INTRODUCTION:

Monasticism, Lectio Divina, and Centering Prayer

Since the time of the Desert Fathers and probably since the time of the early church, “Lectio Divina” has been a strong monastic discipline and was once a fundamental discipline for every disciple to practice. Lectio Divina is a fourfold practice involving the scriptures, meditation, prayer, and contemplation. Lectio Divina can be defined as sacred reading, meditation and prayer leading to contemplation. “lectio, meditatio, oratio, contemplatio”.

However, the “Contemplatio” part— contemplation— gradually came to be considered too difficult for the average believer and was set aside for the select few, and thus has been a “lost art” except for dedicated monastics. Much to their credit, certain monastics (Frs. Keating, Pennington, and Menninger) have gone to great effort to re-introduce contemplation to the common disciple, and the result is “Centering Prayer.” Centering Prayer is intended as a sort of training ground for contemplation in the context of Lectio Divina.

(Although Centering Prayer has taken on a life and a popularity of its own, it should be well rooted in the scriptures. The founders of the Centering Prayer movement fully intended, and still intend, that Centering Prayer be strongly related to Lectio Divina and recommend integrating scripture reading into the disciples’ life along with Centering Prayer.)

Contemplation involves both the work of God and the stillness of man. Man’s part in Contemplation is cultivating interior silence, stilling all activity except waiting on and loving God, so that God may freely work in us. In our day and age, we have, by and large, lost this skill of interior silence. “Centering Prayer” is an effort to make interior silence, and thus “contemplatio”, available to every disciple once again.

CENTERING PRAYER

What is it?

Centering prayer—silence-- is not about intercession, although it will affect your intercession by affecting you.

Centering prayer—silence-- is not about worship, although it will affect your worship by affecting you.

Centering prayer—silence-- is about waiting on God in quietness and stillness, and letting Him do in you whatever He wants to do, at any level.

Centering prayer is a discipline of "Waiting on the Lord."

By setting aside all forms of action, it puts action to the following verses:

BE STILL:

Ps 46:10

10 "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."

(NIV)

BE SILENT

Hab 2:20

20 But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him."

(NIV)

WATCHING:

Ps 59:9-10

9 O my Strength, I watch for you; you, O God, are my fortress,

10 my loving God. ...

(NIV)

Micah 7:7

7 But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.

(NIV)

WAITING:

Ps 130:5-6

5 I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope.

6 My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.

(NIV)

And finally:

Lam 3:24-28

24 I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him."

25 The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;

26 it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.

27 It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young.

28 Let him sit alone in silence, for the LORD has laid it on him.

(NIV)

What yoke?

Matt 11:28-30

28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

(NIV)

We aren’t to stand in the stall, but we are to plow alongside Jesus. What are we to plow?

Jer 4:3-4

3 This is what the LORD says to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem: "Break up your unplowed ground and do not sow among thorns.

4 Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, circumcise your hearts, you men of Judah and people of Jerusalem, or my wrath will break out and burn like fire because of the evil you have done-- burn with no one to quench it.

(NIV)

Where have we read about unplowed ground, and sowing among thorns?

Luke 8:11-15

11 "This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God.

12 Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.

13 Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away.

14 The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature.

15 But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.

(NIV)

So—what are we supposed to yoke up with Jesus and plow? Our own hearts! That is part of the work of Centering Prayer. “Wearing the Yoke” is co-operating with the Lord as he works in the depths of our hearts. Remember the verse from Lamentations:

“It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young.

Let him sit alone in silence, for the LORD has laid it on him.”

Waiting /watching /being silent/ being still:

What happens when you do it?

Let's return to Dallas Willard's discussion of the three levels.

One, the shallowest, is what we say and do. To still this is relatively simple (in theory). We find a place free from distraction, and decide to be silent; we sit comfortably (but with straight back-- Keating) so that our bodies will distract us as little as possible. Remove outer stimuli.

The second level is what we choose to think and feel. Bringing this level to stillness is challenging. We are used to thinking and feeling SOMETHING all the time. The challenging part of Centering prayer is to voluntarily choose to cease initiating inner thoughts and feelings. We may still feel and think, but we will only receive, not initiate. We set aside our “initiating” process. (We will discuss the practical applications of this later.)

The third level, those underlying forces in us which we do not understand and are not aware of that drive what we think and feel and how we respond, may suddenly become more active. In time we aim to still these too, but they take a lot longer to become quiet. That is because we have been stuffing things down there for years and years and ignoring them. When we silence our environment and still our active thoughts and feelings, passive thoughts and feelings will begin to surface. The trick is to let them emerge, express themselves, and let go of them-- but not to get involved in them, not to “initiate” thoughts and feelings. Instead, as these underlying thoughts and feelings surface, watch them go by and let them go. "Like boats on a river" (explain.) This is part of inner healing, part of cleansing, part of crucifying the old man/false self. These fleeing thoughts are from the false self; let them flee. Get rid of them. But the way to get rid of them is to let them drift by on the river; don't climb aboard those boats and start messing around in the cargo holds. If you accidentally do, just return to stillness using the word or symbol of commitment.

