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Posted by Thomas Lloyd on June 5, 2024 at 3:53 pm in reply to: Sunday, June 2: The Inner and Outer Yes #145141
Linda, thanks for sharing your retreat experience at Snowmass. I will never get there but I felt I was there with you! Sharing in CO is so valuable. I did visit Chrysalis House in Warwick NY many years ago. I was looking at the Board of Directors bios and saw that Mary Dwyer was at Warwick That brought back some memories of CO when it was starting it is so wonderful to see how it has grown. I would never have guessed.
This Sunday’s readings are for me the most powerful of the whole year. I was blessed that our parish priest seemed to be in the same place and rang the bells for me. It was not his homily but his Faith and you could see that this was an exceptional day for him personally. I enjoyed being in his presence and sharing in his Faith. After all this is what CO is all about. We have it in the Eucharist, Centering Prayer, Lectio Divina and Welcoming Prayer. It is as revolutionary as those who heard Jesus for the first time. We have the advantage of time and understanding more clearly. What gifts we are given. What miracles and graces. This Sunday shows why this is so and the most precious legacy that Jesus left us. All we have to do is enter into it and Everything is ours. What a gift. And CO spreads the message and distributes all the gifts we so desperately need in this world today!
Posted by Thomas Lloyd on April 21, 2024 at 4:57 pm in reply to: Sunday April 21: Follow Love’s Way #143901What grabs me is the phrase that God is within each one of us. Thus we can find the Good Shepherd in each one of us. We can summon the Good Shepherd to the surface whenever the wolf appears in our lives. In my life it seems almost daily. Even if I am a coward, the hireling who wants to run, I can count on the Good Shepherd who willingly pops up because I have simply asked for His help. He is more than willing, but I do have ask! I do have to recognize that God is within me and available. Not only the Good Shepherd but every aspect of good that we know is available to me. Christ the healer, Christ the story teller, Christ the lover of sinners and tax collectors, etc. This is the month of the Eucharist and we Catholics believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. So if we have trouble finding God within each of us (see St. Teresa and the “Interior Castle”) then we certainly know that when we receive communion, that God the Good Shepherd and all other aspects of God come into our body and soul at that moment. All we have to do at that moment is ask for the Good Shepherd to come into our lives and fight off the wolf who seeks to kill all that we know about this wonderful God within each of us that loves us so much that He laid down His life for us. With that kind of courage in each of us, how can we be cowards and run away?
Posted by Thomas Lloyd on April 14, 2024 at 10:53 pm in reply to: Sunday April 14: Wonder Bread #143740What caught me: by seeing the visible acts of God all around us every moment of the day, we are able to see the invisible God. These wonderful theophanies are available to each of us whether we had faith or not. If we have faith we step from the visible to the invisible. We touch the hands and feet of the visible wounds of the resurrection Jesus. We feel his body. This is no ghost. Just as we pick up the buttercup flower and admire its beauty reflecting its Creator. Springtime is full of all these miracles. Are we better and more beautiful than the buttercups in the eyes of God? Natures beauty responds with a resounding yes and invites all to go from the visible to the invisible. And we do that in silence of our hearts. All we have to do is humble ourselves and say yes.
Posted by Thomas Lloyd on February 25, 2024 at 6:47 pm in reply to: Sunday February 25: Transfiguration Always and Everywhere #142269I guess of all the readings in scripture this would be one of the iconic ones for me when I think about the Contemplative Outreach community. For me it is always going up the mountain with Jesus, Peter, James and John. When Eileen and I visited the Holy Land many years ago, we actually climbed the very mountain. It was more like a hill. When we got to the top there was a beautiful chapel and a beautiful view from Mt. Tabor as you could see for miles around because the terrain was so flat. As we move up the mountain in silence every day and come to the top each has a different experience because God treats each of us differently. To some God gives more grace than others but to each of us God gives enough grace. I am grateful for the little grace I am given. It is enough! I know others are given more grace because they deserve it. And they will do more with it than me. God knows that for sure! So whether you have literally climbed Mt. Tabor as Eillen and I or whether you do it spiritually, it makes no difference to God. Jesus looks into our souls and acts accordingly. He always does what is good and perfect for each one of us. He does what is necessary to get us to Heaven. All we have to do is ask and accept His invitation to climb with Peter, James and John. And He leaves you wondering why He did not allow the Apostles to build the three tents.
