Articles

And what do I know through all of this?

Is God truly to be trusted?

Coming from the perspective of someone who has survived cancer certainly puts you in a place to understand, at least partially, what our hospice residents are going through.

In retirement, I found myself lost and without an identity. It was a great loss to find that all of a sudden so many of the props that held my identity upright were gone.

What an enormous and lifetime gift of grace is given through each and all of you at Contemplative Outreach as we all continue on the Way through your guidance, resources, community and presence!!! 

This is dedicated to a very holy ( though she was unaware) seamstress, Ginny, who was one of the most unconditional lovers I know as mom, friend, wife and grandmother.

As I sit on my sofa
facing south
I hear the crickets,
little pinpricks of sound
in the night.

“Be still and know that I am God” (Psalms 46:10).  It was a verse I had long been familiar with, but what in the world did it mean? ...   The concept of being still and simply consenting to God’s presence and action within me was a foreign one.

My name is Michael Erwin. I have been doing Centering Prayer on a daily basis for several years during my incarceration at San Quentin State Prison. I have found that Centering Prayer goes beyond all other forms of meditation that I have done in my life.

Some years ago a dear friend gave me a lovely chiming meditation timer encased in a wooden pyramid. You set the timer for the length of time you want to center, press a button, and a tiny red light comes on...

Breath for the spirit,
Meditation for the mind,

This place living in nothing is like my end,
my death,
and yet I truly feel it is more like the agony of my personality being a nothingness.

On a visit to Ireland in June 2012, my wife and I visited Dingle, County Kerry. This Holy Stone, one of many on the Emerald Isle, sits in the street in front of a home.