Fall/Winter 2001/02 Newsletter
The Theological Foundations of
Contemplative Outreach
A Commentary by Thomas
Keating
(Part Two of a Two-Part Series)
6. We encourage the practice of Lectio
Divina, particularly its movement into contemplative prayer, which a regular
and established practice of Centering Prayer facilitates.
Once again we are affirming that Centering
Prayer is a means of moving into contemplative prayer. The contemplative
dimension of the Gospel is the assimilation of Lectio Divina, the word of God at
ever-deepening levels of consciousness. Tradition describes these in terms of
the different senses of scripture: the literal, moral, allegorical, and unitive.
We encourage Lectio insofar as it awakens us to those ever-deepening senses of
the word of God by which we are assimilated by the word and the word is
assimilated by us.
Practicing Lectio Divina is listening to the
word of God with rapt attention. Lectio Divina needs to be distinguished from
Bible study, which is very useful at another time, and even from the practice of
praying the scriptures which used to be called shared prayer. The basic elements
of Lectio Divina are reading the text, reflecting or pondering (listening of the
heart), responding in spontaneous prayer, and finally resting in God beyond
concepts, words, and the multiplication of particular acts. The scholastic
method looked at those four aspects as a kind of ladder to be climbed, as steps
to be experienced and tended to emphasize the analytical approach that was
developing in scholastic circles at the time. In the monastic method they are
rather, moments on a circle that are interrelated and one might be moved by the
Spirit to linger in one or other of those four moments. The Spirit might
suggest, after we have read the text, that we immediately rest in God or stir us
to reflect on the text or to make acts of gratitude, praise and petition. In
other words, we don't have to follow the stages one by one, especially when
doing this privately. If we are doing it in a group, we obviously have to follow
some kind of order.
The monastic way of doing Lectio Divina was
directed toward contemplation from the beginning because it emphasized listening
to the word of God with the confidence that the Spirit would help us to hear the
word of God at ever-deepening levels. Monastic Lectio was characterized by
listening with the heart. In this way of doing Lectio, you pick a sentence or
even a single word that strikes you and slowly repeat it without trying to think
about it. Rather, you allow the text to think you, so to speak, waiting for the
Holy Spirit to awaken in you a greater capacity to listen. The early monks had a
lot of time to do this. Unfortunately, contemporary busyness is especially hard
on this process of Lectio. One needs time to do it leisurely. Pondering is the
monastic way of doing Lectio as distinct from reflecting in the usual
understanding of the term. It is more conducive to the movement into
contemplative prayer than the scholastic method, which tends to encourage
reflection, visualizing, and thinking about the text, all of which are good but
which are not as direct a path to contemplative prayer, which is time to be
still and wait upon God.
7. We recognize as mature fruits of Centering
Prayer a deepening commitment to the needs and rights of each member of the
human family and an ever-increasing respect for the integrity and
interdependence of all creation.
Contemplative prayer is not a narcissistic or
self-preoccupied adventure. As it develops, it increases our concern for the
needs and rights of others as well as our sensitivity to our belonging to the
universe and to the whole of creation. In other words, the more we feel God as
the source of all that is, the more we realize that so is everything else,
especially every other person. Our prayer is healing us of self-centeredness and
the thought that we are the center of the universe. We find ourselves part of
the wonderful creation that is happening at every moment. Going in and out of
prayer is finding God both within and in every manifestation of reality we
perceive around us. We encourage those on the contemplative path to feel a
responsibility toward the great issues of our time, both local and global. At
the very least, they need to be the object of our prayer and sympathies.
Contemplation inclines us to support all the social justice and peace issues
that have evolved in the Christian churches beginning with Pope Leo XIII, and
which have been strongly emphasized in our time by Pope John Paul II, Mahatma
Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Caesar Chavez, Dorothy Day, Nelson Mandela, Desmond
Tutu, and many other religious leaders.
8. We identify with the Christian
contemplative heritage in which Centering Prayer is rooted and we recognize
the lived experience of the living Christ through Centering Prayer.
