Articles

The Living Flame is a special program, with an inspired combination of silence, Centering Prayer, speakers, and personal sharing – all which contributed a major role in my path to transformation in Christ.

“Slow down, you move too fast.” These are lyrics that I grew up on. I really did not fully understand what they meant until about five years ago when I began the practice of Centering Prayer again.

The past two years my family has endured a devastating loss with the passing of my beloved sister. . .

One of the members of my prayer group inspired me to write about Centering Prayer.   　

O Lighthouse on hill of tears and mist
    a clearing to the path that leads to the
    inner cloister of Love in which I hope to abide

My True Self, are you there hiding behind the fear?
Are you there, my True Self; a shadow unknown, unseen,
But felt in sudden shudders and closed heart?
...

We gather at the noon hour
Morning choices made, now past;
Silence at table, sit wondering
If the insights will last.

I began to wonder if they were right after a snowstorm grounded my connecting flight and I found myself on a crowded van climbing over icy mountain passes. It was pitch dark by the time I arrived at St. Benedict’s Monastery and so I just went straight to bed.

An inner turning
Of the heart and mind;
An unseen embrace
Into Love divine.

Reflections on an Eight-Day Personal Lectio Divina Immersion Retreat

I had been working as a hospital chaplain for just a few months, when one morning I visited a patient (let’s call her Joan) who was due to have complicated cardiac surgery later that morning. The moment I entered her private room I realised that she was consumed by anxiety.

When I was a junior in high school I took a class on world literature... One day {a classmate} asked me, “Why are you always bring Jesus and the Bible into our discussions?”  A little stunned, I replied, “Because I’m a Christian. Aren’t you?” “No,” he answered.  “Well what are you then? Jewish, or some other religion?” I asked. “No, my parents never took me to church. I guess I’m an atheist or an agnostic. I never really thought about it,” Chris replied. Then he asked me a question that stopped me cold: “Why do you believe all that crap anyway?”

Lyrics from a popular Doris Day song from the 1950’s:

“Que sera sera, whatever will be, will be;
the future’s not ours to see, que sera sera”