses in Church history, Medieval and Renaissance history, Medieval mysticism, and Catholic art, liturgy, and spirituality. She is the author of numerous articles on St. Catherine of Siena and is currently working on a book about St. Catherine as a lay preacher in 14^th century Italy. She gives talks and retreats on St. Catherine, medieval mysticism, and women’s spirituality. She has visited Taize often and has also published an essay in the collection entitled Brother Roger’s contribution to theological thought (2016).

Conscious Work as Part of the Wisdom Journey

by Alan Krema

Is prayer a retreat for you into a separate place where you find rest and peace? If so, why do you not find peace, wholeness and harmony in your daily working life? Do you think it is impossible? Our human condition is that we seem to consist of so many parts that we lose track of the wholeness of our being. Any one of these parts can dominate our life at a given moment, so the many parts of our life take turns dominating and drive us nuts looking for wholeness. We are driven by circumstances and tend to be frenetic, obsessed with our needs, anxious, and fatigued.

The difficulties and pain we experience rattle about in our body yielding physical symptoms associated with stressful, anxious energies. Our efforts to control our lives and our circumstances are driven mostly subconsciously by our needs for esteem, affection, and control.

With experience in the practice of Centering Prayer, we acquire a means of releasing the grip that these parts of our life, (problem behaviors, difficult relationships) maintain over us. As we go through a typical day, thoughts arise spontaneously and focus our attention on a specific energy or issue. In Centering Prayer, we learn to drop the thought and release the grip it has on our attention, moving to our center, where we are a larger being than any one issue. We are connected to a larger reality and experience.

Many of us practice Centering Prayer as a means of opening up to this greater sense of being. We feel we are at least glimpsing our True Self, our divine nature. Centering Prayer becomes a place we go to for wholeness. But what if we could bring that method of releasing the dominant grip of our thoughts and needs into the ordinary activities of our daily life?

Read more...

What if we could learn not to react to the energies of fear and greed that we encounter in our life’s relationships? What if we could practice opening ourselves to the grace of life when we find ourselves getting ready to rage into a fear-driven diatribe about some difficult person or political news story? What if we could relocate the focus of energy and operate from the center of our being? What if Centering Prayer can be the place we come from rather than the place we go to?

In order for this to happen, we need to see the raging furies coming. I have had the experience of getting angry and bursting out with some nasty words or thoughts and not even realized this was happening. After the outburst, I think, where did that come from?

There are Wisdom teachings that lead us into a more reality-based and connected way of living. Following a wisdom path includes engaging our body in awareness and knowing, so that even the practical activities of daily life can take on the character of a spiritual practice.

One story that illustrates this is that of being a member of the leadership team for the Chicago chapter of Contemplative Outreach, which we call the circle of service. We have meetings as you can imagine that are necessary to organize and plan our activities. We gather together, about 10 of us, to talk through our upcoming activity. Inevitably, a part of the meeting gets to things more speculative. People suggest ideas about bringing the work to a more diverse group of people, reaching out in various ways to attract people. One idea stimulates another and the talk goes on and on into “what if” and blue sky wanderings. These are wonderful people who are volunteering their time and have all made significant contributions to our group.

Despite the fact that each of our meetings begins with 20 minutes of Centering Prayer, I sometimes find that I can get agitated. My thoughts are that we have discussed all these ideas before, or similar ones. We are willing to do them all but have to be practical. What can we get done in the next weeks and months ahead? The meeting goes on and time seems to drag. My mind focuses on this as a waste of time. This is not the right time for such ideas. We can have time for ideas but not now. My mind wants to control this and return us to our agenda. I am intensely focused and frustrated. My body begins to constrict itself in the gut. I notice my throat gets very tight.

As I observe this experience happening within me, I am overtaken by circumstances but at the same time observant of what seems like an addictive reaction happening to me.

I allow my training in the work of Centering Prayer to take over by moving the thoughts, dropping them into a held awareness in my chest. The thoughts are real but they take only a portion of the larger space here. They can’t dominate this space. I release my body tension into the space as well. In reality, it seems as though the constriction and tightness in my throat is only a potential that alerts me to what might happen if I resist dropping and releasing this repressed energy – I might burst out in my frustration.

Then as I continue to listen from this other place, centered and spacious, I come to the sensation that not saying anything seems the best way to deal with my frustration. In allowing the words and the sensations to flow and move, they will dissipate. Indeed, the conversation turns quickly back to what we all agreed we need to work on. I have come to experience wisdom in this brief moment.

I realize that the others in the group have similar reactions during our work sessions. But they too have training similar to mine, and over some years and many meetings, our work together has come to be a communal experience of a larger and deeper space where we share connection and awareness.

Wisdom can be experienced in this way, but not possessed. Knowledge and understanding may be achieved but wisdom only can be experienced in a sensate way when I open my being to allow a flow of thoughts and sensations from all the parts of me, body and mind, into my center.

I have similar experiences in watching especially politically charged news stories. I have had this experience in confronting another individual. But how much do I allow the reactions of my mind and body to dominate? Have I learned to use the sensations and indications in my Being to transform the situation instead of bursting out or resisting in disgust?