The source of our historical commitment comes
from the knowledge and identification with the Christian contemplative
tradition. It is the common heritage of all Christians and belongs to all
denominations in virtue of their rootedness in the Christian contemplative
tradition. This is singularly important for us since as an ecumenical group, we
needed to find where our unity is rooted and to whom we are accountable. This
idea became clear to us as persons from diverse Christian denominations came for
Introductory Workshops. The interest in contemplation was obviously crossing
denominational boundaries. We had to ask ourselves, what is the Spirit saying to
us? We do not regard ourselves as a new kind of religion. Rather, Contemplative
Outreach is a renewal of the contemplative tradition that belongs to all
Christians. We hope to contribute to the call to unity among Christians that is
part of the movement of the Second Vatican Council. Right now, it is slow going
because of doctrinal differences. These, of course, have to be respected. The
experience of members of different denominations coming together to pray in
silence and experiencing deep union with Christ may make a significant
difference in the way that the different denominations look at each other. We
are trying to renew the experience of the Gospel, the lived experience of
contemplation, and as we do, we come to the realization that we are joined
together across the boundaries of the different Christian denominations in a
deeper unity than is at first apparent. This may be helpful in dissolving some
of the disunity that has been characteristic of Christian history.
We might then ask, to what authority does each
of us owe accountability? Accountability is to our respective churches and the
authorities that are in place in those churches. In that way, we are not making
ourselves the only authority in our lives. Rather we are invited to be more
faithful to our own religious traditions while experiencing the unity that comes
through contemplative prayer and the experience of the living Christ.
9. While we are formed by our respective
denominations, we are united in our common search for God and the experience
of the living Christ through Centering Prayer.
We acknowledge the doctrinal differences that
we have. We do not encourage discussion of them, however. We share the faith
experience of Christ at a deeper level than the doctrinal differences, which
come from our religious formation. We emphasize what unites us while respecting
our divisions and the reasons for them.
10. We affirm our solidarity with the
contemplative dimension of other religious and sacred traditions.
That is moving us a step further in our
ecumenical view. We reach out with a genuine sense of solidarity to the other
religions and spiritual traditions of the world insofar as they are inspired by
the Holy Spirit, especially in that area of the spiritual traditions which we
can learn from each other on the basis of experience. Above all, we nurture
within ourselves the kind of respect, appreciation, and honor that will
encourage dialogue between the world religions and bring about a greater unity
in the common affirmation of human values that the world religions proclaim. We
see the future of Contemplative Outreach as a catalyst not only for unity among
the Christian denominations, but also to foster a sense of solidarity with all
that is deeply religious and spiritual in the other religions. This hopefully
will change the unfriendly atmosphere that comes from emphasizing divisions and
establishing strict boundaries. While differences of belief and practice are
certainly real, contemplative prayer tends to relativize their importance in the
light of the deeper unity of our common rootedness in the Source of all that is.
In the parable of the Prodigal Son, the Prodigal's father seems to be an image
of God the Father, or the Creator. Both of his sons treat him abominably. One
uses up the inheritance that was supposed to take care of the father in his old
age, while the other son was obviously afflicted with self-righteous attitudes
that made him indignant when the father received the Prodigal with open arms. To
neither of these wayward sons does the father ask for an apology or for any kind
of penance. He just asks them to rejoice that the one who was the most visibly
recalcitrant has come home. The father even comes out and remonstrates with the
self-righteous elder son. The attitude of the father is striking because it is
totally opposed to the social expectations of the patriarchal father in the
Palestinian milieu in which Jesus was speaking. In other words, the father was a
responsible father from the social perspective of the times. His conduct
resembles the role of women in that culture, which is nurturing and loving. The
father turns out to be a much better mother than a father. The bottom line is,
the father is ready to forgive and forget whatever the sons have done against
him personally, and his chief desire is that they respect and love each other.
In other words, he says, "Would you please forgive each other and live
together in peace." One wonders whether this Gospel has been thoroughly
heard by the majority of the world's population, even by the majority of
Christians. This parable suggests how far divine love is prepared to go to prove
itself to us. It invites us at the same time, to do likewise.
Hopefully, this position we find ourselves in
will be understood by our respective religious authorities and seen as a
movement that is both ecumenical and stretches out to embrace all people of good
will, especially the spiritual disciplines of those who are seeking God with
similar commitments.
Notice we said we affirm our solidarity with
the contemplative dimension of other religions. We do not identify with their
belief systems but rather with their commitment to spiritual disciplines that
lead to divine union, although they may conceptualize their belief systems in
ways that seem quite different from our tradition. We also include other sacred
traditions: the Native American traditions and other indigenous peoples who have
preserved a greater sense of oneness with creation than we have in the West.
Contemplative Outreach does not in any way hide
the fact that our spiritual roots are in the Christian tradition, the Gospel,
and the early Church. If others from other religions should want to learn the
Centering Prayer practice, there is no problem as long as they do not object to
the way we present it. We try to keep a balance between being faithful to our
Christian tradition and respectful and appreciative of the spiritual
accomplishments of the other world religions.
11. Following the teachings of Jesus, we
exercise leadership as service, especially being alert and responsive to the
growth and needs of the spiritual network of Contemplative Outreach.
We exercise leadership as service. Leadership
as service means that the control issues and the desire to keep others in close
conformity to whatever are the ways in which we relate to each other are not to
be done in the spirit of domination but rather in the spirit of dialogue and
spiritual discernment. We expect people to be creative and come up with better
ideas as time goes on. We insist on the method of Centering Prayer and its
immediate conceptual background and then we commit ourselves to listening to the
experience as people grow, and try to meet the needs that arise in a spirit of
service. Our procedures are open to change; they only pertain to the surface of
the network. New ideas are shared throughout the network so that others can
benefit from them.
12. We cultivate and foster a spirit of unity
and the utmost charity throughout the spiritual network.
Everybody is supposed to practice charity as a
Christian. But you will notice here that we are talking about trying to practice
charity in the relations between the various organisms of the network. There
will sometimes be personality problems, misunderstandings, or ego trips prompted
by one of the three emotional programs for happiness. Being a community provides
the Holy Spirit and the Divine Therapist with a milieu in which he can bring to
our attention the dynamics of our unconscious that need to be looked at so that
divine love can take complete control of us. Negative feelings that are not
evacuated in the unloading of the unconscious can be healed through community
interaction. There is usually somebody in the small groups who has been gifted
by God to bring out the worst in us. For contemplatives, charity is not enough.
It must be the utmost charity. How we handle these things is a sign of how
deeply the contemplative dimension of the gospel has taken root in our hearts.
This does not mean that someone who is disruptive in the group should be allowed
to cause continuous distress, which could lead to the disbanding of a particular
group. Rather, utmost charity requires facing problems and taking appropriate
action to correct them as well as to heal the wounds that may have been caused
by them through honest dialogue and openness to modifying one's views and
changing one's behavior. In some cases, these measures will not be enough and a
particular person may have to be asked to find another group.
Thus, utmost charity involves flexibility in
dealing with new ideas as well as presenting new ideas with respect for what has
been done so far by the leadership that is in place. Prayerful discernment when
there are disagreements between parts of the organism is extremely important.
This principle aims at trying to foster and create communion throughout the
spiritual network. This is especially important as it begins to mushroom into
places outside the United States where the conceptual background of Centering
Prayer has to be adapted to local people and the way they understand things.
13. We acknowledge that any good accomplished
by Contemplative Outreach is the work of the Holy Spirit.
The sharing of this prayer insofar as it is
fruitful, transforming, and life changing for people in the best sense of the
term, is God's gift. We are only the instruments of God and not ones who would
ordinarily be chosen by anyone except God.
Part One appears in the Summer 2001 Newsletter 
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Other Newsletter Articles:
The Theological Foundations | President's Letter
Spanish Corner | Locked Up ... And Free
| Reflection
Imprisonment and Transformation | 2001 Updates
The Central American Experience
