Open Mind, Open Heart – Deluxe Edition Author: O.C.S.O. Keating Thomas | Language: English | ISBN:
0826418902 | Format: EPUB
Open Mind, Open Heart – Deluxe Edition Description
Review
"The leader within the Catholic world in the task of recovering our Christian contemplative heritage."—Ewert H. Cousins, general editor,
World Spirituality: An Encyclopedic History of the Religious Quest (Ewert H. Cousins)
"My mother is a self-proclaimed 'soul shopper' from way back. We started going to St Benedict's Monastery in Snowmass when I was 7 years old. Several years later, Keating became a St. Benedict's monk. He developed centering prayer, which is a lot like meditation and what this book is about. He says that meditation (or centering prayer) is a way of reducing the obstacles to the development of grace. I can sit for only five to ten minutes. It's very hard for me. Still, when I get in trouble, it shifts my perspective. As they say, we don't pray to change our circumstances; we pray to change ourselves."-Felicity Huffman's Bookshelf in "Oprah's Books"
"The leader within the Catholic world in the task of recovering our Christian contemplative heritage."—Ewert H. Cousins, general editor,
World Spirituality: An Encyclopedic History of the Religious Quest (Sanford Lakoff)
"My mother is a self-proclaimed 'soul shopper' from way back. We started going to St Benedict's Monastery in Snowmass when I was 7 years old. Several years later, Keating became a St. Benedict's monk. He developed centering prayer, which is a lot like meditation and what this book is about. He says that meditation (or centering prayer) is a way of reducing the obstacles to the development of grace. I can sit for only five to ten minutes. It's very hard for me. Still, when I get in trouble, it shifts my perspective. As they say, we don't pray to change our circumstances; we pray to change ourselves."-Felicity Huffman's Bookshelf in "Oprah's Books"
About the Author
Father Thomas Keating is known throughout the world as an exponent, teacher, and writer on contemplative prayer. A Cistercian (Trappist) monk of St. Benedict's Monastery, Snowmass, Colorado, he is a founder of the Centering Prayer Movement and of Contemplative Outreach. He is the author of numerous books, particularly of the trilogy Open Mind, Open Heart; Invitation to Love; and The Mystery of Christ. Among his most recent books is The Daily Reader for Contemplative Living, compiled by S. Stephanie Iachetta.
- Hardcover: 176 pages
- Publisher: Continuum; 20th Edition edition (November 1, 2006)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0826418902
- ISBN-13: 978-0826418906
- Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 1 inches
- Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
I have a checkered spiritual past. Like many people of my generation, I have always felt that modern life was going in the wrong direction, and that the traditional answers we were getting from the government and institutionalized religion just weren't quenching the spiritual drought in the contemporary world. So I went east, to Buddhism, the Sufis, Hinduism, looking for something that might help me fill the void I felt. Then I stumbled upon the Centering Prayer movement. Little did I know that the Christian tradition that I grew up in, would hold the secret to what I was looking for.
Centering Prayer is based squarely in the Christian tradition. It is based on forms of prayer that have roots in the earliest Christian monesteries of the 4th century. There are even tantalizing glimpses of it in the writings of St. Paul and even the Gospels, though not spelled out in so many words (which is probably what gives literalists conniptions.) It existed in the Benedictine monasteries of medieval Europe, in the Cloud of Unknowing, the 14th century manual of prayer, and in the writings of St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila. It is not, I repeat, NOT a "new age" spirituality, unless one thinks that all of Christian Spirituality is new age (and the case could be made that it is.) Centering Prayer is a simple method of prayer that is designed to help us consent to the presence and action of God in our lives. Through quite simple guildelines and a few adjustments of attitudes, Centering Prayer helps us to let go of our own ego and expectations and just "wait upon the Lord". For me, it has been key to reawakening my Christian faith.
Having been a practicing Buddhist for many years, I can say that readers who equate Centering Prayer with Buddhist practice are mistaken.
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