Many of you will recognize these situations as perfect opportunities to exercise the Welcoming Prayer. They are indeed. However, seeing each situation with an awareness of the sensations I hold embodied allows me to quickly move from the thoughts and sensations into a gesture of drop and release (welcome) before I get too far down the warpath of my frustrated thinking.

We can work to train ourselves to engage our body awareness and open our heart space to our thoughts so that we can reside in and operate from the center of our being.

Awareness of our physical sensations is a method of spiritual practice. The methods are very similar to Centering Prayer, and we can look at these. We can explore what is meant by the “deeper more spacious place”. What is our higher Being? We can open ourselves to the experience of Wisdom in the moment. We can better see and live with the mind, which needs clarity, quick decision, control, and conclusions. The space of the mind is small, since it is only comfortable with the known. Our larger, deeper space is open to what is unknown, and learns something of connection.

Some of you may have participated in the wisdom work we undertook last winter, which included some movement, chanting, and Welcoming Prayer. Soon, we would like to offer a new workshop to focus on body sensation and awareness. We will practice methods that engage awareness of our body while physically working on a material task. We will explore moving our thoughts and sensations into a centered place where we can abide in them and they in us. Our True selves may seem hard to know, but we can explore our Self, engage it, feel it, and accompany it.

In the next step on this wisdom journey, we will work with a focusing technique as well as inner tasks fused with outer tasks. This is known as Conscious Work in the Wisdom tradition.

Please let me know via email if this sounds interesting to you. (coordinator@centeringprayerchicago.org). Would you be willing to attend? Perhaps a Saturday in September or October?

The 11^th Step, via Centering Prayer

The 12-step AA program includes an 11^th step during which participants seek “through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God….” A recently established program in Chicago is among a growing number nation-wide that adapt Centering Prayer to this purpose.

At each meeting, silent Centering Prayer meditation is followed by a brief positive talk or reading, then by 12-step sharing in an open AA meeting format. This creates a fellowship open to learning how the art of listening leads to developing an improved “real” relationship with a higher power and our fellows.

The group meets Fridays at 6:45pm in conference room “C” on the 7th floor of the Community First Medical Center, 5645 W. Addison Street, Chicago. Everyone is welcome to attend. (Coed, Non-Smoking.) If you have questions or would like further information, please contact Philip Lo Dolce: stuffer1@ameritech.net.

Events, Retreats, and Conferences for You to Consider

Here’s a listing of contemplative activities you may want to be part of:

Last Chance to Register! Deepen Your Contemplative Practice by Taking Part in an Eight-Day Intensive or Post-Intensive Retreat at “the Port” August 6-13

Registration closes at the end of July. An extended retreat is an opportunity to deepen the practices of Centering Prayer and Lectio Divina (praying sacred scriptures) in an atmosphere of profound silence and community support. For further information and registration, please visit the Event page.

Merton Society Offers Seven Sunday Afternoon Programs Beginning August 6

The Chicago Chapter of the International Thomas Merton Society has a series of talks lined up beginning August 6. All presentations are held Sundays at 2 p.m. in the Rectory Assembly of Immaculate Conception Parish, 7211 W. Talcott, Chicago. Signs with arrows indicating “Merton Lecture” will be posted.

August 6: Steven Millies on “The Merton Option: Religious Responsibility and the Common Good in the Post-Christian Era.”

September 17: Pauline Viviano on “Merton’s Monastic Prophetic Spirituality: Relevant for Non-Monks”

October 15: Shawn Storer of the Catholic Peace Fellowship on Blessed Franz Jägerstätter

November 5: David Belcastro on Merton & Camus

November 19: Paul Pearson on Merton & Humor

December 10: Kate Hennessy & Rosalie Riegle on Dorothy Day (Kate’s grandmother)

January 21, 2018: Jon Sweeney on “A Course in Christian Mysticism”

No special reading or background is required for any of these Merton Society talks, which are open to the public. Admission is a freewill offering. Refreshments will be served. For more information, call Mike Brennan at 773-447-3989. RSVPs to cc.itms@gmail.com are welcome, but not required.

A Range of Events at Healing Gardens in St. Charles

Lovely Healing Gardens at Stone Hill Farm in Saint Charles offers many opportunities to visit this summer and fall, including an Introductory Centering Prayer Workshop on Saturday July 29 and a Level 2 Enneagram Workshop on September 16. The gardens are open to the public on Sunday August 13 and Sunday September 10 (with optional outdoor Yoga, Tai Chi, and QiGong classes both days). There will also be Silent Saturdays on August 5 and October 28 and an Awakening in Nature retreat on October 22. For more information on these and other activities, please visit the Healing Gardens website.

In August: Weekend and Five-Day Retreats with Susan Komis at the Benet House Retreat Center in Rock Island, Illinois

A weekend retreat, A Journey to Interior Freedom and Transcendence – Exploring the Human Condition (August 18-20), as well as a five-day Centering Prayer Intensive/Post Intensive Retreat (August 20-25), both presented by Susan Komis, will take place at the Benet House Retreat Center in Rock Island, Illinois. The two events can be combined into a full-week retreat.

