Readings week of February 10th.

Readings from last week's Daily Contemplative Pauses

*All previous readings & reflections can be found here*

Monday, February 10th with Heather

Reading: “In fact, says Thomas, quietly introducing his second paradox, this

"thunderous" silence is actually the most intense, concentrated dosage of divine presence we can bear face-to-face. In its own paradoxical way, the dance of creation, beautiful and enchanting as it is, is like a veil over the naked presence of God—like the veil that hides the holy of holies in the temple. These two faces of God-veiled and unveiled—live in symbiotic unity, and out of that unity everything pours into existence in a cascade of sheer delight.” — Cynthia Bourgeault, Thomas Keating: The Making of a Modern Mystic

Chant: The streams of my father’s love run daily through me, the streams of my Mother’s love run daily through me, from the holy Fountain of Life to the seed throughout the whole creation (by Paulette Meier)

Tuesday, February 11th with Heather

Reading: “When we find the entry into this large stillness, our lives are irrevocably changed because at that moment a monumental transition takes place: we find that the center of the universe shifts from our self-interests, even our spiritual self-interests, to the larger world, even to the cosmos, which we now begin to perceive as a spiritual reality.”― Robert Sardello, Silence: The Mystery of Wholeness

Chant: my/our center is in you God, my/our center is in you

Wednesday, February 12th with Joy

Reading: "…often in conjunction with the mention of the ego, Thomas also begins to allude more and more frequently to something he calls a "separate self." In Reflections on the Unknowable, he bundles these three "lower selfhoods" together and explains again why they collectively have no future:

“There is no death except for the false self, the ego, and the separate-self sense, all of which create and sustain the illusion of separateness.”

In and of itself, this "illusion of separateness" is a core theme underlying all of Thomas's teaching. "The notion that God is absent is the fundamental illusion of the human condition," he repeatedly told me. But as his own understanding of levels of consciousness (and degrees of separation) become increasingly nuanced, is this "separate self" or "separate-self sense" intended as simply another synonym for the ego, or does it have a more specific and limited meaning?"

"The telling clue is revealed in stanzas 3 and 4 of his opening poem of The Secret Embrace, "Out of a Stone:"

"As the false self diminishes,

And the ego becomes a servant,

Everything turns into poetry

And everything becomes a movement of Divine Love.

But, the separate self lingers on.

"Once the separate self has been laid to rest,

The Divine Presence alone remains,

And the Creator of all becomes all in all."

― Cynthia Bourgeault, Thomas Keating: The Making of a Modern Christian Mystic

Chant: One, one, one breathing ; One, one, one Being

Thursday, February 12th with Heather

Reading: “Letting Silence pervade all we do does work because it never separates itself from the world. Thus we do not make the practice of Silence exclusively into a soul work and go inward, nor exclusively a spiritual work to attain some goal on a spiritual path. The work is to be with Silence itself, and in so doing we are one with soul, spirit, body, and world. When practiced over time, we find it becomes possible to be with Silence in all that we do, and in our doing, our presence in the world works as a healing force.”― Robert Sardello, Silence: The Mystery of Wholeness

Chant: Draw me deeper into silence, draw me deeper into you

Friday, February 14th with Catherine

“There is a huge silence undergirding us and inside of us that is trying to draw us into itself. To enter that silence is to enter the reality of God and the reality of our real communion with each other.” ― Ronald Rolheiser

“Silence is the most beautiful, of the most beautiful, of the most beautiful — when it is complete… nothing is more beautiful than to be still. And as the psalmist says, "To be still is to know that I am God."

This is not just to receive beauty but to become beauty. And to be beauty not by one's own effort, but by allowing God to radiate God's beauty on [every level] …, by bringing into everyday life the silence that is stronger than noise, that is more refreshing than anything else that we can receive. And it's this [a] balance of beauty and action and facing the contradictions or opposition or persecution or noise of daily life, or the insensitivity of other people to beauty.

…

This is to be grounded in silence, which is to be grounded in God, which is to be grounded in the unquenchable, irresistible, fascinating attraction of God's presence, which is beauty and beyond beauty ...

Please make up your mind to be faithful to cultivating silence, … be faithful to your period of Centering Prayer, so that you sit down and really receive the sound of sheer silence. No thinking. No reflecting. No expectations. No thought of yourself as praying or meditating. Just do it. Just let the silence or the presence of God - which is almost synonymous with silence — rise up in you, or sink into it, or rest in it.” ― Thomas Keating, Homily on Beauty

Chant: Sink into the Silence of your heart

Saturday, February 15th with Heather

Reading: “...the stunning conclusion is that there is no lack. That primordial hunger for intimacy and belonging we so frantically project onto others in our attempt to find fulfillment is fulfilled already, there in the "infinity of love" already residing holographically in our own hearts, once we have truly learned to attune to its frequency and trust that with which it reverberates. In this sense, our physical heart is the quintessential "treasure buried in the field." — Cynthia Bourgeault, The Heart of Centering Prayer, p.211

Chant: draw me/us deeper into silence, draw me/us deeper into love

Sunday, February 16th with Heather

Reading: “Stillness”

Our true nature is stillness,

The Source from which we come.

. . . .

The deep listening of pure contemplation

Is the path to stillness.

All words disappear into It,

And all creation awakens to the delight of

Just Being.

— Thomas Keating