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Thoughts of centering prayer

RileyG

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I read "Practice the presence of God" by Brother Lawrence many years ago. I own it, and am not sure where it is at (I have since moved within the past few years). Definitely need to look into it again!
 
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Akita Suggagaki

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Akita Suggagaki

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It's the same as CP using the method of closing your eyes and using a meaningful
word from Scripture or other place. It's called a "Sacred Word." For myself it's just "Lord Jesus."

In either case, we place ourselves in the presence of God who dwells within as you stated.

St Teresa of Avila called it "Mental Prayer." It doesn't matter if our eyes are closed or we're at
communal prayer using verbal words, the focus is being in the presence of the Lord.

As St Teresa said, "when we pray to Our King," He brings his court with him. The Queen Our Blessed Mother, Angels and Saints." :D

She said that interior prayer is the deepest form of prayer we can have, and it's where God speaks to us best.
The complaint of some is that "sacred word" is too close to Eastern methods. My own practice is inconsistent, sometimes a word, sometimes a phrase, scripture passage or thought. I don't usually use a visual. More often it is an invocation., I sometimes like Hebrew words.
 
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JimR-OCDS

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The complaint of some is that "sacred word" is too close to Eastern methods. My own practice is inconsistent, sometimes a word, sometimes a phrase, scripture passage or thought. I don't usually use a visual. More often it is an invocation., I sometimes like Hebrew words.

But then they have no problem with the repetition of Hail Mary's in the Rosary or the Divine Mercy Chaplet. Those too are sacred words.

Centering Prayer helped me pray and understand the Rosary contemplatively. No longer is it verbral words nor do I have a mental-video of the events when I meditate on the mysteries. Instead, I meditate on the fact that Christ is present when I'm praying. The mystery becomes the understanding between Christ and myself that He went through it. I don't have to replay scenes from the Jesus of Nazareth Movie or some other artist depicted image in my head when I'm praying the Rosary. :D
 
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RileyG

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Akita Suggagaki

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As Christians, I know we are not supposed to feel "empty."
I have heard others warn that if the mind is "empty" the devil can come in. St John of the Cross says just the opposite, that if we empty ourselves the devil has nothing to work with. Of course the mind cannot be "empty" unless we are unconscious. But we can have a quiet, still attentiveness.

Psalm 62 My soul waits in silence for God alone;

That is how I best describe my practice once my mind has settled down.
 
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RileyG

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I have heard others warn that if the mind is "empty" the devil can come in. St John of the Cross says just the opposite, that if we empty ourselves the devil has nothing to work with. Of course the mind cannot be "empty" unless we are unconscious. But we can have a quiet, still attentiveness.

Psalm 62 My soul waits in silence for God alone;

That is how I best describe my practice once my mind has settled down.
Thanks for the input!

My mind goes and goes and goes. I doubt it will ever feel “empty.” My thoughts never shut up.

I try to pray when I’m overwhelmed.
 
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Akita Suggagaki

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My mind goes and goes and goes. I doubt it will ever feel “empty.” My thoughts never shut up.
it takes patience. Buy have you ever though you heard a strange sound at home alone?
You stop and just listen, attentive, almost holding your breath.
That attentiveness is the target. At first we can only hold it a second or two before thoughts come back.
With practice the attention gets longer and more frequent. The thoughts less intrusive.

I think of it like air that becomes thinner.

Another analogy is like driving a care, we constantly make minor corrections but continue to go straight.
So also in silent prayer, the corrections are when we remind ourselves to be attentive.
 
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JimR-OCDS

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The emptying of the mind merely means letting go of thoughts that take us away from being
in the presence of Christ.

St John of the Cross called it "detachment," the author of the "Cloud of Unknowing" merely
tells the reader to let the thoughts go and not to pay attention to them.

As long as we are in this mortal life, erroneous thoughts will enter your mind and if
you pay attention to them; they will take you away from being in the presence of
God.

It doesn't matter if you're praying the Rosary, the Liturgy of the Hours or meditating.
Distractions will come and we are to just let the thoughts go and return to
the center of your being where Christ dwells.
 
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fide

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Almost sounds like imaginative prayer to me! Similar to Ignatian prayer, perhaps?
It seems to me that any digression into our imaginations is a detour to emptiness. We need the fullness that only God knows, because it is a participation in Him, the Holy Trinity. We do better to listen, and listen again, and listen again until we hear. Faith comes through hearing, and hearing of the Word of God. All that we seek, He has. Life and salvation are in HIM, not (yet) in us.
 
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JimR-OCDS

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“the Spirit of truth,* which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you." John 14:17

"But you are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you. Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him." Romans 8:9

"Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" Corinthians 3:16

The dwelling of God within is based on Scripture and Church teaching;

From the CCC:
738 Thus the Church's mission is not an addition to that of Christ and the Holy Spirit, but is its sacrament: in her whole being and in all her members, the Church is sent to announce, bear witness, make present, and spread the mystery of the communion of the Holy Trinity (the topic of the next article):

"All of us who have received one and the same Spirit, that is, the Holy Spirit, are in a sense blended together with one another and with God. For if Christ, together with the Father's and his own Spirit, comes to dwell in each of us, though we are many, still the Spirit is one and undivided. He binds together the spirits of each and every one of us, . . . and makes all appear as one in him. For just as the power of Christ's sacred flesh unites those in whom it dwells into one body, I think that in the same way the one and undivided Spirit of God, who dwells in all, leads all into spiritual unity."