The weekend retreat includes four presentations: (1) The Awakening, exploring the stages of prayer and faith development; (2) The Human Condition and Divine Therapy, assessing the false self value system, bearing witness to a universal illness that afflicts the entire human family; (3) The Power of Formative Thought, exploring the role that Centering Prayer has in bringing awareness of “thoughts flowing down our psychological stream of consciousness” to realization; and (4) Transformation, affirming our true self identity that is deeper than psychological awareness, and exploring how it is experienced in daily life.

The week-long Intensive/Post Intensive Retreat, on the other hand, offers an opportunity for extensive periods of Centering Prayer to deepen the personal practice of contemplative prayer. This retreat focuses more on complete silence, with no educational component presented. All meals are silent, with no conversation. A minimum of one year practicing Centering Prayer is a prerequisite for attending the Intensive Retreat, while previous participation in an Intensive is a prerequisite for the Post Intensive Retreat.

Susan Komis is a well-known and very experienced retreat facilitator who has served Contemplative Outreach since 1990, including stints as Coordinator of the St. Louis chapter, as a member of the faculty of Contemplative Outreach, and as Director of Chapter Programs and Services, supporting the nation-wide spiritual community.

For further information and registration, please visit the Sisters of St. Benedict website, email retreats@smmsisters.org, or call 309-283-2108.

Late August through October: Contemplative Prayer Group at the Tau Center in Wheaton

Finding sacred space for spiritual refreshment can be a challenge in the midst of our busy lives. This small group offering will provide an opportunity to quiet your mind, body, and soul as you engage in a variety of simple, yet profound contemplative prayer forms, which will include experiences with: Centering Prayer, Lectio Divina, Guided Biblical Imagery, Praying with Icons, and Presence through Sound and Silence.

An introductory session will be held on Saturday August 26, 9:00am – 1:00pm, at the Tau Center in Wheaton, followed by six two-hour Wednesday evening sessions in September and October at the same location. Take the time to be present for God and the connection that your soul may be longing for in the midst of a listening and prayerful community. For further information, please contact Becky Serpe at 847-533-1285 or Becky.Serpe@comcast.net.

Looking Further Ahead: Events to Plan for in December 2017 and March 2018

Forgiveness Prayer Weekend Retreat – December 10-12 in Racine Wisconsin

Mary Dwyer, a well-known retreat guide and long-time student of Fr. Thomas Keating, will present a weekend retreat focusing on “The Forgiveness Prayer” at the beautiful Siena Retreat Center on the shores of Lake Michigan in Racine, Wisconsin December 10-12.

To be a Christian mandates a willingness to forgive, but as the adage goes, “to err is human, to forgive is Divine.” Forgiveness is central to Jesus’s message calling us to forgive “from the heart,” yet in today’s world how does one forgive? The retreat will explore these questions and share both the Process of Forgiveness and specific practices to forgive (including the Forgiveness Prayer as articulated by Mary Mrozowski). For more information or to register, click here. This event is sponsored by Contemplative Outreach of Southeast Wisconsin.

Act Now to Secure Your Place at Next Spring’s Mega Wisdom School in North Carolina

The next “Mega” Wisdom School with Cynthia Bourgeault will take place Sunday, March 11 – Friday, March 16, 2018 at Kanuga Conference Center in North Carolina.

Entitled Introductory Wisdom School Part B: The Divine Exchange, the retreat will cover the Wisdom metaphysical map, the Divine Exchange, Vertical Exchange, Reciprocal Feeding, the Jesus teachings based in exchange, an introduction to Trinitarian metaphysics and selections from the Gospel of Thomas. For complete information, visit the Wisdom Way of Knowing website.

“While next March is more than seven months away, Cynthia’s Wisdom School events, including the larger-capacity “mega” retreats, always fill up quickly,” says Alan Krema, Contemplative Outreach Chicago Coordinator, who will be assisting as a facilitator at the retreat. “It isn’t necessary to have experienced the Wisdom School Part A to participate in and benefit from Part B, but it is suggested that participants have an established Centering Prayer or meditation practice.”

If you are interested in attending or have any questions about the Wisdom School, please email Alan at coordinator@centeringprayerchicago.org.

Insights

You will never find interior solitude unless you make some conscious effort to deliver yourself from the desires and the cares and the attachments of an existence in time and in the world.

– Thomas Merton

The rational level of consciousness is the door that swings into higher states – the intuitive and unitive levels of consciousness.

– Thomas Keating

The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark.

– Rabindranath Tagore

Your Turn

Please write in to comment on or add to any of the items in this month’s newsletter. Let us know if you are aware of an upcoming event you think others should know about, or send us an inspirational quote you’d like to share, or information about a book, website, podcast, or video you recommend. You are invited to contribute by emailing the newsletter editor at news@centeringprayerchicago.org.