Posted by Thomas Lloyd on January 21, 2024 at 9:34 pm in reply to: Sunday January 21: Getting Out of Your Squirrel Cage #141243Powerful readings today. I loved the abstract painting capturing the darkness of the “squirrel cage.” Amazingly the sunlight coming through my window today formed a similar abstract but in sunlight reminding me how the squirrel cage can turn from darkness to sunlight. I took a picture of it, but don’t see a way of attaching it here. Last week God picks the apostles for Jesus. This week He calls the fishers of Mankind. All the voices of God come in silence. Not so those that God sends into our lives, like Fr. Thomas Keating. One has to love his comment of fasting monks under the table instead of drinking our buddies under the table. The switch from a dark cage to a cage opened with sunlight. Jonah is tested. We are all tested. Even the Marines tested me to my physical limits. The spiritual limits go beyond whatever the Marines could think up for me. It takes a long time to find the silence that God is looking for. Jonah like Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane asks for this bitter cup to pass. But no it has to be done. We all have these extremely painful moments in life when God is forming us or redirecting our lives for the better. It only happens in silence, alone with God as Jonah and Jesus moments. And look at the results! Wow!
Posted by Thomas Lloyd on January 14, 2024 at 7:08 pm in reply to: Sunday January 14: Stillness: Where the Heart Listens and the Soul Discerns #140929I am always I interested in how God works in our lives. In CO we seek that in silence, but in these readings Jesus shows us another way in actual life. Jesus does not call Andrew and John, rather they are moved to follow him and almost instantaneously discover the Christ. So many times in my life people have appeared, and not by chance, but by the working of the Holy Spirit. Jesus even thanks the Father for giving Him these chosen ones. He did not pick them but allowed God to pick them. Amazing!
Posted by Thomas Lloyd on December 24, 2023 at 4:39 pm in reply to: Sunday December 24: Birthing The Eternal Dream: Peace #139471Isn’t Christmas wonderful, holy and inspiring us to dream like Jesus or Martin Luther King? I will be with family but someone I know will be serving Christmas meals to the homeless. That is how he will celebrate his Christmas. I am blessed and I don’t know wby. I will be visiting my two son’s who live nearby with their families. One is serving brunch and he and his wife have 4 beautiful daughters. His oldest just aced Biology and Organic Chemistry in her pre med program. She is on a high! My other son and his wife have a boy and a girl, still young enough to enjoy Santa Claus to the fullest. On Christmas Eve we will go to my niece’s home where a priest will celebrate a home Mass for all the family. This priest has spent his vocation with the poor in Mexico, Bangladesh and Nepal. He knows what it is to be poor on Christmas. His Mass is special as you might imagine. I grew up poor, so I know. So while I will be enjoying Christmas, my childhood memories of growing up poor will be with me. My heart will be with those who have nothing this Christmas except Jesus born in a stable giving them hope. It is the prayers of all in CO that go out to the poor this Christmas and to their families. To all of you have a holy and blessed Christmas!
Posted by Thomas Lloyd on December 3, 2023 at 4:22 pm in reply to: Sunday December 3 – Love Springs from Awareness #139065The Word of the Week is without a doubt the best spiritual guidance I have all week. It is so rich. Every line, no every word speaks to me. I can see how carefully it is prepared with such insight, wisdom and sensitivity. The broad scope of its quotes. What a library shared with us so freely with love. I think I gave my donation last year but maybe it is time for me to renew. If so please send me a little reminder. At 86 the memory is not working so well. Back to today’s readings.
I will focus on this sentence. Oops copy and paste did not work. The sentence was at the beginning and used the word “hypnotized” which is exactly the right word used by our “wordsmith” author who has such a wonderful talent. We are hypnotized by the media and evil suggestions are implanted in our unconscious. The cure for this is most definitely centering prayer. We have to be able to hit the “erase” button just as we erase old movies from our TV recorder. We have to replace the evil suggestions with love. God, who is Love, does that for us in centering prayer. We don’t even know what is rolling around in our unconscious or when the media implanted it there. We don’t even know how maliciously it affects our lives. But the God of Love knows and the love of God eradicates these recordings. We become whole and loving again. This is the great reward of centering prayer. It is the miracle of spending silent time with God who works miracles in all of us and we don’t even know it. We did not know we had the illness and we certainly did not know we were cured. We just become a different person without knowing it. Thank God. Thank CO. Thank the author of this publication.
The last thing: Now I will have to ask my wife to find our copy of “The Little Prince” given to us 50 years ago by her sister. Needless to say I did not remember the quote. I think the wisdom of the book was beyond my understanding 50 years ago. Now maybe I will understand it. Pray that I do.