PRACTICAL STUFF:

Centering prayer is primarily a discipline of silently and lovingly waiting on God and opening yourself up to him, heart and mind and spirit, and inviting him to do as he wills. It is about my restful silence, and God’s activity, God’s work. “Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted…” in the nations, in the earth—and in you and me.

It could be summarized thus:

Lord, I love you and I open all that I am to you. I do not come to ask or to do anything; I come for you to do as you wish, in me. I come simply to love you and to open myself to you.

This prayer, or something very similar, expresses the heart attitude of Centering Prayer. But it is a lot to remember and a lot to say, and Centering Prayer is about stillness, resting, and silence. So instead of repeating this prayer, choose, or ask God to choose for you, a word, or a mental image which will symbolize it. This word or mental image is not to be endlessly repeated, like a mantra; it is not a mantra. It is a symbol and reminder of your intention to love the Lord and open yourself to him and receive whatever he desires to do in you. When you begin centering, and whenever you are distracted while you are centering, place this word or symbol, this reminder in your mind, before the Lord, and rest lovingly and openly before him. This chosen word or symbol is called "The sacred word" or "The sacred symbol", simply because it represents your sacred, holy intention to love God and let God do as he wills.

The idea is not to drown out any and all thoughts by hammering at them with your "sacred word". The idea is to gently remind yourself of your intention to remain in God for his purposes, and cease from your own activity.

We find a place free from distraction, and decide to be silent; we sit comfortably (but with straight back-- Keating) so that our bodies will distract us as little as possible. Remove outer stimuli.

We then to voluntarily choose to cease initiating inner thoughts and feelings, and bring to stillness what we choose to think and feel. We may still feel and think, but we will only receive, not initiate. We set aside our “initiating” process and let God initiate whatever he wants to. That is what the sacred word or sacred symbol is for. We use the sacred word or symbol to help us gently focus on the Lord, let everything else subside, and eventually even let go of the sacred word or symbol so that the Lord is our “All”.

FORMAL GUIDELINES FOR CENTERING PRAYER

Keating and Pennington each express the guidelines in their own unique way, and the Lectio Divina Website has also formulated their own slightly longer summary of the Guidelines. All three sets of guidelines are listed below; read them all, and choose which one you understand the best. They all mean the same thing.

The Guidelines as expressed by Fr. Francis Keating, OSCO: ( www.centeringprayer.com )

The Guidelines

· Choose a sacred word as the symbol of your intention to consent to God's presence and action within.

· Sitting comfortably and with eyes closed, settle briefly and silently introduce the sacred word as the symbol of your consent to God's presence and action within.

· When you become aware of thoughts, return ever so gently to the sacred word.

· At the end of the prayer period, remain in silence with eyes closed for a couple of minutes.

The Guidelines as expressed by Fr. Basil Pennington, OSCO: ( www.lectiodivina.org )

Three Rules or Guides

Sit relaxed and quiet.

1. Be in faith and love to God who dwells in the center of your being.

2. Take up a love word and let it be gently present, supporting your being to God in faith-filled love.

3. Whenever you become aware of anything, simply, gently return to the Lord with the use of your prayer word.

Let the Our Father (or some other prayer) pray itself.

(Note: guideline number 1 does not have a typo; Father Basil likes the expression “Be to,” or “being to”, and uses them frequently. The verb is “be”, the direction “to”. One might rephrase this “Be toward God”, but that isn’t quite it either. “Be together with God” maybe comes closer.)

The guidelines amplified (from the Lectio Divina Website, www.lectiodivina.org , on the Centering Prayer page:

As you sit comfortably with eyes closed:

1. Let yourself settle down. Let go of all the thoughts, tensions, and sensations you may feel and begin to rest in love of God who dwells within.

2. Effortlessly, take up a word, the symbol of your intention to surrender to God's presence, and let the word be gently present.

3. When you become aware of thoughts or as internal sensations arise, just take this as your signal to gently return to the word, the symbol of your intention to let go and rest in God's presence.

4. If thoughts subside and you find yourself restfully aware, simply let go even of the word. Just be in that stillness. When thoughts begin to stir again, gently return to the word.

5. At the end of your prayer time (20 minutes in the morning and evening is a good balance), take a couple of minutes to come out of the silence -- even if you don't feel you need it. Many people find this a perfect time to internally express to God their thanks and to pray for others in need of God's grace.

(The one thing missing from all three of these is the sitting “with back straight”.)

More thorough amplification is available from both Fr. Pennington and Fr. Keating, which is good reading for a later time, but realize that Centering Prayer really is just this simple. Centering Prayer is sitting in the presence of God. Just do it. It’s good to read and reread the guidelines and to come to a familiarity with them, but it’s like rereading directions on how to read the bible. The point is to do it. When you’ve been doing it for a while, reviewing the directions is worthwhile to refine your technique, but until you do it, rereading the directions doesn’t do you much good. So keep it basic and simple, choose one of the above guidelines, and just sit in the presence of God.

>BREAK<

Discussion afterwards: