In this series, some posts use short quotations but offer links to associated resources in the text below the image-backed quote. In other weeks, the short, image-backed quote are taken from a more extensive quotation from the month's author, given below the image. And in the last week of the month there are questions to encourage reflection on the month's quotations.
Quotes for each week of December will appear below in ascending date order.
Quotes for each week of December will appear below in ascending date order.
Father Thomas Keating, our author for December, was an enigmatic Roman Catholic priest and monk in the Order of the Cistercians of Strict Observance, also known as 'Trappists'. Born in New York, he was a student at the world-renowned universities of Yale - where he first encountered texts by the Christian mystics - and Fordham. Having entered monastic life when just 20, he lived as a monk for 75 years. He was elected and then stood down from the role of Abbot more than once. He died in October 2018.
Monday 5th December, 2022
Thomas Keating, Open Mind, Open Heart: The Contemplative
Dimension of the Gospel (Continuum, 1995), 83.
Image: Jessica Rigollot, France, nahuaphotographie.fr
This short image-backed quote is from Father Thomas Keating's Open Mind, Open Heart: The Contemplative Dimension of the Gospel (Continuum, 1995), 83. You can read more about this book by clicking here.
Father Thomas Keating (1923-2018) was an American Trappist monk, internationally known as one of the monks from St. Joseph's Monastery in Spencer, Massachusetts (along with Fr. Basil Pennington and Fr. William Meninger) who established the contemplative prayer practice now known as 'Centering Prayer' in the mid-1970s. This spiritual discipline of silence is closely modelled on the descriptions of silent prayer found in The Cloud of Unknowing, a Christian mystical text written by an anonymous English author who is thought to have been a Carthusian monk living in the north east of England during the fourteenth century. For a detailed explanation of The Cloud of Unknowing, see here, where you can also read the text in its original Middle-English. If you'd prefer an easier read, see here for a much shorter but still very informative article about The Cloud, which also refers to a recent acclaimed and readily-readable translation by Carmen Acevedo Butcher and which can be found here.
Father Thomas, who became Abbot of St Joseph's in 1961, spent much of his life promoting contemplative life and Centering Prayer (CP) as a significant practice for nurturing an ever-deepening, contemplative relationship with God. To this end, he was the driving force, public figurehead and spiritual guide for Contemplative Outreach, an organisation established in 1984 to support the rapidly expanding global community of CP practitioners. You can read more about the life of Thomas Keating here, and explore the many rich resources available on the Contemplative Outreach website, here. Keating was author of many books about prayer and contemplative living and you can find a list of these, along with short descriptions, here. For those who prefer listening or watching videos of someone speaking, there are many recordings of Father Thomas on YouTube and there is a significant video archive on the Contemplative Outreach website, here. Closely associated with CP and Father Thomas Keating are both Lectio Divina (literally sacred reading of any text but most usually the scriptures), which you can read more about here, and the Welcoming Practice of Prayer, which is a profoundly transformational practice when paired with daily CP, which you can read about here. If you find poetry a helpful medium in your relationship with God then Thomas' last publication, The Secret Embrace, is a beautiful but relatively short collection of poetic texts from across Keating's life, moving towards a profound poetic depiction of the mystery of divine union. You can read about and order this here.
Monday 12th December, 2022
Thomas Keating, Open Mind, Open Heart: The Contemplative
Dimension of the Gospel (Continuum, 1995), 14.
Dimension of the Gospel (Continuum, 1995), 14.
Image: Jessica Rigollot, France, nahuaphotographie.fr
This short image-backed quote is taken from the longer quote, below, in Father Thomas Keating's Open Mind, Open Heart: The Contemplative Dimension of the Gospel (Continuum, 1995), 14. You can read more about this book by clicking here.
'The root of prayer is interior silence. We may think of prayer as thoughts or feelings expressed in words, but this is only one of its forms. … Contemplative prayer is not so much the absence of thoughts as detachment from them. It is the opening of mind and heart, body and emotions – our whole being – to God, the Ultimate Mystery, beyond words, thoughts and emotions – beyond, in other words, the psychological content of the present moment. [In contemplative prayer] We do not deny or repress what is in our consciousness. We simply accept the fact of whatever is there and go beyond it, not by effort, but by letting go of whatever is there.'
Monday 19th December, 2022.
Thomas Keating, Open Mind, Open Heart: The Contemplative
Dimension of the Gospel (Continuum, 1995), 35.
Dimension of the Gospel (Continuum, 1995), 35.
Image: Annie Spratt, New Forest, UK, anniespratt.com
This short image-backed quote is taken from the longer quote, below, in Father Thomas Keating's Open Mind, Open Heart: The Contemplative Dimension of the Gospel (Continuum, 1995), 35. You can read more about this book by clicking here.
'Many people are so identified with the ordinary flow of their thoughts and feelings that they are not aware of the source from which these are emerging. Like boats or debris floating along the surface of a river, our thoughts and feeling must be resting on something. They are resting on the inner stream of consciousness, which is our participation in God’s being. That level is not immediately evident to ordinary consciousness. Since we are not in immediate contact with that level, we have to do something to develop our awareness of it. It is the level of our being that makes us most human. The values we find there are more delightful than the values that float along the surface of the psyche. We need to refresh ourselves at this deep level every day. Just as we need exercise, food, rest, and sleep, so also we need moments of interior silence because they bring the deepest kind of refreshment.'
Monday 26th December, 2022
Christ shares with you
in deep silence.
Thomas Keating, Open Mind, Open Heart: The Contemplative
Dimension of the Gospel (Continuum, 1995), 120.
Dimension of the Gospel (Continuum, 1995), 120.
Image: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rotating_earth_animated_transparent.gif
This short image-backed quote is from Father Thomas Keating's Open Mind, Open Heart: The Contemplative Dimension of the Gospel (Continuum, 1995), 120. You can read more about this book by clicking here.
The last week of each month in the 'Quoting Silence: A month with ...' series offers some questions to help you reflect further on the month's quotations and images, and how they resonate with your own spiritual journey and relationship with God.
Before reflecting on this month's quotes and images, take time to re-ground yourself in your body.
Perhaps take a few slow breaths, feel your feet on the floor and be aware of how your body feels in this moment.
1) Read back over the this month's quotes and spend time looking at their associated images. As you do so, note a phrase or image that draws your attention. If this is a phrase, you might like to write this out in a journal or on a piece of paper where you will see it regularly. Consider reading aloud several times what you have written to help the words sink more deeply into your heart. If an image resonates with you, let your gaze rest lightly on it for a couple of minutes, allowing it to speak to your heart. Consider using it as a screensaver for a while, or perhaps print it out and place it somewhere that you will see it often.
2) What emerges as you sit with the phrase or image that attracted your attention? Does a new insight or a question, emotion or sensation arise? Take some time to write down and ponder on whatever you notice.
3) Where can you see hope in the midst of what is emerging in you, for yourself, your neighbour, your community, or the planet? How might this impact your daily life and those with whom you share it?
4) In the days and weeks to come, how can you stay open to what you have discovered from your reflections?
Take some time to give thanks for the hope that you have found in this month's quotes and images.
To return to the 'Quoting Silence: A month with ...' Collection, click the button.
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