Posted by Thomas Lloyd on November 8, 2023 at 11:00 pm in reply to: Sunday November 5 – The Door of My Heart #138666The phrase that grabbed me was the basic goodness in human beings. Of course we have all witnessed evil and the terrible suffering evil people, like our pirate in the readings, have inflicted on others. I have hurt others, especially the ones I love. Most people have, but not like the pirate. Most people are good and most help one another. I am blessed with a loving wife and family and wonderful neighbors on each side of me. We are in the boat together and not by accident. I have stories to prove this, but that would take too much time. I see God’s hand working in everything that has ever happened in my life including meeting Fr. Keating and Mother Teresa. How many people have touched a person who became a canonized saint in their lifetime? God is so generous and I have done nothing to deserve such gifts. I have very little to show God for giving these gifts to me in my life. We’re they wasted on me? I have not become a saint. These gifts were given to me and I have yet to know the reasons why. Perhaps because God is Love and that’s what love is all about. I wish I could love like that, like St. Paul in the readings.
Posted by Thomas Lloyd on October 22, 2023 at 8:15 pm in reply to: Sunday October 22: Love Is My Name #138361These readings are so rich, but I have to limit myself to what struck me as in Lectio Divina. “To put it boldly, contemplation is the only ultimate answer to the unreal and insane world that our financial systems and our advertising culture and our chaotic and unexamined emotions encourage us to inhabit.” To which I would add the Internet and how it is used for great good and great evil. I have friends and grandchildren who are complete brainwashed by what they have read on the internet. It is like hypnosis where evil suggestions are inserted into the unconscious and folks don’t know why they are doing the crazy things they do. This leads to selfish, hateful and unloving acts. Is it any wonder that we seek contemplation to return to God fleeing all the idols of the world foisted on us by advertising, TV,movies and now Facebook, “X”, Tic Toc and Instagram. Thank God for CO. What a great gift Fr. Keating gave us. And CO generously follows his example to give it to the world using the Internet for good to overcome evil. Miracle of miracle, we know from the history of the world, since the beginning of time, good has always overcome evil, but always at tremendous sacrifice including the death of Jesus on the cross.
Why did I pick this quote? Because I have been formed to a great extent unconsciously not by the bombardment of love, joy and peace in my life, but by the modern day idols. They have formed “my chaotic and unexamined emotions.” Yet as the Psalm says, I can find peace and joy and God in the silence of my heart, in centering prayer. And then like Fr. Keating, I must share it. It is great that it changes me from selfishness to love, but do I then help good overcome evil as it has done down through history? That is my challenge to be like Fr. Keating. CO is the personification of Fr. Keating so his work goes on thank God. Not only to make each of us better, but to make the world better.
Posted by Thomas Lloyd on October 16, 2023 at 4:28 am in reply to: Sunday October 15: The Kairos of Now #138277Two themes struck home with me. In my youth I lived in relative poverty. In my mature years I lived in relative wealth. I know the wisdom that brings into my life. I know the balance. If you have lived your whole life in poverty or in wealth, than you do not have this experience. You may not know what St. Paul is talking about. I think I do. I have never been afraid of losing my abundance, because I know how to survive being poor. If you don’t know how to do that, you are afraid of losing your abundance because you may think you can not survive. But look at the lilies of the field. You and I know that divine providence always cares for us in abundance or in poverty. That is my life experience. It gave me my faith in Divine Providence. I know from experience that God will ALWAYS lift us up. In centering prayer we come to know Divine Providence in all matters lifting us up.
The second theme was a prayer said before every class led by the La Salle Christian Brothers “Let us remember that we are in the holy presence of God.” I use that in centering prayer. I often think of two people who “glowed” from being in the presence of God. One was a scripture scholar, a priest. The other was a retired Amish mother, homemaker, farmer. She spent her old age reading scripture all day long and welcoming visitors like me. From that I know that Lectio Divina is a great gateway to centering prayer and I have the book provided by CO. Needless to say that I do not glow yet like those that I have met, but at least I know that it is possible. I met Mother Teresa and you know the work her nuns do. Very difficult work. The rule of her order requires the nuns to spend a great deal of time, in silence, in the presence of God, to enable them to do the difficult work they do. The more difficult our lives, the more time we must spend in silence with our God to continue, just as St. Teresa of Calcutta requires of her nuns.That is why CO is so very important in our lives. So very important to the world we live in.