"989 We firmly believe, and hence we hope that, just as Christ is truly risen from the dead and lives for ever, so after death the righteous will live for ever with the risen Christ and he will raise them up on the last day. Our resurrection, like his own, will be the work of the Most Holy Trinity:

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit who dwells in you."

 
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JimR-OCDS

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Also in the thread on Reiki and Yoga;


LETTER TO THE BISHOPS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
ON SOME ASPECTS OF CHRISTIAN MEDITATION*




October 15, 1989

V. Questions of Method

16.
The majority of the great religions which have sought union with God in prayer have also pointed out ways to achieve it. Just as "the Catholic Church rejects nothing of what is true and holy in these religions,"18 neither should these ways be rejected out of hand simply because they are not Christian. On the contrary, one can take from them what is useful so long as the Christian conception of prayer, its logic and requirements are never obscured. It is within the context of all of this that these bits and pieces should be taken up and expressed anew. Among these one might mention first of all that of the humble acceptance of a master who is an expert in the life of prayer, and of the counsels he gives. Christian experience has known of this practice from earliest times, from the epoch of the desert Fathers. Such a master, being an expert in "sentire cum Ecclesia," must not only direct and warn of certain dangers; as a "spiritual father," he has to also lead his pupil in



 
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Akita Suggagaki

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And at least as far as it had been done for centuries it was far far better than any sort of emptying prayer. Emptying prayer is ... vacuous.
Like most things the word "emptiness" can have many aspects. We do not seek the emptiness of unconsciousness or mental stupor. We do seek a state of undistracted attentiveness. Attentiveness to what? It seems like nothing. But on the contrary, God is always present. Even in what seems to us as empty silence, God is present and perhaps speaking to us. If we could only relinquish our own thoughts and desires.
 
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public hermit

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Like most things the word "emptiness" can have many aspects. We do not seek the emptiness of unconsciousness or mental stupor. We do seek a state of undistracted attentiveness. Attentiveness to what? It seems like noting. But on the contrary, God is always present. Even in what seems to us as empty silence, God is present and perhaps speaking to us. If we could only relinquish our own thoughts and desires.

Exactly, a common principle in Christian spiritual writings is that one becomes empty of creatures and full of God (western Christian writings) or empty of mental forms/images and full of God (eastern Christian writings). And that fullness is still empty of mental content since God transcends creatures/forms/images. Nonetheless, that fullness is an experience of inscrutable presence.
 
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Akita Suggagaki

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Exactly, a common principle in Christian spiritual writings is that one becomes empty of creatures and full of God (western Christian writings) or empty of mental forms/images and full of God (eastern Christian writings). And that fullness is still empty of mental content since God transcends creatures/forms/images. Nonetheless, that fullness is an experience of inscrutable presence.
So we do not have to fear inner silence or what might seem like emptiness. It is not Zen or pagan or whatever. St. John of the Cross is a Doctor of the Church, at least for Catholics. And he was a champion of this inner journey through silent darkness.
 
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public hermit

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So we do not have to fear inner silence or what might seem like emptiness. It is not Zen or pagan or whatever. St. John of the Cross is a Doctor of the Church, at least for Catholics. And he was a champion of this inner journey through silent darkness.

Agreed. And to add witnesses from the Eastern traditions, one can find the same basic idea throughout the Philokalia.
 
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JimR-OCDS

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Agreed. And to add witnesses from the Eastern traditions, one can find the same basic idea throughout the Philokalia.
I read The Way of the Pilgrim years ago, and through it I learned the "Jesus Prayer," which I often use as a sacred word
in Centering Prayer, and is commonly used by Orthodox.

Reading the book led me to purchase the three volume set of the Philokalia. I have not read the three volumes as
other readings were more pressive.

However, I do recall in the Way of the Pilgrim when he visits an Orthodox Monastery, a monk that he met teaches him
how to properly examine his conscience before going to confession. The monk said to examine your conscience against
the two commandments Jesus gave us and that is, "to love the Lord God with all of your strength, with all of your heart and
all of your soul and to love your neighbor as yourself." Thise two commandments sum up the ten commandments God gave
us. I've been doing this before confession ever since.
 
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FaithT

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I don't believe it is, I would steer clear. Centering prayer has its roots in Buddhism and eastern meditation practices. I would look to something like Lectio Divina to accomplish somewhat similar results but totally rooted in the one true faith, rather than emptying your mind which is what centering prayer and eastern religions teach, fill your mind with sacred scripture. That's a way better option, don't you think?
Virtually everything has roots in something else. Even Christmas trees.
 
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FaithT

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Thanks for the input!

My mind goes and goes and goes. I doubt it will ever feel “empty.” My thoughts never shut up.

I try to pray when I’m overwhelmed.
My mind is busy like that, too.
 
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