"Liminal Grief"

Column by Rev. Matthew Syrdal on 22 October 2020 4 Comments

As the leaves turn color and fall into the ground, and the migratory patterns and bird songs slowly shapeshift into a dirge, as the sap sinks into its source, we might listen closely to our bodies and psyche. If we allow ourselves the space to pay attention we can feel the shift towards the liminal time of fall. Fall in-between the erotic vigor and embodiment of summer, and the pale, dormant latency of winter.

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Question

 
I keep hearing about “”Centering prayer” but I’m not sure what this is exactly. Can you give me a definition or where I can read about it?

Answer

 
Dear Beverly,

The name “Centering Prayer” was taken from Thomas Merton's description of contemplative prayer.  Contemplative prayer is considered to be a much older and more traditional practice. Essentially, any prayer that is focused entirely on the presence of God.

Centering Prayer is a form of meditation as well as the act of creating space for being rather than thinking. It’s being present to stillness. It’s listening with one’s whole heart and body. It’s opening to the most intimate and direct experience of the divine. Centering Prayer is a mode of experiencing oneself and the world as one. It’s about opening to our inner experience without judgement, recognizing that God is, if anything, the emptiness and stillness found within and beyond all ideas, thoughts and things. 

The modern concept of Centering Prayer in Christianity can be followed back to several books published by three Trappist monks of St. Joseph's Abbey in the 1970s: Fr. William Meninger, Fr. M. Basil Pennington and Abbot Thomas Keating. 

~ Skylar Wilson, MA

 

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