Posted by Thomas Lloyd on October 10, 2023 at 3:45 am in reply to: Sunday October 1: Breathing In and Breathing Out #138203Two aspects of the readings struck me. First I have a great devotion to Mary. I have taken the St. Louis de Montfort Consecration to Jesus through Mary. I promise as Mary did to be the handmaid (slave) of the Lord. Through the hands of Mary I turn over everything I have into the hands of the Lord. That changes the center of where I dwell. It allows me to more easily approach centering prayer with Mary as my guide. Montfort says you need grace and Mary is full of Grace. Montfort says you need the Lord and the Lord is with Mary. Montfort says Mary is the “secret” that I need. I have found it to be so.
Secondly there is the wisdom in this reading of looking for what is true, beautiful, gracious, honorable and what is excellent in our family, friends, neighbors, country and planet because these are all aspects of the God we seek to find in centering prayer. I have difficulty doing this because I tend to be a negative, suspicious person. My first inclination is to criticize my family,friends, neighbors and country. Yet how can I possibly approach the God who is Love, by being so negative. Every time I say something negative, my wife mirrors it back at me because she cannot stand any of my negative comments. I struggle with this every day. It is amazing that I cannot get rid of this habit. I do it unconsciously. But in centering prayer I leave all of this behind. Instead of criticizing everything else, I must look at myself and how God sees me and forgives me.
Posted by Thomas Lloyd on October 3, 2023 at 9:55 pm in reply to: Sunday October 1: Breathing In and Breathing Out #138093Wow! These readings are so rich? I have trouble focusing on just one, never mind one word. I guess I have to go with the sons although I am really attracted to the emptying of self so important to CO. But I have 3 sons and while we were raising them, this frequently played out. Even today the son that says yes and does little is so much more attractive than my silent son who does everything for us. He was always saying no growing up, but doing. He drove us crazy. Today, he is the one we count on when needed, but he does not want to be bothered when not needed. That to me is his saying no but showing up whenever and wherever needed. God always shows up when needed, at least that is my experience. But I never receive any indication that is going to happen, it just does. I don’t have any mystical experiences and I know there are many people that do. However, I seen God’s hand working many times in my life. Things that could not happen by chance. I am sure this is a common experience in CO. God is with us in silence and acts with secrecy in our lives. Like dreams. We don’t understand them when we write them down. But let them age and wow we see what they mean. I find it interesting that Jesus goes away alone to pray so many times. The apostles fall asleep while Jesus is praying just before His arrest. Saying yes but falling asleep. The apostles are so human and so like us, especially Peter. So I plead guilty of saying yes many times to the Lord and doing nothing. It is in centering prayer that I am most like Jesus in going away to pray. Look what it achieved in His life! This is why CO is so important. It is great that it is here on the internet available to all. Thank you!
Posted by Thomas Lloyd on September 24, 2023 at 3:32 pm in reply to: Sunday September 24: Justice in the Kingdom of God #137895Scripture is so powerful and I don’t even have to be a scripture scholar to get the message and use it in my life. But first I have to tell you a story. We went out to dinner last night with our youngest child and our son is now 55, succcessful, happily married, with a beautiful wife, and four beautiful daughters. When he was a child and being beaten in achievements by his older sister and two older brothers, he was not feeling like the spoiled youngest. So I took him aside one day to give him a little affirmation. I took the scripture reading out of context and told him that Jesus said the last shall be first. I said don’t take it from me, this comes from God, and it is right here in the Bible. He took that as his motto and would spout it off to his older siblings whenever he felt the need. In scripture, I have always found whatever I needed in life. It may be only one line that becomes our mantra. My mantra is a very popular one “God is love and whoever dwells in love dwells in God and God dwells in that person.” (Unfortunately I have to work very hard at loving because I am not a loving person by nature. I am blessed with the gift of Faith but not Love.) Today’s reading reminds me of God’s generosity. It knows no bounds! It is not limited by human limitations. It is unlimited love and unconditional love. It is ours for the asking when we drop to our knees. Today’s gospel tells us what God is really like. God’s love for us is beyond all that we think we know about God. Gotta love that line “the last shall be first.” There is hope for all of us when we don’t put human limitations on the God who is limitless.
Posted by Thomas Lloyd on September 17, 2023 at 4:02 pm in reply to: September 17: Bending to Love #137756I am reading “Healing” by Mary Healy. She is a scripture scholar that makes all the more powerful. The physical healings show the awesome love God has for us. It also shows that the healings that I need for the hurts that I have felt are certainly more easily healed than the physical healings that attract our undivided attention. Physical wounds get immediate attention. We are rushed to the emergency room or now the store front immediate medical attention. Yet when someone hurts us and the pain is so bad that some turn to drugs because their is no emergency room to go to. Yet at CO we know there is one and we go to it.
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