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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 written my testimony (in the form of a poem) and found it to be an affirmation of what I had written: “We are being stripped of … our ‘outer’ self so that our ‘inner’ self can come to true life.”

I am an ordained Protestant minister who has benefited greatly from contemplative prayer.  I speak from experience with a way of being open to contemplative prayer called Centering Prayer. I am well acquainted with some of the resistances Protestants have toward contemplation.

Thought for today:   I cannot follow what I can not see!

Question for contemplation:  Am I “seeing” my life with eyes formed by the Word or by the World?