Tomorrow's handout

Some Notes on Cynthia Bourgeualt, Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening, February 14, 2012

Chapter 6, “Centering Prayer and Christian Tradition” (58-60)

Today we continue looking at the history of Centering Prayer, especially at how our Christian “tradition” has influenced our appreciation for contemplative prayer. 

Last week we spent a good deal of time envisioning Jesus in pray, and we concluded that while he prayed with images and words, he also frequently sought the solitude of desert places so that he and his Father might be one together--intimately without the filter of words and images.  We concluded that within his frequent solitary times, our Lord practiced some form of contemplative prayer.   As he recommended we do, so he himself went into a “closet" in secret to be in “oneness” with God, His Father. That “closeting,” we said, corresponds well with what we do in Centering Prayer as we follow Jesus’ example in contemplative prayer practice.   

In our “closet practice” we close our eyes and practice disentangling ourselves from role-playing, words, and images.  We open up ourselves to spaces and times when we simply “are,” as simply and honestly as our prayer provides.  The focus shifts from us to God, and we are in his silent presence, naked with our desire and intent to be with him—just like Jesus.

The early church practiced such praying, and today our best witness to ancient praying in solitary places like deserts comes from the stories and sayings of our Desert Mothers and Fathers, sometimes referred to as our Desert Ammas and Abbas.   Because their witness was so powerful and authentic, our Christian ancesters wrote down and preserved what they heard and saw when visiting these Desert Elders.  And today there is a wonderful new appreciation for their testimony to their spiritual maturity.

As Bourgeault notes, what the Desert Elders did and said long remained hidden from most Christian eyes and ears because it was preserved in volumes called the Patrologia Latina (The Father’s Words in Latin).  As a consequence, only those adept in reading Latin were able to read about these remarkable Elders in the faith.  That all changed with the 1964 publication of Thomas Merton’s “marvelous little book” (as Bourgeualt describes it) called The Wisdom of the Desert.  Since that publication many more books have been published to help us understand and appreciate the praying wisdom of our Desert Elders.  Here are several books, among dozens recently published, that I recommend if you would like a more extended introduction to the Desert Mothers and Fathers: 

Bondi, Roberta C.  To Pray & to Love: Conversations on Prayer with the Early Church, 1991.   Drawing on the vast riches of early Christian writers, Roberta Bondi’s book on prayer is real, salty, loving, and wise.  She invites us to keep such company with early Christian sources as to illuminate a way of praying, living, and thinking about life in  mutuality with.  Amid the welter of books on prayer and Christian spirituality, this one shines like Epiphany and will empower like Pentecost.

Chryssavgis, John.  In the Heart of the Desert: The Spirituality of the Desert Fathers and Mothers, 2008.  This  book provides an accessible introduction to the sources themselves, with copious translations, a map, a time-line, and bibliography.  It also includes a translation into English of some material (for example, the Reflection of Abba Zosimas) which has not been translated before. 

The Desert Fathers.  Trans. Helen Waddell.  1998.  By the fourth century A.D., devout Christians—men and women alike—had begun to retreat from cities and villages to the deserts of North Africa and Asia Minor, where they sought liberation from their corrupting society and the confining shell of the social self.  The Desert Fathers is the perfect introduction to the stories and sayings of these heroic pioneers of the contemplative tradition.  This fine book opens a window onto early Christianity while presenting us with touchingly human models offaith, humility, and compassion.

Mayers, Gregory.  Listen to the Desert: Secrets of Spiritual Maturity from the Desert Fathers and Mothers, 1996.  The 1500-year-old spiritual philosophy known as “Desert Wiosdom” offers a compelling resource for facing contemporary challenges.  These writings, direct accounts of desert monastic life gathered and used by the monks themselves, are brief, loosely collect passages that range in length from a few sentendes a page of two.  Readers with a special interest in the evolution of spiritual consciousness, as well as those who want to look in monastic wisdom for the first time, will find much here to nourish and enlighten their way.

The Sayings  of the Desert Fathers: The Alphabetical Collection, trans. Benedicta Ward, 1975.  The fourth-century ascetic flight to the desert indelibly marked Christianity.  The faithful who did not embrace the austerity of the desert admired those who did and sought them out for counsel and consolation.  The “words” the monks gave were collected and passed around among tnhose too far away or twoo feeble to make the trek themselves—or lived generations later.  Previously available only in fragments, these Sayings of the Desert Fathers are now accessible in its entirety in English for the first time.

Williams, Rowan.  Where God Happens: Discovering Christ in One Another.  This book is a marvelous introduction to the Christian monks, the Desert Fathers, and makes their wisdom available and relevant for the twenty-first century reader; but it does more, since it is written in the same spirit as the texts from the desert, that is, as a clear window that will give direct access to God.

In my life journey I have been blessed by reading these books.  If you find yourself interested in reading one or more, don’t hesitate to buy one (they are reasonably priced) and all are all available at www.amazon.com.  

For our next Centering Prayer Practice on Tuesday, February 21, we will read and discuss “The Benedictine Legacy” in Bourgeault’s Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening (65-68).  If all goes well, I'll again post the discussion handout before we meet.